text
stringlengths 211
577k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
371
| file_path
stringclasses 644
values | language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.93
1
| token_count
int64 54
121k
| score
float64 1.5
1.84
| int_score
int64 2
2
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OTTAWA - The U.S. ambassador to Canada says President Barack Obama's State of the Union message to act swiftly on climate change should be interpreted as a challenge to Ottawa as well.
Obama used Tuesday's speech to present Congress with a choice: either agree to market-based solutions to climate change, or else the president will use his executive powers to achieve the same result.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Ambassador David Jacobson says the president is deeply concerned about greenhouse gas emissions, and wants both the U.S. and Canada to do everything they can to take action.
Policy experts say Obama's comments put the federal government in a difficult position because it risks being left behind by its sector-by-sector approach to controlling emissions.
But Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says Obama's speech does not make him feel any differently about the federal approach.
|
<urn:uuid:108cd245-a84c-4ae0-a6f7-12948417eff1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://weather.yahoo.com/obamas-climate-change-challenge-meant-canadas-ears-ambassador-184331243.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.958422
| 177
| 1.804688
| 2
|
Seeing SuSE’s new desktop—the one using XGL and Compiz—one may be tempted to try and get it working on his own system... Good luck.
Personally, I use Mandriva’s GNU/Linux distribution. They decided to follow Red Hat/Fedora’s impulse by using Xorg 7.1, which has AIGLX (Accelerated Indirect GL X) built in.
Now, AIGLX and XGL use complementary methods to display a 3D desktop, and in fact have very similar requirements—and can run the same window managers.
However, while XGL can run on pretty any OpenGL 1.5 compatible hardware, AIGLX isn’t there yet: right now, only Intel and older ATI hardware (those with open-sourced 3D drivers) can make it run... Because they require the driver to follow the 1.0 ABI specification
Now, since I was always told that NVIDIA is the way to go for OpenGL hardware under GNU/Linux, I tried to find a way to make AIGLX and a 3D desktop on my favourite distribution... And I tried to find out anything I could about a free 3D driver for NVIDIA hardware.
Here’s what I found out:
The Utah-GLX project had a semi-working 3D accelerated driver, which has never been ported to Mesa/DRI. In fact, the last person to work on it was working on a BeOS driver... And has made some progress. However, his work hasn’t seen any echo—that I could find—in the GNU/Linux world.
I can understand that it takes some time to develop a driver from scratch. I can also understand that companies like NVIDIA and ATI, who have today’s most powerful 3D hardware, would not want to share those secrets with others. However!
Seeing that there already are some available code on both parts, that it merely requires someone’s time to reverse engineer those hardware pieces—it can arguably be easily covered with one or two people’s salaries—to discover those secrets, I don’t think that either ATI or NVIDIA would have much to lose by disclosing at least part of the specs required, but at least there would probably be MUCH more activities on the free software side.
|
<urn:uuid:a19f83f8-943f-4f7d-ad53-09cf719bb582>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/comment/719
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.968347
| 488
| 1.820313
| 2
|
GRAFTON -- A land owner, and representatives from an international wind power company, came before Grafton residents Saturday to talk about their plans to investigate the potential for siting a commercial wind turbine project within a 5,000-acre parcel of land in Grafton and Windham.
About 60 people showed up to the Grafton Elementary School for the meeting, which was the first of two Grafton meetings scheduled.
The second meeting will be held on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 1 p.m. and will include a panel discussion by wind power opponents and supporters.
At the meeting Saturday employees of Meadowsend Timberlands LTD, the New England company that owns the land, as well as representatives from Iberdrola Renewables, explained the project and answered questions from Grafton residents.
Although the meeting was the first time Grafton residents were able to address the two companies, the representatives were unable to give many specifics about the project.
Throughout the meeting Iberdrola representatives stressed that it would likely be seven to nine years before the turbines go up, if the project proceeds, and they said it is hard to answer many specific questions at this time before they do preliminary testing.
Last month the Public Service Board approved the installation of three meteorological towers, one in Grafton and two in Windham, which will give the company important meteorological information.
The company said
Chuck Nickerson, who lives at the end of Styles Brook Road, asked if he would be able to hear the wind turbines from his house.
Jenny Briot, a wind developer at Iberdrola, said it would be impossible to give Nickerson an answer until more tests are done on the site.
The company also was asked if decommissioning money was included in wind projects and Briot said the state of Vermont does require a decommission fund to help cover costs associated with removing the towers at the end of their useful life.
Jamie French, one of the partners at Meadowsend Timberlands LTD, was asked if the company would push the project ahead, even if residents of Grafton and Windham say they are opposed to the turbines.
"I can’t answer that," French said. "We would have to weigh all our options."
French said it has become increasingly difficult to operate a successful timberland business in New England due to rising operating costs, international competition and shrinking domestic furniture manufacturing.
He said his company wanted to keep Vermont forests wild, but if people want to enjoy the benefits of a healthy forest, the company needed alternative income sources.
He said wind power could be one such source.
French said at the meeting that his company would remain in contact with the town, and promised to keep the town up to date on activity as the project moves ahead.
Some Grafton residents wanted an article on the Town Meeting warning asking voters if Grafton should prohibit large scale wind energy, but the Selectboard members rejected the petition because they said it was up to the Public Service Board, and not the town, to decide on large scale projects.
Grafton residents, instead, will vote on whether the Selectboard should continue discussions and collecting information on the wind power development.
While it was hard for the project developers to answer many questions Saturday they stressed that the construction of the met towers was only the first step in a very long, multi-year process, and they said there would be plenty of opportunities for townspeople to weigh in on the project if it moves ahead.
"It’s very important to us that we have an open and collaborative process," French said. "Some of the questions are difficult to answer. There are so many unknowns right now."
|
<urn:uuid:1dcc82f8-98e2-4313-a4c2-409327de57ce>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.reformer.com/religion/ci_22512797/grafton-holds-wind-meeting
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.973804
| 770
| 1.59375
| 2
|
Government has decided to reduce income tax by 30 percent for several businesses, households and individuals this year.
|Representatives of HCMC Tax Department on an online exchange with readers of Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper on tax exemption and reduction policy (Photo: SGGP)|
Accordingly 30 percent reduction of income tax will be implemented on medium and small businesses, but not for lottery, real estate, stocks, finance, banks and insurance.
This policy will also not take affect for enterprises producing commodities and services which are listed for excise tax and companies under economic groups and corporations.
However, businesses using a large work force in production and processing, and in agriculture, forestry, seafood, garments and footwear production, will be among those enjoying the policy.
Value added and personal income taxes will be exempt for households and individuals who let out rooms and houses on rent to workers, laborers and students. Those taking care of children and providing food to workers will also be exempt from tax.
In turn, they must pledge to keep their rentals and prices stable in 2012, and the rates must not be higher than in December last year.
The exemption of personal income tax will be applicable from July 1 until December 31 this year for individuals whose income comes from their own business.
|
<urn:uuid:5ff6b512-ff7f-4117-a352-0c907e05135d>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://en.baomoi.com/Info/Govt-to-reduce-or-exempt-income-tax-for-several-businesses/2/290014.epi
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.972379
| 258
| 1.546875
| 2
|
The European Commission approved Roche’s Avastin (bevacizumab) in combination with standard carboplatin and gemcitabine chemotherapy as a treatment for first recurrence of platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer. The anti-VEGF antibody was approved in Europe in December 2011 as post-surgery front-line treatment for women with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer.
Clearance for the new indication was based on data from the Phase III Oceans study, which demonstrated that women with recurrent, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer who received the Avastin-chemotherapy combination demonstrated significantly longer progression-free survival.
Avastin is currently approved in the U.S. for treating colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, kidney cancer, and glioblastoma. In the EU the antibody is approved for the treatment of advanced breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, kidney cancer, and ovarian cancer. Despite the fact that Avastin’s marketing authorization for the breast cancer indication was revoked by FDA in 2011, Roche noted in its recent third-quarter 2012 results that use of the drug as a treatment for breast cancer continues to grow in other licensed countries. The firm reported Avastin sales of CHF 4.3 billion (about $4.6 billion) in Q3 2012, up 6% on the equivalent period in 2011.
|
<urn:uuid:66d9b2fc-8e8e-48c3-9555-8ee14b75f345>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/eu-clears-avastin-as-combo-therapy-for-recurrent-ovarian-cancer/81247563/?kwrd=Ovarian%20Cancer
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.951134
| 284
| 1.765625
| 2
|
By: Adam Campbella
If muscles were made from chips and beer, we'd look huge. But they aren't, and we don't—unless you count that sack o' fat up front and dead center.
If not Doritos and double bock, then what? We decided to delve deep into the human anatomy to find the secret spot on every muscle where the word "ingredients" is stamped.
With the help of Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D., an exercise and nutrition researcher at the University of Connecticut, and a really big magnifying glass, we found it. Eight foods are on the list: eggs, almonds, olive oil, salmon, steak, yogurt, water, and coffee. Add these ingredients to your stomach and faithfully follow the directions on the package—"Lift heavy weights"—and you can whip up a batch of biceps in no time.
|
<urn:uuid:60d7515b-ad05-4bbe-b1fb-1bb141585052>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.freshseafood.com/blog/tag/salmon-recipes/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.936826
| 185
| 1.820313
| 2
|
Indians scale down in Afghanistan, fearing more attacksMarch 31, 2010
KABUL: India has suspended medical aid and teaching programmes in Afghanistan, where Indian businesses and charities are slashing staff over fears they are increasingly targeted by militants, reports AFP.
Kabul-based Indians believe they were the specific targets of three recent attacks in the Afghan capital, including a February 26 bomb and gun assault on a guesthouse that killed 17 people, among them seven Indians.
Indian charity Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), which promoted economic independence for Afghan women, said it had pulled all staff from Afghanistan.
“At the moment there is no one on behalf of SEWA in Kabul because after the 26 February disaster we were advised to come back (to India),” said SEWA’s Afghanistan coordinator Pratibha Pandiya.
Indian officials said a December 15 suicide car bombing that killed eight people also targeted Indians, although former Afghan first vice president Ahmad Zia Massoud had a home in the same street.
The manager of an IT company that many Indians believe was the target, said his Indian staff had since halved to 11.
“We cannot stop people from leaving and we cannot guarantee anyone’s safety,” the manager, also an Indian, said on condition of anonymity and asking that his company also not be named.
“Our office and residences are like fortresses,” he said, adding that extra security promised by the Afghan government had yet to materialise.
Indians in Kabul told AFP they see themselves as victims of a struggle with Pakistan for influence in Afghanistan, which is fuelling attacks on Indian interests in the country.
The Indian embassy was hit on October 8 last year, with the deaths of 17 people, and on July 7, 2008 when more than 60 people were killed.
The Pakistan government denies supporting militants, pointing to its own fight against the Taliban, and says it is committed to peace in Afghanistan.
Since a US-led invasion ended the Taliban’s 1996-2001 regime, India has committed 1.2 billion dollars to Afghanistan, mainly aid for social services including health and education, making it one of the biggest regional donors.
The two countries are historically close and many urban Afghans speak Hindi and Urdu learned watching Bollywood movies.
About 4,000 Indians are building roads, sanitation projects and power lines in the volatile country. India is building the new Afghan parliament.
Doctors were also recruited from the Indian military for India’s medical mission (IMM) to Afghanistan, which focused on five cities, providing free treatment and medicine for 30,000 Afghans each month, an embassy official said.
The IMM had been temporarily suspended, he said, as those members of the 11-man team who survived the attack were repatriated for treatment.
“The IMM in Kabul was temporarily suspended from February 26 when a doctor got killed and others seriously injured in the attack and were flown to Delhi by a special plane,” he said.
Under the IMM, 25 doctors and paramedics were based in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabd and Mazar-I-Sharif.
The head of the Indira Ghandi Children’s Hospital in Kabul, run by IMM, said sick Afghan children were the main victims of the militant attacks on Indians.
“The attack has done nothing but deprive people coming from far provinces of free treatment and medicine,” said Noorulhaq Yousufzai.
English-teaching programmes had been also suspended, the embassy official said, as two of three Indian teachers staying at the Aria guesthouse died as a result of the February 26 attack.
India brings in hundreds of Afghans on scholarships each year.
Another Indian official, also speaking anonymously, said Pakistani militants had been caught casing diplomatic residences before the February 26 attack.
“The professional manner of the planning, the fact that the Taliban did not know about it for three or four hours, that the attackers were speaking Urdu — all these things make us conclude it was Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),” he said.
LeT was also blamed for the Mumbai attacks in late 2008, although it denied any involvement in that assault or the February Kabul bombing.
|
<urn:uuid:7b6f2c09-5763-4623-8b50-6eeb41bd5b65>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/indians-scale-down-in-afghanistan-fearing-more-attacks/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.982479
| 894
| 1.601563
| 2
|
Roma, TX 78584
P. O. Box 1765
Roma, TX 78584
Jose A. Salinas
Roma Historical Museum Association in Roma, TX is one of more than 15,400 museums in the MuseumsUSA directory. Find an exciting museum to visit where you live or vacation today.
Actually, the museum is very small. It was hand-built for the secular priests from Mier (Mexico) as a chapel circa 1840. From that time until about 1854, it was used for that purpose. Five hundred persons received sacraments and were confirmed. In 1853, the Oblate Fathers arrived, and a church was built for them. (Recorded Texas Historical Landmark 1973). The museum has a state Historical Survey Committee plate with an official Historical Medallion. Through an agreement with the church, the Roma Historical Museum Association was formed in the early 1970s.
The original building consisted of the chapel and a separate back room where the priest lived. The museum plans to restore the back room to its original period, 1840s-1850s. The chapel is now the museum. A small connecting middle room was added later.
Ecclesiastical artifacts, including several of German origin thought to have been brought
from Germany by one of the priests (in the 19th century?). The museum also has artifacts from the second half of the 19th century including both Mexican and American domestic items and, possibly, items from the Mexican War. Collection items include a recently restored wooden mantel which was handcarved around the mid-1880s and a Straub Machinery Co. gin. Museum collections reflect the community's past history as a steamboat port, a ranching center, and an early site for Catholic Oblate priests.
Limited research papers by local historians
Tour of the old buildings in town; possibly available for tour/loan; a written document
with a videotape is in the planning stages and is geared for tourism. These items will contain a
brief history of the surrounding community from Spanish settlement days of Escondon, through
farm community and traditional ways, through the steamboat era height of prosperity of the town
to the present.
This information, including business hours, addresses and contact information is provided for general reference purposes only. No representation is made or warranty is given as to its content or the reliability thereof. User assumes all risk of use. Stories USA, Inc. and its content suppliers assume no responsibility for any loss or delay resulting from such use. Please call ahead to verify the dates, the location and directions.
|
<urn:uuid:d45fae82-b5e8-4031-8980-c2995fe7fb69>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.museumsusa.org/museums/info/1167569
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.96245
| 528
| 1.828125
| 2
|
Usually random team name generator is a software program or tool that facilitates the people in searching, choosing and adopting some unique, efficient and attractive names which are kept for teams or companies. Nowadays trend of using specific name generating tools has become quite common among the people as it is utmost wish of everyone to hunt and pick the rare names for his/her team.
The online professionals and other registered companies try their best in accessing some advanced random name generators that can assist them in targeting their official aims. Actually such name generators are associated with hundreds of excellent and marvelous features that automatically increase and maximize dignity of names of the teams or companies. Some very popular merits have been discussed below with suitable detail.
1-Unique Names and Well Respect
Official or professional people consider that the names of teams or companies affect real business directly. So it means that you must choose some high quality and unique random team names that can earn complete attention of the customers. Nowadays internet is rich with hundreds of superb random team name generators, which bring easier and reliable services for the name choosers.
2-Getting Attention of Customers
Online marketing is one of the best sources to get attention of customers. If you choose some unique and wonderful brand name with help of name generator then you can invite your regular as well as potential clients quite nicely and properly.
3-Absolutely Fit to Team or Company
Team names can earn reputation and significance for your business or other profitable efforts. Throughout the world millions of people are totally engaged with such online services. Recently dozens of advanced random team name generators or tools are available which can expand or promote official transactions professionally.
4-Oral Description of the Official People
Names of the teams or companies orally describe scope, structure, aim, professionalism and dealing. Most of the playing elevens choose their official names with assistance of software programs or tools which provide reliable as well as faster services to the name choosers.
5-Easier Access to High Quality and Unique Names
Random team name generator brings hundreds of relaxed facilities for the customers. Soccer teams mostly search for and pick relevant random names for their clubs or teams from such popular name generators which offer faster and absolute access to rare, unique and high quality names easily.
6-Earning Professional Reputation
In these days thousands of professional companies work and earn money in group forms. Actually combined efforts are wonderful activities for generating massive profit. So according to such collectively business transactions the concept of random team name generator has gone to up. International businessmen search for some advanced team names that can make their businesses successful.
7-Facilities in Getting Support in Commerce
Trading or commerce dealing totally depends upon faster and effective marketing that can be done via online services. Nowadays the teams or companies choose their ideal random names that make free advertisement of their official transactions or brands. It means random team name generator facilitates investors or team owners in getting success throughout the world among the professional people.
|
<urn:uuid:122c1c86-fc41-4b1a-800a-b0232255870e>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://pierceive.com/random-team-name-generator-features/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.939548
| 596
| 1.546875
| 2
|
Update 3/9/12: The bill was “pulled” from Ways and Means last night and passed the House 92-6. The official term is that Ways and Means was “relieved of consideration” of the bill. I believe this particular subsidy is similar to the way the economics of the NBA works and voted no, but clearly a majority of legislators disagree with me.
I have received a lot of calls and e-mails from people about the Film Credit bill (SB 5539), as we do with any expiring tax credit or preference. The film industry is important to the state’s economy and to both the Spokane and Seattle areas in particular. We obviously want to do everything we can to encourage growth, however the structure of this particular credit has some issues.
The credit works as follows:
- Companies get a 100% B&O tax credit for donations they make to a non-profit organization, reducing state tax revenues.
- The non-profit in question can then subsidize film and commercial productions for up to 1/3 of the cost of production for their film or commercial.
In essence, taxpayers in Washington are paying out of state companies to do work in Washington. It’s one thing to give someone a reduced tax rate, but in this case it is a direct subsidy of commercial work. In deciding if a tax break is doing its job you have to look at what your alternatives are for spending the money. We could provide a much cheaper tax incentive to a wide variety of industries, or we could use the money to educate children (employing teachers, for example). In comparison to other incentives, this one is very, very expensive for the benefits received.
Film production credits have been critiqued by both progressive and conservative leaning think tanks. The Tax Foundation (the people who bring you “tax freedom day”) found that most film production jobs are either temporary or imported from other states, noting “When evaluating job creation, legislators should acknowledge that some jobs might be destroyed in the creation of film production jobs.” (Page 8, http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/sr173.pdf )
Progressive leaning groups have also weighed in against film credits. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concluded “State film subsidies are a wasteful, ineffective, and unfair instrument of economic development. While they appear to be a “quick fix” that provides jobs and business to state residents with only a short lag, in reality they benefit mostly non-residents, especially well-paid non-resident film and TV professionals.” (Conclusion, http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3326 )
Because of the unique nature of Washington’s B&O tax, very little tax revenue is paid to the state from Hollywood movie studios. In its 2010 review of the film production tax incentive, The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee found that from 2007-2009 the film industry generated $36 million in direct economic activity and $36 million in induced economic activity; however only $873,000 in sales tax revenue was generated during the same time period. (An effective sales tax rate of 1.14% compared to the state sales tax rate of 6.5%). Rental of equipment for film production also enjoys its own sales and use tax credit. (RCW 82.08.315)
In general, the Washington State constitution enjoins the state from directly subsidizing businesses. This credit uses a unique mechanism to get around this prohibition in law, but not in spirit.
|
<urn:uuid:4f0eb9a1-7b9e-4ac1-91a0-f1e0c3d3b4f1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.rosshunter.info/2012/03/sb-5539-film-credit-bill/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.957661
| 746
| 1.617188
| 2
|
In the eye of the storm
A one hundred year old tree lies across Domain Road, South Yarra, after huge rains and wind swept across Melbourne last night.
Photo: Simon O'Dwyer
The highest-ever rainfall in a day and gale-force winds uproot the city.
Even Melbourne has never seen the like of it. A city notorious for its mercurial meteorology was brought to a near standstill yesterday by a history-making, record-breaking storm.
The biggest downpour since records began in 1856 closed airports and roads, played havoc with public transport, cut power to 120,000 homes, dumped summer snow on ski resorts, shut down a murder trial and turned outlying suburbs into islands.
The damage bill is predicted to be tens of millions of dollars.
A massive intense low pressure system dumped something like three months' worth of rain on the city in 31 hours. The weather bureau reported that the 24-hour rain total to 9am yesterday was a record 120.2 millimetres. But it had been raining for seven hours before that, drowning the city in almost a quarter - 23 per cent - of its average annual rainfall.
There are also fears the storm could have cost at least one life. Police and State Emergency Service crews spent the day searching the swollen Skeleton Creek near Hoppers Crossing after reports that a teenage boy might have been swept away.
Residents reported hearing a scream and seeing a boy clinging to a bridge at Tarneit. "It all happened pretty quickly, there was not much that we could do," said resident Kate Payne. "He was trying to get a grip. One minute he was there and the next he wasn't . . . that was the last we saw of him."
