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AMERCIAN BEAUTY: The University of Washington is one of 31 institutions singled out on MSNBCs list of the most beautiful college campuses. Says MSNBC, “Americas most beautiful college campuses have the power not only to sway indecisive high school students, … but also to attract tourists. Their appeal comes through varying combinations of awe-inspiring architecture, landscaping, and surroundings. To choose among more than 2,600 four-year American colleges, we considered these three key factors as well as architects expert opinions.
A photo of the UW on the website was captioned as follows: “The eye-catching Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington’s Seattle campus has 35-foot-high stained-glass windows and elaborately gilded vaulted ceilings that soar 65 feet in the air. In the distance stands Mount Rainier.”
HAPPY FELLOW: Daniel Winterbottom, a professor of landscape architecture, has been named one of 40 new fellows by the American Society of Landscape Architecture. Fellowship recognizes contributions to both society and the profession over many years. Of the groups 16,000 members, 660 are fellows.
Winterbottom is known for therapeutic gardens. In the last several years, he and his students have created gardens in Guatemala, next to the largest garbage dump in Central America and in Seattle for military veterans in treatment at the Veterans Affairs Hospital and their families. Most recently, Winterbottom and his students created a series of therapeutic gardens for disabled children in Croatia. ASLA awarded the project a 2011 student award for community service.
GOLDEN CIRCLE: Landscape Architecture Chair Jeff Hou was one of three people receiving Golden Circle Awards from the Organization of Chinese Americans of Greater Seattle. The awards honor those who have made significant contributions to the social, political and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans. This years theme was Building Legacy, centering on community development. | <urn:uuid:1dedba5d-2430-4964-a9e4-92a10fc55eec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washington.edu/news/2011/10/05/etc-campus-news-notes-36/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952527 | 390 | 1.601563 | 2 |
What’s the right age for parents to talk to kids about sex? Is it overstepping boundaries to have that talk with a child of another gender? Sex educator Heather Corinna, founder of top-ranked sex-advice site Scarleteen, shared her feminist advice for parents on that diciest of subjects: “the sex talk.” This is part 2 of her interview with Ms.; part 1 can be found here.
What’s wrong with how parents today talk to their kids about sex, and what should they be doing instead?
One of the biggest problems is that—and this is very American—we have the idea that parents look for a window in which to have “The Sex Talk.” It’s conceptualized as a one-time thing where you lay it all out there. And this happens right around the time when someone might start thinking about having sex.
The minute your kid is talking and listening and asking, you should be having many talks. Children ask about sex and sexuality or things that are related to sex all the time. They ask the name of genitals, they express comfort or discomfort with the way someone is touching them or talking about their body. When a kid asks these questions, you answer that. Or ask more questions and engage them in a discussion around it. If a parental figure doesn’t know, they should say they don’t know and then say, “Let’s go ask our doctor.” Or, “Let’s go to the library and look it up.” Then by the time you get to adolescence, this is not new. Every now and then you check in and it doesn’t have to be nerve-wracking, because this is normalized conversation.
Part of me is reluctant to share that with parents of teens who think, “Oh god, I screwed up.” But if that’s the case, just open with an apology and say, “I realize we should have been talking about these things and I wasn’t open to it, and I’m sorry. But I’d like to talk to you about it now.”
I loved that NYU study about girls wanting their dads to be involved in their sex ed.
But the public reception seemed to be, “Ew, that’s gross!”
This is so where our cultural sexism and heteronormativity come into play, because there’s the assumption that the person who talks to you needs to be gender-matched. That makes a lot of assumptions about gender identity, and it assumes that the person who talks to you can’t be someone who is attracted to your gender—again, lots of assumptions about sexual identity there. If we do away with those assumptions, who should be doing the talking? The answer is, whomever this young person wants to talk to!
The idea that there’s just one gender orientation that this person should hear from is a little weird. Pretty much no matter how you slice it, for the most part, younger people do not want to hear older people’s personal sexual anecdotes. It really wouldn’t matter their gender [or orientation]. If an adult had no boundaries, it would usually feel icky regardless.
Also, it’s a lot easier for people to develop sexist attitudes if, when they’re having these conversations, they’re only having them with the same gender. We need a diversity of perspectives.
What are your thoughts on parents demanding to know if their child is gay or still a virgin?
There are some situations in which you’re worried they’re hurting themselves or putting themselves at risk, so there’s a time and a place. But for the most part, you don’t want to force disclosure. And if you find yourself in a position where you are trying to force a disclosure, that means this person has not felt comfortable disclosing to you. You are not a comfortable listener for that person, for whatever reason.
Some parents are really accepting, really bubbly, really supportive, and then they find out their kid has been talking to someone else and they’re heartbroken. But it’s helpful if you can give [your kids and teens] the message that they don’t always have to talk to you. They might feel more comfortable talking to their school nurse, or their teacher, and that’s okay. Some of that is a privacy issue. And it might not be because the parents won’t approve—it’s often because they want some information to be their own. We don’t need every part of ourselves, particularly the most vulnerable parts, to be exposed. We might not be ready. There’s a way to be supportive and make sure everyone’s safe without knowing everything all of the time.
With regards to your point about young people not wanting to hear older people’s sex stories, how do you think peer educators should come into play?
Critics [of peer sex educators] often lead with the assumption that teenagers are incapable, while older people, just by virtue of being older, are more qualified–not by virtue of doing advanced study but simply because they’re 40 years old. What’s implied is that older people will be saying, “Don’t do it,” and younger people will be saying, “Do it.” That’s not necessarily the case.
I think part of the resistance is also about withholding power. We’re talking about a disempowered and marginalized population when we talk about young adults. A whole other class of people is withholding rights from them and feeling very justified in doing so. It’s tricky to know where the line is between protecting someone who is vulnerable because they have less skills, less rights, less agency, and controlling them. Young people don’t have the same legal rights and there are a lot of discussions about why we need to keep that control. It’s usually framed as protection and sometimes it is. But sometimes it’s just control.
Everyone knows this: Most sex information, at all ages, comes from your friends. This isn’t unique to this generation. Before you’re ready to talk to your doctor, maybe even before you talk to your sexual partner, you run it by your friend. The only problem with that is a lot of the information is bad. It’s not accurate. So when you have people who have been trained and supervised and are also peers, it’s the best of both worlds. Even I know that the older I get, the more ineffectual I’m probably going to become in this field. Peer educators are awesome. | <urn:uuid:a0ba8dbd-82fb-4e98-825a-4a61f90fe880> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/11/30/the-sex-talk-having-more-than-one/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969434 | 1,429 | 1.820313 | 2 |
A bipartisan group of lawmakers announce the introduction of a bill in the House of Representatives on Tuesday to make gun trafficking a federal crime. / J. Scott Applewhite, AP
WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of House lawmakers reintroduced a bill Tuesday that would make trafficking in firearms a federal crime and strengthen the penalties for those who purchase guns for people prohibited from owning them.
Reps. Patrick Meehan, R-Penn., and Scott Rigell, R-Va., joined Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney of New York and Elijah Cummings of Maryland in co-sponsoring the bill - one of the few gun-related measures to start with support from members of both parties.
In addition to barring the trafficking of firearms, the bill would make the penalty for "straw purchases" - those intentionally made for prohibited individuals - up to 20 years in prison. It would enhance penalties for "organizers or managers of firearms trafficking networks" and recommends stricter punishments for the purchase of multiple illegal guns.
The bill would not burden law-abiding gun owners or buyers and would not hurt Second Amendment rights, the bill's sponsors said.
"This is one of those rare times that everyone agrees," Maloney said. "How often are you able to come forward with a bill that is going to protect people, that law enforcement wants and needs and prevent senseless gun violence, that doesn't in any way hurt gun owners rights to own legally their own guns? This is an absolute win, win, win, win."
Meehan, a former federal prosecutor, said the bill would give law enforcement the tools needed to "keep guns out of the hands of criminals."
Rigell said he planned to speak with Republican leadership soon in hopes of getting the bill closer to the House floor.
"I've spoken with several of my Republican colleagues, and there are some questions, but generally, they are very supportive," Rigell said. "The more someone understands the bill, I think the more they will support it."
Similar legislation was introduced in the Senate last week by Democratic Sen. Kristen Gillibrand of New York and Republican Mark Kirk of Illinois. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has also introduced a bill that would prohibit straw purchasing and implement tougher penalties on those who violate the law.
The trafficking bills are among dozens of gun-related pieces of legislation that have been introduced since the new Congress convened last month. Many seek to add regulations to gun ownership and are backed by the White House, which released its own plan last month.
The mass shooting of 20 young schoolchildren and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14 has given added momentum to gun-regulation advocates. Rigell did not place himself in that category.
"Charting the best course forward for this great republic is not an individual sport, it's a team sport," Rigell said. "For those who have deep concern about the overreach of the government, I'm in that group â?¦ but this bill doesn't do that.
"Unless you are a gun trafficker, unless you're a person who is a straw purchaser there's really no problem with this," Rigell said.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Bipartisan House group pushes gun trafficking bill | <urn:uuid:82b89cd5-d23c-46c9-8edc-26f1573caf55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pal-item.com/usatoday/article/1894367?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7C | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97263 | 687 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Robert Ringer is a New York Times No. 1 best-selling author and host of the highly acclaimed "Liberty Education Interview Series," which features interviews with top political, economic and social leaders. His latest book is "The Entrepreneur." To sign up for a free subscription to his pro-liberty, pro-free-market e-letter, A Voice of Sanity, CLICK HERE.More ↓Less ↑
I was pleased to see that in their new book, “Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government,” authors Don Watkins and Yaron Brook zero in on a subject that is dear to my heart: the morality of the free market. Unfortunately, it’s a subject that goes virtually unmentioned even by those politicians who praise the merits of capitalism.
Such politicians insist that the goodness of capitalism lies in the fact that it improves the well-being of almost everyone in a society. Sorry, but even though that is certainly true, it is not the moral justification for capitalism.
The moral justification is that all men and women, no matter their economic status, have a natural right to pursue their own financial well-being and enjoy all the fruits of their labor without interference from others – especially politicians and government bureaucrats.
This is true regardless of whether their actions benefit others. Fortunately, however, free-market competition virtually guarantees that others will benefit. But that’s just a nice bonus that comes with capitalism.
Which brings us to the upcoming election. If Barack Obama wins re-election, any questions about capitalism will, of course, become moot. Given that he would not have to be concerned about winning another election, his second term would bring about a rapid end to what is left of the American Empire. He would simply ignore both Congress and the Constitution even more than in the past and seamlessly implement a de facto dictatorship.
That, in turn, would plunge us into a collectivist dark ages that would extinguish initiative, entrepreneurial activity and wealth creation. The only “solution” would be to have the Fed increase its efforts to ramp up the money supply in order to cover the rapidly increasing deficits, with the resulting runaway inflation being the perfect excuse to declare a state of emergency and suspend future elections.
But what if Mitt Romney wins on Nov. 6? Though he certainly is not an angry, malevolent ne’er-do-well like Barack Obama, there is a 99.99 percent chance that under his watch we would simply return to the business-as-usual welfare-state policies embraced by every president (including Ronald Reagan) since FDR.
Don’t get me wrong here. Ronald Reagan did a better job of defending the free market than any other president in my lifetime. But being the best also means being the least bad, and, unfortunately, his actions did not live up to his words.
The reality is that government will continue to grow no matter how good the intentions of anyone who occupies the Oval Office. That’s because, like people who are about to be executed, we serfs desperately agree to support any candidate who promises to prolong our life (or, more properly, the good life). And this time around, that person happens to be Mitt Romney. Republicans are convinced – and they are right – that they cannot get elected by naming specific entitlements they would cut or specific government agencies they would eliminate.
Worse, even if they tried to seriously cut entitlements or eliminate such anti-business government tentacles as the EPA, FTC, or DOE, they would be overwhelmingly voted out of office in the next election. Remember, even if Republicans controlled the House and Senate, Romney/Ryan would still be working with status-quo statists like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner.
Nevertheless, as a result of entrepreneurial optimism, a temporary spurt of artificial prosperity is likely to return if Romney is elected. But since nothing major will be done about government spending – especially entitlement programs – the deficit and national debt are guaranteed to continue to increase.
Thus, any uptick in the economy should be viewed as nothing more than a pause that would give us a bit of time to begin laying the foundation for educating future generations about the evils of collectivism and the morality of free markets. Romney’s role in history would then be that of a placeholder until the Free-Market Cavalry came to the rescue.
And just who comprises the Free-Market Cavalry? Frank Chodorov gave us some insight into that question in his book, “The Income Tax”:
If, for instance, those who prate about “free enterprise” were willing to risk bankruptcy for it, even as the men of the Declaration risked their necks for independence, the present drive for the collectivization of capital would not have such easy going. Assuming that they are fully aware of the implications of the phrase they mouth, and are sincere in their protestations, the fact that they are unwilling to suffer mortification of the flesh disqualifies them for leadership, and the case for “free enterprise” is hopeless.
The willingness to suffer mortification of the flesh in an effort to topple America’s welfare state is the only qualification you need to become a member of the Free-Market Cavalry, whose job, if Romney is elected, would be twofold: 1) spread the word about the morality of capitalism, and 2) be willing to name specific government programs and agencies that you believe should be eliminated. Not downsized; eliminated.
All this by way of saying that if Romney is elected, you should not get caught up in the euphoria of the moment and make the mistake of thinking happy days are here again. If you need a sobering reality to help you avoid such a mistake, just remember that if Romney fails in his placeholder duties, waiting in the wings for the opportunity to finish the job of transforming America into a Third World country is that same unvetted, shadowy Kenyan who made a clear pledge to voters four years ago – and has made good on that pledge!
If you’re wondering, “Would he actually have the chutzpah to run again?” the answer is a resounding “Yes!” And you can rest assured that the media and his adoring Obamavik followers would fully support him in another run for the White House. The destruction of America is not a game with the Duplicitous Despot. It’s a lifetime mission. | <urn:uuid:6488e741-988b-4c9d-905a-903bd5277709> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/will-you-be-part-of-the-free-market-cavalry/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965614 | 1,335 | 1.515625 | 2 |
MOBILE, Alabama -- The History Museum of Mobile is hosting its weekly Learning Lunch today.
The featured speaker will be Mobile City Councilman Fred Richardson, who will speak about his new book "From Nymph to Mobile and Beyond: The Impossible Dream."
The book traces his life from rural Alabama to Mobile city government.
"I'm going to paint the picture of what life was when I was born. I want them to measure the difference between then and now. For those who don't think we have made no progress, I'm going to show that's not true," Richardson said.
The lunch runs from noon to 1 p.m. at the museum, which sits on Royal Street at the foot of Government Street. | <urn:uuid:e5c2aa54-91cb-4a40-99ea-4a2506891125> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.al.com/live/2012/04/fred_richardson_featured_speak.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984147 | 149 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Commission on Human Rights
KY Human Rights Commission requires disability-accessible sidewalks and curbs on Louisville's Shelbyville Road near St. Matthews Mall
At its headquarters in Louisville, Ky., the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights Board of Commissioners on Sept. 20 ruled to accept three conciliation agreements (Details are summarized below). The board dismissed 18 complaints, which after investigation, resulted in findings of no probable cause to believe discrimination occurred. The board ruled to accept 10 complaint withdrawals that gave complainants the right to file private civil suits, and the board ruled to accept two complaint withdrawals wherein the parties reached private settlements once the complaints were filed with the commission.
Conciliation agreements are similar to settlements, but are negotiated by commission enforcement officers and commission attorneys during the course of or after complaint investigation. The following are summaries of the accepted three conciliations mentioned above:
KCHR Case nos. 627-PA, 632-PA, 668-PA and 669-PA, then Kentucky Human Rights Commission Chair Priscilla Johnson et al v. the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, the City of St. Matthews and the Mall of St. Matthews, in St. Matthews, Ky.: On behalf of an unnamed complainant, then Commissioner Priscilla Johnson on Feb. 1, 2007, alleged the respondents discriminated against the complainants based on the protected class of disability in the area of public accommodations. Johnson claimed the respondents failed to comply with the accommodation provisions of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act (KRS Chapter 344.120-145) and the U.S. Civil Rights Act. The complainants claimed the respondents failed to provide sidewalks and wheelchair-accessible curbing along a portion of Shelbyville Road in front of the Mall between Ten Pen Lane and (then) Sherburne Lane. The commission issued in July 2007 a finding of probable cause to believe discrimination occurred. The parties agreed to resolve the matter with a conciliation agreement. The respondents denied any violation of the law. They affirmed they will comply with civil rights laws and will not discriminate. They agreed to complete the installation of the sidewalk and curb ramps along Shelbyville Road in front of the Mall St. Matthews between the above intersections, which incorporate the current bus stop and sidewalk and crosswalks to the commercial enterprises on the opposite side of Shelbyville Road near or at the corner of Ten Pin Lane. The respondents agreed to make these installations compliant with U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act specifications. They agreed the construction will be complete by March 30, 2013, and will provide the commission with confirmation that the job is complete. In addition, the Mall has repaved its parking lot bordering Shelbyville Road and installed a curb ramp improving accessibility to the parking lot and to the Transit Authority of River City (TARC) bus stop.
KCHR No. 1490-H, Allison McDuffus v. Michael Clark and Venita Bright, in Frankfort, Ky.: On Jan. 6, 2009, Allision McDuffus alleged that Michael Clark and Venita Bright discriminated against her based on the protected class of race regarding her husband’s race in the area of housing. This would be a violation of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act (KRS Chapter 344.360, KRS 344.370 and KRS 344.280) and the U.S Fair Housing Act. McDuffus, who is white, claimed she signed a lease with the respondents in November 2008, and that after the respondents met her husband, who is black, at a later date, they made derogatory remarks to her about her husband and asked her to move from the premises. The commission investigation resulted in the issuance of a probable cause finding to believe discrimination occurred. Prior to further litigation of the complaint, the parties agreed to resolve the matter with a conciliation agreement. Clark and Bright denied any violation of the law and agreed not to discriminate and to compensate McDuffus in the amount of $3,900. The respondents agreed to undergo fair housing compliance training and compliance monitoring by the commission for three years.
KCHR No. 1534-H, Johnna French v. Georgetown Housing Authority, in Lexington, Ky.: Johnna French on Feb. 16, 2010, alleged the Georgetown Housing Authority discriminated against her based on disability in the area of housing. This would be a violation of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act (KRS Chapter 344.360 and KRS 344.280) and the U.S. Fair Housing Act. French claimed the housing authority refused to accommodate her need for a service animal. The commission issued a finding of probable cause to believe discrimination occurred. Prior to further litigation of the complaint, the parties agreed to resolve the matter with a conciliation agreement. The respondent denied any violation of the law, agreed not to discriminate, and agreed to compensate French in the amount of $14,000 and compensate the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights in the amount of $1,000. The Georgetown Housing Authority agreed to reinstate French into its Housing Choice Voucher program, to undergo compliance training and to undergo compliance monitoring by the commission for three years.
In addition, since the commission’s August monthly meeting, Executive Director John J. Johnson issued five determinations of probable cause, finding there was basis to believe discrimination occurred. The probable cause determinations were issued in the matters of Carmen Peralta v. Jo An, Inc., KCHR No. 7436-E; Oriselma de la Rodas v. Jo An, Inc., KCHR No. 7267-E; Commissioner Stinson v. Fifth Wheel Bar and Grill, LLC d/b/a Susie’s Bottoms Up Bar & Grill, 894-PA; Naquan Thurman v. Fifth Wheel Bar & Grill, LLC, 901-PA; and Naquan Thurman v. Susan M. Riggle, Individually and d/b/a Susie’s Bottoms Up Bar & Grill, 902-PA. Additionally, three complaints were forwarded to the commission’s legal unit from the investigative unit for processing of probable cause determinations. The commission has not heard from the complainants and respondents in these cases yet as to whether they will choose to resolve the matters with conciliation agreements or if they will choose to move forward with litigation after which the commission would issue a ruling in each matter that finds the respondents are either liable or not liable for unlawful discrimination.
The commission mediation unit received 30 cases since the August meeting. Of those cases, one complainant and respondent chose mediation. The agency conducted four mediations during this one month period. At its meeting, the commission approved two mediation withdrawals that resulted in settlements and two withdrawals without result. The two without result will proceed to complaint investigation by the commission. According to the law, the discussions and terms of mediations are private. Mediation offers complainants and respondents the opportunity to meet about a discrimination complaint and negotiate in face-to-face with the assistance of a commission neutral mediation attorney.
The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights is the state government authority that enforces the Kentucky and U.S. Civil Rights acts. The Kentucky Civil Rights Act protects people from discrimination in the areas of housing, employment, public accommodations and financial transactions. The law protects people against discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age of 40-years and older in employment, disability, familial status of families with children under age 18 years and pregnant women in housing, and tobacco-smoking status in employment.
Contact the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights for help with discrimination or for more information at 1.800.292.5566. The TDD number for people with hearing impairments or for people who are deaf is 502.595.4084. Visit the website including the Facebook and Twitter sites at www.kchr.ky.gov. | <urn:uuid:216a2897-7892-4c2b-b865-cb4fe0bc1c0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://migration.kentucky.gov/newsroom/kchr/KY+Human+Rights+Commission+September+2012+Rulings.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943028 | 1,593 | 1.734375 | 2 |
This essay from Francis Spufford has been getting flagged quite a bit in my little corner of the Internet. Spufford is an English author who writes mostly non-fiction (his recent book Red Plenty was the subject of a book event at Crooked Timber this summer). Spufford’s essay seems to be a summary of his new book Unapologetic, a defense of Christian faith that carries ths subtitle “Why, despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense.”
Since I’ve been deep in Schleiermacher recently, this set off some bells for me, and indeed Spufford’s argument, at least based on the article, does seem like a sort of updating of Schleiermacher’s argument for thinking of religion as an essential aspect of human nature which is rooted in a particular kind of feeling.
The point is that from outside, belief looks like a series of ideas about the nature of the universe for which a truth-claim is being made, a set of propositions that you sign up to; and when actual believers don’t talk about their belief in this way, it looks like slipperiness, like a maddening evasion of the issue. If I say that, from inside, it makes much more sense to talk about belief as a characteristic set of feelings, or even as a habit, you will conclude that I am trying to wriggle out, or just possibly that I am not even interested in whether the crap I talk is true. I do, as a matter of fact, think that it is. I am a fairly orthodox Christian. Every Sunday I say and do my best to mean the whole of the Creed, which is a series of propositions. But it is still a mistake to suppose that it is assent to the propositions that makes you a believer. It is the feelings that are primary. I assent to the ideas because I have the feelings; I don’t have the feelings because I’ve assented to the ideas.
As Scheleirmacher said in his Speeches, religion is a “taste for the infinite,” and in The Christian Faith he defined it as “a feeling of absolute dependence.” Doctrine, for Schleiermacher, is an elaboration of this feeling, but the feeling–piety–comes first and is more basic. Theology takes this as its starting point–it doesn’t try to “prove” God’s existence. (Schleiermacher does allow that philosophy may construct arguments for God’s existence on its own terms, but this has little to do with the life of living faith.) Like Spufford, Schleiermacher didn’t deny that religion makes truth-claims, but its living heart is feeling. | <urn:uuid:3431ef88-ac75-4348-a09f-8c1272b1f05a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkingreed.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/francis-spuffords-speech-to-religions-cultured-despisers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96319 | 590 | 1.601563 | 2 |
As Burmese journalists are being threatened or hunted down, the country’s leading ISP disconnected all Internet access at 11 a.m. today. The flow of news is gradually drying up. Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association call on the international community to take action to prevent this news blackout.
As the military junta continues its crackdown on pro-democracy protests, it has stepped up its strategy of isolating Burma, trying to reproduce the scenario of the 1988 massacres when witness accounts of the bloodshed only reached the outside world after it was over.
“There is an urgent need to help Burmese and foreign journalists to continue to do their job of reporting the news,” Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association said. “This is a criminal regime, as the Japanese photographer’s murder has shown, and it is trying by all possible means to create a situation of complete isolation.”
The two organisations added: “The repression, with its dozens of deaths and hundreds if not thousands of arrests, is gaining pace, but the flow of news and information is drying up. The international community must take action to prevent this news blackout.”
The government disconnected the Internet at 11 a.m. today, adding to the country’s isolation. The leading ISP, an offshoot of the ministry of technologies, tried to blame it on a technical problem with an underwater cable. Reuters said no one was answering the phone at the ISP’s headquarters. Everyone questioned by Reporters Without Borders and the BMA described the official excuse as “ridiculous.”
All the Internet cafés are closed and the military are hounding the foreign journalists still working on the ground. At least one was forced to take refuge in an embassy or go underground.
The flow of news has slowed right down in the past two days. The international video news exchange system EVN has hardly any new footage for international TV stations.
Journalists in Rangoon said it was virtually impossible go to the centre of the city. Some said they had seen more arrests and more violence against civilians. According to these accounts, there are still many groups of demonstrators.
It has meanwhile been confirmed that several Burmese publications, including those owned by the Eleven Media and Pyi Myanmar press groups, have closed after refusing to publish propaganda articles. Editors said the public would not be interested in buying their publications if they could not read about the demonstrations. Reporters Without Borders and the BMA hail their courage in resisting the regime’s dictates.
The English-language Myanmar Times, which is run by an Australian, appears to have decided to continue publishing. Its website shows a picture of a photographer in a peaceful rural setting and makes no mention of the demonstrations or the use of violence to disperse them.
Although banned, many residents used satellite dishes to watch international TV stations. “Everyone is tuned to the Burmese-language international radio stations and the foreign TV stations,” said a journalist in Rangoon. “That is why the regime’s media have attacked these international radio stations. It is disgraceful.” Government news media such MRTV-3 have called the BBC and VOA “destructionist” and say they are in the pay of foreign powers. | <urn:uuid:90210de5-0f31-4ae7-85d2-d5aa8cc1c54c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=23828 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965838 | 683 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Arcola beach, Arboretum cleanup
Sunday, April 22, 2012 4:38 PM
Marie Kozan, a member of Lake Metroparks outdoor education department, sorts through and records bags of debris collected from the beach and wetlands at Arcola Creek Park in Madison on Earth Day today. , April 22, 2012. Over 60 volunteers, from Cub Scout Pack 72 of Orwell to Our Gang 4-H-ers of Lake County and nature lovers from all over northeast Ohio gathered in the rain, wind and cold to collect over 130 pounds of garbage, helping the Alliance for the Great Lakes Adopt-a-Beach program to monitor the types of wetland debris and find ways to protect our lakefronts. Kozan encouraged the volunteers to keep up the good work. "You don't have to work only on Earth Day to keep our water and shorelines clean," she told the group. "Make it part of your lives, part of your routine every time you visit the shoreline." | <urn:uuid:6d490204-d8ea-48f4-b5eb-e5cdcd2031f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photos.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/2012/04/arcola_beach_arboretum_cleanup_7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936743 | 205 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Royal Olive Oil from Spain. Just to be clear in the copy since there's no way you'd know from just reading it, "Royal" here should be said in Spanish, not in English. As in, "Roy-al" with the "Al" like it would be someone's name. And it refers not any kind of imperial court, but rather to a very old olive varietal from Southern Spain. That said, now that I think about it, the oil is so good it would well warrant getting a Royal Seal of some sort so you could just use the word here as something of a edible double entendre.
Anyways, aside from all those fairly irrelevant etymological exercises, I think I first tasted this oil from the Vaño family at the Alimentaria show in Barcelona a few years back. Their Castillo de Canena Picual oil, which we've been carrying for a few years now, was really already one of my favorites. To my taste one of a handful of Picual oils that I think (not everyone will agree, I know) avoid some of the less than desirable (again, my opinion, not everyone's) flavors that can come from that varietal. To me their Picual oil is very tasty, big, pretty bold flavor, long lasting very clean and pleasant finish. The Royal oil is right there with it--very different set of flavors but all the good work that goes into the agronomy, the picking and the pressing are making for a second, different but equally excellent oil.
Our dry goods manager says it's a very sexy oil, and I think she's right.
The Vano's farm and press in the town of Canena, in the district of Jaen, in Southern Spain. The land is in the Guadalquiver Valley, running along the Guadiana Menor River so the trees are drawing water naturally in that way. Written documentation of the family's ownership of the land dates to 1780 (what Russian village my ancestors were working in back then I have no idea. I know they didn't own any land.). The castle itself was built in the first half of the 16th century, designed by Francisco de los Cobos, who was the secretary of emperor Charles V.
When I first met Francesco and Rosa Vano they mentioned that they were working on this oil--they hadn't yet sold any, but they were starting to give tastes to good customers to let them know it was coming. The Royal's history is even older than the Vano link to their land--Rosa told me it predates the Picual in the Jaen area. It's little known outside the area and it seems that hardly anyone grows it any more.
To my (limited, of course) knowledge no one other the Castillo de Canena is bottling it as a straight varietal. Like so many of the old olive types, the yields on the Royal are low--it's harder to grow and harder to harvest, so, not shockingly, there are fewer and fewer of the trees left. The Vanos found some up in the mountains and replanted them on their land at Canena a number of years ago. Today they have about 45 acres of Royal planted. (For context, there are about 6,000,000 total acres of olives planted in the country.)
There are about 3,600 Royal trees on that acreage, which combined to produce about 4000 bottles of oil total last year. The olives are handpicked early in the season so that the flavors and polyphenols are high. Last year's harvest took place on Nov 19th and 20th. The Vanos manage the whole process on the farm--growing, harvesting, and pressing is all done on site and they use only their own olives. The olives are pressed within three hours of picking. They're very into sustainable growing (they use IPM methods) and have done a lot of work with solar power on the farm--not a bad idea in the very hot and very sunny Andalucia.
Having tasted and re-tasted the Royal oil about 15 times in the last few weeks, I can say with high confidence that I really like it. It's already won a few awards for whatever that's worth. It's got that rare combination of both buttery and peppery that I really love. Our dry goods manager says it's a very sexy oil, and I think she's right. I've been using it a lot--the fact that I keep going back to it when I could be using any of the other ten oils I've got at my house on all the good tomatoes from the market is probably telling. And putting it on toasted Paesano bread. And on salads.
It would be very good on what I think is a really great September bruschetta--grilled or toasted Bakehouse bread, plenty of oil, and then really ripe fresh peaches, pears, apples, or plums. The combination might sound odd if you haven't had it, but it really is a great way to end a meal without eating any processed sugar. If you want to skip the bread (I wouldn't) the oil would be good right on the fruit as well.
PS: I should mention that the Canena Royal oil comes in a really great bottle. It really doesn't look like any other offering I've seen so I'm not sure where the Vanos got it. "Original black bottle with white xerography," is how they describe it. Cylindrically shaped black glass with a lot of right angles in its "shoulders," it reminds me a bit of those padded shoulder '60s suits the stylin' sales guy in Mad Men. None of which, of course, makes the oil taste any better but does make it nice to look at on the counter, and also a really good gift. | <urn:uuid:7174e827-321b-4f4a-9766-3bd256bfb252> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2009/09/spains-sexy-stylish-olive-oil/26404/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97967 | 1,213 | 1.570313 | 2 |
by Reza Hossein Borr
The world will remember Mehrnehad, the first weblog writer that was hanged in Iran. He chose freedom even though he knew it would cost his life.
Yaqoub Mehrnehad was very young when he was hanged, but added more value to the collective achievements of Baluch nation than thousands of men who have died in their homes, in accidents and in the hospitals. He was the kind of person who wanted to generate respect for the Baluch people. He thought they deserved it and had to get it at all cost. Thousands of Baluch have died without having any impact on improving their own lives or the collective life of their nation. They appear and disappear in this world without being relevant. They come in this world, suffer, witness the history of their nation’s suffering and fade away as if they have never been born.
Baloch Liberation Front respects freedom of speech, Journalists are free to report whatever they want: Spokesman
Occupied Balochistan: Bahram Baloch, BLF spokesman, has denied threatening BBC Urdu Service Quetta correspondent Ayub Tareen and said his group, in clear words, condemns these threats.
Talking to BBC Urdu Service, Bahram Baloch said throughout the past 10 years of struggle career, BLF has never threatened nor harmed any journalists. The group respects freedom of speech and condemns any kinds of threats to journalists on the line of duty, he said.
Occupied Balochistan: Chairman of the Baloch National Movement (BNM) said the silence of International Powers on Pakistan’s atrocities, violating the sanctities of Baloch houses, operations and target killing of Baloch nation is a great tragedy.
He said injuring several people and killings livestock by Pakistan military’s bombardment, pillage of villages in Marwaar and abductions of Baloch people and target killings by state forces are unabated crimes against humanity. He also charged that Pakistani forces are involved in target killing of intellectuals, doctors, students and other member of Baloch society.
London: Baloch patriot leader Hyrbyair Marri has strongly condemned Pakistani Military offensives in Mach and Marwaar areas, security forces raids on New Kahan and Ms. Nausheen Qambrani Baloch house, Quetta.
Terming the indiscriminate Bombardments by Pakistan’s gunship helicopters in Marwaar and Mach areas against International laws and state terrorism, Mr Marri said injuring innocent women and children in surrounding areas of Mach and torturing aged residents of New Kahan Quetta illustrates that Pakistan has broken the record of Syria’s in violating human rights in Baluchistan. He further said that, “The silence of International powers on Baluchistan issue has encouraged Pakistan to commit more crimes against humanity.”
Banuk Hooran Baloch is the organizer of Baloch Republican Party Women Wing’s Quetta zone. She has been playing an important role in the party. She belongs to the Sumalani tribe of Mastung. She was born in a middle-class and prominent family. She got early education from Mastung and did matriculation from Quetta and now is a student of BA and has a deep eye on politics of Balochistan. She has been playing a conspicuous role in motivating the women wing of Baloch Republican Party.
Occupied Balochistan: The Daughter of Dr Deen Mohammad Baloch said she had hoped that after registering the cases of abducted Baloch her father would be released on the date given by Chief Justice and that she would be lucky enough to at least celebrate one Eid (Muslims Festival) with joy.
However, on 30 July 2012 Dr Deen Mohammad Bangulzia, abducted few days ago, has been released but her father, Dr Deen Mohammad Baloch who was abducted in June 2009 is still being detained at some undisclosed location. She further said, “I have tirelessly been waiting for my father but now our wish to celebrate a happy Eid is still in complete.” | <urn:uuid:27a9b223-6681-4c4d-8a35-188459b263e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://baluchsarmachar.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970601 | 836 | 1.546875 | 2 |
From the Wall Street Journal:
Bad News for Boomers
If you're a baby boomer, you've got a big problem when it comes to the investment returns you can expect in retirement: It's the sheer number of other boomers who are also getting ready to leave the workplace and rely on their portfolios to help pay the bills.In addition, that 100-year record was achieved while the U.S. economy was ascending to the position of largest the world has ever seen.
That's the depressing conclusion Robert D. Arnott, a portfolio manager, asset-management executive and inveterate researcher, has come to in more than 20 years of studying demographic trends and financial-market results.
The problem in a nutshell: The ratio of retirees to active workers in the U.S. will balloon. As retirees sell stocks and then bonds to support themselves, there will be fewer younger investors to buy those securities, keeping a lid on prices. Meanwhile, strong demand from boomers and a limited supply of workers will boost the prices of goods and services the boomers need.
Mr. Arnott is the founder and chairman of Research Affiliates LLC in Newport Beach, Calif. He is well known in the fund world as the portfolio manager hired by Pacific Investment Management Co. to run Pimco All Asset and Pimco All Asset All Authority —as well as for creating fundamental indexes that weight components by measures such as corporate earnings rather than stock-market value.
At age 57, Mr. Arnott's interest in boomers is personal, as well as professional. Here are edited excerpts from a recent discussion:
WSJ: When you talk about a changing relationship between the numbers of retirees and workers in the U.S., how dramatic a shift from past decades are we looking at?
Mr. Arnott: This very year, for the first time in U.S. history, the population of senior citizens rises faster than the working-age population. Less than 10 years ago, when the baby boomers' kids were coming into the labor force and the very skimpy roster of Depression babies was retiring, we had 10 new additions to the working-age cadre for each one new senior citizen.
It goes to 10-to-1 in the opposite direction in 10 years. There will be 10 new senior citizens for each new working-age citizen. If that's not a political, economic and capital-markets game changer, I don't know what is.
WSJ: How does this changing mix of retirees and workers affect the investment returns that boomers can look forward to over the coming decades?
Mr. Arnott: Rates of returns are likely to be anemic and are likely to become more so for those who save later. I'm smack in the middle of the boomers. I was born in 1954. And by the time I reach 65 years old, the prospective forward-looking returns will have to be pretty skinny. That's by the end of this decade.
For U.S. stocks, the history of the last 100 years shows real [that is, inflation-adjusted] earnings and dividend growth of about 1.25% a year. Add that to the current dividend yield and you've got about 3.5% of real return. Add in inflation of, say, 2% or 2.5%, and you're looking at 5.5% or 6% [before inflation] a year.
Now with the interconnected influence of demography, debt and deficits, we're likely to see considerably slower economic growth than in past years. So I view stocks as having a forward-looking return of 5%, give or take, over the next 10 to 20 years.
If bonds are priced to give us, let's say, 2% to 4%, that means your balanced portfolio is likely to deliver 4%. Net of inflation and net of taxes, that's awfully close to zero real after-tax return....MORE
And it was done without the deadweight of Federal debt and with a much younger population. | <urn:uuid:0a95064b-2f7e-441d-9a9a-00203a787709> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://climateerinvest.blogspot.com/2012/03/robert-arnott-on-boomers-bummer-gramps.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961776 | 828 | 1.84375 | 2 |
How to add dynamic text entered by user to canvas in android?
I am making an app in which a user enters some text and that text has to be displayed on a rectangle on an image(like a notes-stick on the image, it can be dragged on the image and also re-sized). I am very new to android and i really can't find a way to do so in android through books and google. I have been designing apps using html, in html we could just style a text-box like we want and add it anywhere on the page. But here i am unable to configure the edit-text to do the same. But i am unable to make the edit-text like a notes-stick and to make it draggable and re-sizable dynamically. I also tried drawing just a rectangle using canvas.drawrect() ... but how to add text to that dynamically is something which i am unable to figure out. I am not asking for the entire code ..but please guys give me a head-start to the right direction so that i can try things out and try to figure out a way.. Right now i am badly stuck.
Related Article:Android: Custom ListView problem
is a solved Mobile Development discussion thread by ravenous that has 2 replies, was last updated 5 months ago and has been tagged with the keywords: android, listview. | <urn:uuid:707bc3c8-fc7f-4c93-8335-215bfea2e252> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.daniweb.com/software-development/mobile-development/threads/431253/how-to-add-dynamic-text-entered-by-user-to-canvas-in-android | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937693 | 281 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Guest Author - Consuelo Herrera, CAMS, CFE
If you are an accountant or a consultant dealing with international trade you should be aware of the ins and outs of Foreign exchange transactions, the risks involved, and the accounting treatment. This holds true even if you work for a bank.
The Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Administrator of national banks, states that most importers, exporters, manufacturers, and retailers tend to let banks handle their foreign exchange needs. They rely on banks to make and receive their foreign currency payments, to provide them with foreign currency loans, to fund their foreign currency bank accounts, and to purchase their excess foreign currency balances. They may ask banks to provide such services for immediate delivery, i.e., at spot (short-term contracts, perhaps up to 10 days), or they might contract to buy or sell a specified amount of foreign currency for delivery at a future date. In either instance, the rates for such services may be established prior to the finalization of the commercial transactions, and the related costs may be calculated and often passed on to the buyers.
Revaluation and Accounting Systems
The OCC emphasizes that such systems should accurately determine actual as well as estimated future profits and losses and present them in such a manner as to facilitate proper income analysis by management, bank supervisory personnel, and the public. One system widely used by banks is illustrated below. This system is capable of presenting separately, each of the following:
o Actual realized profit or loss as determined by applying current spot rates to balance sheet accounts as well as contracts of very near maturities.
Adjustments to the local currency book values would either be allocated and posted to each of the applicable local currency ledger accounts or, for short interim periods, be charged to a separate “foreign exchange adjustment” account with an offset to P&L.
o Unrealized (estimated future) profit or loss on future transactions are determined by applying the appropriate forward rates to the net positions reflected for each future period appearing in the bank’s gap or maturity reports. An “estimated profit (loss) on foreign exchange—futures” account would be charged for the amount of the adjustment with an offset to P&L. Provided that the amount of that adjustment is the difference between the existing forward rates and the actual contract rates, each month’s entries
merely involve reversing the adjustment from the prior revaluation and submitting the new figures.