Victoria Police called off the air, land and water search in the afternoon because of the creek's dangerous conditions and because no one had reported a boy missing.
A 10-year-old girl and a motorist were in hospital last night after being seriously injured by falling trees.
Healesville girl Stephanie Chamorro is lucky to be alive after an uprooted 15-metre gum tree crashed through the roof of her bedroom, breaking her leg and pinning her to her bed. It took SES and Country Fire Authority workers an hour to free her
At Ross Creek, near Ballarat, a man was critically injured when high winds brought a tree crashing down on his moving car about 7am. A Rural Ambulance Service spokeswoman said the man was taken to Ballarat Base Hospital with critical injuries to his head, pelvis and a leg.
A police helicopter rescued a man and a woman trapped by floodwaters at Arthurs Creek, north-east of Melbourne. Another person was plucked from a tree amid floodwaters at Wattle Glen. A 71-year-old sailor was rescued from his dismasted 11-metre yacht in Bass Strait.
The storms also caused transport chaos across Melbourne - police issued an unusual plea for people not to come into the city unless it was necessary. Every one of the city's 15 train lines was affected by the freak conditions. Two lines, Frankston and Sandringham, were still experiencing major disruptions last night. Almost half the 29 tram lines were affected by flooding, fallen branches or power failures.
Both Melbourne and Avalon airports were closed because of flooded access roads. The outbound lane of Tullamarine Freeway near the airport was turned into a long traffic jam. Hundreds of would-be travellers sat in their cars as their flights took off without them.
Massive seas in Bass Strait about 4am forced the 194-metre Spirit of Tasmania I to turn back to Melbourne halfway through its voyage to Devonport. Waves up to 12 metres were reported at Port Phillip Heads near Point Nepean.
More than 200,000 Victorians lost electricity as winds of more than 100 km/h brought trees down on power lines, said Energy Minister Theo Theophanous. The storm also cut a swathe through Melbourne's beaches, tearing yachts from their moorings and tossing them onto beaches. The Kerferd Road pier at Middle Park was badly damaged by heavy waves. Port Phillip Council staff reported that Middle Park Beach was almost totally washed away - several thousand cubic metres of sand disappeared, leaving almost none above the high- tide mark.
The trial of seven men charged over the deaths of three others after a dispute at the Salt nightclub in South Yarra was stalled yesterday when several people, including members of the jury, were unable to get to the Supreme Court on time.
The storm also brought February snow to alpine areas, just days after the resorts were warned of possible bushfires. Heavy snowfalls were reported at Mount Buller, Mount Hotham and Falls Creek. Mount Buller had at least 15 centimetres of snow; Falls Creek reported about 12 centimetres yesterday morning.
"It's mid-winter conditions here at the moment," said spokeswoman Debbie Howie. "It got to 36 degrees in the valley earlier this week and overnight it got to minus 1.6. It's absolutely freezing."
The SES answered more than 3600 calls for help. The busiest units were at Nunawading, Broadmeadows, Northcote, Eltham, Moorabbin, Werribee, Melton and Emerald. More than 560 volunteers and 20 staff were involved, SES director Rhys Maggs said.
The damage bill is expected to run into tens of millions of dollars, insurers and employer groups warned. It is expected to top the $18 million paid out after a dramatic storm last January, which hit Melbourne's eastern suburbs hardest.
Premier Steve Bracks praised the efforts of emergency crews. He said he believed the state's infrastructure had stood up well to an "extraordinary event".
The Government would make funding available to people who had been forced from their homes by the storm, he said.
"Where families have to relocate from their house and they have out-of-pocket expenses, we will initiate the emergency service response . . . and administer grants of $900," he said.
EASTERN SEABOARD LASHED
- About 16,000 in south-east without power at height of storm.
- Storms followed massive dust storm.
- Teenager Klara Clausen dies after a tree falls on her tent during a school camping trip. Person killed by a falling tree at a campsite on the south coast.
- SES gets 2500 calls for help.
- Snow falls at the Brindabella Ranges and at Thredbo and Perisher ski resorts with winds up to 133 km/h.
- About 100,000 homes and businesses without power.
- Three people rescued from cars trapped in floodwaters.
- 35,000 people without power.
- Girl, 10, pinned to bed by fallen tree at Healesville Man critically injured after tree falls on his car at Ballarat Spirit of Tasmania I turns back half-way to Devonport.
- Elderly sailor rescued in Bass Strait near Lakes Entrance Boy feared swept away by flood waters at Skeleton Creek, Tarneit, near Werribee.
- Two motorists trapped in car at Arthurs Creek.
- Maribyrnong River breaks banks near Flemington Racecourse.
- Waves break over seawall, craft washed on to beach at Albert Park and Middle Park.
- Falling trees hit fire trucks at Hawthorn and Somerville.
- Man rescued from roof of car at Kensington.
- Tree falls on train at Lilydale.
- 80-metre jib snaps from crane at MCG.
- Snow at Falls Creek, Mount Buller and Mount Hotham.
- Roofs, trees, powerlines sent flying by 120 km/h winds.
- SES gets 220 calls for help.
- Damage to school in state's north.
- Yacht runs aground at Windermere.
- Roof torn off Launceston Church Grammar School senior campus.
|
<urn:uuid:bffba2e8-db6a-4417-b1c7-86319d7764c7>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/02/03/1107409991566.html?from=top5&oneclick=true
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.969287
| 1,664
| 1.726563
| 2
|
TYLER - The Alabama Black Belt Adventures hopes to lure business leaders and decision makers to the state as part of a unique economic development project.
NEAL WADE, who as director of the Alabama Development Office is the state’s top economic developer, said, “We are going to have executives and business leaders from all over the world who are going to come here to hunt and come here to fish. They are going to use the resources here (in the Black Belt) and they may (have never) been in the state before. It introduces people to the state.
“And when they get ready to expand their business or when they get ready to move a business somewhere in the Southeast, they are going to remember Alabama in a positive way and that’s going to help us create jobs in this state.”
That’s right - utilizing the natural resources of the Black Belt will be a money-maker for the region and surrounding regions.
This is a different type of economic development as Wade noted during a news conference launching the Alabama Black Belt Adventures.
“What we are trying to do in this state is redefine the definition of economic development,” Wade said. “It’s not just recruiting industry, but it is trade; it is tourism; and it is growing jobs using Alabama’s great natural resources. We are going to seek out an area of the state that is hurting right now and this is going to be a very positive thing for us.”
The initiative will also preserve jobs, according to THOMAS HARRIS, chairman of Merchant Capital and the driving force behind the project.
“These counties are really hurting and I think we can at least stop some of the bleeding with an organized marketing effort, a communications effort and an education effort,” Harris said. “I think we can turn this around and make it into a positive and preserve the rural landscape of the Black Belt.”
Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, said, “The Alabama Black Belt Adventures will make Alabama one of the top destination points in America to hunt, fish, to hike, bike ride, ride horses, bird watch and enjoy our many other outdoor recreational opportunities.”
Commissioner of Conservation Barnett Lawley said, “We are going to market this area (Black Belt) and the use of a natural resource is going to have an economic impact to every community within the Black Belt region. The abundance of land and natural resources in the Black Belt is truly unlike any other in the world.”
The state marched out its heavy hitters in the outdoor arena for the news conference - Ray Scott, founder of Bassmasters, and Jackie Bushman, founder of Buckmasters - both leaders of Alabama-based organizations.
“We are taking something that is so obviously evident and put the saddle on it,” Scott said. “People need to know about it first of all, and second, they need an invitation and then open the doors - they will come.”
Bushman said: “It doesn’t get any better than this. Where can you hunt something seven months out of the year? Some states have eight or nine days of hunting.”
Harris said there are substantial economic impacts with South Dakota’s pheasant hunting season; duck hunting in Stuttgart, Arkansas; quail hunting in south Georgia; and deer and quail hunting in south Texas.
“We’ve got a chance to have more velocity in the recreational dollars than these other areas that are proven successes,” Harris said. “It’s going to all be about the execution and implementation of our mission.”
Another advantage the Black Belt has is being in a populated area; plus, it is easier to reach the area than some of the other hunting regions in the country, according to Harris.
He expects Montgomery Regional Airport will see an increase in passengers coming to the Black Belt for outdoor activities.
And then there’s the marketplace - a very large marketplace, according to Ed Mizzell, executive vice president of Birmingham-based Luckie & Co., who is directing the marketing campaign for Alabama Black Belt Adventures.
“We have 18.5 million hunters in the United States who are passionate about their sport,” Mizzell said. “There is a $30 billion economic impact, so this is a sizable marketplace and we have the product here. We wanted to create a brand that would represent all the outdoor resources and the opportunities that we have to build tourism and stimulate economic development in this region of the country.
“Obviously, this is an abundant hunting and fishing destination and this could be a catalyst for economic development in this state and make a real difference in this area of the country.”
Luckie & Co. has developed a Web site, www.alabamablackbeltadventures.com, to promote the project. The site has four categories: The Black Belt, Hunting & Fishing, Outdoor Recreation and Attractions & Events.
Mizzell said his goal is to fill up the rooms at the 50 lodges scattered throughout the 23-county Black Belt. More visitors mean more dollars spent in the region and surrounding areas. More visitors mean more opportunities for new businesses and for existing businesses to expand.
The lodges already have a dramatic economic impact in the region. An official with Southern Sportsman Hunting Lodge said his company spends around $200,000 a year on land leases, supplies and equipment. He said that $200,000 does not include wages.
“There are no shortage of natural resources and outdoor opportunities within the Black Belt,” Lawley said. “The resources are continually flourishing because of the soil. There is no other place in the world that has the rich nutrients that this soil produces every year.”
The Black Belt gets its name from the dark soil.
Now officials have banded together with a $350,000 helping hand from the state Legislature to boost tourism and create jobs in the state’s most depressed regions.
“My goal is simple,” Knight said. “Take the God-given natural resources of the Black Belt and use them to help all the people of the Black Belt.”
But regions outside the Black Belt will also benefit. The Web site lists attractions throughout the state, including dozens of sites in Montgomery.
“If we can get everyone that came to hunt and fish in the Alabama Black Belt to stay over one extra night, they can see some of the destinations or attractions we have,” Mizzell said.
Harris, who said the key figures behind the program are Knight, Wade, Lawley and Tim Gothard, executive director of the Alabama Wildlife Federation, hopes to have 50 facilities listed on the Web site within one year. He speaks from experience. Harris helped develop the Alabama Quail Trail, which began about six years ago with 12 facilities; now there are 40-plus facilities.
“This is essentially the same type of initiative - marketing the assets that are already here,” Harris said. “We knew we could do it if we could just put all the pieces together. This is just so much bigger and involves a bigger product mix.
“The Black Belt is 11 million acres so it’s a really big playpen,” Harris continued. “The climate is good; the fishing is year around and it’s spectacular. And the hunting in the Black Belt region lasts for seven months and that’s very unique. This is the perfect example of public and private partnerships.”
The next step may be marketing the Alabama Black Belt Adventures with the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Harris said he has already had talks with David Bronner, chief executive of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, which built the golf trail.
Harris said he talked to Bronner about a “Bird and Birdies” package.
|
<urn:uuid:53494806-f208-43ec-8ff1-5ee8cf9da67e>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.montgomerychamber.com/page.aspx?pid=889
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.953721
| 1,659
| 1.6875
| 2
|
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who made it a personal crusade to reopen the Statue of Liberty after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said yesterday that he supports a new security screening plan that would change the way visitors experience the national park.
Weiner said a National Park Service's proposal to eliminate long ferry lines by moving tourist screening to Ellis Island isn't ideal, but it's the best option available.
"The status quo is horrible. It's a terrible visitor experience," said Weiner, who maintains the white tents at Battery Park that currently house a visitor screening facility run by the Park Police are an eyesore and uninviting for tourists.
Weiner has tried for years to get the Park Service to find a more permanent alternative. As far back as 2003 he tried to get the city government to boot the Park Service off the Battery Park location in order to force them to find a better alternative.
"Given the available choices, I think the Ellis Island alternative makes the most sense," he said
The current plan would eliminate screening facilities at Battery Park and Liberty Park in New Jersey and allow tourist to board ferries that would take them to Ellis Island where security checks would then take place in a more permanent structure. Visitors would still continue to be screened again at Liberty Island before going into the Statue of Liberty.
The plan has the support of the private cruise company that operates the tourist ferries and was set to be announced this week during Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's visit to New York. But the announcement was put on hold when it became clear that not all local security entities were on board with the proposal.
According to one source with knowledge of the security situation, the New York Police Department was brought into the planning process late and expressed concerns about the plan "that should have been discussed earlier on."
"The NYPD is prickly about anything that has to do with law enforcement that they are not consulted on," Weiner acknowledged.
Meanwhile, the head of the Park Police union yesterday spoke out against the elimination of the Battery Park and Liberty Park screening locations.
"If there is an option that screens individuals farther away from the area of interest, in this case the Statue of Liberty, we would definitely prefer that option not only for the public but also for the officers we represent," said Officer Ian Glick, the chairman of the Park Police labor committee that represents approximately 500 officers.
Glick said that in all the discussions of what makes for a good visitor experience, those who are making the decisions should understand that "the foundation of the visitor experience is a secure experience and that starts with screening."
"Any assessment of the security plans should be thorough and should be conducted by qualified parties," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of the Interior said yesterday that Salazar is working with independent New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg's office as well as the NYPD to look at opportunities to improve the management of the federal parks in New York.
Weiner said yesterday that the ideal option for visitors coming from New York would be to move the screening facility into Pier A, a city-owned tract just north of the current screening location.
Pier A "is a piece of real estate not being particularly well-used now. ... You could make it like a visitor center and do it that way. It's sure better than having it standing on the sidewalk in Battery Park," he said.
But Weiner said that option has been bogged down for years for various legal reasons.
Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers said yesterday that there are pros and cons to any proposal.
"We certainly want it to be an inviting place and yet a secure place," said Chambers, who, along with Park Service officials traveled to New York to meet with NYPD's deputy commissioner for counterterrorism, Richard Daddario, on Monday. "We're looking forward to working with the NYPD and the secretary's office to make it happen."
|
<urn:uuid:006c0b65-9984-430e-b919-60fde9cf0c88>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059945498
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.972772
| 797
| 1.59375
| 2
|
ANAHEIM, Calif. — If your business hasn’t considered a broad range of export markets, you could be missing a trillion-dollar opportunity.
That’s what Matt Tripodi, U.S. government and trade relations manager for Euromonitor International Inc., said Oct. 26 during “The New Global Supermarket: Open For Business” workship session at Fresh Summit 2012.
Pamela RiemenschneiderDominick Hernandez, left, of Arizona State University and PMA's Foundation for Industry Talent student asks a question of Matt Tripodi, U.S. government and trade relations manager for Euromonitor International during a business session at the Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit in Anaheim on Oct. 26. The Asia Pacific region in particular shows some of the strongest potential for growth, Tripodi said, with the increase in disposable income expected to be spent primarily on food.
“Business is going to get a lot more exciting in those markets,” Tripodi said.
And, Tripodi said, the markets that consume the most fresh food are expected to have the fastest growth over the next few decade. Data suggests that by 2016, China and India will be consuming half the world’s fresh food.
Most fresh fruits and vegetables are showing growth in volume and sales over the past few years, and are expected to continue growing. Tripodi highlighted a list of items with greater than 80% growth from 2000 to 2010.
Those include tomatoes, watermelons, pineapples, chilis, mangoes, avocados, mushrooms and sweet potatoes.
Markets showing some of the fastest growth include Kazakhstan, Ukraine, China, Brazil, Peru and Egypt.
This doesn’t mean exporters should forget about the potential for well-developed countries.
“I’m not saying get out of Western Europe — that would be ridiculous,” Tripodi said.
But generally speaking, Tripodi said, the more global markets a company is in now, the better their position for expanding those markets when consumers are hungry for more fresh food.
|
<urn:uuid:63a27c87-9693-44c0-ae9d-14a69345d647>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.thepacker.com/fruit-vegetable-news/crops-markets/Session-explores-global-business-opportunities-176660981.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.93045
| 435
| 1.515625
| 2
|
- SCU Home Page
- About SCU
- On Campus
- News & Info
- Embassies and Consulates
- Study Abroad Home
- Policies & Procedures
Language of Instruction
The city of Lund has a population of around 100,000. For many centuries Lund was a cultural and religious centre in southern Scandinavia and its traditions of learning date back to the Middle Ages, when the divinity school was located there. It is in the extreme south of the country in the Skåne region.
Lund is a small city, but nevertheless you can get mostly anything you need there. The weather remains cold through mid-March, and it doesn’t become warm until the end of June. Sweden is a very beautiful and clean country, and the people are all very friendly. Nearly everyone speaks English, which makes communication a breeze compared to other European locations. The prices of many products are expensive, however. Studying in Sweden for the full year is ideal if you intend to travel, as Sweden and Norway really start to get beautiful in the summer months. The university also sponsors trips to Russia and Finland.
The university is divided into eight faculties that work in a decentralised structure. The faculties are the Lund Institute of Technology (LTH), Science, Law, Social Sciences, Medicine, Liberal Arts and Theology, Economics and Management, and Performing Arts.
The Faculty of Humanities offers courses in Archaeology & Ancient History, Art History & Musicology, Comparative Literature/Film, Cultural Studies, English, European Ethnology, History, Human Ecology, and Linguistics.
For more information on courses, please visit their Course Information webpage.
The International office at Lund will work with exchange students to provide them housing in the limited number of rooms that they work with. Students are advised to apply for housing as early as possible to make sure they are guaranteed a room. It is strongly suggested that students confirm their housing and pay the housing costs directly to the university as soon as possible. If a student completes a wire transfer for housing and is unsure if it will arrive on time, they should fax or email a copy of the payment to the Lund Housing Office.
For more information on housing please visit Lund's Housing website.
Official Contact Person
|
<urn:uuid:fa93c0a6-b365-4092-8a60-66ebb7b89be1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://scu.edu/studyabroad/options/sweden.cfm
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.95271
| 465
| 1.765625
| 2
|
Lincoln's Twisted Family Tree
Writing an obit last week for Margaret "Maggie" Fristoe Beckwith, I came across a fascinating 1994 New Yorker piece by Michael Beschloss about Mrs. Beckwith's late husband, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith. The president's great-grandson, Beckwith was the last Lincoln heir when he died in 1985. Or, should we say he might have been the last heir? That's the mystery Beschloss's article explores.
Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd had four sons, but three died young. The youngest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, lived to age 82. A Harvard-educated lawyer, banker and president of the Pullman Palace Car Co., he married Mary Harlan and had three children, daughter Mary, daughter Jessie and son Abraham II, who died at 16 of blood poisoning.
Daughter Jessie married Warren Wallace Beckwith, and the couple had two children: a daughter, Mary Lincoln Beckwith (nicknamed Peggy) and the son mentioned above, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith. Mary, Robert Todd Lincoln's other daughter, bore one child, Lincoln Isham.
Lincoln Isham married but never had children. Peggy, who was rumored to be a lesbian because she smoked cigars and wore men's pants, also never married or had children. That left Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, known as Bud, who had the potential of continuing the Lincoln line. The theologian Martin E. Marty, who knew Beckwith, wrote in The Christian Century a few years ago that "Bud was maritally adventurous, but not in a way to keep the line going."
He married three times but had no heirs. At least, that's what he said. His second wife claimed otherwise.
When he was 25, Beckwith married Hazel Holland Wilson, an older widow with two children. Although the couple stayed married until Hazel's death 25 years later, they had no children of their own.
Three years after Hazel's death, Beckwith, then 63, married Annemarie Hoffman, a 27-year-old German woman. Six months after the wedding, he found out she was pregnant. That was fine, except for the fact that six years earlier Beckwith had had a vasectomy with a prostatectomy.
Divorce proceedings began in 1976, and a court trial was set in motion to determine whether the boy, Timothy Lincoln Beckwith, was a legitimate Lincoln heir. By then he was 7 and stood to inherit more than $10 million.
In September 1976, Judge Joseph M. F. Ryan Jr. of the District of Columbia Superior Court granted the divorce and ruled that the child was the product of an "adulterous relationship." The judge said that another court would have to rule whether young Timothy could still seek the Lincoln fortune.
When Beckwith died in 1985, the three groups that were to inherit his millions -- Iowa Wesleyan College, the American Red Cross and the First Church of Christ, Scientist -- were worried about Timothy Beckwith, by then 17 and living in the U.S. with his remarried mother. The groups made him an offer -- Beschloss said it was more than $1 million. The teenager said yes, and with that the Lincoln family tree withered into history.
Please email us to report offensive comments.
The comments to this entry are closed.
|
<urn:uuid:1c7c7908-ce67-47cd-9b58-6ecae39032b7>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2009/03/lincolns_twisted_family_tree.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.981669
| 692
| 1.820313
| 2
|
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 22nd, 2009
I get emails. People write me often.
But anonymous emails with no contact information do not help.
Beside the fact they could be hoaxes or wild goose chase missives, informants with identities are important. To get into a community, especially one that is closed and/or extremely close-knit, I need contacts, even if carefully de-identified ones in the public record, not just hints of what’s happening. Reports are only as credible as the people sharing them, remember.
As an extreme example, let me share an anonymous email received yesterday:
“I live on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, where there has been many sightings of Bigfoot. However, there are sightings of other things. Since I was a child there has been sightings of small men that live in the mountains, goat man, giant snakes that make noise like cows, and many other things. I wish to stay anonymous, due to secrecy. But maybe you can research it. Fort Apache reserve. Look up the reservation, the huge snake has been seen and heard by many people! It sticks to the ponds and rivers! You’d be surprised by all the stories and evidence you can collect here.”
No return email, no name, no phone number, nothing attached to inform me whom the sender is.
I can Google “Apache” and “giant snake,” of course, and find tales, as well as the next person, like this one:
Arizona. Early in this century a 14-footer lived in the Huachuca Mountains along the Mexican border. It had the unpleasant habit of slithering after prospectors, running them into their cabins and laying siege to them. The size and behavior of this snake suggest it may have been a descendant of the Apache snakes that once infested this area. Apache shamans would talk giant snakes into ambushing whites.
Sports Illustrated, October 21, 1974.
Or I can research such things in books such as Boss Snakes: Stories and Sightings of Giant Snakes in North America by Chad Arment.
But my gosh, if someone wants me to come to their area and investigate, hopefully, they would leave contact info.
Also, I am part Indian, and I respect that First Peoples’ reservations are not exactly open to strangers coming in and poking around. Contacts are important as far as keys to deeper information, not just moments that will be remembered only as “let’s-tell-the-cryptozoologists-good-stories.”
|
<urn:uuid:d7a40abd-2d1c-48e3-8909-4b21babcb2dc>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/apache/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.968394
| 541
| 1.695313
| 2
|
Traveling During Pregnancy
The Myth: It's safest to travel during your first trimester.
It might seem natural that the best time to fly or go on a road trip during pregnancy is during your first three months, when you're smallest and getting around is still relatively easy. However, according to a new ACOG report, this can actually be among the riskiest of times for you to take off. "The incidence of miscarriage is highest during the first 14 weeks, and the farther away from home you are, the harder it will be to get to your doctor," explains Savita Khosla, M.D., an ob-gyn at Hackensack University Medical Center, in New Jersey. Plus, while harmless to the baby, "air jolts and road travel can bring on or increase feelings of nausea," she notes.
The good news: Unless you're considered high risk by your doc, the second trimester is prime for getting away: Not only will increased blood flow give your energy level a major boost, but your belly shouldn't yet have grown large enough to be a hindrance. Still, it's important to take extra care of yourself when you do fly, says Dr. Khosla, so make the trip more comfortable by drinking eight ounces of water every two hours, walking a few laps up and down the aisles every 60 minutes to keep your blood flowing to the uterus, and limiting salty snacks like chips, peanuts, and pretzels, which can make you bloated.
Also worth noting: While most commercial airlines allow pregnant women to fly up to 36 weeks, you may find that travel becomes more uncomfortable after seven and a half months. Moreover, that's when chances of premature labor and other complications spike, Dr. Khosla notes, so she recommends sticking to road travel as close to home as possible.
|
<urn:uuid:a78c8b4f-bf4c-4bbc-8368-741e5e5d76ac>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/my-body/is-it-safe/pregnancy-myth-busters/?page=2
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.964486
| 378
| 1.835938
| 2
|
|01-17-2013, 03:18 PM||#1|
Join Date: Jan 2013
I need tips for playing faster, bar chords and finger independence
I have been playing for 3 years, but I am having trouble with; bar chords, playing fast (like really fast), and finger independence.
With bar chords, I can bar classical guitars and some electrics. I cannot bar a steel string acoustic (which I need to know how to)
With playing fast... I can play some stuff fast[ish] but on things like thunder struck and eruption I cannot maintain a fast speed. Probably my biggest problem is the down up picking on the smaller strings (e, b, g, d)
And as far as finger independence... I have trouble using my pinky finger.
If you have any tips for any of my problems.. Thank you!
|01-17-2013, 03:27 PM||#2|
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Guadalajara, MX
For bar chords you must grow balls.
The only advice they gave to me is not to over-stress the hand while doing bar chords, finding the right amount of pressure on the finger doing the bar, and sightly less on the other fingers, however that right amount of pressure is your homework to figure it out by practicing.
For fast playing you first have to learn to play precise and accurate slowing down the tempo, maybe with a metronome, and again, don't over stress and try to do the minimal movement while playing so you wont need to freak out with complicated moves once you try to play faster.
|01-17-2013, 03:28 PM||#3|
No empty frets.
Join Date: Apr 2012
You just need to practice. Don't worry about speed, it will come. You can do some finger independence exercises but you need to do then slow and with a metronome. You need to be able to pick it clean before you increase the speed, never play faster than you can.
Always alternate pick. But again, if you can't do it really quickly you need to practice slower. If you play too fast that it sounds sloppy you'll never get it clean, so slow it down and only increase it to the speed that you can play it at.
Personally I would say just learn songs, learn lead guitar, learn stuff like Hendrix which has loads of cool solos. Learn the minor and major pentatonic in all 5 positions and look at the major scale.
So, always play at a speed that you can play it clean at, which may mean playing some very slow.
Play more lead guitar.
Learn scales so you can understand that lead guitar.
Practice. Just playing will stop the issues you have with barring. Try to play without tension too, you shouldn't be breaking your wrist to play. Again, playing slower will help.
I hope this helps!
Last edited by Mephaphil : 01-17-2013 at 03:30 PM.
|01-17-2013, 03:37 PM||#5|
Billions and billions!
Join Date: Jul 2012
Don't work on your speed in particular. Common beginner mistake. It will only slow down your general progress
Economy of motion
Fluidity in playing
Accuracy; correct execution of notes
When you have all of those down, speed will come naturally.
Always keep this in your head: "SPEED IS A BYPRODUCT OF ACCURACY!"
About the bar chords thingy; I STRONGLY advise you not to push yourself with the steel string guitar. Not that you shouldn't play with it, because it's a great instrument! You shouldn't push yourself in a way that you are exceeding your limits (Know your boundaries!). Doing will only result in build up of tension, which will result in bad sounding playing and injuries.
In this case, I'm talking about the high action of the guitar
-use your thumb to force your fingers to bar the chord: the thumb is for balance, not for pressure. Only use the thumb for force when doing stuff that requires additional pressure (like bends).
-expect to see giant leaps of improvements over night. Learn to walk before running. This applies to pretty much everything about guitar and life in general. Don't let this disencourage you - it's normal.
|Thread Tools||Rate This Thread|
|
<urn:uuid:a27df5c7-f83c-44bc-8520-35e3168d5f83>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1583335
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.937577
| 925
| 1.609375
| 2
|
Tips for Small Businesses to Protect Assets This Tax Season
Increased federal and state scrutiny of tax records in 2003 and budget deficits signal changes ahead for the recordkeeping practices of America's small businesses, according to Fiducial, an international provider of professional business and financial services.
Fiducial says small businesses must pay close attention to recordkeeping this year, as the IRS steps up its auditing and enforcement efforts to reduce tax fraud and do its part to offset large budget deficits.
Rather than waiting until trouble strikes, Fiducial recommends that small businesses establish solid practices for keeping good records throughout the year. Better recordkeeping simplifies tax preparation, helps protect business assets, saves money and provides greater protection against the increased chances of an audit by the IRS or state regulatory authorities.
"Now more than ever, small businesses should maintain accurate records to avoid unnecessary scrutiny by federal and state governments working to detect fraud or other misdeeds," said John Santora, director of systems support and development at Fiducial.
The rate of IRS audits resulting in criminal investigations has increased 22 percent since 2001, Santora said. He predicts this trend will continue as the IRS steps up enforcement efforts to compensate for revenue shortfalls resulting from recent tax cuts signed into law.
"These days, the issue is not if a small business will be audited, but when," Santora said. "Already, the IRS is looking high and low to collect all tax revenue. And, based on the President's State of the Union address where he challenged Congress to make several tax cuts permanent, the IRS is only going to get tougher."
Here are some tips for developing good recordkeeping practices:
- Organize Documents. Separate and keep documents in four categories: Corporate records; Staff records; Accounting and Tax records; and Employee Benefit Plan records. Each category will affect different areas of a business and should be retained for differing amounts of time, according to Fiducial's Santora.
- Store Corporate Records Off-Site. Corporate records include articles of incorporation, Board meeting minutes and stock certificates. Businesses should designate a responsible party to safeguard these documents in a safe and secure off-site location.
- Maintain Staff Records for at least Four Years. There are several regulations that require companies to maintain these records. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Equal Pay Act require employers to retain employee earnings statements for three years. The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) and the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) require companies to retain these records for at least four years.
Small businesses often rely on their payroll service or accountant to provide this valuable service by maintaining copies of these records.
- Keep Accounting and Tax Records for Seven Years. These records should generally be retained for at least seven years, and include invoices, purchase orders and cancelled checks. Some records should be kept indefinitely -- such as those used to calculate gains or losses on property.
Keeping these records makes it easier to prepare accurate company financials and tax returns and eases the rigors of an IRS audit when all deductions are clearly substantiated by backup documentation.
- Retain Employee Benefit Plan Information for Minimum of Six Years. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) mandates that employee plan information such as 401(k) plans be kept on file for a minimum of six years.
Santora noted that maintaining all of these records can pose serious storage problems for many small businesses. "Scanning records into electronic files is a good idea," Santora said. "Secure off-site storage facilities also should be considered."
|
<urn:uuid:6da18ec2-5adf-4386-8b51-99924175013c>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.accountingweb.com/topic/cfo/tips-small-businesses-protect-assets-tax-season
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.950439
| 738
| 1.523438
| 2
|
This test is sponsored by Tim from Koolance, thanks!
This is one of the latest revisions of the popular Laing DDC series pumps, the Koolance PMP-400 (DDC3.25). These have been one of the if not THE most popular pump in water cooling for several reasons:
- Extremely small and compact size
- Tuned for high pressure applications which is ideal for watercooling
- Low noise
- Aftermarket tops/easily modified for more performance
For testing I performed my usual Pressure vs Flow rate full range testing. Using this format allows you to estimate flow rates and see the entire operating range of the pump.
Using the 1GPM rule of thumb, you can see that the pump in stock trim is extremely capable. An average restriction system would see around 1.1 to 1.2 GPM, a very high (5 block) system would see about .8GPM, and a low restriction system would see over 1.5GPM. This is really a strong amount of pumping power. The stock top also reaches nearly 14% efficiency which is good for small pump, and the average system will consume around 15 watts of power which is very respectable and something that would be easily powered my a fan controller if need be. Looking at RPM, you can see by the red dotted line, that the pump has circuitry built in to reduce RPM as power consumption increases. I’m not sure if this is current sensing or power consumption, but the RPM is reducing rather linearly from about 4700RPM at shutoff to 4100RPM at nearly max flow. I suspect this is all in an effort to improve reliability. The previous DDC3.2 models showed a touch more performance with low restriction systems and a touch less with very high restrictions, but for practical purposes about the same. The bigger difference is the power consumption and heat generated. The older DDC2 model could consume upwards 25 watts at free flow vs 16 watts of this newer model.
As a side experiment I tested two exact samples back to back to see what sort of sample variances are out there. I found that there is some variance out there and this alone is part of the reason comparing across test beds is not such a good idea. One tester could have sample A and another sample B, even if they had exactly calibrated test beds, they would end up with some differences. As hobby testers we simply won’t have the luxury nor desire to test a large sample of products to average out sample variance. Here are those results:
This newer revision is basically very similar to the older model with some minor emphasis for higher pressure and a fair improvement in reducing maximum power consumption levels.
Really the only downside to running this pump stock is the factory top which has a less than ideal efficiency elbow at the pump inlet and also which has fixed plastic 3/8″ barbs. It’s still a very very capable pump in stock trim and for those looking for a really strong pump that are happy with 3/8″ ID tubing, this is one of the best pumps you can buy.
- High pressure oriented is well tuned for water cooling
- Very small 2.5″ x 2.5″ x 1.5″ footprint
- Low power consumption
- Low noise
- RPM sensor wire
- Base of pump gets hot to the touch
- Factory top restricts tubing size to 3/8″
|
<urn:uuid:2684e20f-7ada-40e2-9cb0-993751dbc738>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://martinsliquidlab.org/2011/02/26/koolance-pmp-400-laing-ddc-3-25-cov-rp400/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.959195
| 707
| 1.695313
| 2
|
Nashville Globe – 22 Feb 1907
Mrs. Heseltine Ellington departed this life Feburary 17, 1907 in Memphis, Tenn., at the home of her grandson, Albert Williams. Mrs. Ellington was born and reared in the state of Georgia, near Macon. She was married to Peter Ellington several years before the Civil War. To this union were born eleven children, of whom Rev. W.S. Ellington, Editorial Secretary of the National Baptist Publishing Board, and pastor of the First Baptist Church of this city, is the fifth child.
Peter Ellington died twenty years ago; thus the care of the home and the education of the children were devolved upon Mrs. Ellington. No sacrifice was too great for her to make that her children might receive a liberal education and make useful men and women of themselves. Of the seven children that survive her, there are ministers of the Gospel, one is a school teacher, and all are Baptist.
The remains of Mrs. Ellington were taken to Gallaway, Tenn., and buried beside her husband, Peter Ellington, in the cemetery of Union Hill Baptist Church, of which she was a member for more than thirty years.
Besides the seven children mentioned above, there are nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren to mourn her loss.
Note: another article about her death also appeared in this issue.
|
<urn:uuid:b32195fb-2cb7-4c2b-8124-01617f063ba3>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://blacknashville.wordpress.com/2008/01/06/mrs-heseltine-ellington/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=fb311db3f8
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.984504
| 292
| 1.742188
| 2
|
Disc golf finds a home on Cornell College’s historic campus
Don’t be fooled by the bucolic grassy vista that lies just below Cole Library, between West Science Center and Tarr Hall. In this postcard-worthy space of tree-covered hills and gliding geese lurks a hazard.
Officially called Ink Pond, it’s also the final resting place of more than a few golf discs lost in the pursuit of the ninth hole of Cornell College’s campus-wide disc golf course.
“Some like to shoot from the top of this hill for altitude,” said Harry Blackwood, whose Cornell student senate committee got the college’s nine-hole course up and running. Pointing to the basket 256 feet and one hillside away, Blackwood said regardless of skill or starting point, “You can throw and see it roll down into the water and you stand here, helpless to do anything. We lose a few discs in there each year.”
That there’s a water hazard and challenging terrain is part of the charm of Cornell’s disc golf course, which meanders through the entire central campus. Add to that the venerable architecture and ancient trees, and you have a course that is wholly unique.
Not just another pretty course
“This is one of my favorite places,” said Blackwood, a bit breathless from the steep climb to the tee pad of the ninth hole. Part history lover, part proud founding father of one righteous disc golf course, Blackwood explains what sits below: the meadow, the pond, the steam that puffs skyward all winter long from the chimney of the century-old campus heating plant below.
Playing the picturesque course is free to students and the general public. Thoughtfully planned, the course is a kick for the casual player, but a challenge for pros as well.
“This course, because of its setting, makes it feel very different, but in a good way. Enough of a challenge for the pro-level player, but would also work for a beginner. One of the best nine-hole courses I have played and would love to come back here again,” said one reviewer on dgcoursereview.com.
Plastic projectiles on a historic campus?
It took a leap of faith for college officials to locate a recreational sport on the lawn of the nation’s first college to have its entire campus listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
How would disc golf baskets look amidst the brick and limestone landmarks, they wondered? And might the 1857-era College Hall be too close to the sixth fairway?
In the end, the baskets blended right in, camouflaged by the campus’ ancient trees that are “used creatively on each side of the fairway,” according to another national disc golf reviewer. And College Hall? Well, when a disc finally sailed through a window one day, the basket was moved over a bit, Blackwood said.
Administrators breathe easy
John Harp, vice president of student affairs, is happy with the outcome. He describes students lazily playing rounds after supper, intramural tournaments created for the more organized of golfers, and the quieter summer days, with students gone, when faculty and staff hit the course over the lunch hour.
In short, he said, “It’s been a hit.”
|
<urn:uuid:7d7140c9-bf1f-4306-8da7-cb5ff4b87d59>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://news.cornellcollege.edu/2011/10/disc-golf-finds-a-home-on-cornell-colleges-historic-campus/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.940091
| 714
| 1.835938
| 2
|
The federal judge who slapped down the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for being overzealous in its crusade for water quality in Appalachia is a hero to some – like Gov. Steve Beshear, known for his strident demand that the EPA “get off our backs,” and the Kentucky Coal Association, party to a lawsuit by the National Mining Association challenging the agency’s authority to set higher standards for Kentucky and other states.
The decision is bad news, however, for those who lament what’s being done as a matter of course to the land and water of this state’s mountainous region.
Judy Petersen, executive director of the Kentucky Waterways Alliance, told The Courier-Journal of Louisville the ruling marked a sad day for the people of eastern Kentucky and for the natural resources of their homeland. “Everyone knows that fish and aquatic life in Appalachian streams are dying at an alarming rate,” she told the paper.
Because Kentucky, in a bow to the cynical politics of majority rule, failed to answer the pleas of a relatively small number of residents unfortunate enough to live downstream from strip-mining operations, EPA stepped in and imposed tighter regulations which blocked 36 mining permits. EPA came to Frankfort in June to hold a public hearing on the issue.
U.S. District Judge Reggie P. Walton ruled Tuesday that the agency went too far in expanding its regulatory authority; he said the job should have been left to state regulators. The state’s unwillingness to address the concerns of eastern Kentuckians directly impacted by the ravages of mountain mining was a separate issue, the judge suggested. While acknowledging the need for a balance between preservation of Applachia’s unique natural heritage and the importance of coal to the region’s economy, he said it was not a question for the court to decide.
In a way, he’s right. The commonwealth should take responsibility for doing right by its own people, even when the victims of coal mining are outnumbered by individuals who want the industry to go about its business with little or no interference from “tree huggers.” State authorities have shown, time and again, that they’re indisposed to help. Beshear hailed the court ruling as a victory for “coal miners who have seen mines close and their jobs put in jeopardy.”
It’s more likely mines are shutting down and laying off workers because the mild winter reduced demand for the coal used to fuel power plants and huge reserves of cleaner-burning natural gas are threatening black gold’s preeminence as the fossil fuel of choice. Both the mining and the combustion of coal are dirty processes, and the only redeeming feature is the mineral’s low cost. Even the mild winter may have resulted in part from the heat-trapping “greenhouse” gases spewed into the atmosphere by coal-fired generating stations.
The industry won this round, but the battle continues. The political tide probably won’t turn until more of us realize that bad things happening in the mountains don’t necessarily stay in the mountains.
|
<urn:uuid:b261ada7-5d8c-4093-b2e5-bc3bf8fd2f65>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.state-journal.com/opinion/2012/08/02/coal-wins-earth-loses
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.95733
| 646
| 1.84375
| 2
|
Guy Laliberte became Space Adventures' seventh private spaceflight client when he launched to space on Wednesday September 30th. Guy landed safely back on earth on Sunday October 11th, completing an 11 day stay in space.
Moving Stars and Earth for Water
Watch a recording of Guy's amazing two hour event.
About Guy's Mission
Guy embarked on the first "poetic social mission" to space when he launched to space on September 30, 2009. The aim of his mission is to raise awareness for the ONE DROP Foundation.
Further details of his mission are available at www.onedrop.org.
Guy Laliberté was born in Québec City in 1959. An accordionist, stilt-walker and fire-eater, he founded Quebec's first internationally renowned circus with the support of a small group of accomplices. A bold visionary Guy Laliberté recognized and cultivated the talents of the street performers from the Fête foraine de Baie-Saint-Paul and created Cirque du Soleil in 1984.
Guy Laliberté was the first to orchestrate the marriage of cultures and artistic and acrobatic disciplines that is the hallmark of Cirque du Soleil. Since 1984, he has guided the creative team through the creation of every show and contributed to elevating the circus arts to the level of the great artistic disciplines.
Cirque du Soleil has become an international organization, as much in terms of its makeup as in the scope of its activities and influence. Guy Laliberté now heads an organization with activities on five continents.
In October 2007, Guy Laliberté entered into a second lifetime commitment by creating the ONE DROP Foundation to fight poverty around the world by providing sustainable access to safe water. This new dream stems from the knowledge that the right to water is key to the survival of individuals and communities all over the world and from the values which have been at the heart of Cirque du Soleil since its inception: the belief that life gives back what you have given and even the smallest gesture will make a difference.
Awards and distinctions
Université Laval (Québec) awarded an honorary doctorate to Guy Laliberté in 2008. The year before, Guy Laliberté took the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for all three levels: Quebec, Canada and international. In 2004, he received the Order of Canada, the highest distinction in the country, from the Governor General of Canada. The same year, he was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2003, he was honoured by the Condé Nast group as part of the Never Follow Program, a tribute to creators and innovators. In 2001, he was named a Great Montrealer by the Académie des Grands Montréalais. In 1997, Guy Laliberté received the Ordre National du Québec, the highest distinction awarded by the Government of Quebec.
|
<urn:uuid:bdb1ba38-c475-40ba-9a22-25636d1e4614>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.spaceadventure.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=orbital.Guy_Laliberte
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.948619
| 614
| 1.726563
| 2
|
Investing In Fine Art Can Mean Pretty Profits
His suggestion? “Talk to seasoned collectors. Go to the auction houses and ask questions. Get involved with the museum and befriend the curator. An educated consumer is going to be best equipped to maneuver in this marketplace.”