Expecting to make money easily, many individual have fallen victim of fraud schemes perpetrated by unscrupulous individuals that pride themselves of being “Forex experts.” They use powerful advertising online, through radio, and printed magazines and newspapers. Another powerful way is through seminars. For example, John Smith attended a seminar where he was told that he could make money in a fast and safer way. John did not do his homework and due diligence before making a decision. He invested $115,000. When a statement reflected that he had earned a profitable return on his investment, he decided to invest additional money. His enthusiasm was great, to the extent that he even took out a loan of $650,000. That money was immediately deposited a Forex company. John Smith was informed that that his funds would be invested more aggressively. John Smith never was told that even in a legitimate transaction Forex losses could be very large in a single day. John Smith was so thrilled by the “return on his investment” that he invited friends, co-workers, and church members to join this venture. They were very receptive to John’s idea. All of them were promised that they have their principal safe and in addition, they would have higher and guaranteed profits. What actually happened was far from these expectations. John and his friends’ money use used to pay interest to earlier investors and to recruit and train a sales force of “executive sales representatives” that were brain washed through lies. One single phony organization trained more than 120 representatives who disseminated false and misleading information about returns on foreign exchange transactions.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury defines the foreign exchange market as the market for buying and selling different currencies. It is primarily an over-the-counter market with trades between large commercial banks accounting for most foreign currency transactions. Other participants in the foreign exchange market include:
o Brokers, who match buyers and sellers in the market
o Customers of banks or brokers, mainly large businesses who engage in international trade and/or investment, and
o Central banks
The Federal Reserve Bank explains that by law and custom, the Secretary of the Treasury is primarily and directly responsible to the President and the Congress for formulating and defending U.S. domestic and international economic policy, assessing the position of the United States in the world economy, and conducting international negotiations on these matters. It states that foreign exchange markets are closely linked to money markets and to questions of monetary policy that are within the purview of the Federal Reserve.
Be aware of these transaction and potential fraud schemes. Encourage your clients to have a due diligence process in place if they are dealing with foreign exchange transactions. The market volatility makes the FOREX transactions even more vulnerable to losses and fraud schemes perpetrated by those looking for opportunities at the expense of trustful investors and business people. Doing nothing could be very costly. Forensic accountants act and connect the dots. | <urn:uuid:579a9cb0-08cb-4488-b416-25b8c43d8a65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art46156.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970789 | 1,104 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Esther and John Earle prefer not to play favorites with the 50 grape, fruit and honey wines available at their Seneca Lake tasting rooms.
“They’re all like our kids,” says Esther Earle, who launched Earle Estates Meadery with husband John in 1994, followed by Torrey Ridge Winery in 1999.
No wonder the tasting rooms, located within the same structure in Penn Yan, Yates County, feel like home. Accented by brass chandeliers, cathedral ceilings and blond wood, the atmosphere lends itself to meeting up with Cousin Hick-A-Billy, a sweet nonvintage red blend made from Catawba and other native grapes, or Uncle Ralph’s Rabble Red, a dry nonvintage blend of Vincent and Marechal Foch.
Turning wine tasting into a come-as-you-are experience began enticing the Earles shortly after they befriended scientist Bob Kime in the 1980s.
As an employee at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, Ontario County, until his death in 2002, Kime spent much of his career studying how to improve the taste and appearance of mead, or honey wine. The Earles got to know him when they donated orange blossom honey from their bee colonies for his experiments.
The Earles expected nothing in return except a few bottles of the resulting mead, which they eventually sent to Ithaca liquor stores to gauge its commercial appeal. Buoyed by the public’s interest, the couple started laying the foundation for Earle Estates and eventually branched out to making grape wine under the Torrey Ridge label from vinifera, hybrid and native varietals.
The subsequent years have given the couple the chance to educate the public about mead, a relatively uncommon beverage with roots trailing back to antiquity. Some of the options at Earle Estates are blends of fruit wine and mead, while others are purely honey-based but come in various styles, from semi-dry to sweet.
Last year, Earle Estates even delved into producing bubbly, resulting in the debut of a sparkling mead called Twinkle.
Though the winery and meadery saw a slight decline in visitors when gas hit $4 a gallon in 2008, Esther Earle says the recession and the staycation phenomenon have benefited both operations.
“We’ve been blessed through the bad times,” she says.
Sheila Livadas, for FingerLakesWine.com
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, after Memorial Day through December; noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, February through Memorial Day. Call ahead for hours in January. Tasting fee: $2 for six samples of wine. Not wheelchair accessible.
Photo courtesy of Torrey Ridge
Earle Estates Meadery is three miles south of Torrey Ridge (above). Tastings from both operations are available at the Torrey Ridge Winery. | <urn:uuid:3ab7a341-049e-4a7f-9730-79dba7f6b6ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fingerlakeswine.com/article/99999999/SPECIALS0901/50322026 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951498 | 658 | 1.554688 | 2 |
This Saturday at 9 p.m., KCET brings you the 1948 musical comedy, "The Inspector General," which stars Danny Kaye as a wandering Gypsy who winds up the target of an assassination plot when the inhabitants of a small town mistake him for the tax collector. The film also stars Walter Slezak and Elsa Lanchester. This is the latest entry in KCET's "Classic Cool Theater" series, which aims to give you not only a great film but also a vintage cartoon, two newsreels and an of-the-era musical number. All those extras add up to what makes "Classic Cool Theater" so special: context. In the spirit of this unique package, we're offering you a peek at the America -- and the Los Angeles -- that received "The Inspector General" on Dec. 31, 1949.
Born David Daniel Kaminsky to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants in 1913, Danny Kaye's portrayal of the lovable charlatan, "Georgi," in "The inspector General" is a reminder of the performer's Eastern European roots.
But it was another nod to the motherland that put Danny Kaye on many people's radar eight years earlier. In 1941, he starred on Broadway in Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's musical "Lady in the Dark." During the song "Tchaikovsky," Kaye wowed theater audiences by rattling off the names of around 50 Russian and Polish composers in 38 seconds.
Here's Kaye performing the number on his radio program, "The Danny Kaye Show," which aired between 1945-46.
Perhaps the only thing with more syllables than that list was the one detailing Kaye's talents. The multi-hyphenate entertainer was best known for comedy, but he had wonderful dramatic range too.
One of his most famous performances was in the 1981 television movie, "Skokie," in which he played an elderly Holocaust survivor.
A Brooklyn boy at heart, Kaye was a lifelong Dodgers fan. Despite his allegiance, Kaye became one of the original owners of the Seattle Mariners in 1977. The group sold the team four years later.
Kaye loved the Dodgers so much he even recorded an ode to the "boys in blue" during the 1962 pennant race called, fittingly, "D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song."
The original recording also included a B-side featuring Kaye's faux-Japanese take on the classic poem, "Casey at the bat." Kaye's version was titled "Myti Kaysi at the bat."
Take a closer look back
Unfortunately for Kaye, he was suspected by the F.B.I. of being a different kind of dodger in 1944: a draft dodger. Despite performing for U.S. troops overseas during WWII on numerous occasions, Kaye was investigated by the bureau for lying about an illness to avoid serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Charges were never brought, however.
The entire 70-page F.B.I. file of the investigation can be found here.
In 1947, Kaye and a cadre of other Hollywood celebrities, including Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, traveled to Washington D.C. to protest the conduct of the House Un-American Affairs Committee, led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Kaye, pictured at Los Angeles Airport ticket counter, is the man standing with his face obscured:
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|Beaver-Lawrence Central Labor Council|
After 45 years of driving a cab in New York City, Beresford Simmons says the emergence of the National Taxi Workers Alliance in the past few years is helping his family and those of other drivers reach the middle class. Simmons’ story is one of three illustrating that unions make the middle class strong, giving workers a voice in our economy, portrayed in a trio of new videos by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Read more >>>
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement in response to the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration bill: Today brings to mind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s wise and hopeful words, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” More than 11 million aspiring Americans took a big step toward becoming citizens today with the bipartisan Senate Judiciary Committee vote. That reflects an enormous step toward healing an injustice, the deportation crisis that has wrecked families, communities and workplaces for far too long. Read more >>>
Wilma Liebman who served 14 years on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)—including chairwoman from 2009–2011—says, “Appointments to the NLRB have been a political battleground for decades.” But, in a column in Politico, she says the current attack on the NLRB is the most vicious since the board was created in the 1930s. Read more >>>
Leading up to the AFL-CIO convention in September 2013, the AFL-CIO is hosting a crucial conversation about the future of working people and of unions—in union halls and online at www.aflcio2013.org.
Rana Plaza, the Bangladesh factory that collapsed three weeks ago, killed more than 1,100 workers, many of them young women. This tragedy adds to the more than 1500 Bangladeshi workers killed in preventable fires and building collapses since 2005. Documents found at the factory show that the workers produced for big names in global retail revealing the link between poor workers in Bangladesh and major retail brands.Obviously, the government must improve local laws and their enforcement to stop these tragedies, but brands must also take responsibility for their supply chains. They must be held accountable to the tragedy that happened in their supply chain. Read more >>>
A little rain never hurt anybody and it certainly didn't stop hundreds of Pennsylvania voters from getting their voter IDs today at the Driver & Vehicle Services office in the Oxford Levick Shopping Center in Pittsburgh.
Pennsylvania voters who need IDs—thanks to a new state law that disenfranchises hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania residents, including civic-minded seniors— were assisted by representatives from the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), along with the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and various community groups. Because of the new law, Pennsylvania state officials say that more than 785,000 voters don’t have a state-issued photo identification.Read more >>>
The vast majority of America's workers have largely been shut out of the nation’s economic growth over the past three decades, reports the 12th edition of The State of Working America from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Released today and available online, the report finds that the typical American family has added hundreds of extra hours of work each year, while also earning better education credentials, yet is still struggling to keep up. Read more >>>
When we talk to our elected or appointed officials in our area, it is helpful if we know if they are or have been a member of organized labor. The AFL-CIO has designed a form named the Target 5000 Survey that would make it easier for us to track those individuals and use them as our first point of contact at their level of public service, if needed. We encourage members of organized labor who are seeking public office to also complete this form. Read more...
© AFL-CIO. All rights reserved.
Photographs and illustrations, as well as text, cannot be used without permission from the AFL-CIO. | <urn:uuid:0cb48e1b-b23f-4fda-a055-e0c986748063> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pa.aflcio.org/beaverlawrence/index.cfm?action=cat&categoryID=337a3039-7e07-4ab4-a9b3-db50eabafe5d | 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 | 0.961581 | 823 | 1.570313 | 2 |
ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) - Kazakhstan concluded the acquisition Thursday of a 10 percent stake in one of the largest oil and gas projects in the world.
The acquisition comes after two-years of negotiations with the international consortium developing the field in the Central Asian nation.
Britain's BG Group, which remains one of Karachaganak project's main shareholders with a 29.25 percent stake, said in a statement that Kazakhstan paid $2 billion in cash. Kazakhstan is liable for a further $1 billion non-cash payment.
Kazakhstan's interest in Karachaganak will be run by state energy company Kazmunaigas.
Karachaganak has been plagued by numerous government probes over environmental violations and faced insistent pressure from Kazakh authorities to allow them into the project.
"With this agreement in place the partnership can now move forward with new field development plans which are expected to unlock enormous value for both the country and the contracting companies," BG Group vice president Ashley Almanza said in the statement.
The other partners are Italy's Eni, which now owns 29.25 percent, Chevron with its 18 percent stake, and Russia's LUKOIL, which has a 13.5 percent holding.
Karachaganak, which is located in northwestern Kazakhstan near the border with Russia, is estimated to hold around 1.2 billion tons in oil reserves and 1.35 trillion cubic meters of natural gas.
Under the deal finalized Thursday, the project will be allocated an additional annual 2 million tons of capacity through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium oil pipeline over the next 26 years.
Exports will be exempt from custom duties over that same period, BG Group said.
The next phase in the project's development is expected to see gas output double to 38 billion cubic meters per year.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:9474582d-56b7-4719-8e51-2f87f0378e3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myfoxspokane.com/news/business/story/kazakhs-buy-10-pct-stake-major-energy-project | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944642 | 394 | 1.515625 | 2 |
This short extract gives you a taste of the personal "Child's Horoscope" by Liz Greene. The small samples taken from various chapters convey an impression of the complete horoscope (18-25 pages) which can be ordered as an E-Horoscope or a bound book in the AstroShop.Most parents long to provide their children with the best they can offer on every level. But what is "the best"? The birth horoscope of a child is a map of patterns and potentials which exist in that child from the moment of birth. Encouragement of these potentials in childhood can help a child to develop greater confidence and hope for a future which is more authentically his or her own, so that greater happiness and fulfillment are possible later in life. II. Your Child's Psychological Type
In this concise chapter Liz Greene describes the child's general temperament and his characteristic approach to life.The rich array of individual abilities and potentials portrayed in Gore's birth horoscope is set against the background of an inherent temperament bias which may be partly hereditary but is also the reflection of a mysterious essence which belongs to him alone. This mysterious "something" is already at work within Gore, helping him to develop his personality along the lines which are healthiest and most natural to him. Gore is one of life's true romantics, although in nascent form. One of the great strengths of his nature is a deep and innate connection to the inner world of fantasy and imagination and this openness to the realm of myths, images and intuitions reflects a potential [...] III. The Characters in the Story
This is one of the most comprehensive chapters of the "Child's Horoscope". This short version touches only on a few of the central characters in your child's personality. The complete report provides a detailed description on 7-9 pages.The tension between the main characters in Gore's inner story is the source of energy which provides the impetus for growth, movement and the formation of a healthy individuality. [..] He may sometimes seem deliberately provocative because of his refusal to be "good" simply to please others. Parents should not expect him to collude with any effort to present things as other than what they are. He is liable to blurt out exactly what is going on just at [...] [..] But he may show a courage, audacity and daredevil spirit which could alarm more protective parents. The right balance needs to be found between helping him to recognise dangerous situations and allowing him to express his considerable energy and spirit of adventure in positive [...] Hidden traits [..] He is secretly far more refined, receptive and imaginative than his outer personality would suggest, but as he gets older he may try to suppress this hidden dream-world because he finds it confusing, strange and disorientating. His directness and realism contrast strongly [...] IV. Emotional Needs and Patterns in Relationships
This chapter contains valuable information on the child's basic needs and the relationship with his parents. The complete horoscope covers this chapter on 5-6 pages.Every child has particular ways in which he or she experiences and seeks emotional contact with others, and this may not always accord with other, more dominant personality traits. [..] And because he has a volatile emotional nature, he may explode just to clear the air and then show bewilderment when family members or friends are hurt by what he has said or done. There is no meanness in his heart, but his way of relating may sometimes seem to be a one-way [...] [..] Parental conflicts should never be used as a justification for interfering with the development of the relationship between father and son. Even if difficult circumstances make separations necessary, it is the quality of the time spent together which is important, and the [...] V. Fears and Insecurities
Knowing about their child's fears can help parents to react with love and understanding in challenging situations. The child's main fears and insecurities are described on 2-3 pages in the full report.VI. Looking toward the future
Many parents wonder about the future of their child. Every child has his own way to develop his potential. What this means for the individual child is described on 2-3 pages in chapter six of the complete Child's Horoscope. Please click here to read a complete sample horoscope. | <urn:uuid:6fcd78c0-6390-4f8a-99f8-ef31fda071e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.astro.com/cgi/atxgen.cgi?cid=z72fileVBeClf-u1349738756&btyp=xtkt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96263 | 870 | 1.554688 | 2 |
“I am not exaggerating when I say that to a true collector the acquisition of an old book is its rebirth” —Walter Benjamin, Illuminations 61
[I know this is long, but a few people have told me they missed my longer posts, so this is for them]
I might as well confess: I am bibliophile. And I blame the acquisition of this condition on a little essay I read when I was 23 by Walter Benjamin: “Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting.” Sure my father collected rare antique editions of books, and some of my earliest memories are of going to antique dealers and auctions and watching while he bid on books. I recall in fact that he had a book in his library that was over 400 years old! But despite all those Saturdays trudging out to dealers, I never fully understood the fascination of collecting old books. I remember thinking that most people would much rather have new editions of a book than an old one. I mean aren’t new things always better than old things?
I gained more appreciation as time went by. On a rainy weekend, I might wander into my dad’s library and peruse these books. I was always scared to touch them because some of them were so delicate I thought I might destroy them. But I would love reading the inscriptions of the books, usually given out of love to someone else, and the note marginalia often left in these books revealing the private thoughts of persons who had been dead for perhaps hundreds of years. It felt almost like taking a step into a time machine.
However, I didn’t go from admiring old books to actually collecting them myself until I read Benjamin’s analysis of book collecting. Benjamin, you may recall, is a literary theorist and one of four key members of the Frankfurt school of neomarxist social theory, along with Theodor Adorno. Walter Benjamin died a tragic death as a Jew attempting to flee Nazi Germany and within the last 20 years has developed deep critical currency in academic circles. According to Benjamin, contrary to popular opinion, book collectors don’t collect books in order to read them. They collect books to liberate them: “[O]ne of the finest memories of a collector is the moment when he rescued a book to which he might never have given a thought, much less a wishful look, because he found it lonely and abandoned in the marketplace and bought it to give it its freedom—the way the prince bought a beautiful slave girl in The Arabian Nights. To a book collector, you see, the true freedom of all books is somewhere on his shelves” (64).
By why exactly does a book need to be rescued? Old books need to be rescued mostly because they not only contain history within their pages, but also because they are themselves living objects of history: “Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector’s passion borders on the chaos of memories. More than that: the chance, the fate, that suffuse the past before my eyes are conspicuously present in … these books” (60, my emphasis) Indeed, their design, art, and craftsmanship all give the book collector the rare ability to see directly into a specific moment in the past. As Anatole France once said, “The only exact knowledge there is, is the knowledge of the date of publication and the format of books.” (qtd. In Benjamin 60). Specific publishing practices possible only at a specific moment in time merge art and design to unassailably time-stamp a book, fashioning art itself as the “looking glass” into a bygone era. A rare book may be beautiful, but the more beautifully it is designed and constructed, the more rare it is and, therefore, the more exactly we can position it in time. So we collect old books to liberate them. For only by liberating a book can we rescue history.
In this photo, I give you three books from my library of rare and old books. On the bottom of the stack is The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, a popular 19th-century American poet, which was published in 1890. In the middle of the stack is Sir Walter Scott’s Poetical Works published circa 1870. And on the top of the stack is one of my oldest books, The Pleasures of Hope with Other Poems, by Thomas Campbell, published almost 200 years ago in 1815. I chose these three books for this photo, not because they are the oldest or rarest in my library, but because all three editions possess some of most beautiful and ornate design/art I’ve come across. They are art no less than the poetry they carry inside them.
*** Read below ONLY if you want to know the publishing details of these books***
(1) The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier with Life, Notes, Index Etc. published by Frederick Warne & Co in London 1891. It comes with a portrait engraving and original illustrations. Original red/burgundy cloth decorated with gilt and etchings.
(2) Sir Walter Scott’s Poetical Works published by Gall & Inglis in both Edinburgh and London in 1870. It comes complete with 8 engravings on steel and a brief biography of Scott. Original red/burgundy cloth is heavily decorated with, gilt, etching, & terracotta. Yapp Binding. With gilded edges and a sunken golden frame encasing an intaglio image of flowers and four raised vignettes of Shakespeare, fellow Scottish poet Robert Burns and two Scottish castles. Spine is heavily illustrated with gilt and terracotta.
(3) The Pleasures of Hope and Other Poems published by Longman, Hurst, Rees in London in 1815. With illustrations. Gilded titles and decorative elements on cover and spine. Spine is also heavily illustrated. | <urn:uuid:798aa6e7-2360-4dac-81a1-a41f3f75e707> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lynnlangmade.tumblr.com/tagged/books | 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 | 0.960248 | 1,242 | 1.632813 | 2 |
This factsheet explains the activity test and participation requirements you must meet if you receive Newstart Allowance, Youth Allowance (unemployed), Parenting Payment or Special Benefit (nominated visa holder). It also explains when you may be exempt from the activity test or participation requirements.
Newstart Allowance, Youth Allowance and Special Benefit
To get Newstart Allowance, Youth Allowance and Special Benefit you must sign an Employment Pathway Plan and comply with its terms, and meet the activity test.
If you claimed Parenting Payment after 1 July 2006 you will have to sign an Employment Pathway Plan and meet your participation requirements when your youngest child turns six.
If you claimed Parenting Payment before 1 July 2006 you will have to sign an Employment Pathway Plan and meet your participation requirements when your youngest child turns seven.
Employment Pathway Plans
You must enter into an Employment Pathway Plan and comply with its requirements unless you are exempt from the activity test or participation requirements (see below).
Your Employment Pathway Plan will outline what you need to do in order to receive payment. It may include:
the number of job contacts you must make each fortnight;
a requirement to attend a Job Services Australia provider; or
a “Work Experience Activity” (such as Work for the Dole).
Centrelink and your Job Services Australia provider must take into account your capacity to comply with your Employment Pathway Plan. If they have not considered your family and caring responsibilities, or the impact of any disability or illness, then the terms of the Plan should be appealed. If they unreasonably refuse your suggestions for activities to include in your Plan, eg, a short full-time course of study that you think would help you get a job, you should appeal.
What if I don’t comply with my Employment Pathway Plan?
You must comply with the terms of your Employment Pathway Plan. If you fail to comply without a reasonable excuse, you could have a “no show, no pay failure”, a “reconnection failure” or a “serious failure” penalty. Penalties can range from losing a day of your payment to an 8 week non-payment period. For further information, see the factsheet “Penalties for non-compliance”.
What is the activity test / participation requirements?
To receive payments, you have to meet an activity test or participation requirements, unless you are exempt (see below). This may include:
looking for suitable paid work;
accepting all suitable job offers;
attending job interviews;
attending interviews with Centrelink and your Job Services Australia provider; and
attending training courses which could improve your chance of getting a job.
Usually you also need to detail your job search efforts in your fortnightly form and/or a jobseeker diary.
Work Experience Activity
If you are between 18 and 49 you will be required to do a “Work Experience Activity” after you have been on payment for 12 months. This can mean doing a course, working part-time or doing another activity that will improve your chance of getting a job.
Special rules for people who are over 55
If you are 55 or over you can meet your activity test or participation requirements by undertaking approved voluntary work and / or paid work of 30 hours per fortnight. You will not have any job search requirements although you must continue to be registered with a Job Services Australia provider.
If you do not meet the 30 hour per fortnight requirement, and do not have a reasonable excuse, you will be required to meet the same job search requirements as other people on Newstart Allowance, Youth Allowance, Parenting Payment and Special Benefit.
Special rules for principal carers of dependent children under 16
If you are the principal carer of a dependent child under 16 you can meet your activity test or participation requirements by looking for part-time work of at least 15 hours per week (although you can be required to accept a job of up to 25 hours per week if one is offered to you).
If you are offered a “suitable” job you will be required to take the job or risk an eight week non-payment penalty. To work out if a job is “suitable” Centrelink must take into account whether you have child care, the travel time and cost of travel, and whether or not you would be financially worse off if you took the job.
If you are working or are self-employed at least 15 hours per week, and earning at least the equivalent of the Federal Minimum Wage for 15 hours per week, you will not need to do any more activities in order to receive payments.
You can also meet your activity test or participation requirements through any combination of part-time paid work, part-time study and voluntary work with vocational value that totals 15 hours per week. Combinations of study, voluntary work and paid work must be approved by your Job Services Australia provider and included in your Employment Pathway Plan.
If you need to undertake a Work Experience Activity, your activities can be done during school hours (9am – 3pm) unless you can access suitable child care.
Special rules for people with a partial capacity to work
If you think that you have a permanent disability or medical condition that limits your ability to work, you can ask Centrelink for an assessment by a Job Capacity Assessor to see if you only have a partial capacity to work. If you only have a partial capacity to work you will have reduced activity test or participation requirements.
You will be considered to have a partial capacity to work if you have a physical, intellectual or psychiatric impairment that prevents you from working 30 or more hours per week for at least the next two years. Additionally, because of your impairment, no training activity is likely to enable you to undertake work of 30 or more hours per week within the next two years.
Activity test if you have a partial capacity to work 15–22 hours a week
If you are assessed as having a capacity to work 15–22 hours a week you will have the same activity or participation requirements as principal carers (see above for details).
Activity test if you have a partial capacity to work 0–7 or 8-14 hours a week
If you are assessed as having a capacity to work 0-7 or 8-14 hours a week your Employment Pathway Plan will not require you to actively seek work. You can meet your activity test or participation requirements by attending a quarterly interview with Centrelink.
What if I can’t meet my activity test or participation requirements?
If you’re sick or injured, you can be given a temporary exemption from the activity test or participation requirements if:
you are unable to work because of sickness or an accident; and
the sickness or injury is temporary; and
you can’t participate in another suitable activity during the period you are sick or injured; and
you provide Centrelink with a medical certificate which includes all the necessary information; and
Centrelink decides that due to your medical condition you are unable to meet your activity test or participation requirements.
An exemption will only be granted for up to 13 weeks. If at the end of 13 weeks you are still unable to work you will need to provide Centrelink another medical certificate.
Other circumstances in which temporary exemptions may be granted include:
major personal disruption to your home;
major personal crisis;
being a refugee;
being homeless; or
living in a remote area.
Principal carer – school holidays and leave periods
If you get Newstart Allowance, Youth Allowance or Special Benefit as a principal carer you will be automatically exempt from activity or participation requirements during the fortnight that includes the Christmas and New Year public holidays.
Special rules apply to breaks in employment over the Christmas long school holiday period. You can be exempted from your activity or participation requirements for up to eight weeks during this time, so long as you have employment to return to. You will need to contact Centrelink within the first fortnight of the closure and may need to provide proof of ongoing employment.
If you are on paid leave (at any time of the year), you will be taken to be meeting your activity or participation requirements so long as your income does not reduce during the leave period and your Centrelink payment does not go up.
If you take a break from employment due to circumstances outside your control (such as a temporary business shut down), and you’re not paid leave during this time, you can still meet your activity or participation requirements as long as you have a job to return to at your usual level of employment and as long as the break is less than 4 weeks.
Principal carer – 12 month exemptions
If you get Newstart Allowance, Youth Allowance or Special Benefit as a principal carer or get Parenting Payment, you will have an automatic exemption from the activity test or participation requirements for up to 12 months if you are:
an active registered foster carer; or
home schooling your child or helping with your child’s distance education; or
caring for a large family of four or more children, aged between six and 19; or,
caring for a child and you are a relative or community member (other than a parent), in accordance with a Family Court Parenting Order or State/Territory Parenting Order.
If at the end of the 12 months your situation has not changed the exemption may be granted again for up to another 12 months.
If you are a single parent and you are granted one of these exemptions, you will be paid at a higher rate of payment, equivalent to the rate paid for Parenting Payment (single).
Principal carer – temporary exemptions
You may be granted a temporary exemption if you:
are caring for a child with a disability. This exemption can be granted for up to 12 months. There is no limit to the number of times it can be granted;
have experienced domestic violence or stress due to a relationship breakdown (this exemption can be granted for up to 16 weeks);
are caring for a frail, aged or disabled adult family member (this exemption can be granted for up to 16 weeks);
are caring for a child or family member who has a temporary illness or injury (this exemption can be granted for up to 16 weeks); or
are caring for your youngest child who is six but has not yet started school (this exemption can be granted for up to 16 weeks).
There is no limit to the number of times the above exemptions can be granted.
If you think a Centrelink decision is wrong you have the right to appeal against it. Appealing is easy and free. To appeal simply tell Centrelink that you are not happy with its decision and that you would like to appeal to an Authorised Review Officer (ARO). It is best to lodge an appeal in writing and you should keep a copy of your appeal letter. However, you can lodge an appeal over the telephone.
The ARO is a senior officer in Centrelink who has the power to change the original decision. Many people are successful at this level.
You can appeal to an ARO at any time. However, to receive back pay from the date you were affected by the original decision, you must appeal to an ARO within 13 weeks of receiving written notice of the original decision. If you appeal more than 13 weeks after receiving the notice and you are successful, you will only receive back pay from the date you appealed.
If you think the ARO decision is wrong you can appeal to the Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT). The SSAT is independent of Centrelink.
You have further appeal rights to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Federal Court. Time limits apply.
For more information on appealing see the factsheet “Appeals – how to appeal against a Centrelink decision” and the guide “Appealing to the Social Security Appeals Tribunal".
If you think you need an interpreter, or if you feel more confident with an interpreter, you should use one of the three free available interpreter services.
Most Centrelink offices have interpreters available at regular times each week. Your local Centrelink office can tell you about their available languages and times.
You can telephone the Centrelink Multilingual Call Centre on 131 202 and speak to a bilingual Centrelink officer.
You can also call the free Telephone Interpreter Service (TIS) on 131 450 and ask for an interpreter.
Please note: This factsheet contains general information only. It does not constitute legal advice. If you need legal advice please contact your local Welfare Rights Centre/Advocate.
Welfare Rights Centres are community legal centres, which specialise in Social Security law, administration and policy. They are independent of Centrelink. All assistance is free.
This factsheet was updated in July 2010.
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23 July 2010 The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) today wrapped up its annual gathering with senior officials hailing the contributions of the month-long session towards advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as in the areas of peace and development.
Women’s empowerment and gender equality was the focus of the 2010 substantive session, which began on 28 June and coincided with the creation by the General Assembly of a single UN body tasked with accelerating progress in this vital area.
“The Council has made a strong contribution to making 2010 a watershed year for women,” Hamidon Ali, President of ECOSOC, said in his closing remarks.
In a ministerial declaration adopted at the end of its high-level segment earlier this month, the Council stressed the need to invest more in women and girls, which is essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the set of eight human development and poverty eradication targets with a 2015 deadline.
“A key message emanating from the high-level segment is that gender equality and the empowerment of women sit squarely at the heart of development and peace worldwide, and that the international community must remain fully committed to these efforts,” said Mr. Ali.
Echoing his comments, Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, stated that the ministerial declaration was successful in “placing gender equality and the empowerment of women at the centre of the development agenda.”
He added that ECOSOC has “firmly shown its relevance” at a crucial point in the preparation for the high-level MDG Summit that will take place at UN Headquarters in New York in September, which is expected to result in concrete national action plans for realizing the Goals.
“The Council has shown its authority in promoting implementation of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals,” he stated.
Mr. Sha added that the national voluntary presentations – made by 13 countries during the current session – have provided a “unique information-sharing and stock-taking platform” that promotes both accountability and the fulfilment of commitments for achieving the MDGs.
Among the other features of the just-concluded session was the Development Cooperation Forum, as well as discussions on maintaining humanitarian operations in insecure and high-risk environments, and special events on Haiti and on how to achieve the MDGs in countries emerging from conflict.
News Tracker: past stories on this issue | <urn:uuid:aa605e36-4a0c-4827-ae7a-dfcc4787f948> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35418&Cr=ecosoc&Cr1= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955359 | 511 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The world’s press has been keeping a watchful eye on Hungary’s governing Fidesz party – and especially its leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán – since they took power last May. Journalists are usually most interested in questions surrounding Fidesz’s economic policies. But certain reporters, notably from France and Germany, have also put a lot of energy into dissecting Fidesz’s ties to Hungary’s extreme right. Some even accuse Fidesz of being directly responsible for the rise of the ultranationalist Jobbik party, as a piece in Germany’s Spiegel Online suggested September 9.
Such ideas are way off the mark. The question of Fidesz’s relationship with the extreme right is highly complex. What follows is a summary of the events that lead to Jobbik’s breakthrough in Hungarian politics – and Fidesz’s efforts to turn it around.
When state socialism collapsed in 1990, Hungary’s radical left was a spent force in Hungary. No far left-wing movements managed to gain any ground in the early years of Hungary’s new democracy. People who opposed the market-based system therefore found their voice in the extreme right. Even so, it took a long time for the far right to make any political waves. The only exception was István Csurka’s Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP), which squeaked past the 5% threshold for parliamentary representation in the 1998 election, mostly thanks to low voter turnout. In the 2002 ballot, MIÉP failed to get enough votes to remain in Parliament, mostly thanks to Fidesz.
Once Fidesz became Hungary’s undisputed right-wing standard bearer in the mid-1990s, it began working to consolidate Hungary’s entire right under its own umbrella, from centrists to radicals. The presence of MIÉP made this strategy impossible to realize. Fidesz therefore began reaching out to extremist voters (similar to the way Nicolas Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement has targeted supporters of France’s far right). Fidesz’s efforts halted the growth of the radical right and bounced MIÉP out of Parliament. The price was that Fidesz’s public statements frequently blurred the lines between moderate- and extreme-right points of view.
Fidesz leaders have openly talked about this strategy on several occasions. In January 2007, Orbán himself told ManagerMagazin, “There’s no need to criticize the fact that right- and left-wing parties are trying to integrate radical voters, even though these parties’ policies are otherwise centrist. From a societal point of view, I see this as a benefit. It prevents Hungary from looking like other countries where radical forces are cropping up on both the right and the left. God only knows how long these can be kept below the 20% level or how long they can exist within the framework of Europe’s democratic traditions.”
Fidesz’s politics thus cannot be characterized as extremist. Indeed, the party has always worked to prevent the far right from becoming institutionalized. And for 10 years, it worked.
September 17, 2006 marked a turning point. That was the day Hungarian media got hold of a recording on which former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány admitted that he had deliberately lied about the state of Hungary’s economy in order to win re-election the previous April (the infamous “Őszöd Speech”). Rioters poured into Budapest’s streets demanding Gyurcsány’s resignation, plunging the city into chaos for days. The turmoil in Hungary’s capital and the popular anger toward the Socialists gave the extreme right the opportunity it needed to regroup. Old ultra-right formations began to recover and new ones sprouted up.
It soon became clear that Jobbik, a youth movement that became a political party in 2003, was taking the leading role in building its movement. The party had run for Parliament in April 2006 in cooperation with MIÉP and failed to win a single seat. But in the October 2006 municipal elections, Jobbik successfully ran some joint candidates for mayor with Fidesz and other right-wing parties. At the end of 2006, Jobbik launched its campaign against “Gypsy crime,” tapping into popular prejudice against Hungary’s Roma minority.
The watershed moment came in 2007, when Jobbik spawned the Hungarian Guard (Magyar Gárda), a paramilitary organization whose uniforms evoked memories of Nazi-era Hungary. Hungarian courts banned the Guard in July 2009 – but by then, the group had already worked wonders for Jobbik. It was not only a magnet for media coverage, but also served a unifying force for right-wing radicals: Smaller extremist groups that had once competed with each other now lined up behind Jobbik.
Fidesz began to give up on radical-right voters once the Hungarian Guard was formed. At first, Fidesz tried to trivialize Jobbik; when this was no longer possible, the party launched a targeted campaign against right-wing extremists. But Fidesz was unable to derail the radical-right juggernaut: Jobbik won more than 450,000 votes in the June 2009 elections for European Parliament and took more than 850,000 votes in the 2010 parliamentary ballot.
It is clear that Jobbik was helped by public revulsion toward the constant mudslinging that Fidesz and its biggest rival, the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) engaged in between 2002 and 2010. But the main factor behind Jobbik’s rise has been its ability to make political hay out of popular demand for extremist policies. The percentage of Hungarians who are predisposed to radical right-wing ideologies more than doubled between 2003 and 2009, according to Political Capital’s Demand for Right-Wing Extremism (DEREX) Index. The primary driver behind extremist sentiment is a decline in public morale: Many Hungarians feel they can no longer trust the political elite or their governing institutions. The other factor is a rise in prejudice, especially toward foreigners. In 2003, 37% of Hungarians expressed prejudicial sentiments; in 2009 the rate had jumped to 52%, according to DEREX data.
There is little doubt that the Gyurcsány administration bears a large degree of responsibility for the popularity of the extreme right. At the very least, the Socialists failed to counter Jobbik’s rise while in power, just as Fidesz did while in opposition. The main question is whether Fidesz will be able to weaken Jobbik as a governing party. The initial indicators are favorable: Since Fidesz took over last May, Jobbik has lost much of its power to affect public opinion. Whether Jobbik’s political support has declined is a question that will be answered when the votes are counted in the municipal elections October 3. | <urn:uuid:7405e998-085f-4f07-93bc-d5890f5c9f9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://riskandforecast.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961012 | 1,464 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Several thousand Catholics from around the U.S. and even a few foreign countries gathered in Detroit June 10-12 to ponder their assessment of the present and hopes for the future of the Catholic Church.
It was a weekend of much more than public lectures, breakout sessions, networking and over-active emotions. The larger of the groups, the American Catholic Council met at the Detroit Renaissance Center. On the other side of the ideological and theological chasm was the Call to Holiness Conference.
The weekend revealed some toxic aspects of today's version of the institutional Church. It also revealed some expected and also disturbing aspects of each group.
The first and not unexpected revelation was the response of the local archbishop, Allen Vigneron. He reacted to the American Catholic Council with negativity and threats that served as a thin cover for his fear, sparked by what he was certain was happening in the Renaissance Center. His response to the Call to Holiness was praise for its theme, “Call to Fidelity: The Power of Truth.”
The Call to Holiness participants attended a “Solemn High Extraordinary Form” Mass at a prominent Detroit church which, for those who are unfamiliar with Vatican code talk, is a Mass celebrated according to the Tridentine Rite, which was put out of business by Vatican II and rehired by Benedict XVI. The American Catholic Council wound down with a Eucharistic Celebration, A.K.A. Mass, that the archbishop tried to prevent and which is now under investigation for what he deems serious violations of liturgical rules.
The Call to Holiness conference was strongly supported by the archbishop who predictably urged participation. The ACC was dangerous territory for the faithful and semi-faithful of the archdiocese.
Well ahead of time the archbishop warned everyone that the ACC was not really Catholic -- as if independent thinking had been added to the list of nefarious ecclesiastical crimes. He also threatened any priest who took part in the Sunday liturgy with loss of canonical assignment and did everything short of forbidding priests to even attend.
The first brave man who agreed to preside at the Sunday Mass was persuaded to stand down by the probability that he would be removed as pastor from the parish community he had nurtured for many years. His decision was not based on fear or the usual pathological docility expected of priests by bishops. Rather, he responded to the concerns of his parishioners that he would be taken from them. In the end a retired Benedictine priest celebrated the Mass, which provoked the expected response of the archdiocese that it would be investigated and the priest punished.
The priest told the media that he felt good about what he had done and wasn't worried. The archdiocese manifested the usual hierarchical omniscience with its ability to criticize and condemn an event about which it had no direct contact. They denounced the "forbidden Mass," replete with heretical departures from the official liturgical mediocrity, before it had even taken place.
The ACC leaders took great pains to make sure the Mass followed the current liturgical guidelines, but the archbishop would have found something wrong nevertheless. As far as scaring the local priests away, he was not too successful as it was estimated that at least fifty were present.
For more on the American Catholic Council Mass, see: Liturgy bends rules despite prelate's threat
The archdiocese sliced and diced all four main speakers without the slightest idea as to what they would say. Their complaints consisted of perceived departures from "official doctrine" by each of the four. Duh! The whole point of the ACC was a gathering of adult Catholics who were not hobbled by the Vatican's prohibition on thinking.
The ACC represented a cross section of people who are part of "church" as a movement of the Spirit and a community of believers and not a monarchy fueled by fear of loss of control. They voiced a number of legitimate, pressing concerns about the church as an organization and the church as a way of following Christ -- and their concerns reflected the harsh reality that there is a massive chasm between values of the church as a pilgrim people and the church as a hierarchical organization.
I looked at the agenda and schedule of the Call to Holiness, which I obviously did not attend, and was not surprised at the reactionary tenor of the whole program. In short, it met my expectations. My greatest disappointment was not with the archbishop, whose fear-based authoritarian responses are typical, business-as-usual for most bishops. Nor was I disappointed with what I read about the Call to Holiness. It appeared to be a reaction to everything they perceived as wrong with the majority of active Catholics who still believe in the validity of the Second Vatican Council.
My disappointment and frustration is with the ACC, the basis of which I sincerely hope is not a reflection of today's thinking Catholics.
The single phenomenon that has forced into the open the tragic and often toxic flaws of the institutional Church has been the worldwide rape and molestation of the vulnerable by Catholic clerics, and the inadequate and often destructive response of the bishops in the U.S. and around the world. This nightmare is not over and won’t be over as long as the institutional church places maximum value on image and power and minimal, very minimal, value on justice and healing for the victims of their own clergy.
During the conference there was a lot of discussion about the clerical culture and how it systematically denies the rights of any group in the church that threatens its control. The rights of the hundreds of thousands of abuse victims are different however. Their right to justice and spiritual healing is fundamental. It cuts to the very core of what the church is supposed to be about.
Yet, officially, the conference only gave the abuse issue a passing nod: a single breakout session on Saturday afternoon originally scheduled for a small meeting room with two round tables and chairs around the walls. The turnout far exceeded the room’s capacity so the session was moved to a much larger area.
The nightmare of church-wide sexual abuse might have been on the minds of many at the conference but it was not urgent enough for the planners to give it the prominence it deserved. Rather than trying to figure out “why I am a Catholic” the participants should have been searching for ways to help the church’s countless victims.
Did the planning committee really believe the bishops’ nonsense that the “problem” is now behind us? Did the listening sessions that took place around the country reflect that today’s Catholics aren’t all that interested in the constant grinding of this problem at the heart and soul of the church?
Whatever the reasons given for treating the abuse issue as a tangential problem, they are insufficient. I was not surprised to find the abuse scandal missing from the list of topics addressed at the Call to Holiness conference. I was surprised to the point of being scandalized that the reform group leaders who put together the ACC treated the abuse phenomenon and consequently the victims, in such a dismissive manner.