Due diligence is all the more important given the number of unscrupulous art dealers who traffic in imitation art.
Provost says newcomers should stick with reputable brokers and auction houses that can help verify authenticity.
“The art market is not immune to the same scandals that have rocked the financial services or real estate market,” he says. “Investors need to be careful about what they’re doing, do their homework and understand who they’re working with.”
From a return on investment standpoint, he says, it’s also good advice to buy the best piece you can afford.
Artwork that emanates from more mature markets, such as Old Masters paintings, can cost anywhere from $10,000 to many millions depending on the artist.
Rare and important photographs, however, which have only been collected for the last 50 years, can still be had for as little as $2,000—though Christie’s sold one in 2009 for $1 million.
“With each new photography sale there’s often a new world record set so that’s an area that has tremendous collecting interest,” says Provost. “The great photographs now are expensive, but I’d recommend those are the ones to buy. The great ones generally increase in value the most. Mediocre objects tend not to increase in value at the same pace.”
If you’re not accustomed to putting all your eggs in one basket, you can also consider an art investment fund, but be prepared to shell out.
The Fine Art Fund Group, for example, founded in 2001 as a diversified portfolio of high-end artwork, is only open to investors worth at least $2.5 million.
Those who qualify can invest a minimum of $250,000 into the broader fund, $100,000 in the specialized funds or own part of a single painting.
Other investment funds, like the new “Collection of Modern Art” fund launched in May by Castlestone Management, requires a smaller minimum investment of around $10,000.
The fund itself is based and regulated offshore in the British Virgin Islands. As such, it is open to investors only through financial advisors who can counsel clients on the risks and potential rewards involved.
With help from a 100-percent year-over-year sales volume increase for post-war art, the Collection of Modern Art Fund gained 10 percent for the first half of 2010.
How much of your portfolio should you allocate towards art?
“I advise my clients to put no more than 5 percent of their wealth into art,” says Hoffman, noting investors in this economy, where demand is lower, should employ a buy and hold strategy.
“Art is a long-term goal rather than a short-term investment,” he says.
Be sure, too, to buy what you like. That way, if your twentieth-century still-life painting fails to appreciate in value, you can still appreciate its contribution to your wall.
|
<urn:uuid:966dab72-fdae-46bf-8f76-65507223cc4e>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.cnbc.com/id/39386118/page/2
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.961408
| 689
| 1.601563
| 2
|
Eastern Diocese Seminar on the crisis of marriage in today's society
His Grace Bishop Dr. Mitrophan is committed to continued education seminars for clergy of the Eastern American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Seminars have been held for clergy on a regular basis since at least October 1993 when +Very Re v. Stavrofor Dr. Nedeljko Grgurevich was the featured speaker.
The topics and speakers at the seminars have focused on the priesthood, issues concerning parish life and advancing the Gospel of Christ. Ecumenism, Holy Confession, cremation, abortion, prisons ministries, marriage and family life, medical ethics, organ donation, church music, church history, missions and Svetosavjle in North America have been among the various topics. Clergy from with the Serbian Orthodox Church as well as from the Greek Orthodox and Antiochian Orthodox Churches have been featured speakers.
Since 2008, the seminars have been held at the Most Holy Mother of God Monastery, in Shadeland. The completion of the monastery church and upgrading of dormitory facilities at St. Sava Camp provide an excellent atmosphere conducive for the holding of seminars.
The seminar this year was held on November 12-13, 2012. The schedule began with Vespers on Monday evening, a dinner and then a period discussion.
The theme for the seminar was “The Crisis of Marriage in Today’s Society.” The featured speaker was Very Rev. Dr. Alexandar Atty, Dean of St.Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary.
During the discussion period of Monday evening, Father Atty described his experiences as a parish priest in Kentucky. He was in the same parish for a period of thirty years. The parish grew from an initial two hundred to a thousand parishioners. Church services were held on a daily basis. A wide range of ministry programs including residential were located on the church property that eventually grew to have a campus with twelve buildings.
On Tuesday morning, Matins began early and was followed by the Hours and the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. During the liturgy, His Grace Bishop Dr.MITROPHAN ordained Protodeacon Milan Medakovich as a presbyter. The newly ordained Father Milan was overjoyed. Father Milan has served in many different parishes, at Monastery Marcha, the Monastery of the Most Holy Mother of God and St. Nikodim Chapel during the long period of his service as a deacon. This was the second ordination since the completion of the monastery church. Clergy in attendance sharing in the joy of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy and ordination represented parishes from six different states. Seven priests served with His Grace in addition to Father Medakovich. Priests in attendance along with Milovan Jovanovic and Milan Damjanovic sang the responses.
Father Atty’s featured presentation took place after the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. The Diocesan clergy assembled with His Grace Bishop Dr. MITROPHAN and listened with great attentiveness as the speaker addressed the crisis of marriage in contemporary life. Father Atty spoke about the priest being married to his wife and to his parish. He described the Bishop as being married to the Diocese. Love was emphasized as the basic factor in the life of the priest in the home and in the parish. Father Atty cited the great importance necessary in reaching out to non-Orthodox spouses in mixed marriages. The high divorce rate in this country and the necessity of reaching out to young people especially those in college received due attention in the presentation.
Father Atty identified stresses in marriage including finances, illness and job loss. Internet use was described as a source of problems for some marriages. Father Atty emphasized preparation for marriage with couples. Couples planning to marry need to focus on the Church’s understanding of marriage and life in the Church not simply on externals of the wedding ceremony. Couples living together prior to marriage and the unacceptability of same –sex marriage were also issues discussed. The speaker said the priest is to set an example. Numerous times during the talk Father Atty gave great credit to his wife for her helpfulness to him. Father Atty said the priest’s job is to make people holy and love is the main ingredient of the priesthood. Father Atty was applauded at the conclusion of his presentation.
Diocesan Clergy attending the seminar in addition to the newly ordained Father Milan Medakovich included: Father Dragoljub Malich, Father Stevan Stepanov, Father Dragan Filipovic, Archimandrite Leontije(Alvana), Father Rastko Trbuhovich, Father Rade Merick ,Father Vladimir Demshuck, Father Stevo Rocknage, Father Djordje Melieusnic, Father Rodney Torbic, Father Milan Krstic, Father Aleksandar Vlajkovic, Father Rajko Kosic, Father Djokan Mastorovic, Father Zivojin Jakovljevic, Father Milovan Katanic, Father Dejan Obradovic,Father Milorad Orlic, Father Mijoljub Matic, Father Isak Kisin, Father Milan Pajic, Father Dragan Zaric, Father Dragoslav Kosic, Father Dragan Goronjic and Father Christopher Rocknage. Father Daniel Rohan attended the seminar as did seminarians: Reader Gabriel Monfork, Jesse Dominick, Paul McDonald and Michael Lillie. Protinica Victoria Trbuhovich accompanied Father Rastko Trbuhovich from Lackawanna, New York. Father Dragan Zaric’s family accompanied him from Johnstown, Pennsylvania including Popadija Zaric and their two young sons.
A selection of books and items from the Diocesan bookstore were available for the clergy.
His Grace was very grateful and warmly thanked Archpriest Dr. Atty for his presentation. His Grace also was very appreciative for the Diocesan clergy for coming to the seminar, the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy and for being together at the dinner. His Grace expressed gratitude to the highly dedicated Kolo members Martha Springborn and Sonia Janson for preparing the plentiful food for the seminar. The clergy joined in applause for Martha and Sonia. Protinica Trbuhovich assisted the Kolo members with the meals and she, too, was thanked for her assistance. The Eastern and Region Kolo Federation with President Millie Radovick and Vice-President Dee Dee Baskot has provided the meals for the seminars since they have been held at Shadeland. Shadeland Caretaker Scott and Lorrie Felix were on hand to make sure the facilities were ready for the seminar attendees and were available for assistance when needed.
Clergy representing parishes in seven states were in attendance and found the seminar to be beneficial.
In concluding remarks, His Grace identified the family as the nucleus. His Grace said the clergy need to continue to proclaim the Gospel teachings about marriage along with the understanding of marriage according to Holy Apostle Paul and the Holy Fathers of the Church.
Father Rodney Torbic
Source: Diocese of Eastern America
|
<urn:uuid:2ef76ae9-a954-4d00-9deb-4a1afff833d7>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.spc.rs/eng/eastern_diocese_seminar_crisis_marriage_todays_society
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.967642
| 1,488
| 1.5
| 2
|
Sun 30 Jan 2011
One fruit which we may call a healthy magic wand is strawberry. Try and add it to your diet daily. Select strawberries that are deep red in colour. You can also try eating them in salads, smoothies. Dark Red strawberries have their nutrient density and they taste best.
Here are the health benefits of eating strawberries: (more…)
Fri 28 Jan 2011
Morning Sickness: A review of several studies has concluded that ginger is just as effective as vitamin B6 in the treatment of morning sickness.
Motion Sickness Remedy: Ginger has been shown to be an effective remedy for the nausea associated with motion sickness.
Wed 26 Jan 2011
Though this term was coined on 26th January 1950, what caught my attention today is the word ‘Purna’ i.e. ‘complete’. Why did our very astute and intelligent leaders use this word before freedom, when we all know that there is nothing like partial freedom?
When I look around myself today; I admire the foresight of those stalwarts!! They saw what could be and unfortunately is the condition of our country today! (more…)
Tue 25 Jan 2011
Posted by MickeyMehta under UncategorizedNo Comments
‘Helping’…does the word come across as condescending, or maybe demeaning? To me it does not! The reason being, I help others for my sake; it gives me immense joy and power, and when I empower others I get what I want as well.
I would ask of you to feed poor and under privileged. Whenever you go out to eat, make sure that you order a little extra, so that you can pack some food and give it to some needy kid or an old man. It will help feed hungry people. Remember, food never really goes to waste. Intentionally, order one or two extra portions of the same, and at times when only a gravy is left order a extra rice or roti and generously give it away.
Try this and feel the wave of goodness move through your entire being. It will give you a high far better than any sugary treat. Maybe this is your only birth, so whatever goodness you can think of, speak or do, do it now. Don’t wait for confusion or a sense of inadequacy to come in the way! Be generous…Be giving…Be yourself!
Tue 25 Jan 2011
Ginger is a natural spice and is known worldwide for its smell and pungent taste. There is a wide range of benefits of ginger such as nausea, digestive problems, circulation and arthritis. Cure of nausea caused during pregnancy or by travelling is one of the benefits of ginger root. Ginger is also known to have the ability to calm an upset stomach and to promote the flow of bile. Stomach cramps can be eased and circulation can also be improved. Ginger supports a healthy cardiovascular system by making platelets less sticky which in turn reduces circulatory problems. (more…)
Sun 23 Jan 2011
Pumpkin is low in fat and calories and rich in disease-fighting nutrients such as:
- Vitamins C and E
- Pantothenic acid
Fri 21 Jan 2011
Plums are a very good source of vitamin C. They are also a good source of vitamins B1, B2, and B6, and dietary fibre. Prunes are a very good source of pro-vitamin A. They are a good source of potassium, thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin B6, boron and dietary fibre. (more…)
Wed 19 Jan 2011
Improving Kidney Function
Women eating more than 2.5 servings of fruits and vegetable per day cut their risk of kidney cancer by 40%. Women eating bananas four to six times a week halved their risk of developing the disease compared to those who did not eat this fruit. (more…)
Mon 17 Jan 2011
Bananas are a great food for all round health benefits, for the average person, dieter or even athletes; they provide greater benefits than most fruits. The combination of carbohydrates and B vitamins present in a banana helps provide an energy boost which makes them great to eat 30 minutes before a workout, or even at breakfast to help boost energy at the start of every day.
Bananas consist mainly of sugars (glucose, fructose and sucrose) and fiber, which makes them ideal for an immediate and slightly prolonged source of energy (more…)
Sat 15 Jan 2011
Makar Sankranti is the day when the glorious Sun God begins its ascendancy and entry into the Northern Hemisphere, thus signifying an event wherein the Sun God seems to wish the children ‘Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya’ – “May you go higher & higher, to more & more Light and never to Darkness.” (more…)
Next Page »
|
<urn:uuid:b4e6f719-1d82-4e67-a226-58981f8b4ec9>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.mickeymehtahbf.com/blog/2011/01/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.954357
| 1,010
| 1.804688
| 2
|
Should you be enthusiastic about looking at quite a few portable generators deciding on a good investment, there are certain considerations you must fully familiarize. It is important to seek information completely for anyone who is to make sure you pick a generator that most closely fits your wants.
Today there are 1000s of options offering excellent valuable. You simply must be clear of what makes use of the generator is going to be primarily offer. By way of example, could be the unit for being installed as support power for ones home in the instance of outage, can you choose to use the generator on hand when going fishing or camping from the wilderness, or perhaps is it an investment that you use within your career. Keep in mind you cannot assume all portable generator have been manufactured for the exact same style of consumer.
For anybody who is excited about purchasing generator to supply validate power, perhaps in a storm, it is critical that is certainly is going to run all of your important appliances. A model featuring a wattage of 2000 units or maybe more really should be sufficient to power your fridge, water pump, light, TV, and Air conditioner.
Another significant factor is definitely the mobility within the device. Want . generator is branded portable does not necessarily mean it may be lightweight and simple to cart. Find out you will end up moving the generator around all the time, makes it few heavy that you have got difficulty in pulling or carrying it. Decide on a design which has strong wheels and handles.
Evaluate the fuel source that may provide capability the portable generators. In case the unit might be used mostly as cover during an urgent situation situation, or taken on camping trips, select a design fuelled by propane or propane. These are generally quieter and fewer polluting than gasoline or diesel fuelled models.
|
<urn:uuid:85589119-810e-4572-bd01-40c806606370>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://homeportablegenerators.blogspot.com/2011/04/types-of-portable-generators.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.962244
| 362
| 1.71875
| 2
|
When: Through Feb. 23
Where: Chicago Shakespeare Theatre Upstairs, 800 E. Grand
Info: (312) 595-5600; www.chicagoshakes.com
Run time: 80 minutes with no intermission)
Theater, and the human stories it can tell, became a crucial tool for teaching the world about the horrors of apartheid, the brutal system of racial segregation enforced in South Africa from 1948-1994. The plays of Athol Fugard, and the work of many others at the pioneering Market Theatre of Johannesburg, were almost always about the personal costs of the system rather than outright political dogma, even if politics was never far from the surface.
That tradition continues in the work of Omphile Molusi, the impassioned young actor, writer and director whose latest show, the intense and intensely moving 80-minute "Cadre," is receiving its world premiere as part of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's invaluable World's Stage series.
With writing that is direct and unadorned, acting that is immediate, visceral and unaffected, and an almost childlike physicality that creates a music all its own, "Cadre" casts a spell at once guileless and sophisticated. It is what those theater masters Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook once called "poor theater," though "essential theater" might be a far more accurate term.
Unfolding in the years between 1965 and 1994, "Cadre," inspired by the life of Molusi's uncle, looks at a less familiar aspect of the apartheid era. That struggle has usually been told in terms of a minority white, Afrikaner-dominated National Party as the oppressors on one side, and, on the other, the black ANC (African National Congress), buttressed by some progressive white sympathizers, leading the struggle for liberation and winning the first democratic elections in 1994.
But such situations (as we see in the Middle East right now), are never so simple. Splitting from the ANC was the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), which believed the South African government should consist only of black people. And Molusi's story is about two brothers tragically caught up in that part of the movement -- a tale that will perhaps be unfamiliar even to the generation who grew up in post-apartheid South Africa. (THAT audience will be able to see the show at the Market Theatre beginning March 18.)
Molusi (familiar here from his acclaimed 2010 solo show, "Itsoseng") plays Gregory, who is a young boy in 1965. His older brother (played by the expertly morphing Sello Motloung), has joined the radical PAC group, much to the chagrin of the boys' Christian father (also played by Motloung). The thought that Gregory might die by following in his older brother's footsteps terrifies and enrages the man. Gregory's mother (the astonishing Lillian Tshabalala) can only look on helplessly.
Gregory develops a crush on little Sasha (Tshabalala, who can change age in seconds), with whom he swears lifelong allegiance when her family is forced to move. Then, when his older brother is killed, Gregory runs off and joins the PAC. Before long he is caught delivering messages, brutally beaten and imprisoned for 11 years. Eventually rescued, he begins work as a double agent for PAC, serving South Africa's white leader, Pieter Botha ("The Big Crocodile," played ideally by Motloung), realizing he must "kill or be killed" to maintain his cover, and facing ever escalating tragedy.
All this storytelling (in English) unfolds on a stage decorated only with sheets hung from poles and a simple bench. And in league with his fellow actors, Molusi, a performer of enormous heat, warmth and soulfulness, keeps us riveted. A bit of artful shadowplay, and a series of mournful African songs performed in Setswana, Zulu and Xhosa, are the only other things needed.
"What is freedom without love?," Gregory asks when almost all is lost. No doubt there are many young revolutionaries today asking the same question.
|
<urn:uuid:dbe5599a-ef9e-4814-bc12-0235e6fb4a76>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://blogs.suntimes.com/arts_entertainment/2013/02/cadre_1.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.959453
| 869
| 1.726563
| 2
|
A MEGA disaster relief fund to shield taxpayers from sudden levies to recoup costs after significant weather events could be discussed once the Queensland floods enter a recovery phase.
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan would not discuss whether his government would introduce another flood levy, as it did after the 2011 Queensland floods, on Monday.
But he said a discussion about potential flood levies and a mega fund to combat an increasing number of weather events that could be linked to climate change should be had.
"We're in the emergency phase now and we have to absolutely concentrate on saving lives and saving property," he said.
"We have processes in place to deal with the recovery phase.
"It's far too early to be talking about the dollars on a piece of paper.
"I could talk a lot about extreme weather events, how they've become more frequent and what that might mean for the future of public policy but today or tomorrow isn't the time for that discussion.
"Although it's a discussion I'm very happy to have."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott would not disclose his position should the Federal Government decide to impose another flood levy.
Mr Abbott, who was openly scathing of the flood levy proposed after the 2011 floods, said on Monday that people were facing a crisis and this was not the time to discuss his opinion.
He said "Mates help each other; they don't tax each other" at the time.
"It's certainly highly likely the current government will seek to increase taxes because that's what they always do," he said on Monday.
"It doesn't matter what the problem is, spend more, tax more is the Labor party's solution.
"Our position on the flood levy back in 2011 is well known but I really don't think today with this crisis still developing is a great time to argue the toss again."
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said he would expect monetary support from the Federal Government to help recover from this crisis.
They all spoke at Emergency Management Queensland's headquarters on Brisbane's northside.
In New South Wales, more than 7000 people are stranded by floodwaters.
|
<urn:uuid:21464d21-3a91-403c-9018-1e78c0651d7b>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.mydailynews.com.au/news/mega-disaster-relief-fund-could-be-cards/1734814/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.980067
| 433
| 1.609375
| 2
|
Starting a business is a lot of work, and it takes a certain personality type to succeed where others have failed. VentureBeat looks at some of the traits you need to succeed. Are there any you would add to this list?
Are you self-confident?
Do you believe in your convictions so strongly that you would argue your view with anybody, anytime to win your case? Entrepreneurs often create new products or even new markets that few will initially believe in. (Think: Chia pets, Beanie Babies, the pet rock and the Internet). Would you have the confidence to see your idea or product through?
Are you constantly innovating?
Great entrepreneurs rarely invent just one profitable product: They are inventing and innovating constantly. Ideas that take off are rare, so innovation is a numbers game where you need to come up with a lot of bad ideas before you come up with the great idea.
Are you competitive?
Having that competitive drive is one of the things that keep entrepreneurs — who spend 100-hour weeks developing their idea into a tangible product — excited. Being competitive is so vital to growth and success that I’ve never interviewed a potential employee without first asking whether s/he was competitive.
Photo by Erik (HASH) Hersman
|
<urn:uuid:d4ea95a7-5f83-4d15-8b05-9296e3cac551>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2011/08/31/do-you-have-what-it-takes-2/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.969725
| 261
| 1.695313
| 2
|
1 a the b was the Word, and the c was with God, and the d was e.
2 The same was in the a with God.
3 All things were a by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was a; and the life was the b of men.
5 And the a shineth in b; and the darkness c it not.
6 ¶There was a man sent from God, whose name was a.
7 The same came for a a, to bear b of the Light, that all men through him might c.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9 That was the true a, which b c that cometh into the world.
10 He was in the a, and the b was c by him, and the world d him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own a him not.
12 But as many as a him, to them gave he b to become the c of God, even to them that believe on his d:
13 Which were a, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made a, and b among us, (and we c his d, the glory as of the e f of the Father,) full of g and truth.
15 ¶John bare a of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
16 And of his a have all we received, and b for grace.
17 a the b was given by Moses, but c and d came by Jesus Christ.
18 No a hath b God c; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath d him.
19 ¶And this is the record of a, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?
20 And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou a? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
23 He said, I am the a of one crying in the wilderness, Make b the c of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
24 And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.
25 And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?
26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with a: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;
27 a it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose b I am not worthy to unloose.
28 These things were done in a beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29 ¶The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the a of God, which taketh away the b of the world.