My friend Paul Kendrick reminded the ACC and me that the late Bishop Kenneth Untener once said that every meeting should reflect on how their agenda will affect the poor.
The Latin American bishops, before they were decimated by John Paul II, set as a top priority the “preferential option for the poor.”
This message is equally applicable to the Call to Holiness. The victims and survivors of the church’s own destructive forces have joined the ranks of the poor for whom there must be a clear preference if the church is to be what it purports to be, the Body of Christ.
[Tom Doyle is a priest, canon lawyer, addictions therapist and long-time supporter of justice and compassion for clergy sex abuse victims. He is a co-author of the first report ever issued to the U.S. bishops on clergy sex abuse, in 1986.]
More coverage from NCR's Jerry Filteau on the American Catholic Council: | <urn:uuid:49f4967a-1cf7-480c-a447-b0c91c810dc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/print/blogs/ncr-today/detroit-weekend-lectures-emotions-neglects-sex-abuse-crisis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977024 | 1,647 | 1.515625 | 2 |
“I never wanted to be boxed in by a type of character that I’d always play. I find that I would get, I just wouldn’t find it very interesting, I don’t think anyone else would. Part of the reason I’m an actor is I’m interested in different shades of the truth in different parts of life and how quite often in the human race, you’re bound together by a certain unity in things. And acting and whatever you’re in, is about excavating the things that make us all the same: birth, death, love, grief, loss, loneliness, gratitude, generosity, humor, solitude, and all of those things exist in every story in any time, in any place.”
Happy Birthday, Lord Byron, born 22 January 1788, died 19 April 1824
She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes…
There is something pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything.
If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.
If I could always read, I should never feel the want of company.
A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn’t know.
For truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.
Though I love my country, I do not love my countrymen.
America is a model of force and freedom and moderation - with all the coarseness and rudeness of its people.
A drop of ink may make a million think.
The heart will break, but broken live on.
I doubt sometimes whether a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me - yet I sometimes long for it.
Lord Byron was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among Byron’s best-known works are the poems Don Juan,Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, and She Walks in Beauty. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and is still widely read and influential. He died at 36 from a fever in Missolonghi in Greece.
Sooo, it’s about time I picked this meme up again, yeah? -..- I had assumed that the files were only on my laptop, and since that’s in the shop there was little I could do. But it turns out they’re on here too… so here we go :)
With no new episodes of ThunderCats, I’ve kinda gotten used to not having to do a ‘sit and talk’ check-in :3 Random Days at NAC is spoiling me to just having random funny collages. So here’s an update :) Please do enjoy… | <urn:uuid:c1b5453c-afe0-4679-a7a6-9593d337ac50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://msmoon.tumblr.com/tagged/Birthdays | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961146 | 604 | 1.671875 | 2 |
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"Quarters!" he roared. And then, as we all slunk back to our places, "Gray," he said, "I'll put your name in the log; you've stood by your duty like a seaman. Mr. Trelawney, I'm surprised at you, sir. Doctor, I thought you had worn the king's coat! If that was how you served at Fontenoy, sir, you'd have been better in your berth."
The doctor's watch were all back at their loopholes, the rest were busy loading the spare muskets, and everyone with a red face, you may be certain, and a flea in his ear, as the saying is.
The captain looked on for a while in silence. Then he spoke.
"My lads," said he, "I've given Silver a broadside. I pitched it in red-hot on purpose; and before the hour's out, as he said, we shall be boarded. We're outnumbered, I needn't tell you that, but we fight in shelter; and a minute ago I should have said we fought with discipline. I've no manner of doubt that we can drub them, if you choose."
Then he went the rounds and saw, as he said, that all was clear.
On the two short sides of the house, east and west, there were only two loopholes; on the south side where the porch was, two again; and on the north side, five. There was a round score of muskets for the seven of us; the firewood had been built into four piles--tables, you might say--one about the middle of each side, and on each of these tables some ammunition and four loaded muskets were laid ready to the hand of the defenders. In the middle, the cutlasses lay ranged.
"Toss out the fire," said the captain; "the chill is past, and we mustn't have smoke in our eyes."
The iron fire-basket was carried bodily out by Mr. Trelawney, and the embers smothered among sand.
"Hawkins hasn't had his breakfast. Hawkins, help yourself, and back to your post to eat it," continued Captain Smollett. "Lively, now, my lad; you'll want it before you've done. Hunter, serve out a round of brandy to all hands."
And while this was going on, the captain completed, in his own mind, the plan of the defence.
"Doctor, you will take the door," he resumed. "See, and don't expose yourself; keep within, and fire through the porch. Hunter, take the east side, there. Joyce, you stand by the west, my man. Mr. Trelawney, you are the best shot--you and Gray will take this long north side, with the five loopholes; it's there the danger is. If they can get up to it and fire in upon us through our own ports, things would begin to look dirty. Hawkins, neither you nor I are much account at the shooting; we'll stand by to load and bear a hand."
As the captain had said, the chill was past. As soon as the sun had climbed above our girdle of trees, it fell with all its force upon the clearing and drank up the vapours at a draught. Soon the sane was baking and the resin melting in the logs of the block house. Jackets and coats were flung aside, shirts thrown open at the neck and rolled up to the shoulders; and we stood there, each at his post, in a fever of heat and anxiety.
An hour passed away.
"Hang them!" said the captain. "This is as dull as the doldrums. Gray, whistle for a wind."
And just at that moment came the first news of the attack.
"If you please, sir," said Joyce, "if I see anyone, am I to fire?"
"I told you so!" cried the captain.
"Thank you, sir," returned Joyce with the same quiet civility.
Nothing followed for a time, but the remark had set us all on the alert, straining ears and eyes--the musketeers with their pieces balanced in their hands, the captain out in the middle of the block house with his mouth very tight and a frown on his face.
So some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce whipped up his musket and fired. The report had scarcely died away ere it was repeated and repeated from without in a scattering volley, shot behind shot, like a string of geese, from every side of the enclosure. Several bullets struck the log-house, but not one entered; and as the smoke cleared away and vanished, the stockade and the woods around it looked as quiet and empty as before. Not a bough waved, not the gleam of a musket- barrel betrayed the presence of our foes.
"Did you hit your man?" asked the captain.
"No, sir," replied Joyce. "I believe not, sir."
"Next best thing to tell the truth," muttered Captain Smollett. "Load his gun, Hawkins. How many should say there were on your side, doctor?"
"I know precisely," said Dr. Livesey. "Three shots were fired on this side. I saw the three flashes--two close together--one farther to the west."
"Three!" repeated the captain. "And how many on yours, Mr. Trelawney?"
But this was not so easily answered. There had come many from the north--seven by the squire's computation, eight or nine according to Gray. From the east and west only a single shot had been fired. It was plain, therefore, that the attack would be developed from the north and that on the other three sides we were only to be annoyed by a show of hostilities. But Captain Smollett made no change in his arrangements. If the mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they would take possession of any unprotected loophole and shoot us down like rats in our own stronghold.
Nor had we much time left to us for thought. Suddenly, with a loud huzza, a little cloud of pirates leaped from the woods on the north side and ran straight on the stockade. At the same moment, the fire was once more opened from the woods, and a rifle ball sang through the doorway and knocked the doctor's musket into bits.
The boarders swarmed over the fence like monkeys. Squire and Gray fired again and yet again; three men fell, one forwards into the enclosure, two back on the outside. But of these, one was evidently more frightened than hurt, for he was on his feet again in a crack and instantly disappeared among the trees.
Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made good their footing inside our defences, while from the shelter of the woods seven or eight men, each evidently supplied with several muskets, kept up a hot though useless fire on the log-house.
The four who had boarded made straight before them for the building, shouting as they ran, and the men among the trees shouted back to encourage them. Several shots were fired, but such was the hurry of the marksmen that not one appears to have taken effect. In a moment, the four pirates had swarmed up the mound and were upon us.
The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, appeared at the middle loophole.
"At 'em, all hands--all hands!" he roared in a voice of thunder.
At the same moment, another pirate grasped Hunter's musket by the muzzle, wrenched it from his hands, plucked it through the loophole, and with one stunning blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on the floor. Meanwhile a third, running unharmed all around the house, appeared suddenly in the doorway and fell with his cutlass on the doctor.
Our position was utterly reversed. A moment since we were firing, under cover, at an exposed enemy; now it was we who lay uncovered and could not return a blow.
The log-house was full of smoke, to which we owed our comparative safety. Cries and confusion, the flashes and reports of pistol-shots, and one loud groan rang in my ears.
"Out, lads, out, and fight 'em in the open! Cutlasses!" cried the captain.
I snatched a cutlass from the pile, and someone, at the same time snatching another, gave me a cut across the knuckles which I hardly felt. I dashed out of the door into the clear sunlight. Someone was close behind, I knew not whom. Right in front, the doctor was pursuing his assailant down the hill, and just as my eyes fell upon him, beat down his guard and sent him sprawling on his back with a great slash across the face.
"Round the house, lads! Round the house!" cried the captain; and even in the hurly-burly, I perceived a change in his voice.
Mechanically, I obeyed, turned eastwards, and with my cutlass raised, ran round the corner of the house. Next moment I was face to face with Anderson. He roared aloud, and his hanger went up above his head, flashing in the sunlight. I had not time to be afraid, but as the blow still hung impending, leaped in a trice upon one side, and missing my foot in the soft sand, rolled headlong down the slope.
When I had first sallied from the door, the other mutineers had been already swarming up the palisade to make an end of us. One man, in a red night-cap, with his cutlass in his mouth, had even got upon the top and thrown a leg across. Well, so short had been the interval that when I found my feet again all was in the same posture, the fellow with the red night-cap still half-way over, another still just showing his head above the top of the stockade. And yet, in this breath of time, the fight was over and the victory was ours.
Gray, following close behind me, had cut down the big boatswain ere he had time to recover from his last blow. Another had been shot at a loophole in the very act of firing into the house and now lay in agony, the pistol still smoking in his hand. A third, as I had seen, the doctor had disposed of at a blow. Of the four who had scaled the palisade, one only remained unaccounted for, and he, having left his cutlass on the field, was now clambering out again with the fear of death upon him.
"Fire--fire from the house!" cried the doctor. "And you, lads, back into cover."
But his words were unheeded, no shot was fired, and the last boarder made good his escape and disappeared with the rest into the wood. In three seconds nothing remained of the attacking party but the five who had fallen, four on the inside and one on the outside of the palisade.
The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for shelter. The survivors would soon be back where they had left their muskets, and at any moment the fire might recommence.
The house was by this time somewhat cleared of smoke, and we saw at a glance the price we had paid for victory. Hunter lay beside his loophole, stunned; Joyce by his, shot through the head, never to move again; while right in the centre, the squire was supporting the captain, one as pale as the other.
"The captain's wounded," said Mr. Trelawney.
"Have they run?" asked Mr. Smollett.
"All that could, you may be bound," returned the doctor; "but there's five of them will never run again."
"Five!" cried the captain. "Come, that's better. Five against three leaves us four to nine. That's better odds than we had at starting. We were seven to nineteen then, or thought we were, and that's as bad to bear."*
*The mutineers were soon only eight in number, for the man shot by Mr. Trelawney on board the schooner died that same evening of his wound. But this was, of course, not known till after by the faithful party.
|Art of Worldly Wisdom Daily|
In the 1600s, Balthasar Gracian, a jesuit priest wrote 300 aphorisms on living life called "The Art of Worldly Wisdom." Join our newsletter below and read them all, one at a time.
Shakespeare wrote over 150 sonnets! Join our Sonnet-A-Day Newsletter and read them all, one at a time. | <urn:uuid:3d6a1b8e-45fc-4cdf-bf16-9472ca27613e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.online-literature.com/stevenson/treasureisland/21/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986752 | 2,728 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Pearl Harbour being bombed was one of the best disasters in the war. I dont mean any dis-respect to all lives lost and ruined during that fight. i know u americans think it was probably the worst thing, which it was, but in a way, if it wasnt for the great sacrafice those brave men made, Germany would have attacked USA with Japan, after seeing Britain off, and we would be no longer free, peace loving people. all i mean is it brought USA into the War, a war which britain couldnt have won alone. But 1 thing pisses me off. Most (not all) Americans think that only America won it, but even America could have won it alone on 2 fronts, cos lets face it, Hitler wanted USA as well. It makes me sad that even in The Simpsons, (u know, the yellow ppl) we are told that AMERICA won the War.
And just remember that Britain also faught in the pacific along side America...i bet not many ppl know that. (i saw it on the Discovery channel)
This isnt a Vendetta against the americans, all im saying is spare a thought for the British and the Canadian soldiers who fought, and died in WWI and WWII.
Ill tell you this. My grandfather never faught in the War, but he had to go to the Pacific once it was over, and clean up the ****ty mess that was left behind. He saw 1st hand what happened to the Americans AND The Brits at the hands of the Japanese. He just cant find it in him to go back there, and hasnt bought anything Japanese since the War. Hell, even Mitsubishi Motors enslaved these poor guys, after the Death March. Let me know wot u think, i wanna see other peoples view on this. | <urn:uuid:e3067386-98a8-43e8-8d89-df3d6a3c467b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/197985-Pearl-Harbour-was-the-best-thing-to-happen-during-the-war!!?p=5662359&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98118 | 378 | 1.585938 | 2 |
UK oldies go crazy for e-shopping
Fave pastime is frittering away the kids' inheritance
On-line shopping is the nation's favourite use for a PC, and over-55s are the UK's most frequent computer users, according to an on-line survey sponsored by Microsoft.
Fully 95 percent of over-55s claimed that they went on-line every day, compared to 85 percent of 16-24 year-olds. Indeed, 77 percent of the older group go on-line more than once a day, versus 72 percent of the younger group.
However, those older users are doing quite a bit less with their systems than younger age groups. In just about every category of computer usage, the young are - perhaps unsurprisingly - more enthusiastic.
For example, barely 10 percent of over-55s said they use their computer to watch TV, films and videos, while among 16-24 year-olds the figure was 50 percent.
Similarly, only 20 percent of the older age group has got into social networking, compared to 75 percent of the younger. In particular, 22 percent of 16-24s said they have a blog and almost 60 percent of them visit social networking websites.
The one notable exception was on-line shopping, which Microsoft dubbed "the nation's favourite on-line pastime". It is indulged in by slightly more over-55s than 16-24s - 76 percent vs 74 percent - although the older age group is more reluctant than the younger when it comes to selling stuff on-line as well as buying.
On the risk side, identity theft was the number-one security concern across the whole survey, overtaking the fears of virus attacks and computer crashes.
Mike Haigh, Microsoft's UK Windows marketeer, claimed that the much-hyped security features built into Windows Vista would help here by making technology safer to use.
"For example, there are now in-built safeguards in Windows Vista to recognise fraudulent websites and prevent malicious attacks. We believe Windows Vista will help consumers surf and use their computers with peace of mind," he said. | <urn:uuid:5d122edb-3c62-403e-9b50-102c009a3a25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/29/ms_over55_survey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964464 | 435 | 1.820313 | 2 |
|Welcome to Northeast !!!|
Visit the Open Circle Website for ideas for summer reading:
It is time to begin to celebrate the achievements of the 2012 - 2013 school year and reflect on our accomplishments as we plan for the 2013 - 2014 school year.
I hope that by the time you read this, we will have finalized our classroom placements for next year. As you can imagine, this is process is a long process as teachers, specialists, special educators, SEI teachers and administrators work together to make sure that each child is placed appropriately. Your child will have the opportunity to meet his or her teacher on the last day of school.
We wish many happy returns to teachers who are moving on! Diane Cinar,
While I write this column, we are busy looking for new teachers. I am hoping that we’ll be done by the end of the school year but finding the best teachers possible is a long and careful process!
Enjoy your summer vacation! Read, relax and have fun. I look forward to seeing you on September 3rd! If you have a question over the summer, feel free to contact me at 781.314.5745 or at email@example.com. I will be available throughout the summer.
Learn about our after-school Foreign Language Program run by Global Child:
Check out what's new in Science in the Waltham Public Schools: | <urn:uuid:9ce1312d-6458-4971-9bea-e8560a0736d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.walthampublicschools.org/Northeast/index.cfm?MonthChange=Forward&LastDate=10%2F28%2F2012&category=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948155 | 296 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The 360 degree Network is not a myth!Posted by Doug Jackson in News, SoftLayer
OK so 360 degrees covers every direction, right? It’s everything top to bottom, front to back, and side to side. Is it possible for a network or datacenter to have you covered by 360 degrees? No way. Impossible. Can’t happen and wont happen in this life nor the next. That kind of total coverage is on the level of other mythological beings, like Big Foot, that are awe-inspiring, and the stuff of legend. The new network extensions in addition to what we had before have brought a lot of light to what the possibilities are. I mean at one point most people in the world thought their world was flat. So if you can see things the way I do you may agree that the 360 degree network is real and SoftLayer is the key to this understanding. Who knows, if we prove this to be true maybe we can even find hard proof evidence of Big Foot too.
Steve Kinman, affectionately known as SKinman, beat me to the punch in writing about the new POPs that have been recently released. If we didn’t know better we’d think it was his job or something to write blogs. But seriously, if you haven’t already, take the time to check out http://theinnerlayer.softlayer.com/2010/network/. I was all hyped up to write up about the new additions, and luckily that there are so many things that this offering has to give Skinman was only able to get in some of the cool stuff about it. The overly quick review of recent updates to the network is that we’ve added POPs in pretty much each and every major Telecom city in America. This not only gives us additional capacities, redundancies, and even luxuries that are not just impossible for you to get anywhere else, but also that you don’t have to pay for it.
So what do we get from this additional network capacity? The answer is a much better overall end user experience. The internet isn’t about just a bunch of tubes, but instead it is about people. It’s about people who want to connect to others, people who want to learn things, and people who want to make life easier. We’ve simply taken one of the widely acclaimed networks in the world and increased its capacity and potential exponentially. We know we get a better end user experience, but I say we also get tons of Value which is what makes this business. “How so” you ask? If you think about it we’ve all been given all of these awesome additional features and it costs us nothing, zip, nada. In fact it probably increases our leverage to make more enterprise level solutions even more affordable and within reach. Geographical diversity is a huge tool to have at your disposal, but most times it costs way too much to think about things like Disaster Recovery, or High Availability solutions and not to mention too complex. Think about it. If you have different facilities in different cities there are few ways of making something work and endless road blocks keeping you from being able to do what you need before you even think of the costs. Let’s face it; Innovation is both expensive and Risky. The value that new POPs bring on top of what our network was already capable of does more to neutralize the cost and risk of expansion more than anything that has ever been available to the masses. The POPs do not even mention what is possible and what often gets overlooked about the private network already. Lets take a look at what matters most to the majority of our customers.
- Free inbound bandwidth. – We were the first to introduce this and some have followed to offer as well, but not everyone.
- All 10G connections from each Carrier or Peer – In order to make sure you have the best end user experience there is a vast amount of BW capacity and we will not work with any providers that cannot give us 10G in a location. This has caused us to no longer work with providers we have previously worked with to get this done.
- Cisco Network Routing and Switch Gear from top to bottom – We use this throughout our infrastructure to make sure we have the best results. We are also constantly testing new technologies to make sure that we do not miss out on pushing the industry from an innovative standpoint.
- Arbor Peakflow and Atlas Traffic Analysis – This may not be necessary for everyone at all times, and it is something of a minor point. Still it is somewhat important to note how traffic is coming in and that it is available for you if and when you need it.
- Automated IP routing & Management via FCP – This makes sure we use the best routes for your traffic which further ensures a better overall experience.
- Individual and Secure Private VLANS – Without this you can be exposed on a network which is a problem and you could have additional unnecessary risk. Without this others in the data center could “sniff your traffic” steal your IPs, or simply see and hack into your servers somewhat easily.
- Up to 1000mbps connection on the server – it just includes all of our backbone carriers and our peering partners as well. (this number is expected to grow as we add more peering partners each week)
- Geographically Redundant DNS services – this is made even more powerful with the additional POPs available.
- This doesn’t even mention higher styles of load balancing, firewalls, or the control that we offer, but that is a whole other blog post.
OK, so now we’ve really tooted the Public network horn pretty hard. Doing this is necessary, because it doesn’t get a lot of attention sometimes. If you are wondering why then it’s important that we cover the other half of the coin: The Private Network. SoftLayer is built from the ground up making sure that we can imperative things to our customers: Unparalleled control, Automation, Integration and all of it is On-Demand with no long term contracts or large CapX to risk. We know this is important to you because it’s also important to us. We have always strived to be the innovative leader and the very first step was the private network. Normally, this is what gets all of the attention in anything that we bring out or offer because it ties everything in without having the normal hassles and complications caused by time and space issues in a datacenter. Where else can you integrate a cloud solution with dedicated servers while setting up a DMZ to make it all PCI compliant? You guessed it, nowhere. Where else could you take the same solution and expand it to multiple datacenters for higher levels of failover and performance?….. OK I guess this is getting kind of redundant and I could keep this up all day long, but I think you get the point. I am interested to hear of things that anyone feels that cannot be done within our network
With as much acclaim as the SoftLayer Private Network has gotten (and well deserved I might add) it is a major feet to provide an extended public network that is equally as impressive. Together they combine to create the 360 degree network, like all 5 lions coming together to form Voltron- Defender of the Universe. I’m just saying that if we have this here…. Keep your eyes out for Big foot. | <urn:uuid:01467926-6d78-4ff0-8b2a-29f4928e1261> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.softlayer.com/2010/the-360-degree-network-is-not-a-myth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965317 | 1,543 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Get a hands-on look at Nissan's electric utility vehicle. Video
Get a hands-on look at Nissan's electric utility vehicle. Video Transcript
The Nissan leaf has been out for just over a year and now Nissan is trying out its electric drive system in another car. This is the eNV200. This little electric utility band is based on Nissan's NV200 commercial vehicle. Now, it's got the exact same drive train as the Nissan Leaf. That means, an 80 kilowatt electric motor and the 24-kilowatt hour lithium-ion battery pack drive in the front wheels. And it also has the charge for the front just like the Leaf. Now, the eNV200 has a lot of utility. It's got these large doors in front which allow easy access and slide indoors on the side. It's also got a large cargo area and of course, these middle row seats fold down or you can take them out entirely to maximize the cargo space. Now, as the eNV200 is a concept vehicle, Nissan has put a lot of high tech gear in the dashboard. We have this navigation system with stereo. It's a touch screen. We also have an LCD instrument cluster. That's stuff you probably wouldn't find in an actual commercial vehicle. But Nissan also says this could be a family vehicle like a small camper or something like that in which case, this stuff might make sense. And because it's a larger vehicle than the Nissan Leaf, it probably gets less range although Nissan hasn't said what the range is. Now, although Nissan has only called the eNV200 a concept, they're actually testing the car with a Japanese postal service. So could be something there looking to put in to production pretty soon. I am Wayne Cunningham reporting from Detroit.
At the 2012 Detroit auto show, CNET's Wayne Cunningham takes a look at the 2012 Coda Sedan, an all-electric sedan with no-frills tech.
At the 2012 Paris Motor Show, Nissan's TeRRA SUV Concept is keeping alive the idea of hydrogen fuel-cell powered cars. But what most impresses CNET's Wayne Cunningham is a technology that uses an iPad-like device that serves as a key to power the car.
At the 2012 Detroit auto show, CNET's Wayne Cunningham gives us a hands-on look at the Mini Cooper S in convertible coupe form and shows how Mini made a small car look even smaller.
Wayne Cunningham takes a closer look at the Acura RLX at the New York Auto show 2012. This vehicle comes with all new tech inside and under the hood.
At the 2012 Detroit auto show, CNET's Wayne Cunningham takes a look how Toyota is incorporating plug-in technology into future cars.
CNET Car Tech's own Wayne Cunningham and Antuan Goodwin discuss the highs and lows at the 2012 Geneva auto show.
Known as the Scion iQ in the U.S., the European version is the Toyota iQ EV, an electric vehicle that charges fast and drives slow. At the 2012 Paris Motor Show, CNET's Wayne Cunningham takes a look at the iQ EV and tells you why you might have a hard time finding this car.
At the 2013 Detroit auto show, CNET's Wayne Cunningham gives us a First Look at VW's CrossBlue concept, complete with plug-in technology, two iPad screens in the back, and a rather large American-looking SUV exterior that just might make it to the market soon.
McLaren, known for its innovative sports car the MP412C, unveils its next two-seat racer, the McLaren P1. CNET's Wayne Cunningham takes a look at the concept car and gives us his thoughts at the 2012 Paris Motor Show.
At the 2013 Detroit auto show, CNET's Wayne Cunningham takes a look at the BMW 4 Series Coupe, which gives the 3 Series owners some sport cred. | <urn:uuid:eade3468-4ce4-437e-9aa4-50f3358fc937> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnettv.cnet.com/get-hands-look-nissan-electric-utility-vehicle/9742-1_53-50118302.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943669 | 800 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Only subscribers may read this in its entirety. What follows is a free preview, truncated midway through.April 1814 At dawn he dreamed of tiny pale men crawling like grubs under the loose scaling bark of a tree, innumerable, expendable—the english words rang in his head, scrawling over the dream a new layer of meaning, though by the time Lamochattee opened one eye he had forgotten it completely. A round black eye, smaller than his own, regarded him. Lamochattee turned and flexed the fingers of one hand against the ground, and the groundhog, dismayed by how close to him it had carelessly grazed, flopped awkwardly away to crash into cover alongside the creek.
Lamochattee laughed silently, holding the bubbles of laughter down in his belly. The spring air was full of early birdsong and the sound of the creek’s purling. Yards away on his long tether, the black horse Arrow cropped at the grass. Lamochattee rolled quietly to his feet, orienting himself to the dark trunks of oaks and poplars that filled the copse where he had slept, damp with the morning mist swirling up around them. | <urn:uuid:f4b33f53-9d54-4dfc-bb5b-18d6febf3b95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2012/summer/smartt-bell-stick/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975703 | 252 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Regarding my prior post on Jar Hell, a colleague asked me to elaborate on the problems I experienced and why .NET would not have these problems.
First thing: .NET has a version-aware classloader and strongly-named assemblies. This means when I build a .NET app against an assembly, the app runs against that assembly, and that assembly only, unless I explicitly override that.
Also, .NET adds the concept of a global assembly cache, the GAC, into which fundamental, re-usable libraries can be placed. (The GAC gets over-used in my opinion. Too many people think their libraries are fundamental and machine wide, when they are clearly not. In any case, the GAC mechanism has its uses.)
I am not a Java classloader expert, so take all of what follows with a grain of salt. In practice, the way it works in Java is the Java classloader loads classes from the classpath. The Java application environment also has well-known directories from which libraries may be loaded. The lib and ext directories in the JDK/JRE, for example.
Beyond the basics, when you have an "app container" - say JBoss,Tomcat, or WebSphere - they add their own classloading rules, and special directories from which jars will be loaded.
This is one fundamental difference between Java and .NET. In .NET there is one way to find and load assemblies. It's done by Fusion. Essentially there are two places to look for assemblies: in the app's home directory (or a "special" bin directory for ASP.NET apps), or in the GAC. In Java, there are a myriad of ways to find jars, and a variety of ways to load them. Special directories abound.
The setting for JBoss+Tomcat - where I can tell it to use either the JBoss classloader behavior or the Tomcat classloader behavior (go here and scroll down half the page) - the very existence of this switch illustrates the problem. There is no such switch in .NET.
Beyond that though, is the proliferation of special directories. library directories for the JVM, for the web application container, for the uber application container. extension directories, and on and on. In .NET, there are two places to look. Not seventy two.
Next up: component libraries. On the Java side, some of the ones I used were: servlet.jar, jaxrpc.jar, log4j, xerces (an XML library). Each of these is independently versioned. But, the Java classloader doesn't care, doesn't respect versions. The classloader just scans the classpath and the special directories and loads a class with a given fully-qualified name.
If I build and test against Xerces 1.4.4, and then drop by app into a container that has a different version of Xerces, the Java classloader won't complain. Won't raise an eyebrow.
A perfect example of this is the SAX problem I had. The BEA jrockit JVM ships a version of SAX, in one of its special directories. But so also (apparently) does AXIS, or JBoss, or something else in the chain. The error I saw was the result of the "wrong" SAX library being loaded when JBoss/Tomcat/AXIS was run under BEA's JVM.
Another example is the NoSuchMethodError I encountered while running two distinct versions of AXIS within Tomcat (within JBoss). At runtime, the classloader picked up the wrong version of the library - presumably the 1.1 version and not the 1.2 version my app was built against.
A final example, although not nearly as serious, is the ImageIO thing and the support for BMP. My WordML app was depending on Java 1.5 ImageIO function, but it ran against Java 1.4 ImageIO libraries. It was up to me as a developer to either handle the non-performance, or check whether the Java engine was 1.5 or below. This is merely a hassle, because I could handle it in my own code. The other examples were not even my code.
In .NET this entire class of errors doesn't exist. You have to have the exact right assembly - the same one you built against, or your app won't run. This means, no accidental or inadvertent class swapping. You can make this even more bulletproof with cryptographically strong names for assemblies. This means, no malicious class-swapping. (Like, stubbing out a license enforcement class by playing classpath games. I've proven this works with major app servers).
Yeah, almost. I'm wrapping up here.
What this all means is .NET developers can basically ignore classloading and versioning issues. With .NET, essentially, you copy in the app's files (including library files), and the app is installed. With Java, you copy in the JARs, and then test, and test, and test. And you're never really sure it's going to work, because buried deep inside some routine, somewhere, maybe not even in your code, is a call out to log4j or xerces or some other library that is out-of-version.
A bunch of people have responded to my previous post and said, "I feel your pain". Another set of people responded and said "so what else is new? it's been like this for years." That is very surprising to me. I am not a Java developer by profession. It's more of a hobby ;). So I can't believe people really deal with this every day. It's so... 1997. It's like COM and "DLL Hell" all over again.
I am not able to assure you that you'll never have versioning issues with .NET. Just that I think .NET's approach is so much more ... usable.
Update 611pm US Eastern: removed incorrect reference | <urn:uuid:a7c68b00-67dd-4a66-88eb-97fb6aad34df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dotnetinterop/archive/2005/03/31/404219.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945392 | 1,244 | 1.664063 | 2 |
by Dennis Crouch
Kimberly-Clark v. Naty (E.D. Wisc. 2012)
Twenty years ago, Kimberly-Clark scientists had the idea of creating a diaper with an "elastomeric ear" having non-parallel edges. The patent (No. 5,496,298) issued in 1996 (sixteen years ago). In the side figure, I have circled this novel feature of the design. The curved edge and stretchiness make the diaper more comfortable. The patent itself does not claim comfort or curvedness. Rather, the claim simply spells out the physical elements of the diaper design.
In 2010, an ex parte reexamination was begun and KC cancelled all 30 issued claims but then added an additional four claims. I have reproduced the broadest claim below with the new limitations in italics. As you can see, the new limitation is related to the shape of the curved edge of the elastomeric ear – labeled as 40 in the circled portion of the diagram. The newly added limitations that were apparently novel in 1993 are that a portion of the curved edge is "generally parallel" to the top edge (labeled 38) and another portion of the curved edge is not parallel to the top edge.
The new claim:
31. A disposable absorbent article, said article defining a front portion, a rear portion, and a crotch portion connecting the front and rear portions; said article comprising:
an outer cover;
a liquid-pervious bodyside liner;
an absorbent material located between said cover and said bodyside liner; a pair of elastomeric ears attached to said rear portion, said ears having a proximal edge, a distal edge, a first connecting edge, and a second connecting edge, said first and second connecting edges connecting said proximal and distal edges, said second connecting edge being non-parallel to said first connecting edge and said proximal edge being longer than said distal edge;
a fastener joined to said elastomeric ears for attaching said elastomeric ears to said front portion in an overlapping relationship; wherein, when in use, said second connecting edge defines at least a portion of a leg opening,
wherein the second connecting edge comprises a first segment and a second segment, the first segment extending outward from the proximal edge and being generally parallel to the first connecting edge, the second segment extending between the first segment and the distal edge and being non-parallel to said first connecting edge.
In a recent action, KC has sued Naty Babycare for infringement of the '298 patent. Naty is a Swedish company that claims to be making all natural and largely eco-friendly diapers. Unfortunately for Naty, the '298 patent still has one year on its term and the patent seemingly covers eco and non-eco products alike. The drawing below from Naty's website shows the diaper in cartoon form.
KC has asked for injunctive relief. Of course, the patent will be expired before trial. However, KC may also request preliminary injunctive relief. I wonder how the upcoming expiry date should impact the eBay inquiry. | <urn:uuid:67bc21b3-bad6-46d7-8446-fe485ecc5986> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2012/03/kimberly-clark-v-naty-ed-wisc-2012-twenty-years-ago-kimberly-clark-scientists-had-the-idea-of-creating-a-diaper-with-a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947988 | 650 | 1.757813 | 2 |
View Full Version : Does a baby have to roll before crawling?
DD2 (almost 9 months) is a little slow in development. I have an appointment with a Paed next week to get her checked out. She has had problems with slow weight gain due to reflux but is otherwise healthy.
She can sit unaided. Can roll from tummy to back, but not back to tummy.
Just wondering do they have to be able to roll before they can crawl?
No, not at all. Every child will do all the milestones in their own unique sequence, my two boys did things in a completely different order and timetable, it sounds as though your bub will be crawling before long.
I think generally, they usually roll from tummy to back, roll from back to tummy, sit unaided, and get into sitting from laying down, before they crawl.
I'm sure somebody will correct me if I am wrong, but that is how my little ones did it.....;):D
I'm certainly no expert - but every baby is different.
My DD could sit unaided from around 5 months, and had rolled from tummy to back only a couple of times (I think by accident!!). She crawled at 9.5 months and this is when she started to roll from back to tummy - it coincided with the crawling. Its as if it all clicked at once for her!!!
I'd say crawling is not far off for your DD - and you may find that she will roll more when she starts to crawl.
Good luck with the Paed next week.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.1.9 Copyright © 2013 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:0603efc4-fd1c-46a7-aefc-dd4f991ee530> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bubhub.com.au/community/forums/archive/index.php/t-221460.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967376 | 361 | 1.710938 | 2 |
September 24th, 2012 09:21
quax writes “In the wake of the Fukushima disaster the nuclear industry again faces massive opposition. Germany even decided to abandon nuclear energy altogether and the future of the industry is under a cloud of uncertainty in Japan. But one thing seems to be here to stay for a very, very long time: The radioactive waste that has half-lives measured in thousands of years. But there is a technology under development in Belgium that could change all this: A sub-critical reactor design, driven by a particle accelerator that can transmute the nuclear waste into something that goes away within about two hundred years. Could this lead to a revival of the nuclear industry and the reprocessing of spend reactor fuel?”
Source: Accelerator Driven Treatment of Nuclear Waste
Categories: slashdot accelerator, Belgium, fuel source, Fukushima, Germany, Industry, Japan, massive opposition, particle accelerator, quax, reactor, reactor design, reactor fuel, waste
mandelbr0t writes “The Canadian Conservative government is preparing to reintroduce amended copyright legislation on Thursday (we discussed the rumor some weeks ago). Most sources say that the proposed legislation is very similar to Bill C-61, generally dubbed the ‘Canadian DMCA.’ It still includes definitions of ‘technological protections’ and criminalizes ‘circumvention’ of those protections. Bill C-61 died in the summer of 2008, facing massive opposition from the Canadian public. Once again, it’s time for Canadians to get politically active; ORC ran a large campaign with the last attempt, and will likely be updated soon with the new proposed legislation.” Read below for more of the submitter’s thoughts on the coming battle.
As with Bill C-61, the Conservative government has launched a campaign of misinformation to attempt to force the law down our throat. Industry Minister Tony Clement is trying to convince people that “format shifting” is currently illegal. Of course, it is not actually criminal, and enforcement of private infringement, as always, is prevented by the fact that massive invasion of privacy would have to occur. Second, Mr. Clement is claiming that this law is necessary to bring Canada into line with the WIPO Treaty
. The above readings discredit WIPO altogether. Furthermore, the two articles that are being referred to are Articles 11 and 12. Note the use of the phrase “effective technological measure” and the absence of any criminality requirement. This legislation is not necessary to provide amended copyright law that is consistent with the WIPO treaty, and will hopefully die an uneventful death, to be buried for eternity.
Source: “Canadian DMCA” Rising From the Dead
Categories: slashdot Bill C-, Canada, Canadian, copyright, copyright legislation, DMCA, DRM, Government, law, legislation, massive invasion, massive opposition, Minister Tony Clement, Mr. Clement, Read, WIPO, wipo treaty, yro | <urn:uuid:468322d3-6ebd-49ed-a08d-4048710471d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jetlib.com/news/tag/massive-opposition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934967 | 615 | 1.570313 | 2 |
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by Colin Powell
The CSD school board will present a budget that is $118,000 less than the current year’s budget at the annual public budget hearing on Thursday, June 9. Faced with the prospect of less revenue, and with statistics that show number of staff level while student population has steadily declined over the past 10 years, the school board had set a goal for the superintendent and school principals to develop a budget with no increase to taxpayers.
The final budget shows a net 1.8 percent decrease, down to $6,173,206 from $6,291,666 for the 2010-11 school year. Because nearly two-thirds of the school budget consists of personnel expenses, cuts were achieved by eliminating or reducing positions. The second and fourth grades next year will each have only one teacher instead of two, cutting about $100,000 from the budget.
In the high school, the librarian position was cut in half, while the only technology instructional position was cut, saving around $90,000.
The administrators also proposed cutting time off the K-12 technology coordinator position, saving $12,000, though a proposal to cut a reading support position in the elementary school was rejected by the board, arguing that the middle level student population is actually growing, and the school has been working hard to improve student literacy.
Despite the board goal of not increasing taxes, the board discussed the issue of state subsidy penalties imposed because both Island towns voted against school consolidation in 2009. A number of board members argued that residents in both towns voted against consolidating with Blue Hill Peninsula schools with the full knowledge that the state would cut the district’s subsidy as a penalty; nevertheless, the board voted to return the amount of that penalty, $110,000, to the 2011-12 budget.
Other proposed cuts that were, in the end, restored to the budget included money for the elementary school reading support position mentioned above, as well as about $18,000 for a capital renewal and renovation fund for the high school. The board also chose to leave the one gifted and talented position at the elementary school in the budget, at a cost of $46,000.
Mandated special education costs—items like contracted speech services at $50,000 and $72,000 for new educational technician positions—accounted for part of the major increase in the first budget draft. Those costs remain in the final budget.
While calculating the budget’s effect on the mill rates in each town is difficult, taxes will likely rise slightly, because, despite the budget cuts, the school board has experienced major cuts to revenue, primarily in the state Essential Programs and Services subsidy, which has dropped by $32,000, or about 8 percent, from the previous year. The high school also has fewer tuition students than in years past, which was a major source of revenue for the district.
The public hearing to approve the school budget will take place on Thursday, June 9, at 6 p.m. at the high school. The budget will then go to a referendum vote in each town to confirm the decision at the public hearing.
Voting will take place at the respective towns’ offices on Tuesday, June 14. In Deer Isle and Stonington, polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. | <urn:uuid:4703753e-d5b0-4c0e-ae6b-15a5f2319d30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weeklypacket.com/news/2011/jun/3/voters-consider-617-million-school-csd-13-budget/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96664 | 742 | 1.539063 | 2 |
[Updated at 7:24 p.m.] Pakistani authorities failed to provide adequate security for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto before her 2007 assassination, and intelligence agencies hindered the subsequent investigation, a U.N. commission concluded Thursday.
The three-member panel issued a scathing report Thursday afternoon, concluding that the assassination "could have been prevented" and that the Pakistani government's investigation of the killing focused on low-level operatives and ignored people "further up the hierarchy in the planning, financing and execution of the assassination."
Bhutto was killed at a rally in the city of Pakistani city of Rawalpindi in December 2007 after returning from a self-imposed, eight-year exile to run in the country's general elections. Pakistan's government and the CIA blamed the killing on Baitullah Mehsud, a top Pakistani Taliban leader with ties to al Qaeda. Mehsud was killed last year in a suspected U.S. drone strike.
The U.N. commission's chairman, Chilean U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, said the panel's role was "fact-finding" and not prosecutorial. Asked whether the failure to protect Bhutto was deliberate, he said, "it is not up to us to make inferences."
But he added, "It is clear that warnings were passed on, on various occasions, and Ms Bhutto received also information in this regard from outside Pakistan.
[Posted at 5:54 p.m.] Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's 2007 assassination "could have been prevented" with better security measures, while intelligence agencies hindered the subsequent investigation, a U.N. report on the killing concluded Thursday. | <urn:uuid:410c00b1-7dac-4167-8c4f-da47ea872a83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/15/u-n-bhutto-assassination-could-have-been-prevented/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967001 | 353 | 1.835938 | 2 |
CITY OF CINCINNATI v. DISCOVERY NETWORK, INC.