30 This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.
31 And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
32 And John a record, saying, I saw the b descending from heaven like a c, and it abode upon him.
33 a I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the b.
34 And I saw, and bare a that this is the Son of God.
35 ¶Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;
36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the a of God!
37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
38 Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?
39 He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.
40 One of the two which heard John speak, and a him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
41 He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the a, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called a, which is by interpretation, A stone.
43 ¶The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.
44 Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom a in the law, and the prophets, did b, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
47 Jesus saw a coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no b!
48 Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
49 Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the a; thou art the b of Israel.
50 Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.
51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
|
<urn:uuid:4e355618-5517-40b2-80d8-d02a9048d9da>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/john/1.6-8?lang=eng
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.983537
| 1,377
| 1.796875
| 2
|
I’d like to volunteer more, but I really don’t have that much time… any suggestions?
This is easily the most common apology given and it’s just another aspect of life in our times… we’re all trying very hard to manage time well, and it’s not easy! What you might think of doing is committing to a particular “project” that occurs only occasionally… like the Fall Festival (October), stuffing envelopes for mailings (3-4 times per year), set-up/take-down for Easter overflow Masses, decorating the church at Christmas or Easter. Another area for consideration… since we’re going to be attending Mass anyway – think about serving as a “greeter” (always in need) or an usher (also always in need)… or take part in the Sunday Fellowship once every couple of months.
Why is Safe Environment Training necessary?
Safe Environment Training (SET) is a requirement of any person (clergy, religious, employees, and volunteers from among the ordinary faithful) engaged in public work or service in the life of the Church. This really is an extension of a much wider societal awareness that “times have changed”! SET is intended to reinforce a good and appropriate sense of boundaries for those engaged in ministry… to develop caution and proficiency in ministry, particularly in service to our young people… and simply to make us all more aware of how important it is to be well-trained and conscious of the seriousness with which we carry out service in the Lord’s Name.
I like to sing in a choir… but I was told I would have to audition… why is this?
Actually, it’s a prudent measure for anyone volunteering… in fact, in most ministries at the Cathedral, some form of “interview” or informative session takes place prior to engaging someone in volunteer service. Participating in any ministry is never a “right”… rather it is the call of the Church herself! Simply because we may enjoy a particular outlet doesn’t mean that it’s a “selfless service” on our part. Besides, anything we do for the Lord, we should want to put our very best into it… and that’s principally why our Music Ministry calls for some form of audition to determine one’s suitability for public participation.
I was baptized a Catholic, but never raised as such… but I’m interested in becoming more active… what do I do?
Being Catholic is the greatest adventure this side of eternity… welcome! The process of what’s called “catechesis” is all about learning Catholic teaching and practice, sharing experiences with others in the same situation, and above all, developing a relationship with the Lord Himself in prayer and devotion. This takes some time and guidance… and that is what the “RCIA” is all about – Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. Contact ___ for further details, or you may wish to speak to a priest first.
Details for Holy Communion to homebound is found also in the “General Info” section
I’m not well-off and I need some help acquiring food… where can I turn?
Our St. Vincent de Paul Society operates a food pantry from which it is possible to get food staples (bread, cereals, canned goods, etc). The Cathedral always makes sure that those in need of food are assisted in every instance.
I’m about to be evicted from my apartment… I can’t make my car payment… I need help with getting a prescription… I’m in desperate financial trouble… help! What can I do?!
Don’t panic! Ordinarily, one can at least negotiate with a landlord or creditor for some form of extension while sorting things out. This is especially the case if unexpected misfortune has fallen on an individual (losing job, incapacitating illness, financial crisis, etc). The Cathedral is flooded with such requests and circumstances almost on a daily basis. It’s not always well-known but there are a number of offices and organizations that assist people in such need… the Cathedral office maintains a list of such agencies. Ordinarily, individuals contact our St. Vincent de Paul Society who evaluates such circumstances and determines to what extent they might be of assistance.
I’ve just acquired some religious items at Cathedral Gifts & Books… is it appropriate to have them blessed?
It’s altogether appropriate and praiseworthy to have such items blessed by a priest! Often one may be available at the Cathedral offices, or certainly after Masses on Sunday or weekdays!
|
<urn:uuid:79e8be7b-7641-41f1-9350-16fe23055135>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.simonjude.org/shareFaq.html
|
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
| 0.943462
| 980
| 1.570313
| 2
|
Elizabeth Bishop, from a letter to anthologist John Frederick Nims, written on the last day of her life, October 6, 1979:
You can see what a nasty teacher I must be — but I do think students get lazier and lazier & expect to have everything done for them. (I suggested buying a small paper-back and almost the whole class whines “Where can I find it?”) My best example of this sort of thing is what one rather bright Harvard honors student told me. She told her room-mate or a friend — who had obviously taken my verse-writing course — that she was doing her paper with me and the friend said “Oh don’t work with her! It’s awful! She wants you to look words up in the dictionary! It isn’t creative at all!” In other words, it is better not to know what you’re writing or reading.
From Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose and Letters, ed. Robert Giroux and Lloyd Schwartz (New York: Library of America, 2008).
Elizabeth Bishop at Vassar
Lines from Elizabeth Bishop
|
<urn:uuid:94fc4894-9225-434d-95af-58396ded1cda>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.mleddy.blogspot.com/2012/04/it-isnt-creative-at-all.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.968252
| 240
| 1.5
| 2
|
Broward County volunteers are among those helping the Deborah Hospital Foundation raise money to provide free care to children with heart disease and to adults with heart and lung ailments.
About 1,500 volunteers are members of 11 Broward chapters of the nonprofit, nonsectarian organization, said Maureen Burke, Florida director of the foundation, whose office is in Boca Raton.
"The Deborah Heart and Lung Center has been in existence for 77 years, and, in all those years, no patient has been given a bill to pay," Burke said of the hospital in Browns Mills, N.J.
Recent South Florida fund-raising events have brought in more than $32,000, Burke said. A raffle for a $5,000 cash prize, conducted at the foundation office, yielded a $20,000 profit.
A "Children of the World" luncheon aboard Holland America Line's MS Veendam at Port Everglades generated more than $12,000. The foundation's 1998 poster child, Skylar Stratemeyer of Loxahatchee, was guest of honor.
Upcoming events include an American Girls' Pastime Party on May 2 at the South Palm Beach Community Center in Delray Beach. For more information, call 561-417-0888.
|
<urn:uuid:879c5ed3-f711-4a29-9298-0b493a5e1f2a>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-04-04/community/9904050519_1_lung-center-deborah-hospital-foundation-heart-disease
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.933353
| 264
| 1.5
| 2
|
|Viable manpower to supplement booming economy – President
|Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - 04.50 GMT
President Mahinda Rajapaksa urged the youth to make themselves eligible for future employment opportunities and asserted that the country needed viable manpower to supplement its booming economy.
"Our youth should be more aware of education opportunities at hand and also should lay emphasis in using them to widen their scope and enhance their eligibility”, he added.
He noted that the Government`s on going massive development drive would present the countries youth with plenty of lucrative employment opportunities if they possessed the required knowledge and skills.
The President made these comments after declaring open the new Hambantota District Youth Centre complex of the National Youth Council at Yayawatte, Tangalle yesterday (29 March).
"For this purpose the Government plans to create an effective mechanism with the aid of technical, IT, agricultural education institutes, Youth Councils etc. to empower youth with knowledge/skills in line with requirements for modern day employment opportunities”, quoting the President, Daily News reported.
He added that the country today was attracting international and local investors alike with new harbours, airports, infrastructure facilities coming up in every corner of the island.
The Centre built at a cost of Rs. 60 million provides youth with facilities for education and extra curricular activities including technical, sports, IT, aesthetic studies etc.
Meanwhile, President Rajapaksa declared open the Rupavahini Muthuhara Library at Palamkada, Weeraketiya yesterday where he stated that textbook learning is not enough to raise to high standards of employment or position in the competitive world.
“Therefore our aim is to make our younger generation knowledgeable and strong”, he said.
The greatest power youth could have is knowledge and not arms. The policies of national leaders of the past few decades destroyed the rich and valuable lives of thousands of youth who were misled and took to arms, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.
“It is my policy therefore to strengthen our youth to be able to face any challenge in the world as it is my responsibility to ensure that the youth will not face dangers but be strong to achieve prosperity,” the President said.
President Rajapaksa said some leaders of the recent past did not possess the knowledge that leaders should be fortified with.
It was due to such people that thousands of our youth were destroyed by taking up arms instead of being strengthened with knowledge and useful skills. Therefore the government had taken every measure to enrich the children and youth with knowledge and was seeking to build a knowledge based society, quoting the President Daily News reported.
At the ceremony to open the public library at Netolpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha, the President stated that the attitude of imitating the West by the previous governments had relegated history as a subject taught in schools, Daily News reported.
“We have to teach our children and younger generation our history so that they would learn and appreciate our national traditions”, he emphasized.
Sri Lanka has a proud history that some of the developed nations do not have. It has a rich ethical tradition that we should bequeath to our children and still unborn generations. Therefore, we have to teach children our history, the President added.
|
<urn:uuid:581448ad-d307-4167-afb4-c5b8c027d647>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.president.gov.lk/news.php?newsID=968
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.953406
| 679
| 1.84375
| 2
|
Healthy Day in Huntington marks end of 90-day challenge with fun, food
HUNTINGTON — If you give a man a head of broccoli, you feed him for a day. Give a man seeds and teach him to grow his own broccoli, and you can feed him year-round.
That’s the message from Donna Rumbaugh, owner of Perennial Favorites, one of several dozen vendors who signed up and participated in the Healthy Day in Huntington festivities at Pullman Square on Saturday.
“The activity of gardening is not only a healthy thing to do, but you can grow healthy foods, too, even in very small spaces,” said Rumbaugh, whose business includes two greenhouses and landscaping services. “In a 4-foot by 20-foot space, you can grow enough to feed a family of four for the entire summer. And, it’s cheaper, too.”
That type of information — aimed at promoting healthier lifestyles — was widespread at Saturday’s event. It featured a variety of healthful Tri-State offerings including Healthy Life Market, Yellow Goat Farm and West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition, and fitness demonstrations ranging from martial arts to Zumba.
Healthy Day in Huntington, sponsored by Ebenezer Medical Outreach, kicked off with a 5K walk/race, which drew nearly 200 participants.
The event marked the end of the latest 90-Day Challenge issued by the Huntington Health Revolution, a coalition of groups promoting better health. The 90-Day Challenge is a health initiative for individuals and families to implement small, daily changes to improve their diet, fitness and well-being.
Rumbaugh joined the crowd at Pullman with potted herbs, seeds, fruits and vegetables, and spent part of the day offering advice to would-be gardeners.
“I think most people are terrified to try it, but it’s not difficult,” she said, adding that tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are some of the easiest plants to start with. “If you have a little bit of ground and some advice from a gardener or farmer, you learn the rest by just doing it.”
Yvonne Jones, executive director of Ebenezer Medical Outreach, said she was pleased with how the event turned out.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever done anything like this, and I think a lot of people were just wanting to see what we were all about,” she said. “We had a great turnout for the race, people exercising, people milling around. It’s been a great and successful day.”
Proceeds from the event will go toward the continued development of the Paul Ambrose Trail for Health (PATH), a 26-mile walking and shared-road trail that will encompass almost every part of Huntington.
|
<urn:uuid:a652b392-2c73-4e5f-9ee5-9919e2f1a7bd>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/specialsections/healthrevolution/x986820926/Healthy-Day-in-Huntington-marks-end-of-90-day-challenge-with-fun-food
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.969897
| 602
| 1.570313
| 2
|
The Midway Museum has reached another milestone. For the first time ever in San Diego, the Chief's Legacy Academy was held on the historic ship.
» Sign Up For Breaking News Alerts» Like Us On Facebook» Follow Us On Twitter
The weeklong academy is an immersion course in naval history and public service for those selected to be the next generation of leaders in the Navy.
"For them to experience what Chief Petty Officers and sailors experienced on this ship really hit home," said John Minyard, the Command Master Chief for the U.S. Pacific Fleet. One year ago, Minyard brought forward the idea of holding the academy on the ship.
Aside from living on the ship, the 37 chief selectees helped preserve the ship's history by repainting the flight deck and ship numbers.
For Command Master Chief Ted Gallinat, being on the Midway was a homecoming.
"I served on the Midway from 1983 to 1985," he told 10News. "It's overwhelming to be back. There's a flood of memories."
The chief selectees undergo a six-week immersion course in Navy history, culture and pride. They will officially receive their gold anchor pins on Sept. 14.
Copyright Do you have more information about this story? Click here to contact usCopyright 2012 by 10News.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|
<urn:uuid:62564fb4-782a-4056-b2c5-81ff116a49a2>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.10news.com/news/chief-s-legacy-academy-held-on-midway-museum
|
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
| 0.953236
| 291
| 1.6875
| 2
|
Deep Inside Libya With Nothing but an iPhoneA photojournalist armed with a smart phone captures the scars and new hopes of the revolution-torn nation.
The death of four Americans in a terrorist attack has focused attention on Benghazi in recent weeks, but while violence and political instability mark today's Libya, there is much more to be seen among the people and culture emerging from decades of life under Qaddafi. This past summer, photojournalist Ben Lowy—armed with the iPhone camera he is known to use so well—documented bombed out buildings, Libyan women voting in the first-ever democratic election, and more. Why didn't he work with fancier gear? "Small mobile phone cameras are innocuous and enable a far greater intimacy with a subject," Lowy says, noting that Libyans themselves have also done much to document their surroundings, thanks to the ubiquitous technology.
|
<urn:uuid:420c57a9-2403-4537-99cd-afbcfc5d6407>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.motherjones.com/photoessays/2012/09/ilibya/swimming-benghazi
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.950468
| 176
| 1.78125
| 2
|
Kids say it best:
IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
"It's better for girls to be single, but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them."
Anita, age 9
HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
"If you want to last with your man, you should wear a lot of pretty clothes, especially underwear that is red and maybe has a few diamonds on it."
Lori, age 8
"Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck."
Ricky, age 10
HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?
"You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming."
Alan, age 10
HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
"You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids."
Derrick, age 8
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
"Both don't want no more kids."
Lori, age 8
WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
"Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough."
Lynnette, age 8
"On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date."
Martine, age 10
|
<urn:uuid:aa67db24-e4d0-4f1e-9aa3-9383643d0818>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.beethoven.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=86571
|
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
| 0.956134
| 343
| 1.648438
| 2
|
For years I've read news stories about dental mercury amalgam fillings that failed to ask vital follow up questions for one to form a better understanding of the true risks involved with exposure to mercury fillings. Rarely was a toxicologist, neurologist or bio-chemist interviewed. Instead, the stories would always give dentists such prominence when promoting the safety of a substance of which they knew nothing about, all while never acknowleding the much lower levels of mercury at which our government has removed other products from the market. So now I'm doing what I can to help raise awareness of the many dangerous aspects of dental mercury fillings.Website: www.mercuryexposure.info
Make sure you enter the (*) required information where indicated.
Basic HTML code is allowed.
Mercuryexposure.info was created and is maintained by consumers injured from exposure to mercury vapor and particles released by their dental amalgam fillings during placement, polishing, removal and day to day use. We are dedicated to providing accurate, up to date information on the many facets of dental mercury amalgam fillings.
|
<urn:uuid:ded53e2a-672c-4cf1-8577-7898e6e89554>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.mercuryexposure.info/users/user-submitted-articles/item/543-ada-intentionally-misinforming-people-about-the-dangers-of-amalgam
|
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
| 0.95347
| 224
| 1.546875
| 2
|
A startup becoming a success story is not all that common. Probably every 99 out of 100 attempts fail but still that 1 triumph inspires another 100 teams to startup! What goes into that one startup that makes it a success? Why is it that the 99 others are not able to create the same magic? Is there a set of rules that ensure success of a start-up?
Though there are so many small & big things that help a startup get closer to tasting success or at least ensure that they stay on the right path, there is nothing much that can ensure a sure shot success. But if there are things that can increase your chances, there is no reason why you shouldn’t follow them.
Startups across the world face almost the same set of challenges but being in India & not having experience running a startup anywhere else, i think my limited knowledge only allows me to comment about the scene here. But call it my ignorance or give credit to the bigger number of odds against you out here, if you have what it takes to make it a success in India, probably you can do better in almost any other part of the world! Having said that, the things I list below are completely my personal opinions & don’t blame me if you follow all this & still screw up!
I’ve read a zillion articles that guarantees a better success rate for a startup & have agreed (to a lot) or disagreed (to an equal number) to the various points in them. I’m sure you have read even more number of articles & might feel my GYAN session to be extremely boring, but just in case a few of you think there has been some small little thing that you could take away from this page, I’m more than happy. I look forward to adding more items to this space or edit the existing ones, as & when i get the revelation! So here we go >>
The most important ingredient for a good startup is undoubtedly the right team. Ideas can change, business models can evolve, everything you do can alter directions but if you don’t have a good team with you, your chances of making it big are close to zero. And by ‘good’ team, I mean a balanced team with the right skill sets. You need a core team that is collectively good at ideation, execution, marketing, sales, finance & the ability to think ahead of time.
I strongly recommend a team size of atleast 2 and is not pro a one-man-show system, because of reasons more than one.
a) A single person won’t have all the skills essential to lead/run a startup.
b) It’s really good to think in more than one perspective on everything.
c) You need someone with you who will stand by you when you screw up stuff.
d) The joy is more when you have people around you to share success.
Everyone thinks different. You need someone to think about the cons when you are so much into the pros. I really admire those iron-men who have built empires from scratch all alone, but who knows, maybe they would have made even bigger a business or have saved a lot of time, if they had the right partner.
There are so many things that you can do to attract publicity & make people say good things about you. I’m not saying don’t do all that, in fact its really good to do all that. But, at the end of the day, you are running a business to make money & everything else are just by-products. A simple thing that many people fail to understand is that profit = income - expense, which essentially means that to increase your profit there are only 2 things you can do. One is to increase income & two is to make sure you are spending the least possible. And to have income in the first place, you need a good revenue model. A startup’s success is not when it makes a multi million dollar exit (though that is a good thing to happen) but when it makes sustainable & growing profits. If your intention is to make a company that fits the “hot, loss making, free service with mega valuations” tag, you are in the wrong game. It does happen once in a million companies, but definitely a model you cannot bet on.
Flow of information
You need strong systems & processes in place to ensure good flow of information within the organization. Everything from tracking expenses to daily revenues to business development initiatives to what your clients think about your product/service, progress towards the next milestone, these are all pieces of information that you would want to make available to the core team on a near real time basis. The more the delay in flow of info, the more likely that things go out of hand. The core team has to be constantly updated among each other on all the stuff happening within the company & the rest of the team should be trained to continuously communicate the info upwards in comprehensive packages. The results of good flow of information is good turn-around times, happy clients, better margins, more business and above all, the ability to take informed decisions at the right time.
Everyone needs some kind of motivation to put in their maximum. It need not always be monetary in nature but there definitely has to be incentives for achievement. It makes a person put in that extra bit that could make all the difference. It gives everyone the scope to grow at a pace they are eligible to, instead of being capped by other external factors. So put systems in place to reward every achievement. You might not be able to give incentives to every single person in the organization from day one, but make sure you make an effort to moving towards such a situation.
To-Do lists, Reporting & Reviews
Each person in the team has to be accountable for the work entrusted. There has to be a daily track of who does what. EOD’s (short for End-Of-Day reports) are something one can’t afford to miss no matter how big or small a part that particular person plays in the organization. EOD’s make you more accountable, it helps you track progress, lets you plan ahead better, makes you prepare to-do lists that makes you better organized. Irrespective of the team member being on tech side or marketing, there has to be a strong reporting system. Even in case you don’t understand the benefits initially, don’t be lazy, stick to this & you will soon realize the importance of the same. Trust me, the entire productivity of the team goes up considerably higher if everyone writes EOD’s & maintain daily to-do lists.
Over and above this, you need to have EOW’s that track progress of a business unit over a week & then EOM’s that tracks the same over a month. It’s not incremental work creating all these reports, EOD’s help you make EOW’s & EOW’s compile into EOM’s etc. The core team should also make sure the progress is reviewed periodically.
I like this statement Infosys founder Narayanamurthy made >> “It took me 25 years to become an over-night wonder”. You can’t expect to become a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs in a couple of years. Be realistic. Be patient. Just ensure that you are on the right path and everything else will follow. There are things which you can’t speed up beyond a certain point. Don’t overdo things. Keep your cool. Don’t be frustrated. At the same time patience doesn’t mean that you sit locked in a room waiting for someone to come & deliver stuff to you.
It’s good to be written about. It’s good to showcase your product in public. It’s good to have a fan following. Every start-up should learn the trick of getting free publicity. Apart from the print & visual media, nowadays the social media is also becoming of increased importance. Leverage all that you can. Find out your USP’s. Get them across to public through whatever means. But be careful too. a) Any publicity is not good publicity. Things can put you in a bad light too. b) Don’t get too proud reading what is written about you. Only you know the real picture & if you start believing that all those media attention is gonna get you somewhere, you are really wrong.
You will need a lot of this to tide through the tough times. An entrepreneur has to be extremely optimistic about things. Positve thinking gives you positive energy that empowers you to do seemingly impossible stuff. Everyone around you may try to pull you down or atleast try to make you believe that you have set out to achieve something impossible, but that’s the whole point. You are out there to do stuff that normally people can’t & that’s why you are an entrepreneur and others are not! You are not the giving-up-types, no matter what. And go ahead and believe that you are a bit lucky too!
It’s an art. Unless & until you learn this, you will keep doing the same stuff everyday & you are most likely to waste all your time which could otherwise have been used for new/better things. Human beings are prone to getting bored if they repeatedly do the same thing for more than a particular period of time, regardless of how good the thing is. In the case of an entrepreneur, the period of time we are talking about is considerably lower. Delegating work is not a bad thing to do. Every kind of work has to percolate down the team so that you get more bandwidth to think & do new things. This is essentially how you need to grow your team. Always have it in mind that you are capable of doing bigger, better things every day & your primary job is to show your team how best to do something, put systems & processes in place and then move on. It also ensures continuity of work & makes things less person dependant.
Always good to have a right set of mentors. People whom you can trust totally. “Been there, done that” kind of people who can give you real good insights & help you find the way when you hit roadblocks. Be cautious, there are so many people out there who just do the talking and is not worth a penny. If the mentor is not passionate about the team & the work you do, there is no point wasting time. And if the reason why a mentor is associating with you is money/equity more than enything else, you are probably better off without this guy! The right mentor will be able to connect with your thought processes, he can relate to you & your situations & can share with you lessons he learnt in his journey. Do not give out any equity/money for mentorship based on future deliverables & verbal guarantees. If they are expecting something, they need to deliver first & you need to get convinced only seeing results. Finally, no matter what mentors tell you, the decision to be made is yours.
There are only a certain number of things which your brain can process at a time. There are only 24 hours in any given day. Any startup guy is likely to run out of bandwidth in his struggle to do so many things in the minimum possible time. While there is no problem in that part, what needs to be done is to prioritize things & the delegation part which has already been discussed. When you step a bit sideways and think, you will realize that a lot of things you do can be deferred as it is not of immediate importance, another set of things aren’t worth the pain in the long term and probably a third set of things which you just realized that it might do more harm than good. By prioritize, i mean figure out what has to be done on urgent basis, what is to deferred & what is to be skipped & this exercise can make sure you never run out of bandwidth for long stretches.
Save Money, Spend Less!
Don’t be ashamed. Spend as less as possible. People who tease you for being a miser won’t give you money to run your company. Save money wherever & whenever you can. Travel cheap, stay at friend’s places when on business trips, buy stuff on EMI, bargain & do whatever you can to save money. But at the same time, don’t refrain from the optimum spending on business development. Don’t refrain from spending if the time you spend bargaining is not worth it. So it’s basically a trade off between time & money which you have to master. And you also need to understand that without investing, there is no likely gain. Manage your CAPEX & OPEX well and keep track of them separately. Every company needs money, albeit in different proportions, for scaling up at various stages of the journey. If you wait for profits to be generated and then to re-invest, you will probably lose the opportunity in today’s cut throat competition. Identify funds, be it seed, angel, VC or PE, so that you can cash in when you are convinced about the opportunity.
Entertain Ideas, be open to Change!
Be open to ideas especially from within the team. If you try to resist change, you will be outdated in no time. Like they say, the only thing that doesn’t change is change itself. So learn to adapt to the changes around you. The biggest advatages of a startup needs to be leveraged to the maximum, like minimum turn-around times, quick decision making, out-of-the-box thinking & zero aversion to innovate. Always encourage everyone to come up with ideas, cos that retains the spirit, and then debate over it actively before taking a final call.
Work hard, party harder!
There is no replacement to hardwork. You literally work your ass out 24×7 to get things rolling. Sleepless nights & no-time-to-eat-food days are so common in every startup. Having no short-cut, just make sure that you don’t burn-out too much. Take a break once in a while, cos mind & body needs rest and rejuvenation.
Like APJ Abdul Kalam rightly says, “Dream, dream, dream! Dreams transform into thoughts, thoughts lead to action”. There is no harm in dreaming big. Infact, it gives you vision.
|
<urn:uuid:ec73ed3c-491c-413a-876e-d1095bd57fb3>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://sonyjoy.com/tag/to-do/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.955174
| 3,023
| 1.664063
| 2
|
Retired Lt. Col. William Robert Orbelo helped local automotive giant Red McCombs build one of the most extensive private collections of historic artifacts in the United States, including rare Gatling guns used during the Civil War.
Orbelo, 77, died Sept. 9 from complications of Parkinson's disease.
“He will be sorely missed,” McCombs said Tuesday. The man he simply called “Colonel” helped him collect more than 6,000 artifacts that have been shown at schools and museums throughout the state, McCombs said.
“I doubt that I personally will continue to expand my collection ... I could never look at the collection as my collection. It was something that we did together,” McCombs said.
An avid collector himself, Orbelo once owned the largest assemblage of dueling pistols with documentation in the country and the third-largest in the world. He is known for having donated Gen. Santa Anna's bed to the Alamo.
“He always loved history,” said his wife, Jo Jacquelon Briggs-Orbelo, adding that “of all the people that he knew, he respected Red (McCombs) the most and the feeling was mutual.”
Briggs-Orbelo met her husband in a San Antonio library in 1993 while researching her family history and wondered what qualities the eligible bachelor saw in her.
“Was it my beauty, my intellect, my talent? I thought there must be something wonderful about me,” she said, laughing. “He said, ‘You make me laugh' ... He had a sense of humor that was so subtle that you didn't know it until you had been whipped.”
Orbelo was a decorated combat veteran whose military career spanned more than 20 years and took him all over the world. He served in Vietnam and represented the United States in Paraguay. He was awarded a Bronze Star and several Purple Hearts, his wife said.
Briggs-Orbelo said her husband put dreams to become a doctor on hold to fight in Vietnam. Briggs-Orbelo said Orbelo's late first wife suffered two miscarriages and he had always wanted a daughter. Four years ago the couple adopted Briggs-Orbelo's nephews' wife, Jackie Goerges, who was then 54 and had been helping the pair get to their doctor's appointments.
“When Jackie lost her surrogate mother, he brought it up and we decided to do it,” Briggs-Orbelo said. “It was basically his idea. He loved her.”
|
<urn:uuid:681bf582-df3e-4b7b-9348-3a5903757b75>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Orbelo-s-passion-for-history-followed-3875510.php
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.983328
| 548
| 1.539063
| 2
|
Starbucks had a go at David Cameron on Sunday for his ‘cheap shots’ at the coffee chain’s tax arrangements in the UK. The company felt it was being unfairly singled out in comments about companies legally avoiding tax needing to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’. So what about other firms known to be avoiding tax?
Coffee House has learned that the former Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott is writing a rather scathing pair of letters to David Cameron and George Osborne about the government’s dealings with Google, which paid only £6 million in corporation tax in the UK in 2012 by funnelling £6 billion worth of transactions through the tax haven of Bermuda. Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, currently sits on the government’s Business Advisory Group.
Oakeshott’s letter says that while he strongly supports Osborne’s condemnation in last year’s Budget of aggressive tax avoidance as ‘morally repugnant’, the government is undermining its own campaign by retaining Schmidt on the advisory panel. He argues that Cameron and Osborne are leaving themselves ‘wide open to a charge of selective indignation on tax dodging’ and that every meeting with Schmidt ‘sends the worst possible message that aggressive tax avoidance is acceptable in high places’. His letter to the Chancellor adds:
‘Will you also ensure that before Google are considered for any government contracts, they prove that full British tax will be payable on the money they receive from British taxpayers?’
This is not dissimilar to the campaigns from MPs on the Conservative and Labour benches, particularly Charlie Elphicke and Jim Sheridan, as reported on Coffee House earlier this month.
The problem with singling out certain firms as the Prime Minister has done is that name-calling is a weak way of doing politics, whether you’re talking about multinational companies or benefit claimants. Starbucks were grumpy about being the focus of the Prime Minister’s comments because they felt they were already doing their bit with a voluntary agreement to pay more tax. But it is far more convenient to make villains out of those in a system who aren’t even breaking its rules than it is to make clear that the real villain is the system itself.Tags: George Osborne, Google, starbucks, Tax, tax avoidance, UK politics
|
<urn:uuid:d0e23ad1-7026-427c-9923-d12bc89eec52>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/isabel-hardman/2013/01/george-osborne-urged-to-drop-google-boss-as-business-adviser/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.964184
| 486
| 1.601563
| 2
|
• During the event, shoppers who care about safe and healthy food for their families and the farmers who are equally passionate about producing that food, connected for much-needed straight talk about modern agriculture.
Shoppers at one lucky ValuMarket in Louisville recently found a new, straight-from-the-farm assortment in the produce section — the farmers themselves.
During the event, shoppers who care about safe and healthy food for their families and the farmers who are equally passionate about producing that food, connected for much-needed straight talk about modern agriculture.
Today, consumers are not only concerned about food prices, but there is growing concern about food production practices and many myths about modern agriculture. Through the CommonGround program, a collaborative effort involving the National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board and affiliated state organizations, these organizations have partnered to reach out to Kentucky consumers.
Telling the story of their own operations, these women drive home the truth about U.S. agriculture. Through sharing their experience and hard data, consumers learn that thanks to modern American farmers, U.S. families enjoy the safest, healthiest and most affordable food choices in the world.
Ashley Reding, Carrie Divine, Corinne Kephart and Denise Jones, all Kentucky farm women, had mom-to-mom conversations about where food comes from for three hours on an early Saturday afternoon. Shoppers had the unique opportunity to get answers to their questions about food and farming straight from the women who produce it.
“The event was unique as it was held at a small local store where many shoppers were very concerned about buying from local farms,” said Reding. “I felt we really got through to people in explaining issues from how modern agriculture in the U.S. must can and must feed the world, on how we produce the steaks they were about to enjoy and on exactly what differentiates organics versus the benefits that are only perceived.”
To build upon this success, Kentucky will host an agricultural issues and media training seminar on Saturday, April 9 in Lexington. During this meeting, staff from participating CommonGround organizations will prepare additional Kentucky farm women, including operators, wives, moms, sisters and daughters, to connect with consumers while teaching them how to effectively tell their story, the true story of American agriculture.
The women involved in this program will share their experiences with consumers at local events such as the grocery store promotion, through speaking engagements and through social media.
To learn more about CommonGround, click here.
|
<urn:uuid:facac7d4-2ba7-4d0b-96be-8f52974e435b>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://southeastfarmpress.com/markets/shoppers-get-food-information-those-who-grow-it
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.968248
| 517
| 1.757813
| 2
|
Latest VideosMore Videos
Burt Wolf: Travels & Traditions
What's Cooking In SwitzerlandSeries Website »
Episodes & Air Times »
Burt takes viewers on a gastronomic tour of Western Switzerland. The most mountainous region in Switzerland is called the Valais and it is the home of Switzerland's most famous mountain ---the Matterhorn and that is where our gastronomic tour begins. We'll learn about a chocolate bar shaped like the Matterhorn. Why this is one of the great cheese producing regions of Switzerland and why raclette is the ultimate melted cheese dish. The Valais is also the largest wine producing area in Switzerland. Viewers also discover Charlie Chaplin's contribution to chocolate, the gastronomic specialties of the Lake Geneva Region and why Geneva has some of the best restaurants in Europe.
Sorry, this episode has no rebroadcasts scheduled at this time.
|
<urn:uuid:daee0399-97bb-4f90-9613-986a157f0c05>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://vpt.org/show/8734/805
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.936228
| 180
| 1.664063
| 2
|
Open Walls Baltimore with Ever from Argentina
This article was posted by judeliana 1 year, 22 hours, 45 minutes ago.
As Martha Cooper continues to document the murals going up around Baltimore as part of the Open Walls Baltimore mural program she profiled Ever, an artists from Argentina. She wrote, “Argentinean artist Ever’s specialty is large scale portraits. In Baltimore he singlehandedly painted an enormous wall using a combination of spray and house paint. His image of a sleeping, or perhaps just reclining, man with a mask led to many questions from passersby about the intended meaning. However Ever refused to explain, preferring that everyone interpret the painting for themselves.” Scroll down to get a look at this enormous wall Ever brought to life.
|
<urn:uuid:02bf4f78-b160-49a0-9f7f-d1e82b6193c9>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.12ozprophet.com/index.php/news/open_walls_baltimore-with-ever-from-argentina
|
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
| 0.956827
| 157
| 1.742188
| 2
|
1941- 1948: The Markota
1951- 1981: Jay-Cee-An
Bismarck Junior College/Bismarck State College Yearbooks.
A literary publication produced by students during spring semester English course. The semester focuses on call for entries, judging and selection of work, design and production of the publication and organizing an open mic night, public reading and collaborative musical performances. Began in 1992.
BSC packs late spring with guest artists and student talent for a month-long celebration of the performing, visual and literary arts. Enjoy headliner events and concerts by BSC choral and instrumental ensembles, a theater musical, outdoor raku firing, student art show, tie-dye, literary readings and student-directed plays. All events are …
Campus Read is designed to promote reading and communication on campus and in the community. Public and campus discussions of the book take place during the school year, and are the topic of a variety of class projects, including in several online classes. 2004 – 2005 the BSC’s first campus read was Montana 1948 by Larry Watson.
Bismarck State College acquired personal papers of the college's first dean and chief administrator, Dr. Walter J. Swensen at a public ceremony August 24th, 2010 in the BSC Library. The bound book contains minutes of the earliest board meetings, lists of faculty and students, class schedules, events, photographs, programs, news …
|
<urn:uuid:b07caa15-cf74-4083-89a7-f02fbcea5334>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://cdm15402.contentdm.oclc.org/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.943991
| 301
| 1.515625
| 2
|
Finding a niche
Searching for answers to the eternal question of how to succeed in business can produce some tortured overthinking, but the basic principle is fairly simple: Identify a consumer need and find a way to fill it in an efficient manner to turn a profit. In practice, it is a little more complicated than that, and there are many factors that determine how successful a business might become.
As an example, take Gulf Coast Screw & Supply Co., founded by James McAtee in 1966. A salesman for Premier Fastener Co., McAtee struck out on his own and established a small parts business in his home on Hyde Park in Beaumont. He plied his trade up and down the Gulf Coast serving a variety of industrial customers. His son John joined the family firm, eventually buying the company when James was ready to retire.
It was a good business and in time their focus shifted from screws to hydraulic hoses, air hoses and truck hoses, made to order for a wide range of applications. They also carry a variety of adapters, metric nuts and bolts and electrical parts in addition to certain oils and lubes, but hoses became the core business.
John McAtee said opportunity knocked after Hurricane Rita in 2005 and it has transformed the way Gulf Coast Screw & Supply serves their customers. In the wake of the storm, there was widespread destruction and a lot of hydraulic hoses that needed to be replaced.
“We had a large industrial crane that needed 63 different hoses,” recalled McAtee. He realized that instead of removing each hose and taking it back to the shop to fabricate a replacement, it made more sense to bring the equipment to the site and do the job there. A new business model emerged, born out of necessity. Now Gulf Coast Screw & Supply comes to the customer, a fully stocked mobile warehouse in a step-van with hydraulics for marine and heavy equipment operators, contractors and 18-wheelers.
Joey Nors is a skilled operator who stocks the mobile warehouse, drives it to the location and expertly crafts the required hoses. This method greatly enhances efficiency and reduces downtime.
When a backhoe deep in the forest clearing a path for the Keystone XL pipeline sustained damage, the mobile unit went to the scene and got it up and running in a matter of hours, not days.
Oil refineries and chemical plants utilize many hundreds of hoses and fittings. During routine maintenance or a planned turnaround, the demand of parts can be both voluminous and unpredictable. The Gulf Coast Screw mobile unit can set up shop in a refinery parking lot, putting its assets close at hand without actually entering the plant. This eliminates need for the exhaustive security screening that has become an all-too-familiar part of the post 9-11 world.
Another strategy McAtee has devised is leasing portable hose crimping machines for a dollar a year to entities who can use his products to fabricate their own hoses. He said he has more than 40 such devices in use, greatly expanding the market for the parts he supplies.
Gulf Coast Screw & Supply has found success by identifying a business niche and devising new and innovative ways to meet customers’ needs. Their method was not found in any book, but they are writing their own success story every day, one hose at a time.
|
<urn:uuid:7e069588-c149-4cd0-ba3c-2f7b71f1784c>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.theexaminer.com/stories/news/finding-niche?quicktabs_1=0
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.963145
| 689
| 1.585938
| 2
|
We're here to help you with information about Berkley products. Just give us a call or send us an email.
Review our quick tips to find the information you need. Apply the filters on the right to narrow your search.
Forage choices, and not seasonality will dictate what types of baits to use, when fishing for Redfish. Crustaceans (crabs & shrimp) are the primary food source for redfish during the cooler months. Baitfish such as pinfish and sardines will be the primary food staple for the redfish during the warmer months.
|
<urn:uuid:488dc918-8878-477b-9877-083f3b5fa38b>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.berkley-fishing.com/angler-education/tips/2%2C2123
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.933899
| 121
| 1.546875
| 2
|
The North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center is a 37-bed facility that is one of the few in the nation that is American Burn Association verified for adult and pediatric care. The center had more than 1200 acute admissions in 2012 and consistently operated at capacity. We have continued to reduce our mortality rate from 6% to its current level of 2% in 2012. All levels of staff in the burn center work hard to reduce all types of infections. Our main priority is to provide the utmost ultimate care to the burn patient and at all times keep their pain level at a minimum.
Since its opening February 23, 1981, at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill, the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center has saved hundreds of lives and restored thousands of people, both children and adults, to lives of health and productivity. At the same time, the Burn Center has advanced the scientific knowledge of burn care and rehabilitation. Through its education and outreach programs, the Burn Center has greatly improved upon the quality of emergency burn treatment across the state and has been instrumental in preventing untold numbers of burn injuries.
During a recent re-certification process in 2012, it was stated that the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center is one of the best comprehensive burn centers in the world.
Our unit features:
- 37 inpatient beds
- adult and pediatric care in one unit
- state of the art capabilities for resuscitation and intensive burn care
- hydrotherapy tub
- occupational therapy
- pastoral support
- recreational therapy
- social work
- newly renovated Duke Energy family room
- laser treatment of burn scars
|
<urn:uuid:aa296d17-9fa1-4881-b4f0-04a60a49da0d>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.med.unc.edu/burn/copy_of_about-us
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.951221
| 326
| 1.523438
| 2
|
A cool idea that we hope to never use: The Stolen Camera Finder.
The concept is pretty simple — every digital photograph has information tagged to it in an exchangable image file, known as “exif data”. This contains some basic information about the photograph: the make and model of the camera, camera settings at the time of the photo, the date and time of the photograph.
Cameras (and photo software) can add other information to it — such as the “artist” and copyright information.
The Stolen Camera Finder takes a photo you upload, reads the EXIF data, and searches the web for photos with the same data — helping you figure out who has your camera.
Of course, we just tried it, and received zero hits, despite pasting our photos accessibly all over the Internet — if the program cannot find our photos on Flickr and Facebook, it’s not terribly well designed.
But a great idea, all the same.
We cannot help but notice that this week’s Weekend Coffee — the first in a month! — contains fewer silly pictures and more good photographs than usual.
You are therefore particularly encouraged to click on the pretty pictures. As is the norm with pretty pictures, they look better when viewed in larger formats.
|Bruce Schneier has written an excellent essay on terrorism, fear, and why the Washington Monument should be closed.|
|Something to think about the next time you read that music-industry profits are down: While that may be true for the record labels, the musicians themselves are making more money than ever. In fact, if you buy two songs (in MP3 format) directly from a musician these days, they make more money than they would if you bought an entire album on CD at HMV.
In short, new distribution channels are endangering the norms of the industry surrounding the musicians, not the musicians themselves.
|Here is a short story of methane release from melting permafrost.|
|If you are asked to review your own book, be careful.|
|Some of the best bits from the Bloggess come when she interacts with clueless and incompetent marketers. It’s so ridiculous that I think it must be fake.
Until I realise that I sometimes get these e-mails too. I just ignore them.
|Adding to the list of reasons why my next computer will not be built by Apple: Apple forces a company selling third-party Macbook Air updates to stop producing them.
I might not be the sort of person who tends to buy third-party updates for their laptop. But I find it hard to support a company that doesn’t allow it. If I buy something, it’s mine.
|So … Canada has this new copyright legislation, that a lot of people don’t like.
So … the guy that wrote it goes on TV to defend it …
… and …
Why is Canada doing this, again?
|If life hands you lemon bars … make lemonade.|
|Furniture that both assembles and arranges itself.
Welcome to the Future.
|You see it in CSI all the time — the police compare a shoe-print left on scene to a database of prints, find a match, and it helps to lead them to the killer.
The only problem? That database may violate copyright law.
|Breaking Zombie News! Dirty sanitary napkins ward off zombies!|
|Here is an interesting set of photos, in which pairs of photos are created, with the couples changing clothing (and position) between photos.|
|I am not sure what is the most incredible thing about this newspaper article?
Is it that the woman regrew part of her finger thanks to regeneration therapy?