Legal provision: Amendment 1: Speech, Press, and Assembly
Argument of Mark S. Yurick
Chief Justice Rehnquist: We'll hear argument next in Number 91-1200, City of Cincinnati v. Discovery Network, Inc.--
Mr. Yurick, you may proceed whenever you're ready.
Mr. Yurick: Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court:
The issue presented by this case is whether the Respondents and other commercial speakers have a First Amendment right to place newsrack-type dispensing devices upon the public sidewalks of the City of Cincinnati.
The critical inquiry here is the interpretation of the fourth prong of the Central Hudson test, which requires a governmental regulation that burdens commercial speech to burden no more speech than is necessary to further the Government's substantial governmental interest.
It does not require a least restrictive means test, nor does the test require the regulation to completely accomplish the goal.
In other words, the regulation is permitted to be underinclusive.
The fourth prong does require a balancing test.
However, the Sixth Circuit in the city's opinion balanced the wrong things.
The Sixth Circuit held that since a First Amendment right was implicated, that was to be balanced, the First Amendment, against the degree to which the interest was served.
The correct balancing test, according to the city, is the State interest taken as a whole versus the incidental burden on speech.
Like the billboards in the Metromedia case, newsracks are large, immobile, and semipermanent structures, although they do have a communicative function.
By prohibiting Respondent's newsrack dispensing devices, Cincinnati has done no more than attempt to eliminate the problems posed by the noncommunicative presence of the newsracks.
Unknown Speaker: Well, Mr. Yurick, you suggest an analogy to the Metromedia case, but isn't the city's position here perhaps stronger, because Metromedia was a regulation of billboards on private property?
Here, the newspapers or the distributors are simply taking over public property, are they not?
Mr. Yurick: I think that since public property is involved the city's interest in preserving that public property for all of the citizens of Cincinnati is perhaps stronger, and I believe that in the Metromedia case the prohibition was on offsite advertising, both public and private.
I believe that the exception in Metromedia was for onsite advertising.
In other words, the owner of a commercial establishment could have a billboard on his own property advertising whatever goods were for sale there.
Unknown Speaker: But no one was claiming a right to put a billboard on property owned by the State there, were they?
Mr. Yurick: No, Your Honor, but that is precisely what Discovery Network--
Unknown Speaker: Well, that's why I suggest--
Mr. Yurick: --And Harmon Homes are doing here.
Unknown Speaker: --Your case may be stronger than those of the billboard people, Metromedia.
Mr. Yurick: Mr. Chief Justice, I would agree with you there, and I think that the point is... well, it's a very good point.
Unknown Speaker: Mr. Yurick, the city here is trying to draw a distinction, or does draw a distinction, between ordinary newspapers and the papers that were desired to be put out on the street by these Respondents, and yet I suppose ordinary newspapers contain a lot of advertisements as well, don't they?
Mr. Yurick: Yes, Your Honor.
Unknown Speaker: Now, we take this case on some kind of concession that this is commercial speech at issue and that ordinary newspapers are not.
Mr. Yurick: Yes, Your Honor, I think that the parties agreed that the speech in question, the Respondent's publications, do constitute commercial speech.
There was testimony, in fact, at the hearing at the district court level that they were purely advertising, with the exception of Harmon Homes occasionally including an article about interest rates or something of that nature that might conceivably be considered noncommercial speech, but the district court made a finding there that the speech that was in... even the speech that was in Harmon Homes' publication was not inextricably intertwined with the commercial speech.
Unknown Speaker: But in point of fact, you're not making a commercial... or your ordinance doesn't make a commercial-noncommercial speech distinction, does it?
That's not what it turns on.
Mr. Yurick: Your Honor, my witness said that the same problems are posed by boxes that contain commercial speech and boxes that contain noncommercial speech.
Unknown Speaker: Well, that may be, but that is not the way you have drafted your ordinance.
Mr. Yurick: I'm sorry.
Unknown Speaker: Well, your... as I understand it, your ordinance turns on the predominant dedication of the so-called newspapers to the dissemination of what, news of current events, I guess is the way it's described, isn't it, and yet everything which is excluded by that is not necessarily commercial speech, isn't that true?
Mr. Yurick: I'm sorry, I think the distinctions made by the ordinances themselves are merely commercial versus noncommercial, and I think that the language used in the ordinances, which distinguish between commercial and noncommercial, use language that's been approved by the court.
There was a memorandum--
Unknown Speaker: In any case, you take the position that the definition of what we are for shorthand purposes calling newspapers is in fact a definition which divides the world into two categories, newspapers and noncommercial speech, is that correct?
Mr. Yurick: --I think that there are newspapers which are specifically allowed to be distributed from newsracks on the public streets of Cincinnati.
I think that there are possibly other noncommercial types of speech which could be, I guess, mixed with commercial speech, although I'm not aware of any that have applied to the city for a newsrack permit.
Unknown Speaker: But you are taking the... if I understand you, you are taking the position that if it does not qualify as a newspaper, and hence does not qualify for the right to be displayed and sold from these boxes, it is... the publication is noncommercial speech within the meaning of our cases, is that correct?
Is that the way you are reading your ordinance?
Mr. Yurick: I'm not sure that it is.
I think that there are possibly some mixed commercial and noncommercial publications that don't qualify as newspapers, although I'm not aware of any.
I concede that there may be publications like that.
I think, though, that to the--
Unknown Speaker: And there would be some nonmixed publications which are not newspapers but which are just as clearly not commercial speech, too.
Mr. Yurick: --That's correct, and I think that the ordinance also allows for the distribution in the public way of noncommercial handbills as defined in the code.
Unknown Speaker: How does it do that?
Maybe I'm just forgetting what I should have read better.
How does the ordinance provide for those noncommercial but nonnewspaper distributions?
Mr. Yurick: Noncommercial handbills are specifically in the exact section of the code.
It's cited again in the briefs, but they are specifically permitted to be distributed.
Unknown Speaker: They are expressly exempted from the--
Mr. Yurick: Yes.
Unknown Speaker: --From the ban.
May I ask, while you're being interrupted, commercial hand... do these newspapers here come within the definition of commercial handbills within the ordinance?
Mr. Yurick: Newspapers--
Unknown Speaker: No, I'm not talking about newspapers, I'm talking about the other sides to the publications.
Mr. Yurick: --Yes, they do, and--
Unknown Speaker: Does that mean that they may not only not use these stationary devices, but they can't be distributed at all on the streets?
Mr. Yurick: --That would be correct, not on the public streets in the city.
Unknown Speaker: They can't be handed out either.
Mr. Yurick: According to the code, no, they wouldn't.
However, Your Honor, I believe that Your Honor has asked me an overbreadth question, and--
Unknown Speaker: I just asked you a factual question, whether, under the ordinance, as I understand it, your opponent's publications could not be either distributed through the stationary boxes or by having people hand them out to passers-by.
Mr. Yurick: --That's correct, Your Honor.
However, I would point out that there is no indication in the record that either of the Respondents want to do that, and there's... there are also various alternative means for the Respondents to communicate their commercial message.
Unknown Speaker: Mr. Yurick, I understand that the real estate brochure involved here sometimes contained matter other than the mere listing of homes.
I mean, it might comment on whether the market is soft or hard or what interest rates are, things of that sort.
Mr. Yurick: That's correct.
Unknown Speaker: Why... but that isn't enough to make it qualify as a newspaper?
Mr. Yurick: I think that under this--
Unknown Speaker: How many ads do you have to have to be not a newspaper anymore?
Mr. Yurick: --Well, I don't think that the code makes any sort of percentage, or has any sort of percentage requirement, and I'm not certain that there is... there should be any percentage requirement, because to the extent that even a small proportion of noncommercial speech is inextricably intertwined with commercial speech, that would render the enter publication noncommercial and the City of Cincinnati would permit that publication to occupy sidewalk space.
However, in this case, as I said, the district court made a finding, and it was not contested, that these articles that were in the Harmon Homes publication were not inextricably intertwined with the commercial message.
Unknown Speaker: I don't under... they were not inextricably intertwined.
You mean, they could have been separated from the--
Mr. Yurick: That's correct, Your Honor.
Unknown Speaker: --As opposed to the advertising in newspapers, which is inextricably intertwined?
Mr. Yurick: Your Honor, the district court didn't make a finding on that and it wasn't really an issue in this case because neither of the Respondents claimed that they published newspapers.
I don't know whether an argument could be made--
Unknown Speaker: Never mind the argument, does the city apply that test to newspapers--
Mr. Yurick: --No, they don't.
Unknown Speaker: --That only advertising... if the advertising can be separated... no, it doesn't.
Mr. Yurick: No.
No, it doesn't.
Newspapers of general circulation are--
Unknown Speaker: Even if they put all their advertising in one section at the end, you know, advertising section, and all the rest is news, it would still qualify, right?
Mr. Yurick: --That's correct.
Unknown Speaker: But this real estate brochure was not allowed to qualify on that basis.
Mr. Yurick: The district court made a finding that they didn't qualify--
Unknown Speaker: And you support... and the city supports that finding, correct?
I mean, the city says that it will exclude this magazine because although it contains nonadvertising matter, that advertising matter is... could be separated, and that's the reason the city will exclude it.
Mr. Yurick: --That's correct.
Unknown Speaker: But it won't exclude newspapers on that basis.
Mr. Yurick: No, it won't, Your Honor, and Your Honor, might I say the ordinance is, or it could be considered underinclusive on that point.
I don't think that the distinction is nonsensical merely because the City of Cincinnati is only trying to address a very limited portion of its safety and aesthetic problem.
I don't think that the city should be forced to address or incidentally burden even a larger group of speech.
Unknown Speaker: Well, assuming that to be true, isn't your real problem here as you're describing it not that the audience is perhaps underinclusive but that the ordinance is inarticulate, and we have no way of knowing what the city might decide to do next either in drawing the kind of distinction that Justice... or applying the kind of distinction that Justice Scalia was discussing to what we would call regular newspapers, or in deciding what the percentage mix between advertising and news ought to be.
In point of fact, the city is left under the ordinance with a standardless discretion, isn't it?
Mr. Yurick: No, Your Honor, I don't think it is left with a standardless discretion.
Again, I think that commercial, noncommercial, and newspaper standards are sufficient.
It's not a case like--
Unknown Speaker: Well, let's just get down to the definition of what we're calling newspapers.
I don't have the text of the ordinance in front of me.
Doesn't it refer to what we're calling newspapers as something which is predominantly or primarily devoted to the dissemination of news of current events?
Is that the scheme?
Mr. Yurick: --There was a memorandum sent from the city manager, who is the chief executive officer--
Unknown Speaker: Well, first, how about just the text?
Help me out on the text.
Mr. Yurick: --The text of the ordinance doesn't say anything about--
Unknown Speaker: It says nothing whatsoever.
So the language that I was thinking of was in this memorandum.
Mr. Yurick: --It was in a memorandum from the city manager, who is the chief executive officer of the city, to the city engineer.
And what that memo stated, paraphrasing, is that from this point forward, in terms of applying regulation... administrative regulation number 38, which is an administrative... an internal administrative direction from the city manager to the departments about how to apply the ordinances and how to interpret them, that in interpreting the term, or in interpreting the term, newspapers of general regulation, for purposes just of allowing a box on the sidewalk, which is what administrative regulation 38 deals with, that newspaper of general circulation should be interpreted as relating to publications which predominantly cover current events or political affairs, things of that nature.
Unknown Speaker: Did he later testify that, roughly speaking, he would suppose that predominantly applied... predominantly implied that there would be something better than 50 percent of the space devoted to the current events?
Mr. Yurick: I think what the city engineer, Tom Young, testified to was that that would present a very close case.
Unknown Speaker: Okay, but in... and in point of fact I gather it's in the record that most newspapers are 70 percent advertising.
Mr. Yurick: I don't think that there... that is in the record.
Unknown Speaker: There was no testimony to that effect?
Mr. Yurick: I don't think there is any testimony.
Unknown Speaker: They just put that in the brief.
Mr. Yurick: I don't think--
Unknown Speaker: Okay.
Mr. Yurick: --I don't... I don't think there's any testimony to that in the record, Your Honor.
Unknown Speaker: All right, well--
Mr. Yurick: I think the testimony related to, again, Respondent's particular publications which were admittedly not newspapers.
Unknown Speaker: --Okay, so in any case, you stand on the fact that the city's construction of its ordinance involves the word predominantly, and predominantly would call for a publication with 50 percent news as opposed to 50 percent advertising, and that's the way the ordinance is going to be interpreted and applied, is that the position that you rest on?
Mr. Yurick: Yes.
Unknown Speaker: Aren't there other ordinances that expressly permit the distribution of newspapers on a public right-of-way?
Mr. Yurick: Yes, there are.
Unknown Speaker: 911-17 and 862-1.
Mr. Yurick: --Yes, Your Honor, newspapers of general circulation are expressly permitted, and again, I guess I would have to say whether they--
Unknown Speaker: Do they have definitions of what is a newspaper of general circulation?
Mr. Yurick: --No.
No, and again I would have to say that the 50-50 distinction was said by the city engineer to present a closed case.
I'm not, I don't mean to suggest that if a particular newspaper only had 30 percent noncommercial speech in it and 70 percent commercial speech that they would not be permitted to occupy space on the city sidewalks.
Unknown Speaker: Do you measure this by words or by area, the 30 percent/50 percent?
Mr. Yurick: I'm sorry, Your Honor, I think that Your Honor's question points out that perhaps there should be no exact percentage.
Unknown Speaker: Yes.
Mr. Yurick: A newspaper I think is not such a vague term that it can't be understood, or that the use of the word newspaper of general circulation in the statutory scheme can't be understood by a reasonable person.
As a matter of fact, at the hearing in the case at the district court, the Respondents were both asked, did the publications constitute newspapers, and they were both able to answer the question rather quickly.
I don't think it's such a vague term that it gives the city unbridled discretion.
Unknown Speaker: May I ask just one other basic question?
As I read the ordinances in the district court's opinion, or the findings, they don't say anything about these devices.
They talk about distribution of handbills and newspapers.
Is there any mention of the vending devices in any city ordinance?
Mr. Yurick: There is no specific mention of the devices in the city ordinances.
Unknown Speaker: So however--
Mr. Yurick: However, in the administration regulation--
Unknown Speaker: --So all the law out of this is an administration regulation by the city engineer or city manager, something like that.
Mr. Yurick: --The city manager--
Unknown Speaker: Yes.
Mr. Yurick: --Who is the chief executive officer.
Unknown Speaker: But the ordinances themselves don't even tell us anything about these devices or the number that might be appropriate, or anything like that.
Mr. Yurick: No, just the administrative regulation.
Unknown Speaker: Well, doesn't the newspaper or anybody else that wants to put one of these have to get a permit?
Mr. Yurick: Yes, they do have to apply for a permit.
Unknown Speaker: But that's just by regulation.
Mr. Yurick: That's pursuant to the administrative regulation.
There's no ordinance that grants them the right to a permit.
That's all in the administrative regulation.
Unknown Speaker: But I take it it would be inconsistent with the ordinances, or would it, for the city to deny the right to newspapers to distribute the newspapers through these boxes.
Mr. Yurick: It's newspapers of general circulation in the ordinances, specifically or excepted from the prohibition.
Unknown Speaker: Well, I know, but it doesn't say that the ordinances doesn't protect the right of a newspaper to put... to distribute through these boxes by occupying public property.
Mr. Yurick: No, Your Honor, the administrative... through the administrative regulation they have been afforded the privilege of placing these boxes on the city sidewalks.
I'm... the only case that I'm aware of on this subject, this Court's prior, left the question specifically open.
That was the Lakewood v. Plain Dealer case.
Unknown Speaker: But is it not true that it would be consistent with the ordinances for the city manager to say we're just not going to have these boxes at all.
Mr. Yurick: If the administrative regulation were to be repealed and--
Unknown Speaker: Who promulgates--
Mr. Yurick: --There's no reason whether the ordinance--
Unknown Speaker: --Who promulgates the administrative regulations?
Mr. Yurick: --The city manager.
Unknown Speaker: So the city manager could change his regulation and say we're not going to use any boxes, or he could also say we're going to allow 500 boxes, and that's going to be enough, and he could also say they'll all be painted red, or they'll all be painted green.
Mr. Yurick: That would be correct.
Unknown Speaker: You've said several times newspapers of general circulation.
I don't find the phrase, of general circulation, in... maybe I don't know where it is, but I don't find it in the--
Mr. Yurick: I'm sorry.
Unknown Speaker: --In the code.
It may be--
Mr. Yurick: It may just say newspaper.
Unknown Speaker: --I think that's what it says.
Mr. Yurick: In this case, the regulatory scheme as applied, and by prohibiting Respondent's newsrack devices, does no more than attempt to eliminate the problems posed by the noncommunicative presence of the boxes.
The entire burden, again, is limited to the elimination of newsracks, and no portion of the incidental burden on the speech fails to serve the city's substantial governmental interest in eliminating the safety and aesthetics problems posed by the newsracks.
Unknown Speaker: Mr. Yurick, why do you pick on commercial speech?
I'm thinking back... of the important decisions I've made in my life, certainly buying a house is enormously important.
I mean, much more important to me than the latest state of the war in Bosnia, and your city manager makes the decision that people must be allowed to find out the latest news from Bosnia but cannot be given from these same boxes information on the choices they have in buying a house.
Why is that speech so unimportant that it can be suppressed this way?
Mr. Yurick: Well, it's certainly not unimportant, Your Honor.
That's not the city's contention.
Unknown Speaker: Well then, what else is the matter with it?
Is it obscene?
Mr. Yurick: The city's contention is--
Certainly not, Your Honor... that noncommercial speech throughout the precedence of this Court's prior cases has been afforded a lesser degree of First Amendment protection.
Unknown Speaker: For purposes that had something to do with the distinctive nature of commercial speech, but commercial speech doesn't clutter up your sidewalks anymore than noncommercial speech does, does it?
Mr. Yurick: That would be correct, Your Honor.
But again, I think that to the extent that we didn't make a distinction between commercial versus noncommercial speech... in other words, do what the Sixth Circuit said and just provide for a limit to the number of total boxes and apply the scheme on a first-come-first-served basis... that to the extent that there was one slot, one box space open and both... we had an application from both a commercial speaker and a noncommercial speaker, to the extent that we were to allocate that public space to a commercial publication to the exclusion of a noncommercial publication, we would probably be in violation of the Metromedia case which says that a regulatory scheme which makes a distinction between commercial versus noncommercial speech cannot give a preference to commercial speech over noncommercial speech.
Unknown Speaker: Well, we're not talking about giving a preference, we're just talking about equal treatment.
Mr. Yurick: Well, Your Honor, I think that whether it's a specific preference in the ordinance or a preference that simply occurs as a result of an inadequate scheme, I'm not certain that that makes a difference.
Unknown Speaker: I don't... what are you going to do when you have too many noncommercial publications to fill up your news boxes?
Mr. Yurick: I don't think that making... again--
Unknown Speaker: You think you have to allow as many noncommercial--
Mr. Yurick: --No, Your Honor.
Unknown Speaker: --Can you have a first-come-first served?
Mr. Yurick: Yes, we can.
Among noncommercial speakers--
Unknown Speaker: Well--
Mr. Yurick: --I think that we could.
Unknown Speaker: --Just among noncommercial, but not among commercial.
Mr. Yurick: I believe that's correct.
Unknown Speaker: Bosnia wins again.
Mr. Yurick: --Yes, Your Honor.
I believe that to the extent that, again, the ordinance or statutory scheme that the city would promulgate would allow a commercial speaker to have a space while forbidding a noncommercial speaker to have that access, that it would be a violation of Metromedia.
Unknown Speaker: Well, what... you... the city seems to say that commercial speech does not enjoy the same protection as noncommercial speech does under the First Amendment--
Mr. Yurick: That's correct, Your Honor.
Unknown Speaker: --And therefore you should be able to ban these boxes.
Mr. Yurick: We should be able to regulate these structures in the public way.
Unknown Speaker: But I thought you... I thought the lesser protection given to commercial speech was based on its content, don't you agree?
Mr. Yurick: I would say the difference in the degree of deference due a local government in regulating commercial versus noncommercial--
Unknown Speaker: Well, my question is, what do you think justifies giving commercial speech less protection than noncommercial speech?
Isn't it its content?
Mr. Yurick: --The distinction has to be made on content, but I don't--
Unknown Speaker: Well then, what has that distinction got to do with cluttering up the streets, whether commercial distributors should have less opportunity to distribute on the streets?
Mr. Yurick: --Well, again, I guess to the extent that the legislature has a greater degree of latitude in regulating commercial speech as opposed to regulating noncommercial speech, my answer to the question would be that it's not necessarily that that ought to be the decision that the legislature makes, but it is one that it can make under this Court's prior precedents.
Unknown Speaker: Does that latitude--
--Do the Respondents charge for their brochures or flyers?
Mr. Yurick: No, they don't, Your Honor, they are distributed free.
Unknown Speaker: Well, I suppose the city might conclude that something that you get for free you're more likely to throw away on your way home than something you paid for like a newspaper.
Mr. Yurick: I think that the city could conclude that, Your Honor.
I think there might be danger in the city regulating on that basis, because the third prong of the Central Hudson test which has been satisfied here... and I think both courts have found that this ordinance directly affects the city's substantial governmental interest... an argument could be made that as in Schneider v. the State, this Court has said that banning hand-billing because the handbills might be used as litter wasn't a... there wasn't a direct enough nexus.
I don't think there's that problem here.
Unknown Speaker: Does the city's latitude that you contend for, it's latitude in regulating commercial speech, permit it to regulate substantially more commercial speech than is necessary to accomplish its interest?
Mr. Yurick: No, Your Honor, and again, in this case I think that the interests posed were the interests in the safety and aesthetics of the sidewalks, and I think there was testimony that these boxes detracted from the safety and aesthetic interest of the sidewalks, and that is exactly what is being banned.
Again, both Discovery Network and Harmon Homes have alternative means of distributing their communications.
In Harmon Homes' case, 85 percent of their publications are distributed through other means, and in Discovery Network's case, 66 percent are distributed through other means.
Unknown Speaker: What about the local newspaper?
What percentage of theirs are distributed by home delivery?
Mr. Yurick: I'm not really certainly, Your Honor.
Unknown Speaker: Probably very high, isn't it?
I mean, in that respect there's no reason to think that the newspapers are any different from the commercial publications.
Mr. Yurick: That might be so, Your Honor.
I don't know that it's in the record.
Again, this was treated more as an as-applied challenge than a facial or an overbreadth challenge, so--
Unknown Speaker: May I ask, your section 701(c), the ordinance that prohibits handbilling on the public streets entirely, has that been in effect since a long, long time ago.
It seems to be almost unconstitutional on its face.
Mr. Yurick: --I don't think that it's unconstitutional on its face, I think that it was drafted probably closely after the Christensen... Valentine v. Christensen case--
Unknown Speaker: Yes.
Mr. Yurick: --Because the language in that statute closely resembles that in the Christensen case.
Unknown Speaker: Long before the Court had held that commercial speech had any protection under the First Amendment this ordinance was drafted.
Mr. Yurick: That's correct--
Unknown Speaker: Yes.
Mr. Yurick: --But I don't necessarily think that that makes the ordinance unconstitutional on its face.
Unknown Speaker: No, of course that wouldn't but--
--Thank you, Mr. Yurick.
Mr. Mezibov, we'll hear from you.
Argument of Marc D. Mezibov
Mr. Mezibov: Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court:
In this case the City of Cincinnati seeks to enforce against Harmon and Discovery's publications an outright ban on the distribution in public areas of important and valuable information concerning economic and educational opportunities as part of a regulatory scheme which on its face allows city officials to make unprincipled and standardless decisions about what kinds of speech and what speakers can be on the public areas.
Unknown Speaker: Now, Mr. Mezibov, you want us to consider the case on the assumption that your clients engage only in commercial speech, is that right?
Mr. Mezibov: Justice O'Connor, we did not take up the matter of whether we are or are not commercial speakers.
Unknown Speaker: So you want us to decide it on the basis that your clients engage only in commercial speech.
Mr. Mezibov: Your Honor, we feel that this case can be decided--
Unknown Speaker: Yes, or no?
Mr. Mezibov: --As if we are commercial speakers--
Unknown Speaker: Okay.
Mr. Mezibov: --Just as the lower courts have determined--
Unknown Speaker: All right.
Mr. Mezibov: --In accordance with the Central Hudson criteria.
Unknown Speaker: And you want us to assume, do you, that the newspapers that the city allows to be placed in newsracks are entitled to greater protection than that of commercial speech.
Mr. Mezibov: Certainly not in these circumstances.
Your Honor, we did not concede that we are commercial speakers, and although we have not appealed that issue, we have never conceded that newspapers are not also commercial speakers within the city's own dictionary.
They are, by definition, as much commercial speakers as we are.
The city's scheme is quite confused on that point.
Unknown Speaker: But that kind of withdraws your answer to Justice O'Connor in a way, doesn't it, because we have held that in... I think in the New York Times v. Sullivan case, didn't we, that the fact that there was... the libel might arise out of an advertisement did not make it just commercial speech.
At least it was entitled to full First Amendment protection.
Mr. Mezibov: Well, the city has drafted a scheme of ordinances which includes in it definitions of commercial speech... commercial handbills, that is... and a definition of noncommercial handbills.
There is no definition whatsoever of what constitutes a newspaper.
On the one hand, newspapers are expressly permitted on the city streets by reason of 911-17.
On the other hand, the city expressly prohibits the distribution of commercial handbills in all public areas.
According to the city's own scheme of regulating commercial handbills, a commercial handbill is any printed matter which advertises for sale any merchandise, product, commodity or thing, or which directs attention to any business or mercantile or commercial establishment or other activity for the purpose of directly promoting the interest thereof by sales, or which directs attention to or advertises any meeting, theatrical performance, exhibition, or event of any kind for which an admission fee is charged for the purpose of private gain and profit.
I submit, Mr. Chief Justice, that there is no newspaper on the streets of Cincinnati which does not constitute a commercial handbill under the city's own scheme of definitions.
Unknown Speaker: No, but they have a separate ordinance... 911-17... that expressly allows the distribution of newspapers, and it was enacted later, so it's in the nature of... notwithstanding the definition of handbill, a newspaper can be distributed.
Mr. Mezibov: A newspaper can, but a newspaper is not defined.
A newspaper could as easily fall within this definition--
Unknown Speaker: Well, it does fall within that definition--
Mr. Mezibov: --As any other definition.
Unknown Speaker: --Without any doubt--
Mr. Mezibov: Exactly.
Unknown Speaker: --I mean, that's true.
Wouldn't you read the later ordinance as saying, but we are not applying this handbill prohibition to newspapers?
Mr. Mezibov: If I knew what a newspaper was under the city's scheme.
Unknown Speaker: Well, there is some merit to the notion that we have some idea that what are on these boxes are probably newspapers.
Mr. Mezibov: Well, the city itself has--
Unknown Speaker: Maybe your paper could also qualify as a newspaper, but you don't make that contention.
Mr. Mezibov: --No, we do not.
Unknown Speaker: Yeah.
Mr. Mezibov: But it is our contention that we are no more commercial within the city's scheme than is a newspaper.
Unknown Speaker: Now, does the city ordinance only allow the sale of newspapers, not the distribution if there's no sale?
Mr. Mezibov: I believe it's the distribution.
Unknown Speaker: I thought the language was sale.
Mr. Mezibov: They may be sold from racks, that's correct.
Unknown Speaker: You can't give them away.
Mr. Mezibov: 911-17 says they must be sold.
Unknown Speaker: And apparently only in the morning or afternoon, not in the evening.
You don't have an evening newspaper in Cincinnati.
Mr. Mezibov: No longer.
Unknown Speaker: It's a very beautifully drafted ordinance.
Either in the morning or afternoon where permission has been obtained.
Mr. Mezibov: Since at least 1971, the city has had on its books this ordinance which prohibits the public distribution of all printed matter which satisfies the city's definition of a commercial handbill, and it was this ordinance which the city invoked when they directed our clients to remove their newsracks only from the city right-of-way.
There's no question, therefore, that this scheme is subject to a facial challenge, as it affects not only the use of newsracks on the city streets, but the distribution of all printed matter on the city streets.
Unknown Speaker: When you say this ordinance, Mr. Mezibov, you're referring to, what, section 714-23--
Mr. Mezibov: That's correct, Mr. Chief Justice.
Unknown Speaker: --And any other parts... the definitional section 714-1-C--
Mr. Mezibov: And 714-1-N, which defines as a noncommercial handbill anything not contained in the definition of a commercial handbill.
This scheme obliterates any meaningful or discernible distinction among publications.
If our publication is commercial, so, too, is a daily newspaper, and while a city argues that there should be or is a bright line distinction, the First Amendment purpose as between commercial and noncommercial speech, its inability to make such a distinction is demonstrated by this legislative scheme as well as by the letter regulation by the city manager, who advanced--
Unknown Speaker: --This wasn't really the basis for the court of appeals opinion, was it?
Mr. Mezibov: --No, it was not.
The court of appeals looked at this case from the Central Hudson--
Unknown Speaker: Well, are you defending the court of appeals rationale?
Mr. Mezibov: --Oh, I think the court of appeals correctly decided this case--
Unknown Speaker: That isn't what I asked you.
Mr. Mezibov: --Central Hudson.
Unknown Speaker: Do you defend the way they arrived at the result?
Mr. Mezibov: Yes.
The court of appeals did not reach the facial argument, they decided the case on an applied basis, but certainly this is a fair approach to this regulatory scheme, because it continues to be problematic.
Unknown Speaker: So you think they were quite right in identifying the kind of a balance that they thought they should apply.
Mr. Mezibov: I think Judge Boggs who wrote the opinion was quite correct--
Unknown Speaker: Yes or no.
Mr. Mezibov: --Yes.
Shortly after our publications were directed to be removed from the public right-of-way the city manager passed a regulation which attempted to put some definition into the city scheme.
That letter regulation defined as noncommercial that which is a daily or weekly publication primarily presenting coverage of or commentary on current events, and as we know from the record below, the city engineer is unable and remains unable to give a clear definition of what constitutes a noncommercial publication, notwithstanding the city manager's letter.
While the city's inability to establish clear standards with regard to a distinction between noncommercial and commercial speech is not necessary in resolving this matter, the facial infirmities of the scheme are such that it warrants further consideration insofar as it points out the difficulties in dealing with speech and with the possibilities of favoritism and bias when a city is unable to define with any certainty what constitutes commercial and what constitutes noncommercial.
In this situation, that threat is not merely potential or hypothetical.
We believe the record demonstrates that the threat is palpable.
In this case, the record reveals that the City of Cincinnati works on an ongoing basis with certain publishers, namely the city's daily newspapers, in coming up with regulations governing newsracks.
That's significant, because it indicates that there is a threat of favoritism or bias on the part of a city in dealing with different speakers, when the speakers are essentially publishing the same types of materials.
Unknown Speaker: Do you think the city could distinguish between newspapers of general circulation, or whatever you want to call it, on the one hand, and commercial handbills on the other as to distribution if it precisely defined each category so that the city manager would not be chargeable with any unbridled discretion?
Mr. Mezibov: It may be possible to draw such a distinction, but there would be no need for a distinction insofar as newsracks are concerned.
If the city's problem here is newsracks, then it ought to be newsracks which it regulates.
There's no reason here, certainly none developed by the record, which would demonstrate a need to regulate newsracks based on the content of the publications contained in it.
Unknown Speaker: So you say, then, the city could not, even with proper and careful definitions, distinguish between newspapers and commercial flyers with respect to distribution by newsracks.
Mr. Mezibov: There certainly would be no reason to, based on the ostensible reasons for the city's passing the codes.
Unknown Speaker: Well, supposing it passed an ordinance that did that, do you think it should be upheld?
Mr. Mezibov: No, it may not be attacked necessarily on facial grounds, but it certainly would be on an applied basis if, as in this instance, the city's reasons, which ostensibly are safety and aesthetics, have nothing to do with the content of the publications.
Unknown Speaker: Well, suppose the ordinance forbade newsracks that dispensed the material for free and permitted only those that are coin-operated.
Would that be permissible?
Mr. Mezibov: No, I don't believe that would be permissible.
That would place a burden on speech and speakers which would be unnecessary and not related to the city's--
Unknown Speaker: Well, suppose it were shown that in the case of coin-operated racks they did not have many of the evils that free ones do... they were not receptacles for garbage, they were better maintained.
If the city had that factual background, could it then enact the ordinance that I suppose?
Mr. Mezibov: --I think under those circumstances it may be possible for the city to do that, so long as the reason for that ordinance is not based on the notion that to be commercial or noncommercial is determined by whether or not you charge a fee, and so long as the amount of money that's required to operate that machine is not of such an amount that it would place a burden on one speaker or another.
Unknown Speaker: Well, suppose the minimum were a quarter... 25 cents?
Mr. Mezibov: That may be reasonable, if it advances a legitimate governmental interest.
If that would curb the problem, perhaps--
Unknown Speaker: I thought the ordinance here just allowed the selling of newspapers in newsracks, not giving them away.
Mr. Mezibov: --911-17, Justice O'Connor, does say that cities are permitted to sell news--
Unknown Speaker: Just sell.
Mr. Mezibov: --Newspapers by newsracks.
Unknown Speaker: Nothing else.
Mr. Mezibov: That's correct.
Unknown Speaker: You can't give them away.
Mr. Mezibov: Not according to 911-17, but our publications cannot be distributed on city streets by any means, newsracks or otherwise.
Unknown Speaker: Couldn't you distribute them by adding them as inserts to the newspapers?
Mr. Mezibov: If our publishers were to buy space in the city newspapers, that potentially could happen, but that would change our entire means of operation, and also, of course, there's never any guarantee that newspapers will accept advertising from all advertisers.
So it may well be that if we are banned from newsracks and banned from distributing by hand or otherwise in public areas, we may be totally banned from distributing our publications throughout the city by any means.
Unknown Speaker: What if the city were to provide in an ordinance that the only way you can put a newsrack... anybody, newspaper, flyer, or anything else, on a city street is to lease the space from the city, since it owns the space?
Mr. Mezibov: Well, I think that would present a large problem for publishers such as ours who do not have the financial wherewithal--
Unknown Speaker: Yes, lots of laws do present financial problems to people in business.
Would this law be unconstitutional?
Mr. Mezibov: --I believe that there is underlying the right to distribute speech in public areas the right to erect newspapers, unless--
Unknown Speaker: The right to just take over public property?
Mr. Mezibov: --Mr. Chief Justice, I don't believe that if a city has a scheme of regulation by which publishers are licensed to use space in accordance with terms established by the city that they are appropriating public property for private purposes.
Unknown Speaker: But supposing the city just repeals all its present ordinances and says, you know, they've got us into a lot of litigation, one case went all the way to the Supreme Court, we're just going to have a flat regulation that first-come, first-served, anybody who wants to put a newsrack on public property can do so, so long as they pay the fair value of the lease for the period of time they're occupying it.
Mr. Mezibov: Depending on the amount of money needed to get that leasehold, Your Honor, I suppose the city might be able to do that, so long as that scheme is not contrary to public forum considerations.
After all, newsracks--
Unknown Speaker: Does the public forum doctrine require the city to let private people appropriate public property indefinitely?
Mr. Mezibov: --Public forum doctrine speaks to a tradition in this country, which is that people expect to see and be seen and hear and be heard on public streets.
Newsracks meet the expectations and needs of citizens.
They're found in virtually every city.
They're found on many street corners.
That's because people expect to find them there.
People use them.
The use of newsracks I don't believe, Mr. Chief Justice, is contrary to the purposes of cities regulating streets.
It seems to be a consistent application.
Unknown Speaker: Well, very likely because the cities know that people want to buy, have newsracks available, but I don't think that answers the question of whether the cities might charge the fair value of a year-to-year lease for that small bit of property.
Mr. Mezibov: Again, I think perhaps that problem may be addressed by whether or not the amount of money charged is placing too large a burden on speech.
If the amount of money would not be such as to prohibit or prevent all speakers from using that leasehold, then perhaps in those circumstances that might be a constitutional ordinance.
Unknown Speaker: What if the city has a large auditorium that it makes available to private groups and you have to lease the auditorium.
You have to pay for the janitorial service, the lights, and so forth, and one group says, well, we want to use this auditorium, but we just can't afford that price, even though we concede it's fair value.
Do you think they have a constitutional right to use that auditorium?
Mr. Mezibov: Your Honor, I have not considered that issue in the context of this case because our case is in part a public forum case.
I'm not sure that the Chief Justice's--
Unknown Speaker: Well, Mr. Mezibov, downstairs in the public areas of this building there's a little section set aside where there are three or four newsracks.
Now, is it your position that it would be unconstitutional for this Court to refuse to provide additional newsracks for commercial speech such as your clients have here, or can we limit that space somehow and say, we have a very small space, and we have to allocate it somehow so we're going to allocate it only to fully protected speech?
Mr. Mezibov: --Justice O'Connor, your question poses a hypothetical which is not present in our case, that being limited resources.
It's important to note that in this--
Unknown Speaker: Well, what is your answer?
Mr. Mezibov: --The answer is, in the absence of limited resources--
Unknown Speaker: Well, if there are limited resources, what is your answer... limited space?
Mr. Mezibov: --That it may be necessary for the Court or for the governing body to make some distinctions.
Unknown Speaker: Can you draw the line on the basis of commercial versus noncommercial speech--
Mr. Mezibov: I think that--
Unknown Speaker: --In that circumstance?
Mr. Mezibov: --The answer is, I'm not sure.
It may be of such a limited space that--
Unknown Speaker: Assuming it's viewpoint neutral, just all commercial speech, no.
Mr. Mezibov: --The Court has placed a higher priority on noncommercial speech, that we know, but only when it is necessary to regulate.
Unknown Speaker: Well, in a sense, aren't city streets a finite resource?
At some point they're too cluttered, or they interfere with traffic, or what-have-you.
Can the city make that kind of a distinction out on the streets?
Mr. Mezibov: That situation has not presented itself in Cincinnati, but it could be that we get down to a last street corner, and I would suggest that in those circumstances what the city with a governing body must do is develop objective, content-neutral criteria to determine who that final speaker will be on that street corner.
Unknown Speaker: Well, the content-neutral criteria is all commercial speech.
We're not going to allow it.
Mr. Mezibov: I don't believe that would be a content-neutral distinction.
If here, for example, the problem with our publications is that it's commercial speech, then the city ought to... and I'm not suggesting this is what they ought to do, but to be fair they should ban all commercial speech, that contained in our publications and that which falls out of the daily newspapers on a daily basis.
They've not chosen to do that, nor have they chosen... what they have chosen to do is make a distinction based on content, which does not meet the city's real needs.
Unknown Speaker: Mr. Mezibov, I guess I don't understand your position, then.
I had thought from your briefs that your answer to Justice O'Connor's question would have been that you do not acknowledge... you do not acknowledge that commercial speech is not fully protected speech in the same sense that all speech is... I mean, in one sense no speech is fully protected speech, because it can't be given everywhere.
There are restrictions that can be placed as to time, place, and manner.
I thought that's what your brief said, that commercial speech is speech, and it's entitled to constitutional protections.
Mr. Mezibov: It is our position that--
Unknown Speaker: It can be limited more than other speech only because of particular dangers that commercial speech may have and with respect to those particular dangers, but when those particular dangers are not present, it has to be treated like other speech.
I thought that's what your brief said, but it's certainly not what your answer says.
Your answer says now that in our building here we can say no commercial speech, just noncommercial speech.
We can do that.
Mr. Mezibov: --No, it is our position--
Unknown Speaker: It depends on how much space we have for racks, you now tell us.
Mr. Mezibov: --What I said in response to Justice O'Connor, Justice Scalia, is that there may be such a limited resource situation not present in the case we have here--
Unknown Speaker: I thought your whole case was that limitation of resources has nothing to do with the distinction between commercial and noncommercial.
Fraud does, prior permission perhaps does, but certainly not space.
Commercial and noncommercial take up just as much space.
Isn't your answer totally inconsistent with what you said in your brief?
Mr. Mezibov: --Mr. Justice Scalia, I believe... I did not make myself as clear as I should have.
I believe that in a limited resource situation the governing body should develop objective, content neutral basis to make that decision about what speaker is there, and perhaps I did misspeak or did not speak as clearly as I should have.
Unknown Speaker: And content neutral means no distinction between commercial and noncommercial.
Mr. Mezibov: Unless there is a reason to grant--
Unknown Speaker: Yes.
Mr. Mezibov: --To make that distinction, which is not present here.
Unknown Speaker: With respect to space or aesthetics, there is no such reason, isn't that your point?
Mr. Mezibov: That's correct.
Unknown Speaker: Okay.
What about the reason the Chief Justice suggested, that if it's given away free it's more apt to be tossed on the sidewalk than if you have to pay for it.
Mr. Mezibov: There's absolutely--
Unknown Speaker: Maybe it isn't a sufficient reason, but at least it would be a reason, wouldn't it?
Mr. Mezibov: --There's absolutely nothing here in the record to establish--
Unknown Speaker: Oh, I understand that.
We're off in the realm of hypotheticals here today.