Or is it that the woman keeps her old severed finger in the freezer?
|In case you are of the (misguided) opinion that you might be able to win carnival games – read this.|
|The answer to the question that I am sure has been burning in your minds:|
|The verdict is in! Minneapolis owes zombes $165,000.|
|
<urn:uuid:7b2c6a5b-712d-48b1-91c1-512cc9b898e1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://mrtopp.com/tag/cameras/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.934847
| 870
| 1.742188
| 2
|
Friday’s commencement exercises were a time of celebration for new University of Georgia graduates and their families, but for many, reality sets in now as they sail out onto a grim job market.
According to a recent analysis of government data for The Associated Press, more than half of all recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed — working as waiters or in other low-paid jobs instead of the work for which their college training supposedly prepared them — while they try to pay off big college loans.
Many of the UGA graduates who stood in line last week to have their pictures taken with family and friends at the UGA Arch on Broad Street had heard the unsettling news reports.
Rachel Harwood of Alpharetta had lettered her job plea on the top of the mortarboard she would wear Friday.
“Pick me. Choose me. Hire me,” it said.
The psychology major is planning on taking a year off before heading back for a graduate degree in a field she will choose later, and like a growing number of young graduates, she will move back in with her parents temporarily. But she’d like to have a job, and began looking at online job sites and sending out résumés recently.
Shariah McKenzie of Americus will move back in with her parents, taking a year off before she enrolls in a dental school.
Now she’s looking for a job — no luck so far, but she’s barely begun.
“I haven’t sent out too many résumés,” she said.
Morgan Ackley of Roswell knows what she’ll be doing for the next couple of years. She learned in November she’d been accepted into Teach for America and will head this fall for a teaching job in Memphis.
“I really wanted to get into the education field,” she said.
Unlike some of her classmates, her prospects for future employment are good.
Teaching is one of only a handful of fields that require college degrees that are projected to add a significant number of jobs in coming years. The demand for workers will grow more in low-paid jobs such as nursing home aides that don’t require a four-degree.
But mere statistics didn’t faze many of the UGA graduates, and some had an eye on job security when they chose a major.
Not all colleges are created equal, and having a UGA degree gives them an edge over many young job-seekers, they believe.
Elisa Bossen of Marietta already has a job lined up.
“I think I’m very fortunate,” she said.
Friends Brittnee Tollison of Macon and Elizabeth Tyus of Cochran plan to attend graduate school, both aiming to get master’s degrees in speech communication and disorders. The degrees will qualify them for jobs as speech pathologists. The nation’s high unemployment rate helped steer them into speech pathology — there’s still a demand for those professionals, they said.
“The thought of having a job did influence me,” Tollison admitted.
The day of reckoning isn’t here yet for some students.
Mark Weaver of Athens is headed for law school after receiving his master’s degree in geography Friday.
“We’ll see if it works out. I’m up for about anything,” Weaver said.
And Joshua Johnson will head off to the University of Chicago, working on a Ph.D. in humanities.
Some, like Andrew Wood, will take a new turn.
A psychology major, Wood plans to be a volunteer high school coach back home in Dade County.
“I am going to go into coaching football,” said Wood.
|
<urn:uuid:4222f54e-cae3-4850-877e-4231b221d972>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://onlineathens.com/uga/2012-05-13/young-grads-head-out-uncertain-job-market
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.967746
| 794
| 1.578125
| 2
|
A silver gull flashes over the beach, a grey and silver wind knife. The sand sings in the bright sun, exposed at the turning of the tide. Water rushes out of Port Phillip Bay. It leaves a scribbled handwriting of waves and foam, of rushes and deep slack eddies, dull undercurrents and fierce, dragging tides. It boils without being hot and a dull smoky roar grinds in the background. Waves break and run. This place is solid, not secure. What you find today will be gone tomorrow, there are few fixed points and reality is as fluid as a lie. The gulls ghost over wave tops and barrel through the sine wave trough between them. Here they really are sea gulls; fluid and white, suitable, suited and fit. Staggered drifts of terns, sea butterflies, pass with bouncing direct flight. A gargoyle cormorant, black and heavy, sits on a greening rock - a solid bird, a bird of water as much as air - guarding the water way to the Bay. The light house, white and smooth, sits on another rock, safe from wave wash and tide spray. It too guards the way into the Bay. The bird and the lighthouse, both watching the running tide of The Rip.
The rocks below the lighthouse seem to have an extra layer today - a grey that coats the green. A silt overcoat, a matt cover to hide the gloss of weed and water. The sea weeds look old and tired, as if they have been land wrecked for too long. The turning tide will wash away many things, but here it may bring clean water to sluice the flood's silty wrapper. Red-necked stints flush from the water’s edge and fly, sometimes above, sometimes below the horizon. This seems suitable for such an edge dweller as it passes from sea to sky and back again. Overhead planes and helicopters spook the birds and drive them to flight.
The wind sings a song of sand and surf and when I close my eyes I could be anywhere, surrounded by the world music of the sea; dull Sunday mornings on the North Sea; bright childhood summer days looking out across the Severn’s mud towards Wales; the empty beaches of western Ireland, with nothing but sea between me and the USA, waiting for letters that seldom came; the beach below Forks, strewn with fallen trees, with a peregrine high on the a cliff edge tree, back when Forks was a real place rather than a fiction. They blend to become an every-beach, each individual, but each the same. Visit a new beach and, more often than not, it's like tuning into a new radio station that plays the same music as your favourite, but with different presenters.
Behind the beach, past the car parks and wind harrowed trees, the land flattens into pasture. Stripped of trees and put down to grass, with sheep gathering in what little shade they can find. Ravens hop and peck, opportunistic camp followers, unloved. Some pastures run to long grass, and in damp flushes flowers bloom. Yellow. White. A sweep of shocking pink flowers covers one paddock. Apparently they are called Naked Ladies, as they burst from the soil bare, with no leaves. I feel strangely reluctant to Google their name for further information. Their part of the paddock is rich with a thick scent, heady and smelling of Boots the Chemist or the cheap perfume applied prior to teenage parties - spray and walk. Human perfume is about the contradiction of attraction and concealment, but in the flowers it’s all about attraction. The insects fly their way down the perfume river, arriving at the source hungry and leaving with more than just a sweet drink. Pollen on the move, the vector for plant sex. The smell seems rather sickly sweet - jelly and ice cream, toffee apples and hint of rot, but it has not evolved for me or my clumsy nose. Butterflies rise in strange abundance, clouds even, from the long grass. Is this what it was always like before we waged chemical war on the pestilent and the pretty alike, is this what it was like before the springs were silent? Blues, white and patterned Meadow Argus, they flee from cover to cover, only those too busy with the future seem to be still.
A brown falcon settles down on the flimsy branch of a dead tree, waits oh so briefly and then flies on - its body seems still as its wings corkscrew through the air. Pigeon flush and fly. The smell of sea air remains, the call of distant gulls and barely heard rush of the waves calls me back to the everybeach that lies just over there, just out of sight.
The road to Phillip Island was lightly garnished with dead foxes and rabbits - alien road kill. The Sat Nav seemed to have downloaded the maps for Bolivia or Mogadishu - “At the next junction turn left and drive away from your destination” . I turned it off. Each lamp post of the bridge over to the Island was topped with a Pacific Gull, each a picture of stillness. Pelicans sailed on the water under the bridge, each a picture of motion. Cape Woolami is just over the bridge. Turn left and park where you see the sea - I did not need the Sat Nav to tell me this thankfully. Most of the car spaces were full of surfers' cars, some old, some new, but most with bumper stickers and slogans. Young men called each other dude and swore with casual indifference. Time and a place boys, time and a place. It became apparent that I was in the middle of the World Knee Boarding Championships - I’m not making this up! A PA crackled with names and encouragement, but at least the amplified language does not veer into the Anglo Saxon. Wildness flies. I try to think positive man, but I fail.
The beach cuts down to the sea with an ankle turning steepness, the water is deep close in, safe to stranded in a single breath. I encourage the kids away from the water's edge. Brilliant, brutal, light reflects from the sand, the waves rush, each step breaks the crusted surface of the sand. The headland, away from the crowds, beckons. We walk past a dead seal pup and a penguin - both smell. I check the penguin for a flipper tag and think of the five fingered limb within. A deep time relative, with a shared history that diverged an unimaginable time ago, brought back together, here on this beach in the autumn sun. A cow fish, hard and dry, lies on its flank looking for all the world as if it has been carved from wood and sand, painted and left out to dry. The kids play in the sand and we make little progress - today is not the day for a walk.
A set of steps cut into a moss coated, slimy green soak brings us to the cliff top, where we sit and watch the surfers, eat chocolate and sip some water. Thick fleshy plants coat the ground, and snails coat the plants. Hidden between the bulked up leaves are hundreds of shells, mostly empty, some still home to a living snail. Any movement off the path is accompanied by a sharp, ugly, bursting of shells. Patches of bare ground, stamped with webbed foot prints mark the entrance to shearwater burrows. Most of the cliff top is a shearwater rookery, although there was little evidence of it other than the bare ground. It could easily be mistaken for a rabbit warren. What little evidence that could be seen were the bodies of dead chicks - scattered with surprising frequency among the plants. Gulls and ravens played catch as catch can with the corpses, a gruesome game of tug of war over bones, feet and broken wings. It was not a pretty sight.
A hawk flies over the cliff tops, distant and difficult, flushing most of the birds. It is mobbed and flies away, becoming a distant speck, as the clamour of alarm calls fades. We sit down for lunch, trying as best we can to avoid the snails. An Australian White Ibis, not looking the least Sacred, eyes our lunch, anticipating but not receiving. The day ticks over. Another beach adds its flavour to the everybeach mix. Under a clear blue sky, next to the rushing sea we walk back towards the car.
|
<urn:uuid:ead9a2af-5292-4a84-825f-70a3c42992c8>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://payingreadyattention.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html
|
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
| 0.952234
| 1,764
| 1.65625
| 2
|
HOTELS IN SPAIN
Its Arab castle, once destroyed and then rebuilt by Christians as the Castillo de Santa Bárbara, impressively dominates the city from the Benacantil hill.
Barcelona is well known as a centre of Catalan design and architecture. As one of the most important Mediterranean ports, the city is also an economic powerhouse.
Today, most people think Guggenheim and Frank Ghery when they hear the name of the city of Bilbao.
Cordoba, in Andalusia, was the birthplace of the Roman philosopher Seneca and later became the capital of a powerful emirate and one of the largest cities in the world back in the 10th century.
Granada is certainly one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Madrid, the Spanish capital, enjoys its urban splendour as much as the dry, sunny weather of the region.
Seville, the capital of Andalusia, looks back on 2000 years of history. Its cathedral, built on the former site of the city’s mosque, holds the remains of Christopher Columbus.
Valencia is an important Mediterranean port city.
|
<urn:uuid:4f03ad19-b5f5-434d-a84a-17da9376ca91>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.designhotels.com/hotels/europe/spain?workmatrix_user=fb38fc60c8
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.950978
| 243
| 1.820313
| 2
|
SPIEGEL: Mr. Anderson, let's talk about the future of journalism.
Anderson: This is going to be a very annoying interview. I don't use the word journalism.
SPIEGEL: Okay, how about newspapers? They are in deep trouble both in the United States and worldwide.
Anderson: Sorry, I don't use the word media. I don't use the word news. I don't think that those words mean anything anymore. They defined publishing in the 20th century. Today, they are a barrier. They are standing in our way, like 'horseless carriage'.
SPIEGEL: Which other words would you use?
Anderson: There are no other words. We're in one of those strange eras where the words of the last century don't have meaning. What does news mean to you, when the vast majority of news is created by amateurs? Is news coming from a newspaper, or a news group or a friend? I just cannot come up with a definition for those words. Here at Wired, we stopped using them.
SPIEGEL:Hang on a minute. So-called citizen journalists and bloggers have changed the meaning of "media." But without the traditional news media they wouldn't actually have much to do. Most of the amateurs comment on what the quality press report. So did you read a newspaper this morning?
SPIEGEL: Your local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, is fighting for survival. If it was to disappear tomorrow ...
Anderson: ... I wouldn't notice. I don't even know what I'd be missing.
SPIEGEL: So how do you stay informed?
Anderson: It comes to me in many ways: via Twitter, it shows up in my inbox, it shows up in my RSS feed, through conversations. I don't go out looking for it.
SPIEGEL: You just don't care.
Anderson: No, I do care. You know, I pick my sources, and I trust my sources.
SPIEGEL:As millions upon millions trusted the classic media previously.
Anderson: If something has happened in the world that's important, I'll hear about it. I heard about the protests in Iran before it was in the papers because the people who I subscribe to on Twitter care about those things.
SPIEGEL: The New York Times, CNN, Reuters and others can publish their best reporting on the Web and you'd never read it?
Anderson: I read lots of articles from mainstream media but I don't go to mainstream media directly to read it. It comes to me, which is really quite common these days. More and more people are choosing social filters for their news rather than professional filters. We're tuning out television news, we're tuning out newspapers. And we still hear about the important stuff, it's just that it's not like this drumbeat of bad news. It's news that matters. I figure by the time something gets to me it's been vetted by those I trust. So the stupid stuff that doesn't matter is not going to get to me.
SPIEGEL:But you could also describe the endless stream of words coming from Twitter as stupid. Limited as they are to 140 characters, Twitter messages result in this mad, unfiltered and unproven impression of what is going on. The twittering can't be any kind of replacement for fast, comprehensive, and thoroughly researched reports and analysis from quality media. And with all due respect, you're producing this yourself. You're a member of the news media, you're working for a magazine, you're doing interviews and you're creating news -- or information, or content or whatever you want to call it.
Anderson: True. But the problem is not that the traditional way of writing articles isn't valuable anymore. The problem is that this is now in the minority. It used to be a monopoly, it used to be the only way to distribute news.
SPIEGEL: Because media companies used to control the printing presses and the airwaves?
Anderson: Exactly. So now that you don't need this access to a commercial channel to distribute (news), anyone can do it. What we do is still useful but what other people do is equally useful. I don't think our way is the most important and it is certainly not the only way of conveying information. So this is why we're in a funny phase. It's going to take us a decade or two to figure out what it is we're doing.
SPIEGEL:But even with this infatuation for new formats and Internet-based media, the demand for quality journalism is growing rather than shrinking. The online media has won over a huge, new audience. And for all the talk of the press becoming extinct, circulations have remained remarkably stable. The problem is the drop in advertising revenues.
Anderson: Newspapers are not important. It may be that their physical, printed form no longer works. But the process of compiling information and analyzing it, and adding value to it and distributing it, still works.
SPIEGEL: But where's the Web-based business model for it?
Anderson: We're still figuring that out.
SPIEGEL: Good luck -- a future that won't support itself.
Anderson: The banner ad was invented right here in this office in 1995. That was the first answer to your question. But there's not one business model, there are thousands. Each one of us has to figure out our own. We all make money but we don't make enough money -- and not as much as we made in print. Facebook is trying to figure it out, Twitter is trying to figure it out. We'll get there. It's so early.
SPIEGEL: What's your answer at Wired?
Anderson: Across the hall, there's wired.com. It has about 120 million pageviews a month, it's one of the biggest sites in the world. We pretty much run it and break even. But that's completely arbitrary; we decide how to do it. We have paid journalists, we have blogs. There's user-generated content and then there's magazine content with six months of research and 8,000 word stories. Some parts are edited, others are not. We make millions of dollars in revenues, and we decide whether we want to be profitable or not.
SPIEGEL: Others don't, or can't, take it that easy. They made money in print and used it to build and fund their online products. Now many, like the New York Times, are losing big parts of their print revenues and don't generate enough revenue from their Web sites. Fast-forward and you have a big problem.
Anderson: The math of profit is pretty easy, revenues minus cost. You do your best on the revenue side and if you are not making money you lower your costs. The problem is not that there isn't money to be made online, it's just that our costs are too high.
SPIEGEL: Or maybe revenues are too low. Why do advertisers pay less online than in print? Is the audience of wired.com less attractive than readers of Wired magazine?
Anderson: It's about efficiency. Online people tend not to look at banner ads. In print people tend to look at the ads just because they're better integrated, better looking ads. They're big, full page, beautiful photography. In many ways they are content. That's why advertisers spend $22 to reach 1,000 people on wired.com -- and $100 at the magazine. I don't think we have discovered the perfect online advertising vehicle yet.
SPIEGEL: Except for Google. They make billions with text ads placed next to search results.
Anderson: The Google idea is fantastic. But you can only do so much with text. It's very good for transactions, but it is very poor for brands. It's very good if you are trying to drive an action immediately, but it's poor if you are trying to instil a desire that plays out weeks later. We need to develop a form of advertising that works as well online as glossy pages work in print. And we don't have it yet. Again, it's very early. This is only a couple of decades after the invention of the Gutenberg press and we're trying to figure out what we've invented. But we will.
Stay informed with our free news services:
|All news from SPIEGEL International||Twitter | RSS|
|All news from Zeitgeist section||RSS|
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2009
All Rights Reserved
Reproduction only allowed with the permission of SPIEGELnet GmbH
|
<urn:uuid:93532847-6c68-41b7-b1ca-3101dce51e95>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/chris-anderson-on-the-economics-of-free-maybe-media-will-be-a-hobby-rather-than-a-job-a-638172.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.966468
| 1,810
| 1.695313
| 2
|
Vision & Hearing Services:
The Cook County Department of Public Health conducts vision and hearing screenings to children enrolled in private grammar schools and daycare centers in suburban Cook County* at the request of the school/center. Screening will only be provided to pre-school, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 8th grade students as mandated by the Illinois School Code.
Schools/centers in the North and Southwest suburban Cook County regions will be screened in even school years beginning in the fall of 2006. Schools/centers in the West and South will be screened in odd school years beginning in August of 2005. No school/center will be screened more than once in a school year.
Please make sure to follow these steps to ensure the students in your school can get their needed vision and hearing screenings:
- Make sure to fill out the application form completely, and include a copy of the tuition schedule as well as documentation of students at or below 200 percent of poverty and any subsidies received through the Illinois Department of Human Services and/or Department of Children and Family Services. These documents should be faxed to 708-786-4001.
- To download a Spanish version of the consent form for vision and hearing services, please click here.
- Schools/centers are responsible for obtaining necessary consents for screening including the Cook County Bureau of Health Services HIPAA Acknowledgement (please print out the CCDPH privacy agreement) in advance of scheduled screenings.
- You can easily download all necessary forms (consents, releases, screening forms, client/parent notification letters and referrals) ahead of time. Please make sure these are complete at the time of the screening. If necessary, bilingual support must be provided by the school/center.
- Follow-up on referrals for abnormal screening tests are the responsibility of the school/center and all follow-up information is to be provided to CCDPH within 45 days of the screening.
Once an application has been received with all required documentation, CCDPH will contact the designated school/center staff within 7 days to schedule the screening. Each screening procedure takes approximately 10 minutes per student. Schools/centers that receive subsidies will be given priority.
It is the goal of CCDPH to provide schools/centers and their children with the highest level of professional services.
If you are interested in training your personnel to provide vision and hearing screenings at your school, the Illinois Department of Public Health will provide information for training to interested parties. Training dates and applications are available by contacting IDPH at 217-782-4733.
*with the exception of Evanston, Oak Park, Skokie, and Stickney Township
|
<urn:uuid:34f6f160-be28-45fd-ab59-752d5a3197b3>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.cookcountypublichealth.org/clinical-services/vision-hearing-schools
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.949709
| 547
| 1.515625
| 2
|
Office of Management and Budget
|FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE||2001-36|
President Bush Releases $5.1 Billion in Emergency Funds; OMB Provides Details on Fund Allocation
Washington DC, September 21, 2001 - President George W. Bush today released $5.1 billion in emergency spending to assist in the humanitarian, recovery, and national security needs related to the attack on America. This is the first installment from the $40 billion in emergency funds enacted this week. Additional installments will be released in the coming weeks. The Office of Management and Budget released details of how this first release of emergency funds will be allocated.
The funding would assist victims of the attacks and address other consequences of the attacks, including funding for: debris removal, search and rescue efforts, and victim assistance efforts of FEMA; emergency grants to disaster-affected metropolitan area health providers; investigative expenses of the FBI; increased airport security and sky marshals; initial repair of the Pentagon; evacuation of high threat embassies abroad; additional funding for the Small Business Administration disaster loan program; and initial crisis and recovery operations of the Department of Defense and other national security operations.
OMB will continue to work with the agencies to determine additional needs. No further congressional action is required for this release of funds.
Allocation of Emergency Funding by Agency
- Department of Defense -- Military: $2.548 billion - $1.772 billion of these funds will provide the Department of Defense with the funds necessary to begin the following activities: upgrading intelligence and security, enhancing force protection, improving command and control, and increasing full readiness. $776 million of these funds is for the support of initial crisis response, repairing the Pentagon, and providing for other recovery needs.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency: $2 billion - These funds will support overall emergency assistance in New York and other affected jurisdictions. This includes costs associated with debris removal and emergency protective measures, as well as individual and family assistance, search and rescue, and other disaster assistance efforts.
- Department of Transportation: $141 million - These funds will support increased airport security measures and expenses for additional Federal law enforcement officials to perform Sky Marshal functions; and New York Harbor patrols and the related recall of Coast Guard reservists.
- Department of Health and Human Services: $126.2 million - These funds will provide assistance for the health-related needs of the disaster-affected areas of the New York metropolitan area, Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Activities that would be supported include: emergency grants for health care providers; community health centers; mental health and substance abuse services; assessments and services related to environmental hazards, and enhancements to the physical security of pathogenic agents and toxins in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration facilities; and social services, including services for the disabled, home-delivered meals, and transportation for senior citizens in affected areas.