Mr. Mezibov: --Thank you.
Unknown Speaker: None of this has anything to do with this case, really.
It's just fun.
Do you understand my question?
Mr. Mezibov: I do.
Unknown Speaker: And you would agree that at least is a reason.
If you said 25 cents or more, it's less apt to be litter than if it's free stuff.
Mr. Mezibov: I could, but Mr. Justice Stevens, I think I could also say that maybe the best things in life are free, in response to your question, and that is there's no record here to establish that that happens--
Unknown Speaker: I understand that, and there's no record here to show there's a--
Mr. Mezibov: --And there's no reason to believe that that necessarily happens.
Unknown Speaker: --They never approach the scarcity limit that they seem to me would have to have to justify what they're doing.
Mr. Mezibov: Justice Stevens, if someone goes to the newsrack to take out one of our publications, I think we can draw the inference that-they want that publication because it affords them information about educational and economic opportunities which are valuable to them and they will take that with them just as they would a daily newspaper.
Unknown Speaker: Nobody will pick it up just out of curiosity and say I wonder what this is.
People do that with free things in all sorts of places.
They pick it up, look at it, and see if they're not interested.
Mr. Mezibov: Well, in this situation they have to go to the box and remove it.
It's not being foisted upon them.
Unknown Speaker: No, I understand.
Mr. Mezibov, I would have thought your answer to that question would have been that whether you charge for it or not has nothing to do with whether or not it's commercial speech.
Newspapers are not commercial speech and they are generally charged for.
Mr. Mezibov: That's correct.
Unknown Speaker: Some types of purely advertising brochures, I think there are real estate things or automobile things that you pay money for even though it's all advertising.
Mr. Mezibov: Yes, whether or not you charge or do not charge does not make something commercial or noncommercial.
Unknown Speaker: You have no problem with charging... with a law that says you have to charge for it, do you?
No boxes unless you pay for them.
Mr. Mezibov: If that price, as I indicated before, does not place too large a burden on one speaker or another, if it's an inordinate price, or if it's used to discriminate against one speaker than another, if it serves a legitimate purpose, if 25 cents per box was--
Unknown Speaker: Yes, but 25 cents a box you'll let all the newspapers on the stand, they won't let your publications on.
You wouldn't want this if you had to... if people had to pay 25 cents for your publication.
Mr. Mezibov: --No, we would not.
Unknown Speaker: So a 25 percent charge would have the exact same effect as this ordinance has--
Mr. Mezibov: If the 25--
Unknown Speaker: --In this case.
Mr. Mezibov: --That's correct, it could, although in this situation the regulatory scheme doesn't just place a burden with respect to newsracks, the city would have us off the city streets entirely, by any means.
I should also point out that in this situation there were 62 newsracks utilized by Harmon and Discovery's publishers, whereas 2,000 newsracks approximately would be permitted to remain on the city streets, according to the city's enforcement of this regulatory scheme.
In effect, as the lower courts have found, this scheme is an ineffective means of regulation.
It never directly advances any legitimate governmental interest, because when our 62 are removed, we can anticipate that they will be replaced by 62 supposed noncommercial speakers, the daily newspapers.
Unknown Speaker: Did you dispute in the courts below that your publication was commercial speech?
Mr. Mezibov: We disputed it in the district court level.
We did not appeal the district court's decision that we are commercial speakers.
Unknown Speaker: So that issue in this case is just not open.
You didn't carry it up to the court of appeals.
Mr. Mezibov: --No, we did not.
We feel that this case can be properly decided on Central Hudson bases, that both the district court and the court of appeals properly applied Central Hudson--
Unknown Speaker: Well, did your publication contain an offer of sale?
Mr. Mezibov: --There are two publications here, Justice White, the Harmon Homes contains real estate listings, a picture of a real estate offering, price information about that, as well as, from time to time, additional information.
Discovery's publication has information concerning its course listings.
Unknown Speaker: So I suppose at least the first publication you describe really fits the definition of commercial speech.
Mr. Mezibov: To the extent the definition of commercial speech means proposes a commercial transaction, then indeed it does.
Unknown Speaker: While you acknowledge that you do not have presented before us whether you are commercial speech, you also claim, however, that you are free to argue here that newspapers are as much commercial speech as you are.
Mr. Mezibov: That's correct.
That's one of the problems with this scheme, is that it is devoid of any meaningful standards.
Finally, the city has argued that the regulations in this case are content-neutral.
That contention is unsupported by the record.
First, the regulation is directed expressly and explicitly at commercial speech.
Second, only publications with commercial speech has been banned from newsracks.
Unknown Speaker: Well, isn't your strongest argument on the lack of content neutrality that when you make a distinction between commercial and noncommercial which is not for the purposes for which the commercial speech regulation has been accepted by this Court, that that is by definition a content-based distinction?
I mean, you don't have to go any further than that, do you?
Mr. Mezibov: That's correct, Justice Souter.
The city by invoking this ordinance has made a content-based--
Unknown Speaker: Whereas if the city were regulating fraud in commercial speech, it would not be invalid simply because... as content-based.
Mr. Mezibov: --That's correct.
Unknown Speaker: Yes.
Mr. Mezibov: That's correct.
Unknown Speaker: May I ask one last question?
Your opponents have given us amended regulation 38 at the end of their brief, which I guess is something that came later, signed by Sylvester Murray.
Is he the city manager?
Mr. Mezibov: He was a previous city manager.
Unknown Speaker: Is there something in the record that defines the scope of the authority of a city manager?
Do we know what... is he kind of like a czar who can do anything he wants to--
Or is there some limitation on his power?
Mr. Mezibov: I'm not sure that that is clear in the record.
Unknown Speaker: Well, doesn't one of the ordinances give the city manager some... and provided further that newspapers of general circulation in the City of Cincinnati be sold from racks, containers and bags, attached to poles, a-da-da, in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the city manager.
Mr. Mezibov: There's no question that the city manager can promulgate the rules and regulations.
I misunderstood the earlier question.
I understood it had to do with interpretation.
The city manager does promulgate the rules and regulations, and it appears to be left to other city officials to interpret and apply those rules and regulations.
In this case, it would have been the city engineer, primarily, who had responsibility to interpret and then apply the regulations.
Chief Justice Rehnquist: Thank you, Mr. Mezibov.
The case is submitted.
Argument of Speaker
Mr. Speaker: The opinion of the Court in No. 91-1200, Cincinnati versus Discovery Network will be announced by Justice Stevens.
Argument of Justice Stevens
Mr. Stevens: Respondent, Discovery Network, provides adult educational, recreational, and social programs in the Cincinnati area.
It distributes a free magazine consisting primarily of promotional materials pertaining to its courses.
Respondent Harmon Publishing Company publishes and distributes a free magazine that advertises real estate for sale in the greater Cincinnati area.
In 1989, the City of Cincinnati granted respondents permission to place 62 free standing newsracks at various locations throughout the city to be used to distribute their magazines.
About a year later, however, the City reversed its course motivated by its interest in the safety and attractive appearance of its streets and sidewalks, the City revoke respondent's permits.
The City relied on a preexisting ordinance that barred the distribution of commercial handbills on a public property.
It made no effort, however, to limit the almost 2000 newsracks on Cincinnati sidewalks that are used to distribute newspapers.
Respondents brought this action in Federal District Court claiming that the City's actions were inconsistent with the First Amendment.
Both the District Court and the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit agreed holding that the City's categorically ban on the distribution of "commercial handbills" by a newsrack violated the reasonable fit standard applicable to regulations of commercial speech that we have recently articulated in Board of Trustees of the State and University of New York against Fox.
For the reasons stated in the opinion filed today with the Clerk of this Court, we affirm the Court of Appeals.
The City's outdated ordinance barring the distribution of commercial handbills, was enacted long before any concern about newsracks developed, where the apparent purpose of preventing the kind of visual blight caused by littering rather than any harm associated with permanent freestanding dispensing devices.
The fact that the City failed to address its recently developed concerned about newsracks by regulating their size, their shape, their appearance or number indicates that the City has not carefully calculated the costs and benefits associated with its regulation as required by our decision in Fox.
We agree with the District Court and the Court of Appeals that the benefit to be derived from the removal of 62 newsracks while almost 2000 remain in placed is miniscule.
We reject the City's argument that because every decrease in the overall number of newsracks necessarily affects an increase in safety and esthetics, the validity of its ban on newsracks distributing commercial handbills is not undermined by its failure to similarly restrict newsracks distributing newspapers.
The City's argument is based on the premise that commercial speech has only a low value and therefore commercial speech can always be subject to discriminatory treatment.
In our view, however, the City attaches more importance to the distinction between commercial and non commercial speech than our cases warrant and seriously underestimates the value of commercial speech.
In the absence of some basis for distinguishing between newspapers and commercial handbills that is relevant to the City's asserted intereset in safety in esthetics we are unwilling to recognize Cincinnati's bare assertion that the low value of commercial speech a sufficient justification for its selective and categorically ban on newsracks dispensing commercial handbills.
Justice Blackmun has filed the concurring opinion; the Chief Justice has filed a dissenting opinion in which Justice White and Justice Thomas have joined. | <urn:uuid:4fd4f3c5-5f69-4fb0-859d-530283315ffe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oyez.org/cases/1990-1999/1992/1992_91_1200 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9615 | 13,768 | 1.5625 | 2 |
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Our education initiatives focus on inclusion and participation for the most marginalised communities in Nepal and Vietnam and have resulted in the establishment of school committees, parent-teacher associations and improved child-centred learning methodologies. | <urn:uuid:a9a494f9-26df-4e2d-ad17-1136e79d3096> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.actionaid.ie/who-we-are/where-your-money-goes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9608 | 270 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Lucas said he is hopeful the farm bill can be extended for one year.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates it would cost $986 million to renew and extend the 2008 farm law for the rest of fiscal 2013, according to a document issued Sunday night.
House leaders have posted such an extension, along with two one-month bills — all unnumbered — and members could consider any one of them as early as Monday.
The longer-term extension also includes nearly $850 million in disaster aid, and would fund a series of expired programs by trimming projected spending on direct payments by $1.3 billion over 10 years.
The CBO said that direct payments scheduled to be issued in October — the start of fiscal 2014 — would be trimmed to 82.5 percent of costs and account for a savings of $146 million in outlays.
The extension through the remainder of fiscal 2013 also would include several “orphan” programs that were in the 2008 farm bill (PL 110-246) but which lost their mandatory funding.
Leaders may be testing the political waters by floating the options to see which one could garner the votes to pass. All three would put on hold a return to 1949 permanent law, delaying the so-called dairy cliff that is set to occur Jan. 1. If Congress does not extend 2008 law or address the issue in some way, the cost of dairy price supports would double, raising the possibility that milk prices eventually could increase to $8 a gallon.
“Clearly, it is no longer possible to enact a five-year farm bill in this Congress,” House Agriculture Chairman Frank D. Lucas, R-Okla., said in a statement. “Given this reality, the responsible thing to do — and the course of action I have long encouraged if a five-year bill was not possible — is to extend the 2008 legislation for one year. This provides certainty to our producers and critical disaster assistance to those affected by record drought conditions.”
The one-year version actually would run through the remaining nine months of fiscal 2013 and represents an agreement among the House and Senate farm bill writers, according to Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
She said that measure would include an extension of the direct payment program in the 2008 law.
Until now, Stabenow, D-Mich., has steadfastly opposed an extension of current law, pressing instead for enactment of a new, five-year measure that would change the direction of agriculture support programs. But as the year draws to a close, Stabenow says it has become clear that her goal will not be reached in time to avoid the impending disruptions to the dairy market that would occur if 1949 law goes into effect.
“If a new Farm Bill is not passed in the next few days, Agriculture Committee leaders in both chambers and both parties have developed a responsible short-term Farm Bill extension that not only stops milk prices from spiking, but also prevents eventual damage to our entire agriculture economy,” she said in a written statement.
“If a new Farm Bill doesn’t pass this Congress we’ll soon hold another markup and just keep working until one is enacted next year,” she added.
The one-year option would include a version of the dairy insurance and stabilization programs in the House and Senate farm bills (HR 6083, S 3240). The International Dairy Foods Association has fought the stabilization program as a supply control device to prop up milk prices by encouraging farmers to reduce milk production to avoid price-depressing surpluses.
House Speaker John A. Boehner, who has had little to say publicly about the farm bill, has also criticized the new dairy programs.
Defenders such as Stabenow and Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, say past dairy programs have provided inadequate financial protection to dairy farmers, and the insurance program coupled with the stabilization plan would create a strong safety net.
On Sunday, Peterson said he backed the longer extension because it includes the new dairy programs.
“Given House Republican leaders’ repeated opposition to a five-year farm bill, House and Senate Agriculture Committee leadership has worked together to write an extension of the 2008 farm bill which includes much-needed reforms to the dairy industry,” he said.
Peterson called the proposals for one-month extensions “a poor joke on farmers that offers no certainty, just more empty promises from the Republican leadership.”
One of the shorter-term bills would extend current farm programs with some exceptions and the other is a one-month extension of current dairy programs.
“The legislation posted is the result of discussions with ranking member Peterson and my colleagues in the Senate,” Lucas said. “It is not perfect — no compromise ever is — but it is my sincere hope that it will pass the House and Senate and be signed by the president by Jan. 1.”
The one-year extension would also renew and extend agriculture disaster assistance programs that expired on Sept. 30, 2011, a year before most of the 2008 farm bill did.
Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, found the CBO report reassuring although he said he still has questions about the extension’s treatment of two programs.
“While we question the way the bill was drafted, we are delighted it provides 2013 funding for beginning farmers, rural development, minority farmer outreach, specialty crop and organic research, direct farmer to consumer markets, and a variety of other programs,” Hoefner said in a statement. “We are still awaiting word as to whether the bill would also allow USDA to resume sign-ups and sign contracts with farmers for the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Conservation Reserve Program-Transition Incentive Program.”
Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, arrives for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the investigation of the IRS' targeting of political groups. Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify and caused a protest from some committee members when she offered an opening statement and engaged in dialogue with members before invoking the right.
Roll Call has launched a new feature, Hill Navigator, to advise congressional staffers and would-be staffers on how to manage workplace issues on Capitol Hill. Please send us your questions anything from office etiquette, to handling awkward moments, to what happens when the work life gets too personal. Submissions will be treated anonymously. | <urn:uuid:f146f988-efa6-4cc2-b907-d969d55dbc07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rollcall.com/news/house_sets_up_three_options_to_extend_farm_programs-220414-1.html?zkPrintable=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959611 | 1,334 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Dawson used his research leave to work on two books for the gifted student market:
Supplemental Mathematics for the Curious: Number Theory and
Supplemental Mathematics for the Curious: Number Systems. As the titles imply, these are not primary textbooks. Dawson's goal was to create a resource for advanced students who need extra challenges. He hopes these first two books lead to a series of titles "for the curious," and he says his research leave provided the time necessary to get started.
Dawson: "I learned through this time how to pace myself, how to go through the writing process for a book in a way that now I might be able to spend some summers writing additional books-which the publisher wants me to do." | <urn:uuid:8d56c97c-73e8-4b16-9534-87c2ed56bf10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uu.edu/audio/detail.cfm?ID=500 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965096 | 149 | 1.625 | 2 |
The stealthy, jet-powered Predator-C UAV may be heading for Afghanistan, where it will be operated by “a classified customer,” presumably the CIA. The U.S. Air Force published a procurement notice stating its intention to award a sole-source contract to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) for a single aircraft to serve as “a test platform” in a “multi-agency role” as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
War on Terrorism
The U.S. Air National Guard is conducting training flights with the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft system (UAS) in restricted airspace around Fort Drum in western New York State, where an Air Guard wing has established the first such Reaper flight school.
The targeting by American Predator and Reaper UAVs of terrorists along the Afghan-Pakistan border is being aided by GPS tracking devices placed covertly in the suspects’ vehicles, according to media reports.
A new version of the General Atomics Predator/Reaper UAV series with multiple sensor control is ready for deployment to Afghanistan after successful trials. A U.S. Army MQ-1C Gray Eagle was fitted with two additional EO/IR sensors under each wing.
Four American companies will demonstrate concepts for an unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) aircraft to the U.S. Navy.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency is displaying the Guardian, a maritime variant of the MQ-9 Predator B unmanned aircraft system (UAS) at the Paris Air Show.
Northrop Grumman unveiled a new optionally piloted vehicle in the medium-altitude, long-endurance (Male) class, which is currently dominated by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems with its Predator/Reaper series. The Firebird will fly in piloted and multisensor configuration later this month at Empire Challenge 2011, a military intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) exercise hosted by the U.S.
In a significant move, the U.S. government has cleared an unarmed version of the Predator UAV for wider export, including to the Middle East. Until now, the Predator and Reaper series has been exported only to the UK and Italy, and offered to a few other U.S. allies. Long-endurance UAVs are included in the Missile Technology Control Regime (MCTR), a voluntary 34-nation agreement.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) recently completed flight tests of its new Lynx advanced multi-channel radar (AMR) on its own Predator B unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The AMR combines the functions of a synthetic aperture radar and a ground moving target indicator.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) chose the Navy League convention to introduce a carrier-capable version of its Predator C UAV. GA-ASI has proposed the Sea Avenger for the emerging U.S. Navy Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System (UClass). It is based on the jet-powered, stealthy development of the Predator series that GA-ASI has funded through design, development and into flight test. | <urn:uuid:97dc331f-5555-4c84-bd40-0d7fea137783> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ainonline.com/social-tags/war-terrorism?page=1 | 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 | 0.933606 | 674 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Indiana Senate approves right-to-work bill
By TOM LoBIANCO, Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Lawmakers put Indiana on the verge of becoming the Rust Belt's first right-to-work state, passing legislation Wednesday that prohibits labor contracts requiring workers to pay union representation fees.
Hundreds of union members gathered at the Statehouse chanted "Shame on you!" and "See you at the Super Bowl!" as the vote was announced. As the streets of Indianapolis bustled with Super Bowl festivities, protesters planned a downtown rally that they hoped would point a national spotlight on the state.
Indiana will be the first state in a decade to enact a right-to-work law prohibiting labor contracts that require workers to pay union representation fees. Indiana's move is expected to embolden national right-to-work advocates, who have unsuccessfully pushed the measure in other states following a Republican sweep of statehouses in 2010. But few right-to-work states boast Indiana's union clout, borne of a long manufacturing legacy.
The law's passage would close one chapter in a contentious debate that sparked a five-week walkout by outnumbered House Democrats last year and saw them stage numerous boycotts this session, delaying action on other bills and threatening to spill over into the Feb. 5 Super Bowl.
The Republican-controlled Senate approved the bill in a 28-22 vote Wednesday morning. The bill now heads for the desk of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who has said he will sign it upon arrival.
Union protesters said they were not ready to be silenced.
Chuck Wheeldon of Lafayette, wearing a Super Bowl 2012 baseball cap, said he was glad Indianapolis was hosting the game in a stadium that many of his fellow carpenters union members helped build.
"I don't want to ruin it for anybody, but I definitely want everybody around the rest of the country to know what the heck is going on," Wheeldon said. "If we cause a little ruckus, so be it."
Daniels said this week that it would be a "colossal mistake" for union protesters to disrupt Super Bowl festivities and that any such move could backfire on them.
Indiana AFL-CIO spokesman Jeff Harris said protesters planned to hand out leaflets before Sunday's game.
Supporters say right to work helps create a pro-business climate that attracts employers and increases jobs. Opponents say it leads to lower wages and poorer quality jobs, and they accused Republicans of rushing the bill through to avoid disrupting the Super Bowl.
But with Republicans outnumbering Democrats in the House and Senate, and House Democrats facing stiff fines if they walked out for a lengthy period as they did last year, opponents had few opportunities to stop the bill.
Testifying against the bill Wednesday, Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington, said there was no evidence that right to work created jobs and likened the bill's fate to the Super Bowl, but with one team playing at a huge disadvantage.
"Our side has fewer men on the field, and our team doesn't have pads or helmets," Simpson said. "We already know what the final score is going to be."
Experts say many factors influence states' economies and that it's nearly impossible to isolate the impact of right to work. For major industries, access to supplies, infrastructure, key markets and a skilled workforce are key factors, according to business recruitment specialists. For a state's workers, the impact of right-to-work legislation is limited because only about 7 percent of private sector employees are unionized. Over the years, job growth has surged in states with, and without, right-to-work laws.
Oklahoma, with its rural-based economy that produces comparatively fewer union jobs than Indiana, was the last state to pass right-to-work legislation, in 2001.
Over the past year, Republicans have pushed for other anti-union laws in battleground Rust Belt states where many of the country's manufacturing jobs reside, including Wisconsin and Ohio, but they also have faced backlash from Democrats and union supporters. Wisconsin last year stripped public sector unions of collective bargaining rights.
Despite massive protests outside the Capitol, Wisconsin's GOP-dominated Assembly passed a law backed by Gov. Scott Walker in March that strips nearly all collective bargaining rights from organized labor. Walker is now preparing for a recall election after opponents turned in a million signatures aimed at forcing a vote and ousting him from office. In November, Ohio voters repealed a law limiting collective bargaining rights that was championed by Gov. John Kasich and fellow Republican lawmakers.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) | <urn:uuid:1d8c688b-26c3-48df-b8ac-4506f529fd56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/02/01/indiana-senate-approves-right-to-work-bill | 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 | 0.963699 | 948 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Gaming and viewing experience will never be the same again after the release of Oculus Rift sometime on March 2013. People who donated and supported to finance the innovation of this head mounted display are dying to get a hold of the device which promises to give console experiences a touch of virtual reality.
What makes it different from other head-mounted accessories? Oculus Rift will add more field of view (FOV) by incorporating a non-standard optics which will deform images perceived on the screen such that the user will see a non-planar view of the game.
The imaging capabilities sounds complex and too techy but the Oculus LCC developer made the FOV display more accessible to the masses on customer-friendly deals. The project was made possible due to the collective efforts of people like John Carmack (Doom series developer) who funded the technological research. Overall, the Kickstarter Campaign for Oculus Rift solicited more than $2.4 million from 9,522 backers.
What causes the delay? The team wants to ship at least 7,500 kits at the first release but they also added that the devices will continue their productions. As of now, the key specs of the display are the 1280 x 800 pixel employed on a 7-inch LCD. Unfortunately, not all games support this virtual reality viewing gadget. Doom 3 BFG Edition, Quake, Dream, Hawken, Kairo and Montague’s Mount are some of the video games that are compatible with Oculus Rift. | <urn:uuid:d720f91b-bb43-4237-86a3-cb63d1cfe558> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techgadgetsreview.net/oculus-rift-virtual-reality-headset-release-date-delayed/15745 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937384 | 298 | 1.773438 | 2 |
I came across the term "Block Testing" in the book "How We Test At Microsoft". I can't really see how this should be applied, should you do this instead of statement testing? From what I understand if you do statement testing then you essentially have done block testing.
The difference between statement coverage and block coverage is in the math. Take this example:
In that example, there are two blocks of code (the true side of the statement and the false side). If the first statement (DoThis();) of the true block executes, then the following two lines will execute (assuming no exceptions).
The math behind block coverage (for those who care about that sort of thing) is concerned with how many blocks have executed. There are two blocks in this code sample, so testing one block (e.g. the true side of the if condition) would give you 50% block coverage.
The math behind statement coverage is concerned with how many of the total statements have been covered. The true side of the if condition has 3 of the 4 statements in this excerpt, so writing one test that covers the true case has 75% statement coverage.
In the end, the math doesn't really matter. The reason to measure coverage isn't to produce a number - it's to help you discover what areas of the code are not covered by your testing so you can determine if more testing is needed. In other words, coverage testing is a method of discovering new tests. | <urn:uuid:177530a0-b7f6-44ea-bc95-f22508e298da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sqa.stackexchange.com/questions/801/what-are-the-benefits-of-block-testing/812 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960254 | 300 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The SCTE said it will have drafts of proposed standards on cable system energy management it has been working on for the past year ready by mid-September.
The organization's Sustainability Management Subcommittee (SMS) plans to unveil drafts of its first two standards at its meeting on Sept. 15 in Dallas.
SMS 001 is proposed as the standard for "Recommended Energy Conservation, Sustainability and Efficiency Practices for Critical Systems," and SMS 002 is for "Product Environmental Requirements for Cable Telecommunications Facilities."
The latter proposal addresses such considerations as temperature, humidity, electromagnetic interference and environmental design.
To be held immediately following the SCTE's Sept. 14 semi-annual Smart Energy Management Initiative (SEMI) Forum, the SMS meeting will enable subcommittee members to play active roles in shaping standards that will help to reduce the cost and environmental impact of cable network operations and service delivery.
In addition, attendees are expected to address the creation of standards for power availability of hardware that comes to market in 2013 and beyond.
"Standards that can help operators power advanced communication networks with greater effectiveness and reliability and with less cost and environmental impact are among the most important under development today," said Dan Cooper, chairman of the SCTE Sustainability Management Subcommittee and senior director of technical operations for Time Warner Cable. "It's important to the future of our industry that operators and vendors with a stake in the energy management and power availability areas participate actively in the SMS process to ensure that all points of view are given consideration."
The event will follow the SEMI Forum, hosted by CommScope, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Topics under consideration for the SEMI Forum include:
- Business/commercial services power and availability needs
- Software-Defined Energy Management (SDEM) systems
- Transactional-based energy consumption
- Cloud services and their impact on energy reduction
- Generator and power service considerations for high availability of power
- Environmentally friendly hybrid powering systems that can drive down opex and keep the network operational.
Abstracts related to the above topics are due Aug. 19 and may be sent to Derek DiGiacomo, senior director of information systems and energy management programs for the SCTE, at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:e4fae941-b23f-4dda-b546-fd887544affd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cedmagazine.com/news/2011/07/scte-making-progress-on-'green'-standards?qt-multimedia_module=0&qt-most_popular=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936525 | 470 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Virgin Records 1972-1983
With limited growth in the mail order business, Virgin is now concentrating on opening more record shops, with one in every major city around England, and attracting big artists to record at The Manor – including Paul McCartney.
The next logical business step? A record label. If Virgin can offer somewhere to record and somewhere to promote and sell records - surely they should be able to publish their records? Everything a rock star needs.
Richard’s buyer for Virgin Records, Simon Draper, has been the key to the success of the shop. His discerning antennae had established Virgin Records as the shop buy music. He has picked out the hippest bands that don’t sell in the mainstream shops. So it is with Simon that Richard sets up Virgin Music in 1972. Their first signing? Mike Oldfield. Spotting Mike as a session musician for a singer recording at the Manor, Richard and Simon send Mike to live there so he can record when the studio is free.
Richard rents Mike the complete set of instruments he needs – from guitar to glockenspiel, and mandolin to mellotron – as well as a set of tubular bells for £20.
May 25 1973. Amid the likes of David Bowie, Suzi Quatro, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, Lou Reed, Roxy Music and Pink Floyd, Virgin releases its first four albums: 'Flying Teapot' by Gong, 'The Faust Tapes' by Faust, 'Manor Live' sessions featuring Elkie Brookes, and Mike Oldfield’s 'Tubular Bells'.
At first, no radio station takes any notice of a 45 minute piece of music without any words but, after Richard has personally played it to him, influential Radio 1 DJ John Peel broadcasts Tubular Bells on his late-night Top Gear show. Now the phones start ringing with orders.
Bucking the industry trend by not doing a licensing deal with a larger label, Richard & Simon take a gamble and instead retain the copyright and do all of the marketing, promotion and selling themselves. The gamble pays off, sales of 'Tubular Bells' shoot to over a million copies and the team makes a lot of money. Richard then secures a $1 million dollar deal with a massive royalty to sell the record in the States. Richard is 23 years old and Tubular Bells is the most celebrated album of 1973.
‘Virgin began to sign up new bands on the back of Mike Oldfield’s success. The bulk of these would inevitably fail. We still paid ourselves tiny wages; we still all lived in each other’s pocket and we reinvested all the money we earned in new artists and building up the company.’ Richard Branson, Losing My Virginity
But over the next couple of years, Virgin fails to sign more big sellers and runs out of cash. Assets are sold, staff laid off and artists dropped.
Richard is determined to sign bands at the forefront of the new music revolution: Punk. Everyone knows The Sex Pistols and the furore they are causing in the British press, and they have just been dropped by their second scandal-wary record company. It is the eve of the Silver Jubilee and Richard knows the band want to release 'God Save The Queen'. Virgin is the only record label who will sign them. Over 100,000 copies sold in one week and Virgin is back in business.
November 1977 and Virgin releases 'Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols' – proudly on display in the windows its record shops. One Virgin shop manager is arrested under the Indecent Advertisements Act, but the case is dismissed in court.
Virgin has become the smart choice for punk and new wave acts to sign to and the record label picks up The Motors, XTC, The Skids, Magazine, Penetration and The Human League, as well as a host of reggae acts Richard signs on a trip to Jamaica.
Run by a skeleton staff in a small mews house in Vernon Yard, London, Richard’s ambition sees them successfully launch in to the French market with Julien Clerc and Telephone. However, Virgin is still struggling.
Margaret Thatcher is now prime minister and the UK economy is in recession. An attempt to launch Virgin in America fails and the company looses £900,000.
But soon the home-grown roster of Japan, Ian Gillen, XTC, China Crisis, Heaven 17 and Simple Minds all become bestsellers. Phil Collins debut 'Face Value' and The Human League’s 'Dare' turn’s Virgin’s fortunes around. Then in comes Boy George and Culture Club.
‘The BBC refused to interview Boy George, calling him a transvestite. Then we heard about a cancellation on Top Of The Pops. We did everything we could to get Boy George into that slot and when Top Of The Pops finally agreed we suspected we had a sensation in the making. The next day the telephones rang off the desks and the orders for the single came pouring in. 'Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?' Reached number one and when George announced that he preferred a cup of tea to sex he became an international icon.’ Richard Branson, Losing My Virginity
Virgin makes a £2 million profit.
Virgin makes an £11 million profit. 40% of profits come from Culture Club.
Richard spends the next few years launching Virgin in to the travel industry with Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays. | <urn:uuid:1ad94bfd-2339-4cbc-9ea0-456cc5a71962> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.virgin.com.au/history/virgin-records-1972-1983 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938564 | 1,151 | 1.6875 | 2 |
— Some Republicans now say they're willing to discuss the politically treacherous issue of gun control along with mental health issues and violent video games, while formerly pro-gun Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says it's time to place gun control on the table in the wake of the Connecticut mass killings.
House Republicans discussed the gun issue at their regular closed-door meeting Tuesday and at least some were willing to consider gun control as part of a solution to the violence that ended the lives of 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary school.
Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., a 10-term Republican, said after the meeting, "Put guns on the table, also put video games on the table, put mental health on the table."
But he added that nothing should be done immediately, saying, "There is a time for mourning and a time to sort it out. I look forward to sorting it out and getting past the grief stage."
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, made his suggestion for a blue ribbon commission of "all stakeholders" Monday. Reid, D-Nev., said "a thoughtful debate about how to change laws" is coming soon. And National Rifle Association member Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., agreed it's time to begin an honest discussion about gun control, and said he wasn't afraid of the political consequences.
It's too early to say what could emerge next year in Congress, but the comments of Grassley, Reid and Manchin are significant. Grassley is senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which probably would have the first crack at any gun control legislation. Reid sets the Senate schedule. And Manchin defied the NRA while the politically potent pro-gun group remained silent in the aftermath of Friday's massacre.
Grassley said Monday: "It certainly can't be a debate just about guns. There must also be a serious and thoughtful discussion on mental health issues" as well as a culture that "tends to be less civil now than it has been for a long period of time."
Meanwhile, the U.S. Conference of Mayors wrote the president and Congress calling for "stronger gun laws, a reversal of the culture of violence in this country, a commission to examine violence in the nation, and more adequate funding for the mental health system."
Specifically, the mayors asked for:
—A ban on assault weapons and other high-capacity magazines.
—Strengthening the national background check system.
—Strengthening the penalties for straw purchases of guns, in which legal buyers acquire weapons for other people.
The NRA has deep pockets and a scorecard to back lawmakers who support gun rights, but Manchin said Monday, "I'm not afraid to say, 'Let's talk about that.'" Manchin told reporters, "I'm not afraid of the political ramifications."
In an earlier statement Manchin said, "This awful massacre of our youngest children has changed us, and everything should be on the table." He added that the discussion should include mental health treatment, assault-style weapons, high-capacity magazines, video games, movies and a culture that seems to glorify violence.
Reid told the Senate, "In the coming days and weeks, we will engage in a meaningful conversation and thoughtful debate about how to change laws and culture that allow violence to grow." He added, "And every idea should be on the table as we discuss how best to do just that."
In July, after 12 people were murdered in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., Reid said the Senate's schedule was too packed to have a debate on gun control.
After 32 people were massacred in 2007 at Virginia Tech, Reid cautioned against a "rush to judgment" about new gun laws.
In 1993, Reid voted against a 10-year ban on assault-style weapons, but ultimately in favor of an omnibus crime bill that included the ban. But in 2004 he voted against an extension of the assault weapons ban, and the law died.
In 2010, top NRA official Wayne LaPierre called Reid "a true champion" of gun rights.
Rory Cooper, spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Monday: "Right now is the moment for prayer and supporting the families of Newtown. There will be time to debate policy in the weeks ahead."
Other Republicans said mental health, not guns, was the problem, and generally stayed away from a debate on gun control.
Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said: "We recognize those very demented, awkward people commit those crimes. We need to do a better job treating and looking at and finding people who have these problems. That's the issue. We have millions and millions of guns. Guns aren't the problem; sick people are."
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said: "There are just evil people in the world. There's nothing you're going to do to prevent evil from occurring." | <urn:uuid:6f015a50-fa33-4b51-9b0a-dfda16d15f12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mankatofreepress.com/breakingnews/x349504412/Republicans-say-gun-control-should-be-debated/print | 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 | 0.969306 | 1,020 | 1.75 | 2 |
Few songs in the world of music have “held on” like the theme from the movie, New York, New York. The familiar tune holds classic status thanks to a trio of vocalists. Liza Minnelli was the high-energy star in the movie, and recordings by Tony Bennett and the late Frank Sinatra also made it big.
Whatever, I want to focus on a couple of lines in the lyrics: “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”
Perhaps it is a cynical New Yorker, weary of the influx of visitors overwhelming NYC in the summer months, handing out copies of a cartoon on the subway. It reads: “If you can make it there, go back!”…
But millions who love to visit NYC are undeterred. They keep coming.
It is a city of intrigues because so many people want it to be. The big ladle in the world’s premiere melting pot continues to stir in the midst of hundreds of dialects. Someone said it’s a city where cultures and causes co-exist. Locals bark at each other daily, sometimes without a single bite.
Walking down Broadway for blocks on end, we catch ourselves whistling New York, New York over and again. As we near Ground Zero, rumbles and rattles, honks and whistles cease. As thousands pay respects daily to victims of the carnage that was 9/11, a hush prevails. A quiet hum of Amazing Grace falls from the lips of one guest; from another, there’s Danny Boy....
We walk for the better part of three hours with native New Yorker Milton Norman, a semi-retired attorney who, with 300 or so other volunteers, offers free tours under the banner of “Big Apple Greeters.”
A World War II veteran, he loves his city and its history, applauding laws that protect landmarks. We tour several such buildings, marveling at the restoration of Grand Central Station.
A spiritual moment reigns at St. Paul’s Chapel, directly across the street from Ground Zero. Miraculously, it sustained no damage—not even a cracked windowpane. Though some buildings crumbled or were heavily damaged blocks away, St. Paul’s was spared. Tombstones in the 242-year-old adjacent graveyard also remain 100% intact. A single sycamore tree, one of several massive trees on the premises, failed to survive….
Soon we return to sidewalks with teeming masses where push came to shove centuries ago. Now, hustle and bustle are locked in a dead heat.
We look and listen. Many of life’s best chapters are found on these sidewalks, in the shadows instead of the spotlight.
A family accompanying a youngster with her head heavily bandaged shares laughter. I catch snippets of their conversation, but here’s the bottom line: The teen has miraculously survived massive brain surgery. Her t-shirt message explains: “I have half a brain. What’s your excuse?”…
A city where one loses count when tallying honks and/or gestures, NYC provides many studies in contradictions. In one neighborhood, honking is discouraged by law.
In fact, dire straits might be a minimum defense for horn-blowing.
Signs warn of $350 fines for honking….
Ads are cutting-edge and definite head-turners. A pottery shop is called “Mud, Sweat and Tears.”
A laundromat sign encourages customers to carefully schedule filling of dirty clothes hampers.
The offer? “Free detergent on Tuesdays.”…
I’m always glad to meet folks who re-define optimism. Providing such redefinition is Adrian Greenidge, doorman at the swank Millennium Broadway Hotel since it opened 18 years ago.
He has “Good mornings/afternoons” for each of the thousands who pass his way daily. One year, he won top doorman honors in both NYC and New York State.
You may remember that back in ’06, Charles Gibson, then a Good Morning, America host, switched places with a hotel doorman for a few hours during GMA’s 30th anniversary show. Greenidge, now spotted on the Millennium’s TV ad, was that doorman….
Adrian remembers Gibson’s pitch to make the switch. He learned that the media celebrity arrives at work daily in a limousine.
The doorman said this would be just fine for him, too. So the limo driver picked him up, long before daylight, at Adrian’s home out in New Jersey.
While Adrian interviewed TV personalities, Charlie, decked out as a doorman, welcomed hotel guests and wrestled with luggage. Gibson said his chores that day were much tougher than TV duty….
Our reasons for traveling to NYC were two-fold. What with the gas crunch worsening, it seemed a good idea to combine two vacations on one plane ticket.
We wanted to enjoy the city AND take a Caribbean cruise. Luckily, Carnival Cruise Line’s Miracle leaves from Manhattan every eight days during warm months.
The cruise is a grand experience, beginning with close-up views of the Statue of Liberty. We sail slowly for two days in the Atlantic Ocean before spotting the incomparably blue waters of the Caribbean….
Dr. Newbury is a speaker and author in the Metroplex. He welcomes inquiries and comments. Send email: firstname.lastname@example.org. Phone: 817-447-3872. Website: www.speakerdoc.com. | <urn:uuid:0cd9d070-b922-4aeb-b2ae-12e5e925c6ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.masoncountynews.com/news/4797/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940576 | 1,192 | 1.84375 | 2 |
LONDON — Top business executives have warned U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron that he could damage Britain's economy if he seeks to renegotiate the terms of its membership in the 27-country European Union.
In a letter published in the Financial Times on Wednesday, Virgin Group's Richard Branson, London Stock Exchange head Chris Gibson-Smith and eight other business leaders challenged Cameron's plan to renegotiate the U.K.'s EU membership terms and put the matter to a referendum.
The executives warned that such a plan could fail, pushing the U.K. out of the EU and hurting business in the process.
Membership in the EU has given the U.K. access to the massive European market as well as a say in how the region should govern itself and run its financial markets. The country has also benefited from EU funds to build infrastructure such as broadband networks.
However, popular distrust of the EU has grown in Britain — one of the 10 countries in the region that doesn't use the euro. The British public shows no interest in the EU's plans to move closer together. Most can't even seem to stomach the current level of power of the EU, which many Britons see as meddlesome and inefficient.
Though the business leaders urged EU reform in their letter, they argued "we must be very careful not to call for a wholesale renegotiation of our EU membership, which would almost certainly be rejected."
"To call for such a move in these circumstances would be to put our membership of the EU at risk and create damaging uncertainty for British business, which are the last things the prime minister would want to do," they said.
A senior U.S. official also expressed concern about the prospect of a referendum, saying the Obama administration wants to see a "strong British voice" in the EU.
Philip Gordon, the U.S. assistant secretary for European affairs, told reporters in London that "referendums have often turned countries inward" — but stressed that whatever is in the U.K.'s interest is up to the U.K.
"We welcome an outward-looking EU with Britain in it," he said.
Tough economic times are forcing the 17 EU countries that use the euro to move ever closer, creating a more powerful union that could leave non-euro members like Britain with less negotiating power.
But while Cameron wants Britain to remain in the EU and to retain influence in the body, he is also resisting a push by many member states, like France and Germany, to grant central authorities in Brussels greater powers over financial and legal affairs for the whole of the EU. In the long run, many EU countries want to turn the bloc into a United States of Europe, an idea British politicians, particularly among Cameron's Conservatives, abhor.
Cameron is due to make a speech in mid-January to outline his position and the requests he will make. On Wednesday, he told lawmakers that Britain could get the changes it wanted.
"We're active players in the European Union but there are changes we would like in our relationship that would be good for Britain and good for Europe and I think, because of the changes in eurozone which is driving a lot of change in the European Union, there's every opportunity to achieve that settlement and seek consent for it," he said.
© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:fe445954-5e48-4346-aba9-891804f3cede> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moneynews.com/Europe/britain-eu-business-cameron/2013/01/09/id/470597 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969367 | 702 | 1.609375 | 2 |
New From Microsoft: Google Apps
In a May 1995 memo entitled “The Internet Tidal Wave,” Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates declared that the Internet was the “most important single development” since the IBM PC, one that was fast becoming a global communications and computing medium. “I have gone through several stages of increasing my views of its importance,” he wrote. “Now, I assign the Internet the highest level.”
Ten years later, he penned another memo–titled simply “Internet Software Services“–in which he warned of a “services wave of applications and experiences available instantly over the internet” that would reshape the traditional software business. “This coming ‘services wave’ will be very disruptive,” Gates wrote.
And lucrative for those who were quick enough catch it. Salesforce.com (CRM), for example. Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN), as well. Not Microsoft, though. Fearful of undercutting its fantastically lucrative packaged-software business, the company has been slow to enter the “software-as-a-service,” or cloud computing, market. Methodical, but still slow.
Now, with Google’s business-level hosted applications (Google Apps) gaining traction, Microsoft is moving a bit more quickly. The company dropped the 5,000 worker minimum on its Microsoft Online Services offering today, expanding the availability of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Office Communications Server Online to businesses of all sizes. Especially, the smaller ones for whom Google Apps had previously been the only option … | <urn:uuid:3a3d9416-1835-4f46-8f71-5afae8f6fa1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allthingsd.com/20080303/msft-saas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950631 | 342 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Christchurch Earthquake - How they fared
We tracked down the owners of some Christchurch homes featured in NZ House & Garden to find out how they’d fared during the earthquakes. Some have been luckier than others – here are their stories.
For a glimpse of the American south-west, one need only venture as far as Lincoln, on the outskirts of Christchurch. Apart from the odd crack and broken ornaments, Maude and Eddie Fairbairn’s Native American, Mexican and Spanish-inspired home has stood up well to the earthquakes that have hit Christchurch in recent months.
The Ultimate Indulgence – March 2009Hans and Carolyn Schuitman
||Hans and Carolyn Schuitman’s rustic 1400sqm home, 25km north of Christchurch, was unharmed except for a few cracks in the walls and some broken china. The couple recently held a fundraising concert at their huge home and raised a whopping $45,000 for the Christchurch relief fund. With a barn, workshops, a studio, cinema and interconnecting verandahs and courtyards, their grand home proved to be the perfect venue. |
First Impressions – April 2003
Interior designer Susie Paynter’s Fendalton home was untouched by the earthquake, however, her daughters weren’t so lucky. Their homes in St Albans and Mt Pleasant were badly damaged. Susie is now working with clients to repair and find new homes and says she can see huge opportunities for change and improvement. “You have to look at it that way or you wouldn’t get through.”
Soul Story – February 2009
Manfred & Ulrike Herzhoff
This eye-catching, 1920s inner-city home near Cranmer Square sustained substantial damage in February’s earthquake and will be demolished. Manfred and Ulrike Herzhoff had admired the house since their first visit to Christchurch in 1995 but are now unable to return to their home, even to collect their possessions. The couple and their two sons are currently living out of suitcases and searching for somewhere to rent.
Period Piece – August 2004
William Cottrell & Simonetta Ferrari
Gunyah, a gracious Edwardian homestead near Darfield, has been home and workplace to the Cottrells since 2002. Decorated throughout with antique furniture that William has restored over the years, their grand old home is rich with history. Since the first quake in September, Gunyah homestead has undergone huge repairs and some rooms were reopened for business in January. Fortunately, the grand home escaped February’s devastating earthquake with no further damage and repairs continue unabated. Simonetta Ferrari expects it will take another two months before they are fully operational.
Story: Rosemary Barraclough | <urn:uuid:af677f38-ddb2-4626-9581-11c433e305e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nzhouseandgarden.co.nz/Articles/ChristchurchEarthquake-Howtheyfared.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96519 | 586 | 1.625 | 2 |
BEHRE COLUMN: Amherst Street rehab nets Carolopolis prize
Brian Wildstein and his wife, Megan Stifel, didn’t plan to live at 4 Amherst St. when they bought the decaying single house on Charleston’s East Side.
But what a difference two years can make.
Particularly if they’re full of some isolated demolition, careful restoration and some clever, contemporary design.
Architect Julia Martin remembers well how the house looked as the couple began wielding their sledgehammers.
“It was a huge mess and in a part of town that wasn’t exactly the most popular,” she says. “It was among the worst I’ve seen, though the general structure of it was fairly plumb.”
Wildstein says Martin helped the couple figure out how to renovate the exterior to reflect something close to its original 1880s appearance and to appease the city’s Board of Architectural Review.
The house received a new metal roof, rebuilt brick piers, new paint, new shutters and new timbers where the old wood had rotted (or been chewed by termites).
The resulting transformation was one of several honored last week with a Carolopolis award from the Preservation Society of Charleston.
The Carolopolis judges largely don’t consider the work done inside. The society’s awards are designed more to reward people taking steps to preserve what can be seen from the public realm.
That’s fine, but the story inside is equally intriguing. While some walls were removed, the interior already had been chopped up as the house was converted into a duplex at some point.
“It came pre-gutted, unfortunately,” Martin says. The couple saved and reused what they could — in a very prominent way.
Very few of the first-floor’s floorboards were salvageable, but the few that were — even those charred in a fire — were used as paneling on the southern wall. The floor joists that termites had eaten on each end were recycled into treads for a sleek, modern interior stairway — one that didn’t exist when the building was a duplex.
The work, done by contractor Marc Engelke, also exposed the historic rafters upstairs and downstairs. The new duct work also is exposed, though it seems to disappear more than a large soffit would.
The only downside to the open plan is that it’s challenging to tuck closets into corners.
That’s one reason why Wildstein felt strongly about reusing the house’s original cistern as a wine cellar. A clear trap door on the kitchen floor leads to the small, brick-lined storage space.
Wildstein said they wanted to do right by the house on the exterior and make the interior more open and livable — but they also wanted to stay on a tight budget.
The tight budget might have helped prevent any unattractive bit of excess.
“Sometimes the coolest decisions are to keep it pretty simple,” Martin says. “Just spare and honest and lovely.”
Other Carolopolis winners include: 169 King St., Tucker Payne Antiques; 1 Magazine St., Joseph and Diane McGee; 304 President St., Stacy Rowley; and 108 Smith St., M, Paul Saylor.
Winners of the Pro-Merito Award (given to properties that already received a Carolopolis and since have undergone further restoration or sensitive renovation work): 39 Church St., Anthony and Ann Merck; 290 East Bay St., Harris Teeter; 94 Rutledge Ave., Patricia Altschul; 10 Judith St., David Elder and Monica Bohlen; and McLeod Plantation, Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission.
Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771. | <urn:uuid:2c1922ec-8bc2-44f4-a658-ddcc601d2aec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130128/PC16/130129305 | 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 | 0.964071 | 803 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Tuesday, the nation honored the memory of nearly 4,500 Americans who died in Iraq. It's been a decade since the United States invaded Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Florida lost 196 Floridians during the war.
Jimmy Shirley Jr.'s two sons, Joshua and Luke, both served several tours in Iraq. Luke was serious injured, losing his arm and leg while leading his platoon.
Shirley sat down Tuesday with WPBF 25 News' Erin Guy and remembers giving his two sons his blessings when they joined during peace time.
"It ought to mature them, ought to grow them up," Shirley said.
But when asked if he would give his blessing knowing what the past decade was going to look like, he said his answer would have been different.
"I would have just said, 'Are you sure?'" he said.
Lynelle Chauncey Zelner started Forgotten Soldiers Outreach 10 years ago.
She gave people a place to donate goods to the soldiers who had been shipped over seas. Never did she think her operation would be open 10 years later.
"I thought maybe a couple of years," Zelner said. "I would have never in a million years thought I would be doing this 10 years later." | <urn:uuid:32046ad4-a6e4-4e70-ac4b-4896d1c77e2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wpbf.com/news/south-florida/Palm-Beach-County-News/Florida-remembers-lost-soldiers-10-years-after-start-of-Iraq-war/-/8815578/19389068/-/ayrl39/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.993267 | 256 | 1.570313 | 2 |
UN says Sudan not trying Darfur crimes Wanda Kudrycka at 11:43 AM ET
[JURIST] The UN's special rapporteur for human rights in Sudan [JURIST news archive] said Saturday that the Sudanese government has failed to try persons responsible for war crimes in Darfur [BBC backgrounder, JURIST news archive]. Dr. Sima Samar [BBC profile 2003] said that organized sexual violence against women is continuing and the government is doing nothing to prevent it. He also reported that emergency laws in effect in Darfur and in the capital Khartoum were allowing security forces to arbitrarily detain, torture and kill civilians. Sudan says that all rights violations are investigated, but a domestic tribunal [JURIST report] set up for investigating and prosecuting war crimes committed in the Darfur region has so far tried just three cases out of 72,000 complaints filed. The national court is supposed to be a local substitute for International Criminal Court [official website], the jurisdiction of which Sudanese authorities have rejected. Reuters has more.
Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible, ad-free format. | <urn:uuid:d73aa212-3f77-4115-a412-790df58b0232> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jurist.org/paperchase/2005/10/un-says-sudan-not-trying-darfur-crimes.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946054 | 292 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The Critic's Resource on AntiEvolution
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Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2006-06-25 19:58.
Antievolutionists Say the Darndest Things
Antievolutionists often express outrage over alleged incivility from those who oppose their efforts to evade the establishment clause of the First Amendment. But they have no difficulty in dishing out the abuse themselves. Here is a sample from the Invidious Comparisons thread that documents egregious behavior on the part of the religious antievolution advocates.
Darwinian evolution with its blind watchmaker thesis makes me think of a great battleship on the ocean of reality. Its sides are heavily armored with philosophical barriers to criticism, and its decks are stacked with big rhetorical guns ready to intimidate any would-be attackers. In appearance, it is as impregnable as the Soviet Union seemed to be only a few years ago. | <urn:uuid:1253eeb7-4abe-4888-8315-c6e723d94703> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://antievolution.org/cs/node/181 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932172 | 236 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Consuming beets is one way to increase hemoglobin in the blood, and since the hemoglobin molecule transports oxygen throughout the body, and oxygen provides the energy that needed for all metabolic functions, one might say more is better (in this instance). Since I (Carol) am never one to pass up something that serves a dual purpose, eating something that tastes good and is good for you, has resulted in adding this recipe to my repertoire, year-round.
In this beet salad, neither starch nor vegetable is the star. Rather, they each take supporting roles, and the sum is a light, satisfying, cooked salad that can be served as a side, as lunch, or as a snack. It can be served warm, room temperature, or cool. If you like to plan ahead, you can double the recipe and freeze half, for it holds up to defrosting well.
This recipe is derived from one I found on food52; I’ve adapted it because I simply am a lazy cook, and if there’s an easier way to shorthand a recipe, I will find it. That said, it still takes a little extra work to bring it together, but in the end, the blending of flavors and textures will make you forget all about that.
Yield: 4 servings
2 pounds beets, removed from their stem and scrubbed cleaned and outside skin peeled, cut into bite-sized pieces
Beet leaves, rinsed well, center stem removed, and chopped
1 medium onion, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, chopped
8 oz orzo pasta
4 oz. feta cheese
2 T Olive oil
¼ cup chopped almonds or walnuts (optional)
1. Place the beets in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and cook until done (can be pierced with a fork), about ½ hour.
2. Meanwhile, saute the onion and garlic in a heated, oiled pan until golden, then add the beet greens. Add a dash of water if you need to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan. Put in large bowl and cover to keep warm.
3. When the beets are cooked, pluck them out of the water and place into the bowl, and put the orzo in the beet water (this will color them pink). Strain when done, add to the bowl, crumble the feta in, and mix well.
The ratio of ingredients is important to yield a salad that does not overwhelm with one flavor over the others. Two pounds of beets to ½ pound of orzo and 4 ounces of feta, which can be halved to 1: ¼: 2 is easy to remember once you’ve done this once or twice.
If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.
Insurance is welcome and accepted. | <urn:uuid:3821087d-b726-435e-97b7-bc5b12f38f6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mountaintopacupuncture.com/tag/beet-recipe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930168 | 629 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Alpha & Omega Ministries Apologetics Blog
Apologetics for The Masses
02/26/2008 - James SwanI am subscribed to a number of Roman Catholic e-newsletters. One particular newsletter is Apologetics for The Masses by John Martignoni. The latest issue included some interesting comments on how to dialog with Protestants. John claims to have developed a line of questioning that is supposed to befuddle Protestants. When encountering "someone who has a problem with Catholic teaching and they seem to think their opinion is what the Scripture actually says," John suggests asking in response "are you an authentic interpreter of the Bible?" He explains:
"If someone says they are an 'authentic interpreter' of the Bible, then that leads to the question of infallibility. If they are an authentic interpreter of the Bible, then they must be infallible. Yet, most Protestants... will never claim to be infallible. So, that puts them in a predicament. Plus, if they claim to be an authentic interpreter of the Bible, then the logical question is: Who appointed you to be an authentic interpreter of the Bible? If they say the Bible did, then you ask them for chapter and verse as to where their name appears so that you might believe them. If they say anyone else, then you ask by what authority that person or persons appointed them authentic interpreters of the Bible. If they don't claim to be an 'authentic interpreter' of the Bible, then that means their interpretation of the Bible must necessarily be fallible- in other words, they have to admit their interpretation could be wrong. And, if they could be wrong, then why should you, or anyone else, risk the salvation of your soul on what this person is saying?"
Here we have an excellent example of obfuscation by Catholic rhetoric. This is a version of the typical, "You need an infallible authority to understand the Bible" argument. One must apply the claim being put forth to see if it works in practice. Catholic apologists use these tired arguments as if... they actually work. They do not. Rather than actually opening the Bible, looking at a passage and its context, Mr. Martignoni suggests questioning if any of us are infallible interpreters. For Martignoni, the Bible must be so cryptic, confusing, and difficult, that none of us could ever understand any of it without being infallible! Just think of how difficult it is to understand such verses like Acts 3:1, "One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer- at three in the afternoon." Imagine, for Martignoni, without an infallible understanding of this text, none of us could ever comprehend even this simple verse.
Martignoni's argument actually insults the author of the Bible. Throughout the Scriptures, it is stated and implied that the Bible can be understood. Luke tells us the Bereans "were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true" (Acts 17:11). How would Martignoni approach these people? Where was the Roman Catholic infallible interpreter guiding the Bereans to read their Bibles? To be consistent, Martignoni would have to conclude the Bereans were in quite a predicament! He would have to similarly ask, "Who appointed them to be an authentic interpreters of the Bible?"
I would argue, even a non-believer could exegete a verse of Scripture and comprehend a passage in a context. Of course, that person would never savingly believe in the power of the text without the work of God's Spirit illuminating and giving understanding. The words of the Scripture would be nothing more than foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18). When the Lord chastised the Sadducees in Matthew 22, he stated they were in error because they did not know the Scriptures. He further states, "have you not read what God said to you?" (Mt. 22:31). The Lord Jesus clearly held these men responsible for knowing and understanding the Scriptures. Were the Sadducees supposed to respond, "How could we? We did not have an authentic interpreter of the Bible!"
Martignoni's apologetic reminded me of a section from A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture (London: Thomas Nelson, 1953) pp. 11-12. In speaking of the Reformation, the commentary states, "A dumb and difficult book was substituted for the living voice of the Church, in order that each one should be able to make for himself the religion which suited his feelings." It is pointed out how positive it has been for the Roman Church to keep the Bible out of the hands of individuals: "We must also keep in mind that whenever or wherever reading endangers the purity of Christian thought and living the unum necessarium it has to be wisely restricted."
The irony of course, is that Roman Catholics are forced to excessive amounts of private interpretation because their infallible interpreter rarely does what it says it can do. It rarely, if ever, infallibly interprets Scripture. Sure, Rome makes dogmatic pronouncements. Up until something is dogmatically defined, Roman Catholics are free to interpret Biblical passages. Also, what Roman apologists rarely tell you is that the Biblical texts used to support a dogma haven't been infallibly defined. That is, the dogma is infallible, but the proof texts supporting the dogma have not been infallibly interpreted. In essence, Martignoni's Church can't deliver the goods promised.
Martignoni then suggests methods of doing apologetics, and it was simply too ironic not to mention:
"What I would suggest, if you wish to cut down on your response time, is to steal stuff from other folks. Steal things from my newsletters. Go to Catholic.com (Catholic Answers website) and use their search engine to look for articles on whatever topic you're discussing. Don't hesitate to lift verbiage from an article here and an article there. If you want to cite your source fine, but if you want to leave that out- I don't see any problem, as long as you're doing it in private correspondence."
Irony of ironies: Martignoni doesn't direct his readers to infallible Roman documents, he directs them to Catholic apologists and websites! He directs his readers to fallible interpreters of Roman Catholicism! He then states,
"I don't know of any Catholic apologist who would mind if you quote them without citation- not for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or for profit- but for the purpose of saving a soul. After all, I don't know of any Catholic apologists who are coming up with original stuff. These arguments have been out there for hundreds of years. I always tell people that if there is anything original in any of my stuff, it's quite by accident."
Well, he does have point. The new e-pologists have not reinvented the Catholic wheel. What should be obvious, is that Catholic apologists are not infallible, and they are interpreters of Roman Catholicism, and they are not always unified in their argumentation. The very avenue of certainty Martignoni directs his readers down is a dead end. Enough of these arguments that the Bible can't be understood without Rome. Rome hasn't really infallibly interpreted much of the Bible, and based on what it comes up with by dogmatic pronouncements, I'm going to stick with the work of exegesis and the Holy Spirit to confirm the message of Scripture. | <urn:uuid:01ddca26-40e7-4ed7-b269-8be958594090> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=2550&catid=7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961995 | 1,562 | 1.789063 | 2 |
HHS Issues 2014 Rules for Health Plans, Exchanges
3. Wellness incentives
For group health coverage, the proposed rule, which was developed in collaboration with the Department of Labor, would raise the allowable amount of the incentives, and permit incentives of two types for employer-based plans. The first comes without regard to an individual's health status, such as reimbursement for membership in a qualified gym, credit for attending a health education seminar, or a reward for employees who complete a health assessment.
The second type would require individuals to meet certain goals before they could receive the reward. For example, people with high cholesterol or weight issues would receive a credit if they achieved reduction targets.
According to a press statement, the programs "must have a reasonable chance of improving health or preventing disease and not be overly burdensome for individuals." Alternatives to receive rewards would be made available for those "whose medical conditions make it unreasonably difficult, or for whom it is medically inadvisable, to meet the specified health-related standard."
Asked to respond to recent statements from governors of some states that are resisting the exchanges, such as Texas, Cohen emphasized that the federal government will step in if the state fails to act, because that's what the law mandates. It is to the state's benefit to run its own program, however, because the state will then have autonomy to decide how the costs of running the exchange would be distributed.
"If the state is running the exchange, the state gets to decide how those costs will be assessed," Cohen said. "Should it be assessed only on companies that are selling products through the exchange, or assessed on the entire insurance market...that's totally up to the state...as opposed to having CMS [the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] do it."
HHS requests that comments be posted on Regulations.gov within 30 days after these rules are published in the Federal Register over the next several days.
Cheryl Clark is senior quality editor and California correspondent for HealthLeaders Media. She is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists.
- Healthcare Leaders Seek Strategic Sweet Spot
- 3 Reasons Wellness Programs Fail
- CMS Issues Health Insurance Exchange Proposed Rules
- Patients Shoulder Nearly 25% of Medical Bills
- ACOs Widespread, Yet Challenged
- MGMA: Physician Compensation Increasingly Based on Quality Measures
- HFMA: Patient Financial Interaction Guidelines Sharpened
- Data Collaborative Taps Predictive Analytics to Coordinate Care
- HFMA: Revenue Cycle, Reimbursements Share the Spotlight
- Evidence-Based Practice and Nursing Research: Avoiding Confusion | <urn:uuid:3c8030fe-330e-4525-b161-5651e8afc2ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/page-5/TEC-286723/HHS-Issues-2014-Rules-for-Health-Plans-Exchanges | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948818 | 541 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Approximately 900 Graduate and Minority Graduate Fellowships were announced in March by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This year, a small but significant change in the eligibility guidelines gave a handful of students potential access to funding that was once off limits.
“Until 1996, under the main heading of psychology, there was a parenthetical comment that said that clinical psychology was not eligible for support. This year, we simply took out that parenthetical comment,” said Susan Duby, program director for NSF’s graduate research fellowships, who explained that while NSF’s policy remains that it will not fund clinical research, students from clinical programs will not necessarily be disqualified. “We made it easier for students who are legitimately doing non-clinical work, but who are enrolled in clinical psychology programs, to apply.”
The NSF “clinical” prohibition applied to students in clinical programs, even if they were doing purely basic research. The fellowship program has funded graduate students expected to contribute to research, teaching and industrial applications in science, mathematics and engineering since 1952. This year, 44 Graduate and 11 Minority Graduate Fellowships were awarded to students across the discipline of psychology. (See box, page 17) About 90 more psychology students received Honorable Mentions.
NSF eliminated the simple but significant “clinical prohibition” language in part due to the efforts last year by APS and its executive director, Alan Kraut, who said that the change strengthens the view that there is a science of clinical psychology that includes basic research. (See July/August 1995APS Observer)
“NSF should not be in the business of clinical science but clinical science has a basic side that ought to be supported and encouraged by NSF,” said Kraut. “The happy ending here is that NSF realizes it too.”
The change does not signal a move away from NSF’s basic mission of supporting programs of basic research, but it does allow for applications from students enrolled in clinical psychology programs to be evaluated on the basis of substance, rather than automatically being rejected due to any clinical reference. The old policy was partly designed to prevent overlap in research portfolios of NSF and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). But NSF’s old policy required an inappropriately rigid interpretation of “clinical.”
Psychologists across the field have applauded the decision. APS Fellow Emanuel Donchin, who headed up the department of psychology at the University of Illinois for almost 20 years, said he was happy about the change and pleased the NSF would look closer at applications in terms of content, rather than bar automatically and blindly anything clinical. He gave an example, using another NSF program, of the kind of frustration researchers have encountered.
“I encountered it several years ago when one of our non-clinical faculty, a psychopharmacologist, who is among the leading investigators of the dopamine system, was recommended for a Presidential Young Investigator award, a program administered by NSF,” said Donchin. “NSF withdrew his proposal from the competition because in the introduction, he said that the results might have a bearing on the understanding of the pharmacology of schizophrenia. This, according to NSF, made his proposal ‘clinical,’ which automatically disqualified it from NSF support.”
Charles Nelson of the University of Minnesota, concurred that the change in policy would mean that applications would be judged on the quality of the applicant’s basic research program regardless of the program in which the student is enrolled. Two students from the University of Minnesota’s clinical program were among the 44 who received fellowships
“I think that the concern about training people in clinical areas-that is, to train clinicians-was warranted, given the Foundation’s goals,” he said. “That is, it was not the mission of NSF to train people to work in clinical areas the way it might be for NIH or its National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). This sort of acknowledges the reality that people in the very good clinical programs in this country are doing work that is every bit as fundamental and basic as people in non-clinical programs. They should view research on the merits of the research and not be encumbered by the program.”
Cannon Thomas, a clinical student at Northwestern University, understands and appreciates the significance of the change in NSF’s policy. He was awarded an NSF fellowship for this basic research which would not have been deemed appropriate if the NSF policy had remained in place. Thomas’s research focuses on how negative emotional states affect cognition. “The background of my research is more social psychological and cognitive and drew off of a lot of that in terms of what I was doing with emotional disorders,” he said.
Duby says that the line between basic research in clinical science and clinical research is very thin. “Any application that says clinical psychology is going to receive a special review of eligibility because we have to be very careful in the screening,” she said. “[Since the change in policy] I believe I saw more applications that openly said clinical than I had in the past, and that was predictable. I think I also saw more applications from students who were enrolled in clinical programs but who were doing non-clinical work. There were still a number-not a huge number-but a number of people who thought that we had changed and that all of clinical psychology was eligible. They were very clearly doing clinical research that we would not support, and they were ruled ineligible.”
(In addition to the task of interpreting the change in eligibility requirements, NSF staffers and reviewers were stymied by the month-long shutdown that paralyzed most of the federal government. Despite the hurdles and thanks to the hard work of the staff, Duby was able to announce the 1996 Graduate Research Fellowships on the same day as they were announced last year.)
Thomas says he was elated when he found out he was awarded a fellowship. “I do think that [the change] shows a level of respect for basic clinical research,” he said. “Where that has been seen as a marginalized field because of its connection with a professional career, more and more clinical research has focused on basic processes and drawn off of and been integrated with cognitive and social and biological psychology. This seems to me to be sort of a recognition of that integration.”
Thomas is a student of APS Fellow Susan Mineka, a Northwestern University professor who said she is pleased that students from clinical programs are now privy to such a great opportunity.
“Even if [the policy change] applies to a subset of clinical students- which is all it will ever apply to-I still think it is incredible,” she said. “It is a very prestigious fellowship and clinical students are very, very good.”
She added that the successes of clinical students in this year’s fellowship program have broader implications for university research programs. “From our standpoint, it means that we can fund more students if students are paying their own way and we don’t have to use university money to pay for them,” she said. Thomas agreed and added that the fellowship “opens up our program to invite an extra student because we have more financing, which strengthens our program as a whole.”
While significant, the change in wording will affect, at best, a core of20 to 40 institutions that train clinical researchers focusing on the basic side of clinical science, said Kraut. Nonetheless, psychologists across the field have applauded the decision.
APS Charter Fellow Irving Gottesman, of the University of Virginia, said the policy change was important in changing misperceptions, within the public and the scientific community, in the characterization of clinical psychology.
“Psychology must be understood to be both a social science and a natura) science, in effect occupying a spectrum that interfaces both with, say, sociology and neuroscience,” he said. “Up to this change in policy … c1inical psychology was misperceivedas being essentially some kind of applied social science. A large amount of interest, however, is dedicated to the neuroscience side.”
As the fIrst class of NSF graduate fellows from clinical programs embarks on their basic research endeavors, many in the scientific community are looking towards what NSF’s change in policy will mean over time.
“My bet is that this change is going to make NSF even stronger in supporting the best of psychological science,” said Kraut. ”The change properly amplifies the NSF mission that all excellent basic science is welcome there.”
Leave a comment below and continue the conversation. | <urn:uuid:4f28c589-8a37-4a3f-8d1a-61c404d64338> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/1996/may-june-96/nsf-opens-a-door.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976271 | 1,818 | 1.554688 | 2 |
At the time of this writing, early Sunday evening, the University of Maryland has yet to hire a successor to men’s basketball coach Gary Williams, who officially retired on Friday afternoon. After news of Williams’ retirement broke late Thursday, a predictable debate erupted within the sports press over whether the Maryland job would prove sufficiently attractive to prominent coaching candidates. Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post compiled a list of pundit responses to the question, “Is Maryland a top 20 job?” Steinberg himself answered “yes,” citing Maryland’s recruiting base, its 2002 national championship, and its high level of fan interest.
Rankings are an integral part of the media culture whether the subject is basketball or politics. There’s an innate desire to create external measures of other people’s values and decision-making. Economically such analysis is worthless, as Mises famously explained:
It is customary to say that acting man has a scale of wants or values in his mind when he arranges his actions. On the basis of such a scale he satisfies what is of higher value, i.e., his more urgent wants, and leaves unsatisfied what is of lower value, i.e., what is a less urgent want. There is no objection to such a presentation of the state of affairs. However, one must not forget that the scale of values or wants manifests itself only in the reality of action. These scales have no independent existence apart from the actual behavior of individuals. The only source from which our knowledge concerning these scales is derived is the observation of a man’s actions. Every action is always in perfect agreement with the scale of values or wants because these scales are nothing but an instrument for the interpretation of a man’s acting.
One can cite any number of metrics or intangible factors that might drive an individual’s decision to prefer one coaching job over another, but it is economic fallacy to try and create a universal scale of such values. All one can do is look at each coaching candidate’s decision and ascertain his values at the moment of his decision.
For example, if one believes media reports, University of Arizona coach Sean Miller was offered the Maryland job but decided to sign a contract extension with Arizona instead. Does that mean Arizona is a better job than Maryland? No, it means that Arizona was a better job for Miller at this point in time. Any outsider’s attempts to project his own hypothetical value scale to Miller is praexologically irrelevant.
Yet that doesn’t stop the outside rankers. Gregg Doyel of CBS stated, “there are a dozen [college basketball] jobs that are without question better” then all others. He considered Arizona one of those jobs, but not Maryland. Sean Miller, a man who actually decided between the two jobs, thought otherwise. Doyel based his rankings on “some combination of tradition, facilities, fans, recruiting base, ability to compete within in its conference, and weather.” Some combination. Even the ranker can’t specify the exact formula that determines what college basketball jobs are better or worse then others. And we certainly don’t know what factors Miller considered.
The other side of this fallacy is this idea that the “Maryland job” has intrinsic value separate from the individual holding the position. It’s related to the false notion that one can assign objective value to the tangible or non-scarce. Ultimately, whoever holds the job as Maryland coach holds a subjective reputation in the eyes of each individual observer. Gary Williams was well respected in many quarters, especially the press, which has labelled him a “future Hall of Fame” coach. Maryland officials place a high value on Williams asa fundraiser and spokesman for the university as an institution. Conversely, some Maryland fans thought Williams was a weak recruiter who took the program a step back following the 2002 championship.
Williams himself valued the Maryland job more then other coaches when he accepted the position back in 1989, a time when Maryland faced severe NCAA sanctions for the malfeasance of the previous coach. Certainly no pundit then considered Maryland a top-tier job. And that was based on the performance of the previous coach. Similarly, those who now argue the Maryland job is “top 20″ generally do so based on their positive appraisal of Williams’ performance. But the next coach, whoever he is, will exist independently of Williams, both in terms of his own performance and how outsiders view that performance.
Again, it’s harmless fun to talk about the “best” college basketball jobs. But it reflects a popular misunderstanding of value and subjective preference. Much of the “reporting” on government economic intervention follows the same fallacy that one can objectively “rank” individual preferences — in the aggregate no less — and determine whether a particular course of action is “correct” based on some arbitrary combination of metrics and perceived intangible factors. Eliminating this fallacy from the popular consciousness will likely prove harder to crack then a Gary Williams-coached Maryland team. | <urn:uuid:02cf6742-b488-42a5-bf87-2ce90a5cc861> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.mises.org/16850/the-real-question-is-was-mises-a-top-20-economist/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951256 | 1,046 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Priority of Service is given to Veterans and eligible spouses. Veteran, for the sole purpose of Priority of Service, means a person who served at least one day in the active military, naval, or air service, and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable. Active service includes full-time Federal service in the National Guard or a Reserve component.
Our mission is to provide Veterans and transitioning service members with the resources and services to succeed in the 21st Century workforce by meeting labor-market demands with qualified Veterans. Click on one of the below topics related to veterans. | <urn:uuid:0269e938-eca1-40ad-95e6-d63e8da9c1d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&childpagename=CDLE-EmployTrain%2FCDLELayout&cid=1248095317855&pagename=CDLEWrapper | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943826 | 118 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Pop star Madonna saysher Raising Malawi charity and the nonprofit buildOn have completed construction on 10 primary schools, which will educate 4,871 children.
The singer adopted her son David and daughter Mercy from the poverty-stricken African country.
The schools she helped build are in rural villages across Malawi and were finished six months ahead of schedule.
Six of the schools are already in use and all 10 will be operating in January for the first day of school in the new year.
"I am overjoyed that my commitment along with buildOn's to help educate the children of Malawi has come to fruition," Madonna said in a statement Thursday. "In a country where girls have little opportunity for education, it's additionally inspiring to know that more than halfthe students attending will be young girls.
The fact that more than 4,800 children in Malawi will get to go to school next year is a tremendous step forward for their individual growth and the growth of Malawi."
"Madonna's commitment to the children of Malawi is inspiring," said Jim Ziolkowski, founder and chiefexecutive officer of buildOn. "Through Raising Malawi's support we were able to build 10 schools that will educate literally generations of children who need it the most." | <urn:uuid:cc32cd37-6b3e-4e8b-9482-c13ef79b2ecc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gistactivist.blogspot.com/2012/12/pop-star-madonna-helps-build-10-schools.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978639 | 263 | 1.617188 | 2 |
the last time i coded a swing application was back in 1999. i did it with a normal text editor & it took a long time. are there any jazzy frameworks/toolkits/editors that make swing development faster? if so, which is the best?
Joined: Aug 20, 2004
You could try JFrameBuilder which is a Swing GUI builder. For me, It is the fastest way to build my swing app.
I'm not sure there still is a magic bullet. It depends what kind of application you are writing. If you want to throw some screens up real quick, Mitch Stuart has done an extensive comparison of GUI Builders.
If you more want tools to assist you there are a number including the JGoodies Binding, Validation, and FormLayout projects. Spring also has a rich client project that includes quite a bit of functionality. I have linked to tons of projects you might find interesting on my blog listed below. | <urn:uuid:75f2d165-085f-44d7-8fc0-6bd384b05c0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coderanch.com/t/340872/GUI/java/fastest-build-swing-app | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960674 | 196 | 1.625 | 2 |
President Bush on Monday night sought to reassure Americans, Iraqis and other nations that he has a plan to set Iraq on a track to stable self-rule, saying his goal was to make Iraq's people ''free, not to make them American.''
The United States, Mr. Bush said, will use a ''five-point plan'' to hand over authority in Iraq to an interim government on June 30, help establish security, continue rebuilding the country's infrastructure, encourage more international support and then move toward a national Iraqi election as early as next January. He did not announce the names of a new prime minister or other top Iraqi government officials, but promised that they would be released later this week by Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations special envoy to Iraq.
In a 33-minute address at the United States Army War College in the farmland of south-central Pennsylvania, the president said: ''I sent American troops to Iraq to defend our security, not to stay as an occupying power. I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free, not to make them American. Iraqis will write their own history, and find their own way.'' [Excerpts, Page A14.]
Mr. Bush said an essential part of rebuilding Iraq would be the creation of a modern prison system. He pledged, if the new Iraqi government agrees, to destroy the Abu Ghraib prison, a longtime symbol of the cruelty of Saddam Hussein's rule and now notorious as the site of abuses of Iraqi prisoners by members of the American military.
In making the case for persevering in Iraq, the president reminded Americans that, in his view, Iraq remained ''the central front in the war on terror.''
Mr. Bush also held out little hope for a quick withdrawal of American soldiers, and said he would maintain troop levels of 138,000 ''as long as necessary.'' If American commanders on the ground needed more troops, Mr. Bush said, ''I will send them.''
Mr. Bush's speech, the first in a series of major addresses meant to shore up support for his Iraq policy before the June 30 deadline, was as much a political event as a policy address. It came in the wake of a poll by CBS News that showed Mr. Bush's approval ratings at a new low, with 41 percent approving of the job he is doing and 52 percent disapproving.
The president, who was apparently wearing makeup to cover abrasions on his chin from a fall from his mountain bike last weekend, seemed confident and calm throughout his remarks, which were interrupted periodically by applause. The biggest applause came when Mr. Bush said the United States would raze the Abu Ghraib prison.
His evening speech was scheduled for prime time, but the White House did not ask the broadcast networks to carry it live. Still, it was shown by the cable news channels, and by distributing early excerpts of his prepared text the White House ensured that his remarks were featured on evening news programs viewed by millions.
Recent opinion surveys have shown a serious erosion in support among Americans for Mr. Bush's foreign policy, with only 30 percent in the CBS News survey approving of the way he is handling Iraq. During the past several weeks rebel insurgencies, the beheading of an American, the assassination of an Iraqi leader backed by the United States and the raid on a onetime American friend, Ahmad Chalabi, have shaken American confidence in the venture in Iraq. | <urn:uuid:940e5e72-87d1-4df1-adf1-1fbc551c9539> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/25/politics/25PREX.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976408 | 694 | 1.726563 | 2 |
This is becoming a common repair question: "My laptop screen is cracked. Can it be repaired?"
You put down your laptop for just a minute on the edge of your bed and ... oops! The laptop tumbles to the floor. A quick look at the laptop reveals a crack in the screen. If you attempt to power it up, the screen looks like someone poured ink behind the glass.
All is not lost.
Many laptops have an external monitor plug that allows you to view the laptop screen on an external screen. This is a popular option when you don't have the cash to fix the screen. All you need is a common computer monitor screen. It doesn't have to be an LCD flat-panel monitor. Even an old CRT type will work. Plug the monitor cable into the video port on the laptop. Some laptops sense that you plugged in an external screen and direct the video to the external screen. Other laptops require that you press the external video function key to direct the video to the external screen.
This method can also be used when you turn on the laptop but the screen remains blank. Plugging in an external screen can verify that the computer is not dead.
You are probably wondering how much a screen replacement will cost. Expect to pay close to $200 to replace the average screen, but there are many different types of screens and a wide range of prices. It isn't only the size that you need to know when ordering a replacement screen panel. You might buy a replacement for a laptop only to discover
What if you need information on the hard drive immediately? Plugging in the external screen will allow you to do a backup to an external hard drive or USB memory stick. If the laptop refuses to start, you need to remove the hard drive and insert it into another computer to access your information.
Every laptop is different, make sure that you know and understand the details of accessing the hard drive in your particular laptop before you attempt this operation.
If you are especially prone to accidents, consider a rugged laptop. There are some models that you can actually drive a truck over but they cost at three times the cost of a more vanilla laptop.
Laptops have become very affordable, but they have a few built-in hazards. Anything moving from place to place will be accident prone. If your laptop is damaged, make sure that you consider your plan of action before you attempt repairs.
Lowell resident Norm Morin is founder of NKC Systems (www.nkcsystems.com), which offers computer repair and consulting services. Readers are invited to call 978-453-1355; visit our offices at 155 Broadway Road, Dracut; or email firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:b1fe9148-1b48-416e-85af-d7cc95a67de0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lowellsun.com/business/ci_20996588/broken-laptop-screens-require-plans-action | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935064 | 560 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Volume 18, Issue 2: Similitudes
The Earth Bites the Dragon
When they got back to their camp, Andrew told Beow his plan. "It is a good thought, little one," Beow said. "But I
cannot come with you then. I am too large."
"Yes, I know," Andrew replied. "But you can be a greater help to me here. If something goes wrong, you can
do something to distract him. I hope you can do something to distract him."
Andrew slept fitfully that night, at least for the first few hours. But around midnight, he sank into a deep sleep, and
none of his dreams had any dragons in them. Just before sunrise, he felt Beow nudging his shoulder and he opened his
eyes, blinking. The soft predawn light was warm, and Andrew sat up. He had been nervous the night before, but now he was
just full of excitement. He could feel that he was about to attempt what he had been born to attempt.
He visited for a few moments with Beow, then went to a near-by stream to wash his face, and came back to pick up
his long spear. He hefted it in his hand, smiled broadly at Beow, and hugged him around his neck. "See you soon," he said.
With that he turned and clambered quickly down the slope.
When he got to the bottom, he found the crevice they had jumped across the day before, and walked along it until
he found the place where the dragon had crawled across it to get to his water. He looked at the castle walls, and nodded
happily. There was no sign of anything stirring. The tower where Maggie had been the day before was dark and quiet. With a
last glance, he then hopped down into the ditch, which came up to his shoulder. He walked back and forth in it a few feet until
he found the widest place for him, a place that allowed for some range of movement.
His spear was about eight feet long, and Andrew spent a little bit of time practicing with the spear, figuring out how
to thrust upward without hitting the walls of the ditch. Once he had that settled, he sat down in the ditch, his back to one of
the walls and waited.
Andrew had come down early, and so it was several hours before he heard the approach of the dragon. During
those several hours, he thought long and hard about how he had come there and was still unable to remember his parents. But
he did remember squatting in a dug-out fort, very much like the hole he was in, preparing to throw dirt clods at a friend
across the way. The dirt clods were red Carolina clay, but he couldn't remember the friend's name.
It was impossible to remain excited about fighting the dragon for that entire time, and he even dozed several times for
a few moments. But when he first heard the scrabbling sounds of the dragon's claws on the hard earth, all the excitement
came flooding back. He got on his knees and held the shaft of the spear loosely in his left hand, gripping the base of it in his
right. He would only have one thrust, he knew. Waiting there on his knees, it occurred to him to pray, which he did briefly.
He found that he was breathing quickly.
The light in the ditch grew dim, as though a thundercloud had passed over the sun, but Andrew knew it was the
dragon. Looking up, he saw a long silver and gray foreleg stretch out over his head. The claws were extended, though he didn't
know why. He didn't even know enough to know whether dragons could retract their claws. The dragon's foot came down on
the other side of the ditch, and the dragon's body began to cross over him. Andrew could feel the heat from the dragon's
fire radiating down into his hole. When the body had almost completely shut out the light, Andrew became suddenly afraid
of attempting his blow in the pitch black. He took two deep breaths again, prayed quickly again, and rammed the spear
upward, as hard as he could.
The underbelly of the dragon was scaled, but it was not as hard as Andrew had anticipated. The spear went almost
all the way in, and several things happened almost all at once. The dragon roared and lurched upward into the sky. It
was fortunate for Andrew that he did, because the spear had entered the great fire chamber inside the dragon, and flames
burst out from the dragon's belly uncontrollably, The spear itself was incinerated, and Andrew
would have been if the dragon had not leapt into the air. But just on the other side of the great fire chamber was the dragon's heart, and that is where the
spear head, covered with runes, had finally lodged. The runes had been etched there by Aelfric, and they had a great deal to do
with how the spear found its way into the dragon heart.
The dragon had taken to flight with three great flaps of its webbed wings, and then died while still traveling upward,
and back toward its castle. Fifty yards in the air, Fafnir suddenly stopped and plummeted back down toward the castle
doors, which he crashed into unceremoniously.
Andrew, still stunned but jubilant, clambered out of his hole, looked over his shoulder to see Beow galloping down
the hillside. He slowly walked toward the smoking dragon, and after a few moments Beow caught up with him. They
walked until they were twenty feet from the dragon, and stopped. "Well done, Andrew, Fafnir-bane," Beow said.
"What have you done?" a clear, light voice asked. They looked up and saw Maggie, standing on the castle walls. | <urn:uuid:c09de0dd-6863-4151-85e4-14b49ebb2b25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.credenda.org/archive/issues/18-2similitudes.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992724 | 1,239 | 1.5625 | 2 |
American Academy of Underwater Scientists
The American Academy of Underwater Scientists (AAUS) is the sanctioning body for most scientific diving in North America. AAUS promulgates formalized guidelines and Standards for conducting scientific dives which meet or exceed OSHA requirements as well as allowing members of AAUS to remain exempt from OSHA over-site.
AAUS offers membership at several levels including Organizational Membership which is maintaining at the institutional level as well as individual membership. While not required Florida Atlantic University encourages scientific divers to maintain individual membership with AAUS.
In addition to Standards, AAUS meets annually to conduct workshops, propose guidlines and procedures, and to recognize outstanding achievements in advancing diving safety and diving science. Proceedings of these meetings are available on the AAUS website. Additionally, AAUS offers two annual scholarships to graduate students from member institutions who are conducting research involving scientific diving.
To contact AAUS: | <urn:uuid:1fd2c2f2-a4a1-4bc6-9a9b-3119b01d110b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fau.edu/facilities/ehs/info/aaus.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939695 | 184 | 1.515625 | 2 |
DETROIT (AP) -- A 1958 Chevrolet Corvette owned by the head of General Motors has been auctioned for $270,000.
GM chairman and chief executive Dan Akerson presented a symbolic check to Habitat for Humanity Detroit during a charity event Friday at the Detroit auto show.
Habitat for Humanity eventually will get the actual cash to help the Morningside Commons neighborhood, just east of GM's downtown headquarters.
The auction was held in Scottsdale, Ariz., and broadcast at the Detroit auto show.
Only 9,100 Corvettes were built for the 1958 model year. Akerson's car is a hardtop convertible and considered rare among Corvette fanatics. | <urn:uuid:d8995a05-8c48-4f07-9eaa-a770603c08ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/GM-CEOs-58-Corvette-Sells-for-270K-for-Charity-187600271.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952897 | 142 | 1.601563 | 2 |
An Anne Arundel County businesswoman says she would have thought someone was crazy years ago to suggest she would be driving a truck for a living one day.
But that's how Shelley Sarmiento spends her life now. She is the owner and innovator of the Little White Fashion Truck.
Seven months ago Sarmiento was in New York City standing in line for a grilled cheese sandwich at a food truck and the idea came to her. She knew she wanted to spend more time with her teenage daughters and not so much time on the road making trips to New York where Sarmiento teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
"It just came to me that between seeing the food truck and knowing I had enough retail background to pull this off. I decided to get crazy and buy a truck off Craigslist and see what happens," says Sarmiento. That old bread delivery truck had a makeover and became a travelling boutique about eight weeks later.
Sarmiento says she used Facebook to post an ad about her latest venture and what happened she says was a line of customers waiting for the truck when she pulled up the first time. Sarmiento says some just were curious that day and others became regular customers.
"The action has not slowed down," says Sarmiento "I didn't know I would be the first to start a chain (of stores)."
She is no stranger to the world of fashion and retail. Sarmiento was the former co-owner of White House Black Market. And she owned and operated a home furnishing store among other businesses.
Sarmiento describes her clothes, jewelry and accessories for sale as a little rock-n-roll, boho chic, and trendy. "There is something for everyone from 15 to 75 in the truck," she says.
Ruth Roskam spotted the Little White Fashion Truck in Severna Park when she says she and her son's girlfriend were driving around. They stopped in and are now regular customers. Roskam even works part-time for Sarmiento.
Roskam says all of Sarmiento's stuff is unique and reasonably priced. "You can't go out and find this stuff out in the stores," says Roskam.
Katie Ingram was introduced to the Little White Fashion Truck during a private shopping party.
"I think it is so innovative and so amazing to conceptually do it and put it together," Ingram says of Sarmiento's business. The Annapolis resident says the business is also good for community building. And she likes to come to the Little White Fashion Truck's location and not try to fight for parking at a store.
Sarmiento says there are a number of advantages to owning the mobile business-like not paying rent. She says her fashion truck paid for itself in less than a month.
The self-described serial entrepreneur likes to refer to her type of business as part of the "truck culture."
"You come on strangers and leave as friends," says Sarmiento.
Sarmiento says this is a business model, she doesn't consider herself just a "mom and pop" type operation where she throw clothes into a truck.
An old Fed-Ex truck is about to get a makeover and will be in the D.C. area in the coming weeks for shoppers. And Sarmiento believes having ten trucks on the road by the end of the year is attainable.
Sarmiento says once you are inside the truck it's kinda like Vegas. "What goes on in the truck, stays in the truck," she says.
The Little White Fashion Truck also shows up at festivals, private parties and charity events.
Sarmiento has been contacted by several television networks about possibly being the focus of what she calls a "smart" reality show.
"Opportunity is an amazing thing. You never know where things are going to go," says Sarmiento.
Hearst Radio Inc. AP Material ©
The Associated Press.
and Web Development | <urn:uuid:597b7136-acd7-499c-bfce-052c3aa3d0ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbal.com/article/98313/21/template-story/From-Bread-To-Boutique | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982292 | 845 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The Way Things Are (Virago Modern Classics)
"'You've never told me about your marriage, Laura?' said Duke Ayland.. . . 'Yes. It's only - I'm very fond of Alfred, ' said Laura, taking the plunge and temporarily unaware that almost all wives begin conversations about almost all husbands in precisely the same way"Laura has been married for seven years. On those occasions when an after-dinner snooze behind The Times see...more
Paperback, 294 pages
Published June 23rd 1988 by Virago Press Ltd
(first published 1927)
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One of the most tragic books I've ever read, though I haven't quite decided which interpretation of the last few paragraphs is the "right" one, if any. Perhaps it really isn't tragic at all. Deceptively simple and domestic at first, like its protagonist, this book becomes something quite unexpected as our heroine, the product of a conventional late-Victorian upbringing, begins to look more deeply into herself and to consider the possibilities apparently on offer to women in the larger world of t...more
The Way Things Are has several elements in common with Diary of a Provincial Lady: both are about a wife and mother struggling to balance her domestic life with her emotional life and her literary aspirations. I was startled in reading the Introduction (after I read the book, in case of spoilers) to find that it's considered one of Delafield's funniest books, because although I certainly found it witty, I didn't find it nearly as funny as the Provincial Lady books. Perhaps I was simply too overc...more
This is one of the early feminist novels, written in the 20s. The heroine, Laura Temple, spends her days dealing with the million practical details of home and family, and when she can, sneaking some time to write short stories. This wasn't how she thought her life would go. And when she falls in love, it looks like maybe there's another option for her. Or is there?
Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture (9 June 1890 – 2 December 1943), commonly known as E. M. Delafield, was a prolific English author who is best-known for her largely autobiographical Diary of a Provincial Lady, which took the form of a journal of the life of an upper-middle class Englishwoman living mostly in a Devon village of the 1930s, and its sequels in which the Provincial La...moreMore about E.M. Delafield... | <urn:uuid:00ab8ab4-6bb9-46d5-bfe2-40142435a054> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3235498-the-way-things-are | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975583 | 539 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Pressure : 29.73 in
Dewpoint : 45.0 °
Wind : West
Hitting the books digitally at the library
The world's largest newsstand isn't just at the front entrance of the grocery store, it's available right at your fingertips.
As the digital age continues to expand News 5's Dara Newson shows us how local libraries are working to keep up.
The 21st century digital sensation started with downloadable music, then online newspapers to e-books, now e-magazines.
"Zinio is a new e-magazine subscription that we have here at the library," said Celine Swan, Youth Services Librarian.
And it's free of charge. Library patrons simply use a library card to sign up for an account and pick out a magazine.
"Zinio is available for PC's, works on the kindle fire, and different android phones," Swan said.
The Grand Island Library is offering the service through a new Central Nebraska library partnership with Hastings, Kearney, and Holdrege libraries.
"You get these beautiful magazines and you get all the ads and everything and you can even do it on your Iphone," Swan said.
Libraries are changing everyday across the nation. There could come a day where most libraries will completely go digital, no magazines, no books.
The library's free Zinio digital magazine service launched two weeks ago.
"It's just seems a lot simpler since I always carry my Iphone or Ipad," said Arnold Feria.
"I think that libraries are finding different ways to serve people's needs," Swan said.
From Seventeen magazine to Food Network, 120 current issues are available immediately, no wait list or checkout period is necessary.
"Some people would never read and now we have people that are into laptops and Ipads and reading in a different way," Swan said.
A link to Zinio can be found in the center of the library's website at GILibrary.org.
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Mary Schiavo, former Department of Transportation inspector general
Fairfax Hackley, personal trainer
A big Thanksgiving tradition for many is spending the day preparing a big feast. For others, it's just eating that feast. If you don't want to spend Thanksgiving Day cooking, you have options.
Throughout the country, Thanksgiving dinner brings people together with friends, family and loved ones. However, Thanksgiving also means time spent with awkward uncles, pesky siblings and longstanding rivalries.
"Traditionally, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was the heaviest rush hour of the year. People have realized that doesn't work too well, so we've seen a trend for people to get away as soon as they can conveniently do so," says WTOP Traffic Reporter Bob Marbourg.
The days surrounding Thanksgiving are some of the year's busiest on the roads, and a survey suggests more drivers will have their eyes on their phones while driving.
As turkey fryers grow in popularity, firefighters and paramedics are trying to get out the word about safety.
The cost of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner is a bit higher this year, but it still constitutes a great bargain.
Prices in the D.C. metro region and around the country are about the same as last Thanksgiving, but much higher in areas affected by Superstorm Sandy.
Here is a list of the area's ice skating options plus hours and skate rental prices.
This is the stuff that memories are made of, riding VRE's Santa Train. The magical holiday train ride for kids, with the big guy in the red suit, is always a red hot seller. And you might want to lock up you tickets fast.
Believe it or not, Black Friday is only five days away - or four days for those planning to shop at Walmart, which opens for deals at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
Hundreds gathered Saturday in Northwest D.C. to pack Thanksgiving food boxes for needy families in the region.
Scott Greenberg, wine columnist for the Washington Examiner
WTOP's Pain in the Gas Survey shows prices of all grades fell by 6 cents since last week.
Here are 11 ways you can enjoy that Thanksgiving meal without too much guilt.
For some, frying the Thanksgiving turkey is a family tradition. But every year families lose their homes and sometimes loved ones due to fires caused by deep fat fryers.
When faced with the option of chocolate cake or pumpkin pie this holiday season, go with the pie. Find out why.
Airlines are making it much more difficult for groups of travelers to sit together, but there are ways to find those seats.
The producer who brought you Rebecca Black and her hit "Friday" has a new tweener with a "hit" holiday song called "Thanksgiving." | <urn:uuid:e3edf757-2eea-4f02-9360-d57a9764e0a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wtop.com/?hlpage=3&nid=695 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961044 | 565 | 1.617188 | 2 |
On Friday morning, Deanne Komlo was tiptoeing through the memorial on Church Hill Road, repositioning teddy bears — wet, matted and facedown from the morning’s showers — one by one against the base of each of the 27 angel cutouts on the grass hill. Some of the stuffed bears tumbled down as soon as she walked away, but she returned and gently placed them on their backs with their arms outstretched, as if they were waiting to be hugged.
Another woman was going around picking up each candleholder and emptying the rainwater that had collected inside. It would rain again before sundown. When the two women reached the bottom of the hill, they hugged through tears for several seconds. They had never met before, although Komlo has spent several hours at this memorial since it first appeared in the weekend after the shootings. They discussed what more they could do to help: a bake sale? Snowflake crafts? Prayer? While they talked, a third woman went around straightening any angels that had started to lean, trying to resecure them in the softened, muddy ground.
In Newtown, Conn., memorials to the victims of one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history have sprouted up wherever there is open grass or sidewalk space. The piles of offerings along the streets leading to Sandy Hook Elementary School have grown 3 ft. tall and several feet wide, spilling over and blocking sidewalks. Everyone knows that the piles — filled with sealed letters, new toys, candles and flowers — cannot stay there permanently. But even while Komlo accepts that the memorial she tends will eventually have to come down, she continues to maintain it. Like many in the town, she doesn’t know what else she can do.
It’s been more than a week since 27 people — including 20 children, six school employees and the mother of the shooter — were killed in Sandy Hook, and the community is slowly trying to find a path toward closure. On Friday, a moment of silence, led by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, was held at the town hall to mark the one-week anniversary of the tragedy. That evening, a vigil at the Fairfield Hills Campus drew more than 1,000 people.
On Saturday, Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra announced that the meticulously maintained memorials would be “gathered and processed into soil that will serve in the foundation of a future permanent memorial.” On Sunday afternoon, the flag at the intersection of Church Hill Road and Main Street was raised to full mast — a position it had not occupied since the shootings on Dec. 14.
It had been a long week for the town residents, and particularly for the families of victims. More than a dozen motorcades have passed down Church Hill Road since the shootings. While many families had asked that their funerals be private, mourners showed up anyway, waiting in the cold and rain, even if they did not know the victim personally.
Everyone in Newtown knows someone at Sandy Hook Elementary. Their mom worked there. Their friend ran an after-school daycare for some of the students. Their former teachers taught there. No one in the town is untouched. “When someone asks you, ‘Did you know someone involved?’ … It’s Newtown — everybody knows everyone,” resident Jeffrey Keating, 20, says.
In the time since the shootings, Sandy Hook has been inundated with offers of aid. Within hours of the shooting, police officers from across the state raced to the scene, unbidden, to help in any way they could. Just a day after the tragedy, counselors and teachers from nearby states arrived to see if anyone needed advising. Trainers traveled with therapy-certified “comfort dogs” from six states away. Someone from Hawaii sent 26 lei necklaces on ice. High school students baked cookies and delivered them to police officers stationed at the town’s flagpole. Newtown residents raided craft stores in search of green and white ribbon — Sandy Hook School’s colors. One man ran 26 miles Friday morning — a mile for each of the victims from the school. People from across the U.S. donated money to local restaurants, requiring that they give Newtown residents free cups of coffee.
Doll donations have flooded local churches. “Tons of teddy bears,” Keating, who volunteered to help sort the stuffed toys, said. “Literally, we have rooms in the basement of the church that are stacked 8 ft. tall by 20 ft. deep. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
The last of Sandy’s Hook’s victims was laid to rest on Sunday. Unlike the memorials, which people crowd around daily, the graves of the children do not gather hordes of visitors or gifts. Indeed many of the children and teachers who shared a classroom just 10 days ago have now been buried far apart. Teacher Victoria Soto, reportedly killed while trying to defend her students, was buried in Stratford, Conn., 20 miles to the south. Six-year-old Dylan Hockley’s services took place in Bethel, Conn., while his teaching aide Anne Marie Murphy — who died with her arms wrapped around him, trying to shield him from the bullets — was buried in her hometown of Katonah, N.Y.
On Saturday afternoon, firemen hung a banner outside of St. Rose of Lima Church, where Monsignor Robert Weiss conducted services for several victims this week. The banner quoted the Gospel of John 1:5: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
No decision has been made about the future of the Sandy Hook Elementary School building. Some residents call it a “sacred” spot, while others just want it torn down. (Students from the school will resume classes in January in the neighboring town of Monroe, in a building reportedly being set up as a close replica of Sandy Hook Elementary — where students can find their pens, crayons, notebooks in the exact location they left them on the day of the shooting.) And as the traffic gets lighter and the camera crews and out-of-state cars leave Church Hill Road, Newtown residents hope to return to some kind of normal — although a return to how things were before the tragedy seems far out of reach. “I don’t think we’ll ever get back to normal so long as all of us who live in town remember,” says Matt Cole, 24, one of the organizers of Friday’s vigil. “Maybe three or four generations down the road, the town will get back to normal.”
Just after noon on Sunday, as a final police motorcade passed through town, patrons of the Sandy Hook Diner on Church Hill Road turned away from the counter and looked out the window. Pedestrians stood still and waited, not moving until the vehicles passed. Later, after the last recorded church bells had rung and the rumbling of police motorcycles had faded away, high school musicians set up on the street outside of a downtown coffee shop and began to play Christmas carols. Across Church Hill Road, a man dressed as Santa Claus stood near the comfort dogs — both, presumably, providing the same service. Mourners still arrived with toys and flowers Sunday night to add to the memorial piles, before they are taken away. | <urn:uuid:b099cb9d-f3ef-49d8-9174-b7d2d8b132a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nation.time.com/2012/12/24/sandy-hook-a-week-after-the-shooting-a-town-struggles-on/?iid=tl-article-mostpop2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976751 | 1,540 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Etan Patz biography
Born in New York City in 1972, Etan Patz was 6 years old when he disappeared in 1979, near West Broadway and Prince Street in New York City. More than 30 years after his disappearance, police reopened Patz's case, and a new suspect, New Jersey resident Pedro Hernandez, was charged with Patz's murder. In May of 2012, Hernandez confessed to the killing.
Born in New York City on October 9, 1972, Etan Patz grew up in Manhattan, in an apartment near the corner of Prince Street and West Broadway. Patz was nearing the end of his first year of kindergarten when tragedy struck: On May 25, 1979, around 8 a.m., while he was walking by himself for the first time to the school-bus stop located just two blocks away from his home, Patz disappeared. According to Patz's mother, she had been watching her son that morning—from the family's apartment window—until he crossed a street and was nearly 150 yards from his bus stop. It would be the last time that Patz's mother saw him alive.
Immediately after Patz's disappearance, Patz's father, a photographer, posted photos of his son throughout New York City, and police initiated a weeks-long search. Patz's case garnered national media attention. For several years, detectives focused on a convicted sex offender, Jose Ramos, as the prime suspect in the case. After years of waiting for answers, Patz's parents received a legal update to their son's case in 2001, when a New York judge declared Patz legally dead.
In May 2010, more than 30 years after Patz's disappearance, the New York City Police Department reopened the Etan Patz case. A suspect, New Jersey resident Pedro Hernandez, was charged with Patz's murder. Two years later, in May 2012—around the 33rd anniversary of Patz's disappearance—Hernandez confessed to killing Patz, and was indicted on second-degree murder charges.
Hernandez, a husband and father, was 18 years old and had been working as a store clerk at the time of Patz's death. Accordng to The New York Times, Hernandez told police that he had taken Patz into the basement of his store on the morning of May 25, 1979, after promising him a soda, and then strangled and killed him. According to police reports, Hernandez was not able to explain to police why he had killed Patz, but stated that his actions had not been sexually motivated.
Following the confession, several media outlets reported that, according to Hernandez's family members, Hernandez suffered from mental illness. Following Hernandez's confession, investigators conducted another search of the bodega basement and surrounding area, as well as Hernandez's home, but were unable to find Patz's remains. Hernandez told police that he had dumped Patz's body in a garbage bin.
Public Reaction to Etan Patz Case
Patz's story, along with several other missing children cases in the United States, spurred a nationwide movement in the early 1980s, in an effort to bring crimes against children to the forefront. Patz's photo was reportedly the first printed on a milk carton, as part of a missing child search. On the fourth anniversary of Patz's death in 1983, President Ronald Reagan designated May 25 as "National Missing Children's Day," to bring attention to the victimization of children. The Etan Patz case is regarded today as one of the most known missing child cases in the nation. | <urn:uuid:8fb0adfa-f18b-4129-ba21-234792dd4424> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biography.com/print/profile/etan-patz-20851519 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985734 | 726 | 1.515625 | 2 |
WASHINGTON -- Even as the shale gas boom slows in North Texas, where drilling rigs working the Barnett Shale recently hit a 10-year low, the "shale gale" continues to grow elsewhere, adding to the glut that has driven prices lower.Should that relatively cheap gas stay in the United States, where consumers and domestic manufacturers will enjoy its economic benefits? Or should the federal government allow it be exported overseas, where it is worth several times more than Americans pay?The Fort Worth-based Barnett Shale Energy Education Council, along with most of the industry, backs exports."It is very important to develop a new market for domestic natural gas," said Ed Ireland, the group's executive director.Ireland argues that natural gas should be viewed no differently than other U.S. products."Does anyone argue that because Apple sells iPads worldwide, that somehow increases the price of iPads for U.S. consumers?" Ireland asked in an interview.But there's a powerful voice of skepticism in Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, the new chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He worries that exports will raise domestic prices, killing a "manufacturing renaissance" the nation badly needs."If you don't get it right, you can do a lot of damage," Wyden said at a recent natural gas forum in Washington. Exports are among the top energy issues for Congress and the White House, and have dominated the first Senate energy committee hearing under Wyden.Should American gas be for Americans?The Natural Gas Act of 1937 and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 treat natural gas and crude oil as special resources, giving the federal government discretion regarding their export. What's new is the surging domestic production of both, leading many to predict the United States could ultimately become a net oil and gas exporter.Wyden's not alone in his view. Powerful interests ranging from chemical manufacturers to utilities to manufacturers, to whom natural gas is an expense, not a profit source, would gain from restrictions on natural gas exports.Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris expressed alarm over the idea of mass exports at Wyden's Feb. 12 hearing. Liveris described natural gas as the "first indispensable ingredient for everything that is made and consumed in this country." The petrochemical industry argues that eight times more value can be created for the economy by using natural gas domestically as a building block for manufactured goods, rather than simply exporting the gas itself."America's natural gas bounty is more than a simple commodity. It's a once-in-a-generation opportunity," he said.But from the perspective of a producer, it is a commodity looking for the best market."There's a lot of natural gas today," Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Michael Dolan said Friday at the IHS CeraWeek energy conference in Houston. "All of those molecules are owned by some company, some private landowner in the United States," he said, and if, "in their view, exporting natural gas is the best way for them to get value for the risks that they've taken, then that's what they should be able to do."The Department of Energy is considering 16 applications for terminals to export American natural gas to energy-hungry countries such as Japan, China and India. Only one is approved and under construction, the Cheniere Energy terminal in Sabine Pass at the Texas-Louisiana border on the Gulf Coast. It's expected to come online by late 2015 or early 2016.The White House hasn't made a decision on the rest, some of which would be in Texas.Senior White House energy adviser Heather Zichal said America has the lowest natural-gas prices in the world. That makes the nation attractive for business, she said."The abundance of affordable natural gas is supporting a new dawn in American manufacturing," she said last week at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.Zichal said allowing some of America's energy bonanza to go to foreign lands would provide an opportunity to create oil and gas industry jobs in the U.S. But that has to be balanced with the impact on manufacturing, national security and home energy bills, she said."As a general rule of thumb, we are not opposed to the notion of exports," Zichal said. "But that's through the lens of making sure we are not doing that in a manner that is going to undermine American consumers."Is there enough for everybody?The oil and gas industry argues that fears of exports are misplaced. American natural gas production would go up if there were new foreign markets, Ireland said. So the supply would increase along with the demand and keep prices down, he said.He said the dilemma for natural gas producers is that the nation's natural gas supply skyrocketed and it's taking longer for U.S. demand to catch up.New natural gas-fired power plants and petrochemical operations take time get on line, he said. So rigs have left the Barnett Shale and other natural gas fields in favor of drilling for oil, which commands a much higher price.The number of active rigs in the Barnett Shale topped 200 in 2008. It hit a 10-year low of 27 in February before rising to 32 last week.The big Haynesville Shale gas field in Louisiana and East Texas also is seeing declining interest, said Philip Budzik, an analyst with the Energy Information Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Energy."The only natural gas play that seems to be really heavily focused on right now is the Marcellus in Pennsylvania and West Virginia," he said in an interview. "I think part of that is due to the fact that gas there has received a higher price because it's closer to [the biggest] markets."A DOE study in December supported the idea of exporting natural gas after analyzing the impact on the economy."Across all these scenarios, the U.S. was projected to gain net economic benefits from allowing LNG exports," said the NERA Economic Consulting report.Wyden called the study "seriously flawed" and said it shouldn't be used to decide whether to allow exports.Wyden said he didn't oppose all exports. He said he wants to see if there's a "sweet spot" where producers could make money and U.S. natural gas prices could stay cheap."Let's just spend some time looking before we do the leaping," he said.Staff writer Jim Fuquay contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:dba63493-a13a-4c8b-8aa1-61f19d22068a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/03/09/4671878/future-of-us-natural-gas-bonanza.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964796 | 1,303 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Taipei – Taiwan on Thursday launched a four-year promotion project aimed at luring foreign tourists.
Under the Tourism Pilot Project approved by cabinet Wednesday, Taiwan will mobilize all resources to turn the island into a transfer point for South-East Asian tourists and a main international tourist destination.
The project requires 30 billion Taiwan dollars (1 billion US dollars) is expected to create 400,000, the Tourism Bureau Director Lai Se-chen said.
She said 60 per cent of the funding will come from airport service fees, both local and international, and the rest from the national coffers.
The scheme is expected to generate 550 billion Taiwan dollars in tourism revenues in 2012, she added.
Taiwan wants to bring in 10 world-famous hotel chains, improve tourism infrastructure and promote eco-tourism, medical tourism and spas, as well as design various tourist routes and packages to attract tourism from China, South-East Asia and Muslim countries.
Taiwan’s inbound tourism has been hurt by the global recession and the country’s six-decade ban on sea and air links with China, which were dropped in December 2008.
In 2008, Taiwan received 3.84 million foreign visitors, falling short of its goal of 4 million. dpa | <urn:uuid:f92779ef-18cf-4bda-aed8-29f2afb9cfce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://silverscorpio.com/tag/tourist-routes/ | 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 | 0.932366 | 259 | 1.78125 | 2 |
From zeros to heroes, musical group Voca People gained fame through none other than YouTube. Just the same as we all caught some of that Bieber Fever, YouTube has been similarly kind to these a capella sensations who put together a short video clip that in just a few months gained millions and millions of hits!
The Voca People are friendly aliens from the planet Voca, where all communication is made by music and vocal expressions. Music is life and life is music, pretty well sums this group up to a tee. They’ve come to Earth and have a LOT to sing about.
BUT, here on Earth, there’s just one problem…to get back to their home planet they eventually have to recharge their spaceship! Amazing vocals, a capella singing with touches of beat box create an incredible range of sounds and instruments that is sure to help send them on their way.
Think Blue Man Group meets Glee, with a dash of sci-fi, comedy and the avant-garde. The performers are decked out entirely in white and punctuated with bold red lips. They represent blank canvases and portray universality in their appearance. Red lips draw focus to their amazing voices!
Some of the tunes they sing include songs from The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Madonna and a spectacular version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Tie in the greatest music on earth with some comedy and the mood is light and buoyant; a concert and show that’s wildly entertaining and appeals to everyone!
Entry by Rebekah Reeves
Marketing Assistant, Rose Theatre Brampton | <urn:uuid:8089ed31-eb59-40c5-9f2a-be07b1f7c595> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rosetheatrebackstage.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949649 | 337 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The Executive Committee member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hanan Ashrawi, has urged the European Union to put an immediate end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
In a meeting with the E-U representative to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and UNRWA, Ashrawi stressed the importance of the European role in the two-state solution and in bringing about an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine. He also called for pressure on Israel to halt settlement activities on the occupied territories before it is too late.
Palestinian human rights groups are supporting this move and have also urged the European Union to take action immediately.
Two EU officials discussed ideas to that effect as well as steps relevant to Palestine in its accession to UN charters and conventions and Palestine joining UN agencies and organizations. In addition, Ashrawi told a Canadian delegation representing the National Democratic Party that despite Canada’s official position supporting Israel and a negative vote in the UN, the Palestinians will not give up on Canada. She said quote -“We believe what is required is an even-handed approach in support of a just peace consistent with international and humanitarian law.”
Ashrawi along with human rights organizations in Palestine are now placing an emphasis on both the EU and other international organizations to speak out about putting an end to the Israeli Occupation. Nel Burden, Press TV Occupied Ramallah | <urn:uuid:a45dcddd-8978-465e-9d52-f189dd0e00f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/12/283064/plo-urges-the-eu-to-condemn-israel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952416 | 284 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Issue 4: Work
The deadline is upon us, other work can wait.
This issue of Nyx appears as thousands of students, pupils, teachers, academics and artists stand up against the coalition government’s plan to further the marketisation of higher education, and to simultaneously withdraw vital funding from the arts, humanities and social sciences. These protesters join with the growing multitudes across society threatened with losing the jobs, welfare support and local government services on which they depend.
Once upon a time opposition movements on this scale might have been inhibited by the perceived gulf between workers and intellectuals. But as more than one contribution to this issue suggests, modern neoliberalism, by subjugating all cultural practice to the conditions of capitalist economy, has made us all workers, even the unemployed. Some of the pieces in this issue highlight the strange logics by which contemporary capitalist society seeks to re-colonise every aspect of our creative and productive activity. Others remind us that the questions of capitalist division of labour, domestic labour and domestic work, female labour and feminisation of labour, are as pressing now as ever.
Nyx was named after the Greek goddess of night in order to designate this noctournal as a space for work removed from the conditions of production and the particular demands (of structure, function and value) that shape the labour of the working day. The risks of a certain strategic romanticism in this gesture seemed worth running, given the supposed alternative of capitulating to a certain capitalist realism. Several imaginative pieces in this issue defy the established logics and choices, which circulate around the concept of work and its value, creating alternative ways of thinking, imagining, working. This kind of enthusiastic commitment to alternatives characterises the opposition to the government spending cuts. The recent and ongoing protests, uniting an extraordinary array of people from different backgrounds, age groups and professions, are unprecedented in their scale – and yet they extend far beyond the number and diversity manifest on the streets. The events and interventions that accompany the rallies and marches aim to produce new ways of thinking about teaching and learning, acting and creating.
As the snow falls and Siberian winds rush through an increasingly discontented social landscape, the boundaries between day and night, work and study are more precipitous than ever. The game of appropriation and re-appropriation is unending, yet we continue to look for new, uncolonised pockets of the night, and invent them when they cannot be found.
Alice Corble & Becky Aizen | <urn:uuid:3518d1ce-b82e-47bb-aba5-564b8383051c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nyxnoctournal.org/back-issues/issue-4-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939555 | 504 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Playing Fast (and Cleanly): A Discussion for Bass Players
Q: When I hear you playing I think how amazing your technique is and the way you apply it to whatever you want to say through your bass. In the past I didn’t mind about the sound of the notes I was getting. I tried to play fast and didn’t really see or hear what the hell I was doing. So my question is this: How can I improve my left hand and right hand coordination to obtain a more cleaner and legato sound? And how can I achieve more speed avoiding the fret buzz that I think I’m getting because of my left/right hand coordination?
A: Thanks for the kind words!
The short answer: in order to play fast, you first have to learn how to play slow!
This topic comes up a lot with students. More often than not, clarity, articulation and motivic development are left brutalized on the side of the road in the quest for speed. And often, that speed is really inarticulate slop that doesn’t relate to anything happening in the moment musically.
I do quite a few things with regard to working on speed and articulation. First, let’s review a few ground rules:
Rule #1: Never (ever) play anything faster than you can play it cleanly and articulately Make sure that every note “speaks” like you want it to. Get the tone, feel and shape of note that you intend. If you can’t get it to sound right, slow down. Try playing just one note until you can play that one note correctly.
Rule #2: Be patient! Impatience is the enemy of mastery. Build things up slowly over time.
Here are several ideas to help you get where you want to go:
Take any rhythmic grouping and apply it to an harmonic exercise.
I’ve covered this one quite a bit so I won’t get into too much detail here but here is an example or two.
Experiment with Scaler Patterns and Rhythmic Groupings
Play a regular scale (then expand to broken 3rds and different scaler patterns), but instead of hitting each note just once, hit it 2, 3, 4 or any number of times and using 8th, 16th, triplets, or any other type of rhythmic grouping.
For example, you could play a C major scale, hit each note twice but play 8th note triplets. It’s harder than it sounds because it forces you to change notes at odd places within the beat. This enforces your inner clock as well as getting your fingers to do something new.
Also try practicing arpeggios through chord changes out of the Real Book, but play each note twice using 8th notes. That’s great for right hand dexterity.
Again, practice these things only as quickly as you can play it correctly. Build it up over time!
Build Muscle Memory with Difficult Lines
Pick a difficult melody or bass line and learn it note for note, but develop the muscle memory slowly and over time. Get a slow-downer app and practice playing the line at 25% speed for a full day or two before notching it up to 28% or 30% speed.
Again, make sure every note sounds good and is perfectly articulate before you allow yourself to speed up.
This takes determination but I guarantee you that, within a few weeks or so you will be playing that line with much, much more dexterity and with a much better tone than you would’ve any other way.
Practice Snare Drum Rudiments
Get a snare drum rudiment or percussion book of some kind and practice playing nothing but rhythm on the bass with a metronome. This will really lock up the two hands and you will likely learn much in the process.
Invent exercises and push yourself
As you go, figure out the things that are working best for you (and what you need to work on most) and create your own exercises that match your learning method and the things you need to work on.
Practice rhythm as much as you practice what notes to play
Dedicate a chunk of time in your practice session to each exclusively. The shift in focus can bring about new ideas and really inspire you to keep working.
Remember: this is supposed to be fun. Keep it that way.
Record you practice and listen back.
Critique honestly and adjust your approach as necessary.
Don’t forget to have fun!
Readers: What is your approach to building speed and dexterity? Add to this list! Tell us about your routine in the comments.
Photo by craitza | <urn:uuid:1aff39bb-9d1e-4a68-9ff6-21abafd6eb3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2012/11/07/playing-fast-and-cleanly-a-discussion-for-bass-players/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951393 | 988 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Thursday, June 24, 2010
A free Baby Einstein DVD for parents of kids with special needs
Ever notice how many mainstream companies that specialize in kiddie toys and entertainment seem to somehow forget about kids with special needs? At least one of them is taking a step in the right direction. I got an e-mail recently about the Baby Einstein peeps, who are looking to reach out to families with special needs.
When Max was young, these videos mesmerized him—and me, too! They're meant to be used as entertainment (read: not as tools for brain development), and parents and tots are supposed to enjoy them together. When we'd take Max to get hyperbaric oxygen treatment, which involved me or Dave lying with Max in a claustrophobia-inducing glass tube infused with pure oxygen (it's supposed to spark dormant brain cells), we'd watch Baby Einstein videos together. But I'll confess that on occasion I'd park Max in front of a video in his bouncy seat while I showered. Guilty of yet another mom crime!
Now through December 31, the company is offering a free DVD Sampler to parents of kids with special needs that features 20 minutes of clips from three Baby Einstein DVDs and insights from an expert in child development. Visit the Special Children, Special Discoveries site to register for it, and feel free to leave your two cents about what you'd like to see the company doing. My request for them and all media companies: feature more children with special needs in your videos and TV shows.
Posted by Ellen at 3:00 PM | <urn:uuid:47bccace-1903-46e1-9f89-e2e5c84ae911> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lovethatmax.com/2010/06/free-baby-einstein-dvd-for-parents-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97229 | 324 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013
NEW YORK (AP) -- Eleven people have been seriously hurt after a ferry crashed into a dock in lower Manhattan today. The injured include one passenger who suffered a severe head wound falling down a stairwell.
Scores of people who'd been standing and waiting to disembark were hurled to the deck or into walls by the impact. It happened as the catamaran Seastreak Wall Street slowed following a routine trip across New York Bay and past the Statue of Liberty.
The accident ripped open a small part of the hull like an aluminum can. Nearly 50 people suffered minor injuries. For nearly two hours, paramedics treated bruised and dazed passengers on the pier.
The cause of the accident is under investigation. The ferry is ten years old and had recently undergone a major overhaul that gave it new engines and a new propulsion system. The ferry company has issued a statement saying it will work with investigators to determine the cause.
Police say the boat's crew passed alcohol breath tests after the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board has sent a team of investigators.
ferry was arriving from Atlantic Highlands, a part of the New Jersey shore that is still struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy.
(Copyright 2013, The Associated Press) | <urn:uuid:a0534de0-3ac5-4e85-8a1f-ba2f44bbdcc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wrdw.com/news/headlines/Ferry-strikes-NYC-dock-at-least-50-are-injured-186181832.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956832 | 257 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The aggregates, cement and ready-mixed concrete industries are the latest to come under the spotlight of the Competition Commission. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has identified a number of concerns, not least of which is that five companies control 90 per cent of the cement market, 70 per cent of the ready-mixed concrete market and 75 per cent of the aggregates market.
The OFT is concerned that the concentration of market share in so few hands, plus the high level of investment required to enter the market, may well act to erode competitiveness.
The OFT has always taken a particular interest in competition in industries in the construction sector. Many of its prosecutions have been of building and construction firms. Substantial fines can be levied for breaches of competition law. | <urn:uuid:77601fb8-ab89-4eed-9c63-bcc0e8054a34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dklm.co.uk/site/library/commercialgeneral/competition_new_market_investigation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961453 | 159 | 1.585938 | 2 |
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LIVINGSTON COUNTY, MO (2011-03-31)
The Livingston County Library is the place to turn to for books concerning health.
The library was awarded a $6,000 Missouri State Library targeted collection development grant, allowing the library to purchase more books on diseases, exercise, mental health and diet. Robin Westphal, of the Livingston County Library, says they applied for the grant, stating much of the library's health material was outdated and inadequate. She also says up-to-date reading material on health is important to have in today's libraries. In addition to health materials, the grant allowed the library to buy award-nominated titles in the children's and teen area. Though not all of the titles are in yet, patrons will be able to spot the new books in the health and medical section because of their large orange sticker on the spine.
© Copyright, KXCV | <urn:uuid:57bbc39e-0f0f-48aa-bd5e-b0ec30e00e14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kxcv.org/news/regional_stories/March/2011/Library%20Grant.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968146 | 198 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I've recently started using MySQL. There is more than one C++ binding and as far as I can tell, none are worth learning.
I suggest you use the C binding. There's only one. It's standard. It makes sense. None of these apply to abny of the C++ bindings I've seen.
MySQL really is a poor cousin.
There are many tutorials on how to use MySQL from C.
The C binding is what I call the C interface to MySQL. Once you understand it, you could probably even write your own wrapper. Heavens knows it can't be any worse than the one out there.
Last edited on
lol thank you very much so where could i download the c binding from | <urn:uuid:6cec5f37-14b6-4a1f-854d-ea340e604b3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/windows/83463/ | 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 | 0.97476 | 150 | 1.789063 | 2 |
For over a quarter of a century Dream Designs has been creating well-made, sustainable products in Vancouver, Canada. The company has recently added a sustainable fashion line to round out their collection of eco-friendly products.
Years ago, Irma McInnis, Dream Designs' late founder, was known as the "cotton queen" in a sewing class because she refused to sew with polyester. An entrepreneur with a creative mind and a passion for natural lifestyles, McInnis found the perfect way to express her values when she established Dream Designs in 1981. She specialized in making premium quality sleep, spa, meditation, and décor items from cotton, hemp, and linen textiles.
Current owner and creative director, Bei Linda Tang, is working to expand on these foundational Dream Designs traditions. Tang is an ex-investment banker and a MBA who has lived in and traveled to many parts of the world. Through her previous involvement with mega-infrastructure developments, she has experienced first-hand the impact of human activity on the environment. Her husband, Steven Kennedy, equally well-traveled and eco-minded, is a Canadian Coast Guard Captain who has taken scientists from around the world to study global warming in the arctic. "Our rising standard of living should not come at the expense of the environment," Tang states. "There are always sustainable alternatives and as a business owner I feel obligated to make those alternatives available."
Tang's goal is to lessen humanity's detrimental effect on the environment by increasing the use of sustainable fibers. Her strategy is simple: offer well-designed, well-made products constructed with sustainable fibers and both the consumer and the planet will benefit. | <urn:uuid:5c5457c5-b95d-4397-b936-0af7cd4dba5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dreamdesigns.ca/about.php?section=6&category=Index | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957662 | 338 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010
Week of August 27, 2007
Knights' founders' beatification backed by Cardinal Bertone
Fr. Michael McGivney began world's largest lay Catholic organization
By ANDY TELLI
"Every Christian is called by Christ to carry out a particular mission in the Church."
- Cardinal Bertone
"This holy priest, however, like Peter in the Gospel story, found the faith and the courage to walk steadfastly toward Christ, and to inspire others by his leadership," the cardinal added.
Like Peter in the Gospel, Bertone said, McGivney answered God's call when he became a priest.
"He also helped others to recognize the call that Christ addressed to them, and to respond generously," he said. "This was the key to his apostolic vision in founding the Knights. . . . He knew that it is not only priests and religious who have a vocation, but that every Christian is called by Christ to carry out a particular mission in the Church."
The process for canonization for Father McGivney was launched in December 1997 by the Archdiocese of Hartford, Conn. McGivney was a priest of the then-Diocese of Hartford.
The archdiocesan phase of the canonization process has been completed and the case has been presented to the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes.
A miracle connected to McGivney has been reported to the congregation, but there has been no ruling on it yet.
Bertone continued his comments on McGivney in his address during a special gala banquet in his honour Aug. 8.
The cardinal said McGivney "had a deep appreciation for the special characteristics of the lay vocation as being thoroughly immersed in the spheres of the family, civil society and public life.
"He made it his goal to develop practical ways of ensuring that faith could be put into concrete action."
But, the cardinal added, McGivney understood that good works lose their deeper meaning "if they are not rooted in faith."
The laity face many obstacles to living a life of faith, Bertone said.
"It is no surprise then that Christians often encounter resistance, opposition and even persecution in the world," he said.
"In short, being a Catholic in the world today takes courage," Bertone said, "yet it takes no more courage than it did when Jesus called his first disciples in Galilee."
Our mission: To serve our readers by bringing the Gospel to bear on current issues in the Church and in secular culture through accurate news coverage and reflective commentary. | <urn:uuid:a070f2e7-618a-4bed-82b2-fe73b7dfd0ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wcr.ab.ca/old-site/news/2007/0827/founder082707.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979782 | 538 | 1.523438 | 2 |
From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...The late August summers of my Chicago childhood moved in veiled slow-motion. Mirage-like waves rose from the steaming pavement and the incessant drone of cicadas slowed already weary bodies to a dirge like sway. Afternoons were spent under the sprinkler or reading beneath the rank trees-of-heaven that grew untended in the neighborhood. Boredom was a common malady that I escaped by venturing across the street to the Salvino's garden. When the tomatoes came in, the stamp-size plot and the kitchen of the bungalow teemed with activity as Mama S. and her sisters put-by the hundreds of jars that would be used for winter meals. Several of the sisters worked over an old starch stove that had been set up in the yard to contain the mess that came with blanching and skinning bushels of tomatoes. Another crew used the old stove in the basement to sterilize jars for canning, but the jars were filled upstairs in the blast furnace of a kitchen under Mama's watchful eye. The kitchen produced jar after jar of stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste, and, when lunch rolled around, everyone got to enjoy a marvelous Tuscan soup called pappa al pomodori. Mama called the soup tomato water. It contained the juice of sieved tomatoes, a handful of fresh basil, some onion and cubes of stale bread that were used to thicken the broth. I suspect that to those who have never sampled it, the soup sounds like prison fare, but, I promise you, that when it is freshly made, it is, unequivocally, delicious. There are scores of recipes for the soup. Jamie Oliver has one that is wonderful, but I prefer to use one that was developed by Mary Ann Esposito and featured on her program Ciao Italia. It's a hands down favorite for me, because of all the recipes I've found, it is the one most like the soup I first tasted as a child. This is a straightforward recipe and I know those of you who try it will enjoy this peasant favorite. It is important to use fully ripe, meaty, blood red tomatoes and good day-old bread when you put this together. This is a wonderful way to use summer's bounty and I hope you will give this soup a try. You can see Mary Ann make the recipe, here. I've included her recipe below. Here's how pappa al pomodori is made.
Tuscan Tomato and Bread Soup - Pappa al Pomodori...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Mary Ann Esposito
2-1/2 pounds plum tomatoes, cored and cut in half
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pound leeks, white bulb only, finely diced
12 basil leaves, minced
3 cups hot chicken or vegetable broth
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Grinding black pepper
3 cups stale bread cut into 1-inch cubes
1) Puree tomatoes in a food processor until smooth. Pour mixture into a fine sieve placed over a large bowl. Strain juice by pressing down with a wooden spoon; discard seeds and skins. Set aside.
2) Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large soup pot, stir in leeks and half the basil and cook until leeks soften. Stir in tomato juice, broth, salt, and pepper and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Cover pot and remove from hit.
3) Heat remaining olive oil in a large sauté pan. Stir in remaining basil and bread cubes. Brown bread quickly over medium heat. Stir cubes into soup. Cover the pan and allow bread to absorb liquid.
4) When ready to serve, slowly reheat the soup. Pass extra virgin olive oil to drizzle on top. Yield: 8 servings.
One Year Ago Today: Pickles and Relish - A Round-Up
Two Years Ago Today: Adam's Lime Curd
Three Years Ago Today: Leche Asada | <urn:uuid:8614b994-e20a-4277-8347-375699a4d641> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oneperfectbite.blogspot.jp/2012/08/tuscan-bread-and-tomato-soup.html?showComment=1346275256852 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94428 | 840 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Due to the vagaries of print magazines, I am writing this on Election Day 2012. Due to the vagaries of Hurricane Sandy, I am writing this from the Jersey Shore where power was restored to my house after seven long and increasingly cold days. I and my family were only inconvenienced by the aftermath of one of the most destructive storms in history, while many more people lost their homes, not to mention their lives.
And yet I’m optimistic about the New York metropolitan area’s ability to rebuild and recover. The response to the storm has been informed by lessons learned from the tragedy of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. When Mayor Bloomberg of New York City announced the opening of evacuation centers, he made a point of saying that evacuees could take their pets with them to those centers: After Katrina, it became clear that many in New Orleans who should have evacuated failed to do so because they didn’t want to abandon their dogs and cats. Leadership at times of crisis takes many forms, but educated leadership learns from the past to make future prospects brighter.
More impressive to me than government leadership has been the outpouring of caring to those areas devastated by Sandy—by individuals, by volunteer organizations, by faith-based groups, by corporations like the makers of Duracell and Tide. That caring won’t end when power is restored and homes are repaired—it’s long been a part of the American psyche.
In his writings on America following a visit in 1831 to the still-young United States, the French proto-sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville lauded the unique American genius for “voluntary associations” in which like-minded people gathered together without any government or upper-class oversight.
Jedediah Purdy, who teaches law at Duke University’s law school, wrote a thoughtful piece in 2009 on the paradox of American life noted first by de Tocqueville. These “supple and pragmatic groupings trained people to take charge of their own affairs and […] fostered the blend of initiative, self-assertion, and mutual respect that makes civic life work.” However, Purdy says de Tocqueville “also saw a bleaker face of American community” in which Americans “fixed their attention on their own affairs and the affairs of those closest to them. They became indifferent to the larger community.” These Americans, de Tocqueville wrote, “owe no man anything and hardly expect anything from anybody. They form the habit of thinking of themselves in isolation and imagine that their whole destiny is in their own hands.”
My hope and prayer is that once the election’s storm and fury is over all Americans realize the importance of working together to solve our problems, not least the fiscal issues that bedevil us. What kind of a country, what kind of a people do we want to be in our third century of existence? Our “voluntary associations” will always help define us as a people, but so too will our institutions of law and defense, of governments local, state and federal. Just as with recovery from a natural disaster, we can solve our looming national disaster-in-making by coming together for our common self-interest, for ourselves and the generations that follow us. | <urn:uuid:6fc9bd8b-cdc6-4e90-b242-e1e9bbfe707a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.advisorone.com/2012/11/20/american-paradox?t=estate-planning | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967903 | 685 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Wednesday, 23rd May 2012
Are you interested in being able to develop more creative and constructive ways of thinking and problem solving in everyday life?
The Waterford Thinking Club aims to utilise several thinking tools to address issues of local concern initially. Creative thinking, free from conventional logic and linearity like we are used to is key to coming up with original ideas.
The Waterford Thinking Club is one of the many actions from the Strategic Plan for the Waterford City of Learning project which is a Waterford City Development Board action (for more information go to http://www.waterfordvec.ie under the city of learning tab)
Dr .Michael Howlett of the Waterford Institute of Technology will be facilitating the club meetings. It is planned to have club meetings every month.
The next meeting is on the 5th of June at 7pm. If you are interested in joining the Waterford Thinking Club, call Adam at the city of Waterford VEC at 051-874007 (ext.215). Places are limited to seven people.
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Google AlertWhen a company which has it's European Headquarters here in Ireland is called 'evil' and 'immoral' by M.P.s in The House of Commons you tend to sit up and take notice. The particular company that was being referred to was Google and the reason it had enraged M.P.s in London was because even though it has a big operation there and conducts a lot of business there it pays no corporate tax. It does this by having all of its financial transactions finished here in Ireland. And the company here is …
We're delighted to announce the launch of the new-look Waterford Today website. Tell us what new features you would like to see added?
Total votes: 0 Refresh results | <urn:uuid:77526f8b-ae56-4602-b599-efb646c8b083> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waterford-today.ie/waterford-today-news/16730-does-it-matter-what-you-think-or-how-16730.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965516 | 376 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Improved and Expanded Mental Health Services for Survivors of Trauma and Torture
Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, and Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Kate Lundy, announced improved and expanded mental health services are now available to refugees arriving in Australia who have experienced trauma and torture.
View by date:Previous Ministers
The Hon Mark Butler MP 23 June 2011
Minister for Mental Health and Ageing
Senator The Hon Kate Lundy
Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister
Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, and Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Kate Lundy, today announced improved and expanded mental health services are now available to refugees arriving in Australia who have experienced trauma and torture.
The new Program of Assistance for Survivors of Torture and Trauma (PASTT) consolidates existing mental health services into one seamless program to assist refugees successfully settle in Australia.
The Gillard Government will provide $55 million in funding to the PASST over the next four years and almost $300,000 funding to the Forum of Australian Services for Survivors of Torture and Trauma for information and training resources to support GPs in the delivery of care to refugees who have experienced torture and trauma.
“In many cases refugees have suffered the brutality of torture and other traumatic experiences in their countries of origin, while fleeing or while living in refugee camps,” Mr Butler said.
"Together, these two measures will help people struggling to cope with the effects of such experiences to recover and rebuild new lives in Australia.”
Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Lundy, said the consolidated program would ensure greater consistency in the delivery of torture and trauma services for refugees.
“Australia leads the world in the provision of settlement services and these changes will ensure new refugees receive the care and support they need to successfully build a new life in Australia,” Senator Lundy said.
“Given the hardships many humanitarian entrants overcome, they display remarkable resilience in rebuilding their lives and contributing to Australian society.”
The consolidated PASTT combines short term counselling services previously funded through the Department of Immigration and Citizenship with longer term assistance available through the Department of Health and Ageing into one seamless service.
“This removes the need to transfer clients between different government agencies ensuring they receive continuity of care and improved linkages with other mainstream mental health and health services,” Mr Butler said.
An executive member of the Forum of Australian Services for Survivors of Torture and Trauma, Mr Paris Aristotle said that “Australia now has one of the most extensive and effective programs to care for refugees who were tortured and traumatised anywhere in the world".
"These two measures will provide people who have survived horrific human rights violations with the support they need to overcome their trauma and establish a brighter future in safety and with dignity" Mr Aristotle said.
PASTT will provide counselling services and a range of other assistance to more than 5,000 individuals and their families per year. It will also assist other services working with refugees through the provision of training, secondary consultation and wider health network development.
Services provided through the new consolidated service include:
- direct counselling and related support;
- specific services to assist children and young people;
- education and training to mainstream health and other services;
- rural, regional and remote outreach services to enable torture and trauma survivors to gain access to comparable services outside metropolitan areas; and
- development of resources to support and enhance provision of specialist counselling and related support services.
Through this year’s Budget, the Gillard Labor Government is delivering $2.2 billion in new measures - the single largest investment in mental health services in this nation’s history.
Minister Butler’s Office: 02 6277 7280
Senator Lundy’s Office: Jessica Hill On 0407 926 077
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1905: 338 2/3 innings. 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA.
1911: 307 innings. 1-2 with a 2.00 ERA.
1912: 310 innings. 0-2 with a 0.94 ERA.
1913: 291 innings. 1-1 with a 0.95 ERA.
These are the stats of a pitcher from the turn of the century, compiling nearly twice the innings per season than the average modern day pitchers does, and still he was able to attain some of the best postseason statistics of all time.
By the 1960s baseball had shifted to a 4-man rotation, typically with a spot starter/long relief man and, in some cases, a multi-inning closer (think Hoyt Hilhelm or John Hiller). Even with these changes, pitchers regularly threw well over 200 innings each season, many times topping just over 300 as Bob Gibson did twice.
But during this time there were no pitch count considerations. And while injuries were down from the old days (when pitchers threw excessive amounts of pitches included in those high total inning counts), the reduction in afflictions was wrongly attributed to the expansion of rotations thereby limiting a certain amount of fatigue (far less than pitch counts) therefore limiting injuries at minimal efficiency, but enough to push the logic in the wrong direction.
Bob Gibson's career also lasted 17 years for a total of 3884 1/3 innings. That's an average of just over 228 innings a season, a number lowered by his first two seasons (75 2/3 and 86 2/3 IP) and his last (109 IP). But even using the slightly misleading 228 number as an average consider that the leader in innings pitched this season was Justin Verlander at 240. One of baseball's best pitchers, 26 years old and in his prime, and yet that 240 number was about 40 more innings than he has ever thrown in his career. Baseball has developed such a phobia about injuring their bigger, faster, and stronger young pitchers that they do things like cut off Joba Chamberlain after 157 1/3 innings (and maybe rightly so as he was obviously tiring towards the end of the season). Oh, and as for Gibson, in his three World Series appearances he was 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA and 92 Ks in 81 innings.
So what is the conclusion that can be drawn? Either the way modern managers handle their pitchers is ridiculous and unnecessary or players are not, in fact, bigger, faster and stronger today. And forget the argument that because Mathewson (or Gibson) didn't throw as hard as a Verlander or a Sabathia there was less wear and tear on their arms back then. I'll give credence to the argument that Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia likely throw harder than Christy Mathewson or, say, Mordecai Brown. But a few miles per hour does not explain the logic behind decreasing the innings pitched (by 100-200 innings a season), frequency of appearances, and number of pitches thrown in those appearance of these supposedly well condition, nutritionally supreme, and evolutionarily advanced pitchers. Nor does it explain the controversy raised by the idea that a manager would want to throw only his 3 best pitchers "on short rest" in the most important series of the season thus far. | <urn:uuid:ba1f3bda-1bbe-46f3-81d9-d33fc8b98aca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogcritics.org/sports/article/girardis-move-to-use-3-man/page-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980748 | 681 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The abyss Self projecting from non-existence the procreatrix I, was the great change and the beginning: to extend the purpose of desire-for Time to make all existence inexact-those things kept ever vague.
Thus was the will to operate unbegotten.
One thing is nominally, everything alternatingly desirous. That which is first desired is permitted, then externalized and taken away by a circumlocution of beliefs becoming law.
No knowledge would seperate us from the virtues of non-existence but that for man-having become involved with disease, all his food is poisonous; his complete saturation is inevitable that he may become again healthy. Thus man wills by thought.
By the 'death posture' (A simulation of death by the utter negation of thought, i.e. the prevention of desire from belief and the functioning of all consciousness through the sexuality) [not for subjection of mind, body or longevity nor any thing as such] the Body is allowed to manifest spontaneously and is arbitrary and impervious to reaction. Only he who is unconscious of his actions has courage beyond good and evil: and is pure in this wisdom of sound sleep.
Will to pleasure is the basic function underlying all activity whether conscious or not,-and whatsoever the means.
Denial of this Self-love is disease-the cause of homicide; the sufferings of part-sexualities and small things germinating.
Knowledge of necessities is desirous:-Deliberation is but a sorry disatisfaction-a first cause of illusions, harnessing man to a mass of half-realized desires. Remember! O Ikkah, these present Ideas of consciousness obtaining in senses and bodies, are transitory-are destined for usage and other predeterminations-and unnecessary to wakefulness. Will is transition; the painful process of transmigration-the labour of birth of death. Volition to supersede a thing is inability to realize the living Self. For whatever is attained is but the re-awaking of an earlier experience of body.
Man should most desire a simultaneous consciousness of his separate entities. All consciousness of 'I' is a decline and vegetates good and evil afresh-the compulsion of limit and morality. From spontaneous nonexistence, germinate all significant ecstasy-that shall last in the uttermost impossibilities unconditioned to will.
Alas! what ornaments are grave-yards? The pleasure ground of self is contact with the living.
The fool hastens to man with a mouth overfull of new discoveries of power subservient to will! What matters it that we have realized a little more of I? Of beyond its limits of possibility?
Note well! All things are possible even in nightmares-becoming, they are a necessity, an additional boundary to memory-the further seperate entities of consciousness.
Remember O Ikkah! Thou shall not cease to be again what is denied-unto the end of conception: thus man has constructed his seed. These sentient creatures and the beyond conceptions in the order of evolution were thou once as they?
O Ikkah, Thou art this present God-this termite and many other things not yet domesticated or associated with thought.
This focus 'I' called consciousness is unaware of its entire living embodiments but alternates and epitomizes their personalities.
What is 'I' and the extent of its conscious habitation?
. . . A weak desire, a memory governed by ethics and ignorant of its own bodies. Therefore that which is indeliberate is the more vital and is will: discarded knowledge is the sexuality and becomes law.
Thus entity exists in many units simultaneously without consciousness of 'Ego' as one flesh. Verily, I say-the deliberations of many exist in living animations-their consciousness split among a multitude of creatures but knowing only the more important [?] incarnations-What greater misery than this?
Of others, their awake-consciousness is aware of more than one entity and obtain ecstasy by saturable desire.
O Ikkah! Jest viciously! Abandon this haunted mortuary in a blind turning-by significant courage.
The 'I' surfeit-swelled is the end of compassion-the indrawing of sex to Self-love. Fortunate is he who absorbs his female bodies-ever projecting-for he acquires the extent of his body.
Whatever is desired, predetermines its existence in endless ramifications miserably and evanescent: Self-love is the paradox of I.
Oh Ikkah Zod-ka! Thy fiction of finality has prevented sleep and created eternity. O, invent sound sleep by the utter ruin of cosmos!
For impalpably and anterior to consciousness-all things exist....
With sensibility and name, becoming its living simulation and thus it disappears-involving its consequent necessity.
Reason has become too sensible, thus desire has become legerdemain mixed with diablerie. The soul, proud and blighted . . . is a civil war of desire: thereof the necessity for medicine and anesthesia. Man has made this environment: the mind is now the belly of the sexuality. Thus I suggest to thee- Self-love and its own temptation to excess.
Verily, greater courage hath none than to satisfy the unexpected desire by Self-pleasure.
For this reason, that when the desire again reacts, to operate in the ego, the suffering shall be ecstatic. How do I know? Not by farcical dialogue with Self but through contact with its undulations . . . are we not ever standing on our own volcano?
What is beyond man-something more dishonest or a further beast?
One thing is desired, another is thought; and a different becomes.
Everything loved obtains an obscene disease. These dream postures are ominous prophecy of thyself to become-the obscure wish. O joy and woe! which is the higher morality-to love man while being man or to reincarnate as woman to fulfil desire? Death is that degeneration, an alternation of ego in consciousness [i.e., desire], its metamorphosis into separate entities for that purpose: serving its own. Man's living virtues are those unfamiliar with names. His absurd I is ever supralapsarian. Man has exhausted his courage by imaginations engendered from the damned: Never can he satisfy what follows these repressions.
Thou who tremblest all over! Thy soul shudders! Thou dost perish from the poison of yesterday's armour and righteousness! O incomprehensible synonymy! O thou who art neither the vigorous kiss of my twin sexes nor its writhings of hatred and black shame. Nothing is discovered of thee until I invented it: from the ceaseless resurrection of earlier deliberations. O thou syzygy of my I and Self! Thou becomest volatile to whatsoever is sensed. Art thou the hidden wish for madness and hysteric love? O thou "untamed" within, thou shall not lose virtue-for thee I will not domesticate while generating. O idiocy! where is that path where I may wander naked in frenzy, a trespasser against all things reasonable? O time! saith good and evil: 'Come, come! Ego, I come!'
. . . . . . .
Knowledge alone is transitory, the illusion subsequent to 'I desire all things.'
Eternal, without beginning is Self; without end am I; there is no other power and substance. The ever changing modifications and diversities we see are the results of forgetfulness, misinterpretated by nightmare senses. When the Self again desires, then I only and nothing else shall remain. Permitting all things, whatsoever is imagined comes out of it. Believe what you will, it has no compassion. The connotation Self-love is applicable to all things. To it, all things are equal. The destroyer of devotees; lover of all things unique.
Giving overflow to all who are indifferent to wanglers, who jest at doctrines . . . of emancipation in celibacy and vituperation. I declare this Self-pleasure alone is free of Theism; the disenthralment of God and the distractions of ego in the many entities of existence I show.
Ye who praise Truth thereby causing its necessity are compelled to live differently. Out of this afterthought of belief-thrives this somnambulating generation of unpleasured fools, liars and homicides-ever bewildered by good and evil. All has become inborn sex, so complex 'am I,' that a successful awakening is impossible without catastrophe. Birth is now painful, life a dire necessity and death an uncertainty-except of fearsome things. What further, O Ikkah, should a cesspool of truths contain? Nor truth, nor women, nor anything else once made objective shall satisfy. They who are committed to doctrines shall continue to move in this cycle of transmigrating belief: degenerating beyond limits they dare not face, and so allow conception to exist of itself from the imaginations 'I believe.'
What more disgusting? For I am all sex. What I am not is moral thought, simulating and separating. Imagined through forgetfulness, born asleep, whose very essence is vague, how can this world with such vapid antecedents, be anything but unthinkable! What man prohibits and then commits will certainly cause suffering, because he has willed double. Born of complex desire, results of actions are dual: multitudinous virtue and vice. Creation is causee through this formula of reaction and is a servile believing-all this universe has come out of it. When by that unprohibiting Self-love all this cosmos is certainly familiar and pleasured, it should be practised with labour.
But who is honest enough to believe this without relapse? Having renounced both good and evil conveniently, one should engage in spasmodic madness. Renouncing everything else take shelter in that Self-love, which incites the functions into the bold, 'freedom from necessity am I': virtue and vice shall cease. Self-illumination am I; the procreatrix of this universe. Indomitable in body: born of the bastard truth I made. When the eyes are shut the world certainly does not exist. O chaos! is there no greater joy than flagellation; the ecstatic paralysis that makes holocausts of withered souls; the hideously pitiable cripples-"I fear . . . "? I assert this Self-love to be a most secret ritual hidden by blasphemous Ideographs: and he who calls, pronouncing the word fearlessly, the entire creation of women shall rush into him.
What are lies-but mistimed events?
What is time but a variety of one thing?
What is all folly, but will?
What are all beliefs but the possibilities of I?
What is all future but resurrection?
What is all creation but thyself?
Why is all existence? Awake! Up! up, for thine own sake-
O sin, where is thy violence?
O love, where is thine incest?
O thought, where is thy courage?
O hope, where is thy faith?
O Self where is thy humility?
O truth, where is thy mispronunciation?
Verily, Self-love alone is complete!
THE SEXUALITY AND SLEEP OF AAOS
Aaos having realized at an early age that all systems of belief, religion and rituals; consisted alone in their original value to their creators; And were of the weary, to incarnate pleasure by hope, control by fear; and to Deify by morals; That cowards fear, and must needs promise pleasure of their sufferings; And they who had experienced "I," would have you destroy its body; and potential: Verily, Aaos realized that the origin of I, was for pleasurable procreation . . . but that things had been changed.
Aaos then pondered in his heart long over the geometry of the world of senses; and spake thus: "How far short has realization fallen from original conception? Have we not lived all things previous to the event? What is any desire but all desire? but men get married and nothing is sufficiently arbitrary.
I am the origin of all creation, certain it is that I want not salvation,
[observing all the miserably diseased mob:]
"O, grant that I may add to the world a far greater suffering!"
God is a precocious creation of the Apes, something that must be suppressed: Man must regain his sexuality.
What is man-this feeder on dead bodies of Self? . . . A mole, a carnivorous plant, a disease of himself, a conglomeration of-"it was" and a cause, effecting the miscarriage of his desires-ever creating his future necessities:
What man knoweth the perturbations of his own fear?
Verily, suffering is its own reward.
He who willed, knoweth not his own offspring.
Man projects a vague 'Self' and calls it truth and many other qualified names: Verily, once a Thing is named it becomes nothingness to its meaning.
All happiness is an illusion and a sorry snare. All righteousness is a dishonesty and all sin a pleasure. Assuredly, the courageous alone seem safe . . . without remorse.
Man invented Self-pleasure but knoweth not his own love.
Everything was once arbitrary. Yet they who spoke: their power has ended in common sexual practice-abnormal only with jaded appetites. They who knew were rightly crucified, scorned, ignored and their mouths sealed with their own excrement.
Have we not forgotten more than we shall ever learn?
Where is the magic to revitalize the mouldering words?
Everything is again eventually arbitrary!
What is there to believe that is free of belief? What is there to will that is safe from reaction?
Why is belief always incarnating? Though oft times not even a sincere wish? Who among men knoweth what he believes? Everything is true at some time.
What is this unpleasant Thing, necessity-suffering? How originated pain? What is necessity-but conditioned belief?
What is it we eternally desire and say, through disease?
Verily, directly a man speaketh-he suffers.
What is Self and I? And all these myriad forms called creation-all so essentially like me? Who can realize this Self-portraiture of all Things?
Verily, the sexuality has no limit in conception.
Whither I would go, there had I long been before.
Eternal re-occurence would seem necessary to greater multiplicity!
For what reason this loss of memory by these bewilding refractions of my original image,-that I once made-and out of which spring the sexes?
God is born again of desire, call it by whatever name: this unmanifested memory has no name till belief incarnates. Hence it may be called,-the re-occuring sub-division of 'I'. Everything becomes necessary.
Man is subject to his own law: All else is an obscene jest and a lie.
Thus reasoned Aaos in his youth and went to sleep alone.
After a vilely repulsive nightmare Aaos awoke saying:
"Quiescent are my depths, who could realize They contain such criminal abortions of the cosmos?"
What is all body but materialized desire? What are dreams but unsatisfied desires striving to foretell their possibility in despite of morals?
Life is but will, that has become organic after satiety; its further desires striving for Unity. Death is that further will incarnating in body.
The next day Aaos spoke unto his growing beard:
"Destroy O, my Self, these hallucinations of I am not by knowledge of pleasure."
Thou mighty ecstasy that willeth Thy pleasure in suffering!
Make my consciousness reality of thee in body!
What is Self but Cosmos? What is I but Chaos? Eternally creating its pleasure, everything could become arbitrary.
Whatever deceit we practice, the functions of the emotions are one; their expression dual: Time making multitudinous by denial.
What is experience, but denial? What is the centre, but belief?
After a long suspiration, Aaos spoke aloud to his 'I':
"Awake, my Self-love! Leave this hour of cow-dust, I am all things to pleasure. Too long have I lived the nightmares of others in my sleep . . . Arise! get forth and feed from the mighty udder of Life. Thou art not a cow-herd, nor grass, neither cows no kine! But once again, a creator of cows-who loves their breasts! Are not all things cows to thy pleasure-whether they would or not? And what is Cow? Is it not a fountain? Didst thou not create God, teach nature all secrets and crowd the spaces with cows of desire, unknown and manifesting? Didst thou not create and destroy Woman?"
Again Aaos spoke, but unto his lidless eye:
"Behold thou hoary, white headed, thou silent watcher of night and day: thou death-clutch on the smallnesses of Time! This neither-neither I, shall transvalue ennui, fear, and all diseases to my wish. Dead is my misery in suffering! How could it exist in my Zodiac, unwilled? I, who transcend ecstasy by ecstasy meditating Need not be in Self-love! Verily, this constant ecstasy I indraw from Self-creation. By castrating 'of,' my belief is balanced: my arbitrary automatism serving its diverse self-pleasure."
Then Aaos meditated and murmured: "All things exist by me: all men exist in me, yet who doth not turn away from his own superabundance while realizing? All desire is for unity: thus my vision seeth through mine ears. Let my unity be realized sufficiently, thus shall my sexuality be convenient unto itself and escape the conceivable . . . Where is lust when the tests wither? Verily these senses have a further pupose beyond their own: thus shall thou steal the fire from Heaven. All things return to their earliest functions."
At that moment Aaos realized he was not alone; and a voice asked:
"Hast thou no fear?"
Laughing aloud, Aaos answered:
"Hidden from thy small susceptibilities, monstrous enormities are commited! On the day my wind bloweth a little the cow-dust away-thou O fool, shalt vomit hot blood at thine own prostitution and incest. When thou knowest not, the lust wills non-rationally, the belief bindeth with modest Ideas; the body is subject and suffers. What man can prevent his belief from incarnating? Who is free of filth and disease? All men are servile to the great unconsciousness of thier purpose in desire. The I thinks, the Self doth. There is no salvation from desire, neither day nor night does it cease its lengthy procreation of cause and effect: penetrating all things inexplicably. Endless are its elements and nothing whatsoever escapes its embrace-but its own Self-love. . . . Should I fear my I?"
Aaos lowering his voice, uttered:
"What further use shall I give my sexuality? Verily it is alway speaking for me! This I, non-resisting to the Self, becomes irresistible."
When the voice had left Aaos went his way muttering and smiling:
"Can it be possible that dead wives resurrect?"
For he thought that-Woman was dead. With this reflection Aaoss became silent. Awaking from his Self-introspection he spake aloud to his body:
"Man is something that has resurrected from an archetype, a previous desire gone to worms. All conceptions predetermine their degeneration or supersedure by degrees of morality. Verily a new sexuality shall be mine,-unecessary to degenerate or surpass. To give it a name, I call it the Unmodified sexuality; without a name it shall be conscious of all desire: thus no ecstasy shall escape me. Its wisdom shall be dreams of Self-love vibrating all the manifestations-I am he, who self pleasures non-morally." | <urn:uuid:f20fbe69-a083-43b4-8692-d4e5353d1c84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thothweb.com/sections-printpage-307.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943626 | 4,260 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Chicago Teachers Union leadership has chosen to end the strike. All Chicago Public Schools will re-open on Wednesday, September 19, and all CPS students are expected to be back in the classroom. Continue to check back at cps.edu for more information.
Read the letter to parents on CPS extending the hours at Children First sites English l Español
All CPS Children First Sites
CPS is committed to staying at the negotiating table with the CTU — every day if needed — to ensure our students stay in the classroom and continue to take advantage of more time with their teachers with the Full School Day.
We are strongly encouraging all parents to first explore other options for their children. We know that a strike will put a strain on many families, and no one will be hurt more by a strike than our students.
For families that are not able to access alternative options for their children, the "Children First" plan is a safety net to provide a safe environment, food, and engaging activities:
- 147 CPS "Children First" site locations will be open to students with limited hours in the event the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) chooses to strike.
- Parents can sign-up their child at a Children First site using their student identification (ID) number through the sign-up tool located on the right side of this page.
- Parents without access to the internet can call 311 or visit their local library to sign-up their child.
- Every CPS student has been assigned a designated site in their community that is not necessarily their regular school, but will be equipped to address their needs and provide a safe environment. Parents are strongly encouraged to register their children to ensure staff at the site are prepared for any needs children may have.
Please Note: A student identification (ID) number is required to sign up. The student ID number can be located on all CPS progress reports and report cards or by visiting the Manage Students page in the CPS Parent Portal. Parents of high school students can also find their student's ID number on their child's identification card. If parents are unable to find their child's ID number they can also obtain it from their principal.
Educational Resources for High School Students
Chicago Public Schools is providing a number of on-line educational resources for parents and students. These resources and tools will help students stay engaged in learning during the strike.
Now: All CPS High School Students are eligible to take free web based online courses through CPS. Students at off-site locations (home, libraries, and community centers) with computer and internet access may take credit recovery, elective courses or advanced placement courses for credit upon completion of their courses. Click here for a list of courses offered.
At CPS Children First sites, seniors may have exposure to noncredit bearing college and career planning, reading/writing comprehension courses. For more information click here and to register click here.
Each Children First high school site will have trained professional college and career coaches and specialists offering daily “College and Career Sessions” to help students review college preparation checklists, explore college options, build a strong resume, review the Common Application and financial aid forms, draft personal statements and resumes, and prepare for interviews, college visits, and college fairs.
On Tuesday, the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) will host an Open House at all seven of its City College Campuses from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. This is the first time that CCC is hosting open houses for CPS students in such a formally coordinated manner. CPS students will receive information on dual credit/dual enrollment opportunities, as well as a tour of the campus, information on College to Careers and opportunities to talk with advisors, faculty, and students.
Partnership with City Sister Agencies, Faith-Based Organizations and Community Based Organizations
CPS is working in close partnership with City Sister Agencies — including the Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library, Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Chicago Fire and Police Departments and the Office of Emergency Management — as well as faith-based organizations, non-profits and other stakeholders to ensure students receive the support they need in the event that the leadership of the CTU chooses to strike and until the leadership of the CTU chooses to provide instruction in the classroom. These partnerships have resulted in more than 200 additional locations as options for students. This includes 78 Chicago Public Libraries, 84 Chicago Park District sites, 59 locations through the Safe Haven program and programming offered by more than 100 non-profit organizations. Read about the Coordinated Children First Efforts to Keep Students Safe and Engaged here.
Starting Monday, September 10, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) will offer free rides to Chicago Public Schools students between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. To receive free rides, students should show their CPS ID card, reduced fare card, or other identification, and CTA bus operators or customer assistants will validate age. Read more here.
- Non-CPS Children First Sites, which also will be providing critical services for our children
In an effort to support students and families of CPS, 59 faith based organizations will provide Safe Haven sites in the event CTU leadership chooses to strike. Registration is free and available on a first come first serve basis. Space is limited. For additional information please call 773.553.2500. | <urn:uuid:1952c8ac-e06d-48ef-a67d-e4a12db3f4ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cps.edu/childrenfirst/Pages/default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953965 | 1,106 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Metrobus began life in 1983 with a fleet of six vehicles operating from a depot in Orpington, Kent. It was acquired by the Go-Ahead Group in 1999. Metrobus started operating route 358 as a commercial venture in May 1989, with just two coach-operated return journeys on weekdays only. The route was very successful and was increased to hourly the following year and to every 20 minutes in 1992, when it was restructured to operate between Orpington Station and Crystal Palace.
In 2002, the 358 became a Transport for London contract with an increase in frequency to every 12 minutes. Metrobus retained the route on tender in 2003 and 17 new Scania Omnicities were delivered for the service. They were allocated fleet numbers 514-530 and followed on from an order for Metrobus’ Fastway operation in Crawley. The vehicles are dual door, have 37 seats and are 12 metres long and 2.55 metres wide. They were delivered painted red with a blue and yellow waistband, which was later removed.
The Scania OmniCity is a one-piece casting whose clean lines accentuate the square-mounted, double-glazed windows and the livery application on which all logos and lettering are clearly legible. Key features of the UK7000 series, exemplified on UK7009, include two doors, an extensive portrayal of handrails and the headlight / indicator units at the front made of individual, translucent components to look more realistic.
As Metrobus is one of the loyal customers in the UK to the Scania OmniCity, CMNL has produced UK7002 Metrobus Fastway (dual door) and UK7005 Metrobus Rt.X26 (single door) since 2005. UK7009 is the third batch of replicas showcasing Metrobus colours. | <urn:uuid:eadf5390-99cb-4bf3-b642-39f643c3284e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ekmpowershop4.com/ekmps/shops/morrismodels/creative-master-northcord-ukbus7009-scania-omnicity-selkent-east-londo-505-p.asp | 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 | 0.975225 | 372 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The drivers will have to rely on trackside flags instead of in-cockpit warning lights due to a telemetry problem with the FIA's systems Down Under.
According to reports the glitch will also affect DRS with the FIA unable to disable it after it has been enabled.
After the second lap of all grands prix, DRS is enabled by the FIA. However, for this weekend it will be enabled from the start. The drivers, though, still may not use it until lap three. They also may not use it two laps after any Safety Car.
The teams will be notified when DRS may be used and will have to radio that information to their drivers, who have been told that they still need to adhere to the regulations regarding the overtaking aid.
Added to that the drivers will also have to pay attention to the trackside flags as the in-cockpit warning lights won't be used. | <urn:uuid:395f5fec-13a9-4b79-b8a8-e39d6a05f95a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.planet-f1.com/driver/18227/8569551/Telemetry-issues-for-warning-lights-DRS | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966748 | 188 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Fishing: The blackmouth salmon season is winding down in the region, but halibut fisheries in Puget Sound are coming up soon. For freshwater anglers, one of the most anticipated fishing opportunities occurs later this April, when the lowland lakes trout season kicks off.
Beginning April 24, anglers can cast a line in many of the region's lakes, where thousands of legal-sized trout have been planted. Information on stocking schedules for rainbow, cutthroat and triploid trout is available on WDFW's website ( http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/plants ).
"This is our biggest fishing season opener and it traditionally draws more than 300,000 anglers of all ages," said WDFW Director Phil Anderson. "It’s a good time to gather family and friends at local waterways to cast off winter and celebrate spring."
Because the lowland lake trout opener traditionally draws the biggest crowds, it’s especially important for everyone to be patient and safe at boat launches and docks, Anderson noted. "Everyone in boats, and all children on shore, should use personal flotation devices," he added.
This year’s opener offers a new opportunity for lake fishers. Anglers may purchase a 2-pole endorsement which allows them to fish with two rods in most of Washington’s lakes. Gear rules and daily limits still apply. Many anglers will see the use of two poles as a way to double their fun by using two different types of tackle, or fishing at two different depths. Go to http://wdfw.wa.gov/licensing/twopole/lakes.php for a list of lakes where two poles are not allowed.
On the saltwater, selective fisheries for hatchery blackmouth - resident chinook - continue through April 15 in Marine Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet), and through April 30 in marine areas 7 (San Juan Islands), 8-1 (Deception Pass, Hope Island and Skagit Bay) and 8-2 (Port Susan and Port Gardner). Anglers fishing in any of those areas have a two-salmon daily limit, but must release wild chinook.
The halibut season is just around the corner. The season is scheduled to run from May 1 through May 30 in marine areas 6-10, where fishing will be open three days a week - Thursday, Friday and Saturday - and closed Sunday through Wednesday except for Memorial Day weekend when those marine areas will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Current regulations for all freshwater and saltwater fisheries are available in WDFW's Fishing in Washington pamphlet ( http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/regs/fishregs.htm ).
Hunting: The spring wild turkey season runs April 15 through May 31 around the state. Hunters have a three-gobbler limit - two birds in eastern Washington and one bird in western Washington. For more information, a Wild Turkey Spring Season brochure is available at WDFW regional offices and on the department's website ( http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/turkey ).
There’s still time to comment on a draft plan to guide management of the state’s white-tailed deer populations. Developed by WDFW over the past year, the five-year plan outlines strategies for sustainably managing the game animals throughout their range in eastern Washington. Other key goals include maintaining stable deer-hunting opportunities for state citizens and reducing deer-related damage to crops and other personal property.
The draft plan, along with an electronic comment form, is posted on WDFW’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/wildlife/management/white-tailed_deer . Public comments will be accepted through April 23 before a final plan is reviewed by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission and forwarded to the WDFW director for approval.
Wildlife viewing : Gray whale sightings continue to draw whalewatchers to the region. The large marine mammals have been milling about the Whidbey and Camano islands area the last several weeks during their annual journey north. Most of the whales are headed to the Arctic Ocean, where they spend the summer feeding, before heading back south to the coast of Mexico. Some gray whales stop short of migrating all the way to the Arctic and instead linger in the waters of the Pacific Northwest during the summer months. For information on whale sightings, visit the Orca Network website at http://www.orcanetwork.org/sightings/map.html .
Meanwhile, birdwatchers have an opportunity to take part in the "Wings Over Water" Northwest Birding Festival April 17 in Blaine. The festival features wildlife viewing field trips, arts and crafts, speakers, raptor presentations, and activities and games for children. For more information visit Blaine's Chamber of Commerce website at http://www.blainechamber.com/wow . | <urn:uuid:85090598-1b3d-468d-97f0-35808d32bed9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kbkw.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1527&page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930968 | 1,031 | 1.570313 | 2 |
What is a negative result of technology?
This small, simple change leads to a whole host of very serious problems with society in general. People are becoming more lazy; choosing to stay at home and play video games than go to a basketball game or get together with friends.
On top of that, the new barriers that are made because of technology gives those who are most effected by them a decaying sense of pride in their country. In fact, it is this lack of pride that has spurred many of the anti-American feelings that are felt and publicized by people of this very country.
Not all technology is bad or evil, but we do need to be careful that we don't become slaves (meaning obsessed with, not actual slaves) to our own creations. newspapers and local agencies and music stores have been forced to shut down since items are available online.
Also, the more technology that we create the more te ...more | <urn:uuid:f5e81d54-1ca5-48d9-8bda-5a83f438eacd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://qna.rediff.com/questions-and-answers/what-is-a-negative-result-of-technology/24664809/answers/24700559 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976528 | 187 | 1.695313 | 2 |
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