- Small Business Administration: $100 million - These funds will support $400 million in low interest disaster loans for renters, homeowners, and businesses in designated disaster areas.
- Department of State: $48.9 million - Approximately half of these funds will be used to provide rewards for information to help apprehend terrorists. The State Department will also use these funds to improve emergency communications at domestic facilities and embassies abroad and to have funding available to evacuate personnel at high-threat embassies, should it be required.
- Department of the Treasury: $48.4 million - These funds will support the immediate response and recovery needs of the approximately 1,000 Treasury employees who were located in or near the World Trade Center complex, most of whose offices were destroyed. These funds will also be used to establish a Foreign Terrorist Assets Tracking Center, as well as fund Customs Service air support for counterterrorism activities.
- Department of Justice: $40.8 million - These funds will support the Federal Bureau of Investigation's extraordinary expenses incurred in investigating the attacks and will provide assistance to the U.S. Marshals Service for increased airport and courthouse security and other activities. (In addition to this amount, the Justice Department will administer $68 million that was previously allocated for death and disability payments for fire, police, and rescue personnel from the Public Safety Officer's Benefits account.)
- Department of Labor: $29 million - These amounts will provide funding for: the Department of Labor's Dislocated Workers program to provide temporary jobs to assist in clean-up and restoration efforts in New York; assistance to cover immediate information technology and other costs of disaster recovery for unemployment insurance claims taking that need to be relocated; and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's monitoring of health and safety at the disaster sites.
- General Services Administration: $8.6 million - These funds will support increased security coverage of Federal buildings; purchase of security equipment; structural studies of seven Federal locations affected by the New York City disaster; overtime and travel costs for law enforcement personnel; and other security costs.
- District of Columbia: $6 million - These funds will be used for short-term response activities, including personnel and overtime costs of the Metropolitan Police Department, Fire Department, and the Public Works Department of the District of Columbia.
- Department of Energy: $5 million -- These funds will support the heightened security needs at the Department of Energy's national laboratories.
- International Assistance Programs: $5 million - These funds are primarily to cover the costs of the evacuation of Peace Corps volunteers in nine Peace Corps posts; improved overseas emergency communications; and the potential evacuation for high-risk U.S. Agency for International Development and Peace Corps posts.
- Legislative Branch: $3.3 million - These funds will support increased security measures, including overtime compensation for the U.S. Capitol Police and the installation of protective window film for the U.S. Capitol.
- Department of the Interior: $3.1 million - These amounts will provide funding for National Park Service and U.S. Park Police emergency response costs in New York City and Washington DC, as well as increased security patrols in both cities.
- Judicial Branch: $1.3 million - These funds will be used to install protective window film for the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Executive Office of the President: $500,000 - These funds will be used to install protective window film for the Executive Office of the President.
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission: $200,000 - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's New York office, which was located in the World Trade Center, will use these funds to purchase computers and office equipment for its temporary space.
- National Transportation Safety Board: $150,000 - The National Transportation Safety Board will use these funds for the recovery of flight recorders for the four planes and for assistance to the plane crashes victims' families.
- Department of Commerce: $100,000 - These funds will enable the International Trade Administration to relocate six Foreign and Commercial Service officers who were located in 6 World Trade Center, which was damaged beyond repair, and purchase new equipment and furniture.
- Export-Import Bank of the United States: $75,000 - These funds will be used to relocate the office of the Export-Import Bank previously located at the World Trade Center.
|
<urn:uuid:19c0d881-fde3-47d6-b981-aac9462be63e>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/omb/pubpress/2001-36.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.93739
| 1,469
| 1.742188
| 2
|
As if you are not barraged with video choices from your cable system, YouTube, iTunes, Hulu, NetFlix, and Ye’ Olde Video Store in the neighborhood, here comes yet another way to veg out: programs beamed over the air from your local TV station right to your cellphone.
TV on the cellphone isn’t a new concept, of course. People can watch YouTube and other Web videos on some smartphones. Some carriers, like Verizon, also offer video clips on demand. This approach allows users to choose anything they want to watch, but it uses scarce capacity of the wireless data networks.
It is far more efficient to broadcast certain channels, allowing any device to tune in to a stream of programs, the way regular broadcast TV works. Qualcomm’s Flo TV uses the broadcast approach to offer about 20 linear channels for a $15 monthly fee.
The new standard would allow TV stations to have both free and paid channels aimed at mobile devices using their existing spectrum.
On Friday, the coalition demonstrated the new service by taking a number of government officials on a bus ride around Washington during which they could lean back and watch TV.
The group said that at least 70 stations would begin broadcasting using the standard. Several electronics makers, including Samsung, LG and Dell, have produced prototype devices. It is first likely to be available on netbook computers, according to a report in Broadcasting and Cable.
The standard was devised for mobile phones, in part because watching TV on handsets has become common in parts of Asia. But so far, no wireless carrier in the United States has agreed to sell a handset with a tuner that can use the new standard. After all, why let people do something free when you can charge money for it instead?
|
<urn:uuid:ec88d8fd-fd64-44bf-82c5-0f781320de75>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/tv-stations-start-broadcasting-to-mobile-gadgets/?th&emc=th
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.946172
| 361
| 1.835938
| 2
|
Recently Answered Questions
- What is an average bill for a colonoscopy? - Asked: 12/27/2012
- Can Irritable Bowel Syndrome cause a rash? - Asked: 12/21/2012
- Can I take hydrocodone before a colonoscopy? - Asked: 12/12/2012
- Can you take aspirin prior to a colonoscopy? - Asked: 11/26/2012
- Can a diabetic get a colonoscopy? - Asked: 11/19/2012
Most Popular Procedures
- Virtual Colonoscopy
- Fecal Occult Blood Test
- Fecal Immunochemical Test
- Barium Enema
- Rectal Exam
- Polyp Removal
Seeking out medical advice and learning about colon health can be a difficult task. With Colonoscopy.com, we offer an array of resources to make it easier for you to find the relevant information you need to stay on top of your digestive health. One interactive feature we have is the Colonoscopy Questions and Answers form, which allows you to ask a medical question about any colon-related condition or procedure and receive an email answer from a specialist while remaining 100% anonymous. Better yet, using the form is completely FREE! The specialists on our network can answer questions as general as, “What about colonoscopy preparation before a virtual colonoscopy?” or as specific as, “Can you tell me why colonoscopy using the standard method may not be the best option for my 82-year-old mother?” You may want to browse through our database of already answered questions to find your information or just ask your own original question by filling out our easy-to-use ask form. Getting information about colonoscopy and why colonoscopy is the best colon cancer screening test has never been easier.
Another feature we have is our Colonoscopy Doctor Finder. Every day, thousands of patients turn to Colonoscopy.com for medical information about colonoscopy and to find the right specialist to perform their procedure. Because getting screened for colon cancer is so important, it’s essential that you find a doctor who can help you through the process step-by-step, or tell you why colonoscopy may or may not be the best option for you. For some patients with certain medical needs, non-invasive virtual colonoscopy screening may be a safer bet. You can use Colonoscopy.com’s extensive network of medical doctors to connect with a professional listed near you. Click on any doctor’s name to pull up a profile page for a description, credentials, contact information, patient reviews and any questions he or she has answered on Colonoscopy.com. Finding the right doctor can ease the stress of any medical condition or procedure — with Colonoscopy.com, you can screen your doctors before they screen you! Find a doctor listed in your area that is professional, prompt and more than happy to help you achieve a healthy life.
Colonoscopy.com is also here to educate and equip you with knowledge so you make the best decision for your health. See our Recent Colonoscopy News feed to find out what GI (gastrointestinal) doctors are talking about. In case you did not know, the colonoscopy procedure is most often performed by a medical professional called a gastroenterologist. These physicians are specialists who treat conditions relating to the digestive tract, and they have dedicated years to learning about colonoscopy and educating themselves on proper techniques necessary to maintain colon health.
All the medical information posted on our website has been reviewed and given a stamp of approval by esteemed doctors specializing in all matters of the digestive tract. In addition, we have recently started to build a library of colonoscopy videos that will help you to understand colon cancer, colonoscopy, virtual colonoscopy and other GI procedures in the simplest way possible. The videos are created by the featured physicians from our network, and they’re very informative. To learn more about colonoscopy videos, please visit Colonoscopy.com’s video directory.
|
<urn:uuid:9b4c4514-ecab-40fa-b018-d4b1522f3ee0>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.colonoscopy.com/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.9365
| 849
| 1.554688
| 2
|
Bertil Lyberg Barbro Ekholm
Telia Res. AB, S-136 80 Haninge, Sweden
The segment duration varies depending on a number of linguistic and nonlinguistic factors. At the word and phrase levels, the segment duration is found to vary depending on the position in the work and in the phrase. The positional effects on segment duration have been studied by several investigators and, for some languages, models have been hypothesized in order to describe the duration of speech segments in different positions in words and phrases. The greatest positional effect is the phenomenon of final lengthening that appears to be of considerable generality as a phonetic phenomenon. Most computational models for segment duration are, however, static, i.e., the durational properties are modeled at a certain speech rate. In this investigation the segment duration is studied at different speech rate and with focus assignment systematically varied along the sentence. The segment duration values are studied by means of both reiteratant speech and ordinary read speech. A tentative dynamic model for the segment duration is presented.
|
<urn:uuid:6aff478d-6fe8-42de-8247-e7f082160f72>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.auditory.org/asamtgs/asa93dnv/4pSP/4pSP11.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.947026
| 213
| 1.75
| 2
|
Who is the ideal candidate for a graduate civil engineering degree program?
Are you a motivated engineer? If you have strong time management skills and excellent communication abilities, you should do well in the online civil engineering degree program. You will need to have a basic understanding of using the Internet to succeed, meaning you know how to utilize the Web for research, communication, and delivery of course materials to your instructors. Ultimately, the Master’s in Civil Engineering program works to heighten management skills. If you seek to advance your career, you can benefit from graduate degree programs.
|
<urn:uuid:ab889b34-b707-4023-b326-38c4b32ed3aa>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://engineeringmasters.njit.edu/2012/08/who-is-the-ideal-candidate-for-a-graduate-civil-engineering-degree-program/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.930653
| 115
| 1.515625
| 2
|
Grand Caillou Middle breaks ground on new school
Published: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 6:34 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 6:34 p.m.
Melanie Fabre stood in a cold, muddy field along Grand Caillou Road Tuesday and saw promise.
Fabre has taught at Grand Caillou Middle School for 25 years. She grew up five houses down from the school. She sent her son there.
So Fabre knows as well as anyone how important the building that will soon stand in that field will be.
The current Grand Caillou Middle School building has flooded seven times in recent memory. In her son's middle school career alone, the school flooded twice.
“He lost his grandfather, his home and his school all in one day. And he's not the only one like that,” Fabre said. “When hurricane season comes, their stomachs start churning, because they know how easily everything can just get washed out.”
That's why Fabre cares so much about the field, which sits just south of Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center and Ellender High School in Terrebonne Parish.
Water-weary residents of the school community hope the new Grand Caillou Middle School will finally put them out of the floods' reach.
School Board officials gathered at the site Tuesday to break ground on the new building. It was a moment that's been a long time in the making for School Board member Roger DeHart, who said he's been pushing to find land and money for the new school for more than a decade.
“The students at this school deserve better than what they've got,” he said. “Every time we get a major hurricane, that school floods, and all those kids' learning just gets completely disrupted.”
The effort has faced some hurdles. Near the very end of the process, the building's cost jumped to $15.7 million from an original budget of $12 million.
But DeHart said he's happy with the price in the end. The school system is paying for the school with special interest-free bonds, and the Walter Land Co. donated the property on which it will sit.
“Building a new school is a rare event. It's a very big deal,” DeHart said. “We're building something that will last for generations.”
Merlin Lirette, the architect who designed the building, said the school will be built as flood-proof as possible.
The almost 58,000-square-foot building will sit behind the parish's new Thompson Road levee expansion, which should make it less vulnerable to storm surge.
It will stand 10 feet above sea level and be two stories tall, with all the classrooms, computer labs and other vital academic areas a floor off the ground. It will be made of materials that are easy to maintain and clean, so the process of recovering from any storms that cause flooding will be much easier.
Lirette said Thibodaux-based Thompson Construction Co., which is also building the freshman expansion at H.L. Bourgeois High School, will finish the building by the fall of 2014.
That can't come soon enough for Fabre.
“The kids and the teachers and the parents just can't wait,” she said. “We've been waiting so long for this school, and we're going to be so, so proud when we finally have it.”
Staff Writer Matthew Albright can be reached at 448-7635 or at email@example.com.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
|
<urn:uuid:0d8d7df5-50c1-4982-9ce3-d2c303d5bf21>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20121211/ARTICLES/121219923/1211/Sable.LeFrere@houmatoday.com?Title=Grand-Caillou-Middle-breaks-ground-on-new-school
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.973024
| 804
| 1.679688
| 2
|
Australian Bureau of Statistics
8166.0 - Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business, 2009-10 Quality Declaration
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 23/06/2011
|Page tools: Print Page Print All RSS Search this Product|
Australian businesses take $143 billion worth of internet orders
Just under $143 billion dollars worth of internet orders were received by Australian businesses in 2009-10, up 15% on the previous year, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Wholesale trade and manufacturing industries continued their lead as the main businesses receiving online orders, both at over 40%. The retail industry came in at fifth place.
Nearly all (94%) of Australia's large businesses had a web presence at 30 June 2010, while micro businesses (employing up to four people) are still the least likely to, with only about one-third offering some form of web presence. Broadband dominated as the internet access method (97%), with little variation between industries.
Primary industry - agriculture, forestry and fishing - was least likely to place online orders, with just over one-quarter (26%) using the internet to make purchases.
Australian businesses continue to innovate
Undertaking some form of innovation - developing or introducing of new or significantly improved goods, services, processes or methods - was reported by 44% of Australian businesses in 2009-10.
Large businesses were more than twice as likely to undertake innovative activity than micro businesses (74% compared to 36%).
Wholesale trade was the most innovative, with almost 60% of businesses in the industry reporting some form of innovation. Innovation in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry was reported by about one-third of those businesses.
Further information is available in Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business (cat. no. 8166.0).
When reporting ABS data the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.
These documents will be presented in a new window.
This page last updated 25 June 2012
|
<urn:uuid:970af57a-995e-49dc-8de6-4d53b3f6ad99>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyReleaseDate/EA31C3C4DAAE3FF8CA257A2800145D0F?OpenDocument
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.959336
| 426
| 1.570313
| 2
|
November 16, 2012
When it comes to confronting HIV with activism, these four Filipino activists are not only ahead of the game, they're changing it altogether. They were gracious enough to give us their time and wisdom and tell us what it's like to fight HIV in the Philippines, one of seven countries in the world with a rising HIV rate.
Bric Bernard Bernas
Bric has spent many years at the the AIDS Society of the Philippines and held two posts: as program manager for the Global Fund for TB, AIDS & Malaria, Round 6, and executive director, where he was actively involved with Philippine National AIDS Council in consultations, strategic planning and implementation on HIV prevention among the most at risk population.
As program manager at Asia Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS in New York City, he oversaw the HIV Counseling, Testing & Referral Project. During his tenure, the number of clients accessing HIV testing services increased three fold. As a result, the state and city of New York departments of health and other HIV organizations recognized the agency as one of the pioneers on HIV counseling & testing in New York City.
In 2005, the NYC Department of Health Bureau of STD recognized him as the best collaborator in its "Keeping the World Safer from Sex" program. Lastly, he was a resource person on HIV and APIs for various ethnic and mainstream publications, such as Filipino Express, Filipinas Magazine, Thai New York, World Journal, Gay City News and The New York Times.
Niccolo Cosme started his career in the field of photography in 2001. In his successful years as a photographer, he has always been fascinated with meanings and symbolisms and in Christian iconography, which is present in most of his conceptual and some commercial works. Niccolo has worked on different campaigns in the Philippines and abroad and has photographed a number of celebrities and personalities.
He also cofounded The Red Whistle campaign in 2011, a community response to the alarming situation of HIV and AIDS in the Philippines. He considers activism an integral part of himself as an artist and as a humanitarian. In February 2012, he was among the 32 recipients of the Ani ng Dangal Awards (Harvest of Honors) by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, Philippines.
Melanie Dulfo, MSW
Melanie Dulfo has worked with immigrant women since 2007. She is the Women and Youth Program manager at the APICHA Community Health Center, where she implements HIV prevention programs with API women and youth. The Women's Project under the Women and Youth Program has been providing sexual health workshops for women who have been arrested for sex work, recent immigrants, and survivors of domestic violence. It also provides free and confidential testing and counseling for HIV and other STIs. Melanie has also worked with Filipina domestic workers at the KABALIKAT Domestic Workers Support Network.
Laurindo Garcia (Credit: Alan Seah)
Laurindo Garcia is a civil society advocate based between the Philippines and Singapore. After working in technology, media and communications for more than 20 years, he is regarded as an expert in harnessing technology for social change with a specialization in social justice, diversity and health for minorities, especially LGBT people and people living with HIV. He is coordinator for two regional community networks that promote health for sexual and gender minorities.
He was one of the architects of a multi-country community systems-strengthening initiative for men who have sex with men and transgender people that succeeded in Round 10 of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In 2011, Laurindo spoke at the opening ceremony of the 10th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific making him the only gay, Asian man openly living with HIV to address an international plenary in 17 years. He was again called as the community speaker at the closing session of the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., in July 2012.
He has recently founded a regional social enterprise called B-Change which focuses on promoting social change through technology.
Copyright © 2012 Remedy Health Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
|
<urn:uuid:471996ed-392a-48c3-b1f1-3eb9b882df9c>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.thebody.com/content/69745/four-activists-at-the-forefront-of-the-hivaids-fig.html?ts=pf
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.970733
| 842
| 1.53125
| 2
|
Weekly energy inventories from the Department of Energy were released a day later than normal this week due to the Columbus Day holiday. Overall, weekly inventory changes were roughly in line with estimates. In the latest week, crude oil stockpiles rose by 1.672 million barrels (estimates were for a build of 1.5 million). Gasoline inventories, on the other hand, were slightly less than forecast, falling by 534K barrels (estimates called for a drop of 250K).
As shown in the charts below, crude oil inventories remain well above their historical average for this time of year, while gasoline stockpiles are near their lows (relative to normal) for the year.
|
<urn:uuid:c08e96f9-ad01-49f0-92c2-0d308fab3ffc>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://seekingalpha.com/article/919061-weekly-crude-oil-and-gasoline-inventories-10-11-12
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.979844
| 141
| 1.523438
| 2
|
But a 1997 Fordham Law Review piece described her as Harvard Law School's "first woman of color," based, according to the notes at the bottom of the story, on a "telephone interview with Michael Chmura, News Director, Harvard Law (Aug. 6, 1996)."Yikes. What a title. I remember when titles like that were everywhere.
The mention was in the middle of a lengthy and heavily-annotated Fordham piece on diversity and affirmative action and women. The title of the piece, by Laura Padilla, was "Intersectionality and positionality: Situating women of color in the affirmative action dialogue."...
May 15, 2012
|
<urn:uuid:5aa8b166-3335-4db6-a734-c63fde8eb70b>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/05/fordham-piece-called-warren-harvard.html?showComment=1337124754068
|
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
| 0.955888
| 137
| 1.585938
| 2
|
Many of us who marched against the Vietnam War 40 years ago have a terminal case of déjà vu over Afghanistan as we blunder into our ninth year of bombing and occupation. More than 90 percent of U.S. funding there goes to military purposes, and we still aren’t winning hearts or minds. Our Nobel Prize-winning president promised to “forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan,” but so far he has only threatened to escalate our troop level by tens of thousands.
In the film, Greenwald and his team ask Afghans themselves if American troops are making them safer. The answers are no, no, no, a thousand times no.
So thank goodness for documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald, a latter-day saint in my book. It took Greenwald 40 years to figure out how to be the activist he was not during Vietnam. But he’s making up for lost time by getting us to rethink what’s going on in Afghanistan.
Greenwald was born into the back end of the Silent Generation, in 1943. Despite being raised in the hot pink sandbox of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, he joined a common fraternity for boomers in college—those whose only resistance was to the draft.
Greenwald went on to a successful career in Hollywood, having made more than 50 movies, including a documentary about the 1972 Olympics, 21 Hours in Munich, and The Burning Bed, starring Farrah Fawcett. His latent activism didn’t surface until three events coincided: the September 11 attacks, his father’s death, and his own arrival in middle age. “I was very well compensated for my work in commercial film and TV,” says Greenwald. He could afford to take up a mission of social change. He launched Brave New Films in 2006 to make bold documentaries by accepting donations for funding and taking no compensation.
Greenwald finally made it to Vietnam in December 2008. At the ripe age of 65, he took his second wife and four children and his brother’s family for the Christmas holidays. The aha! moments for him came after touring the infamous Vietcong tunnels and returning to his hotel to read comments from the Obama transition team about their new counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan. Then he’d pore over his copy of The Best and the Brightest, the David Halberstam classic about our Vietnam strategy, comparing the rhetoric of Vietnam to Obama’s.
“I’d underline like a lunatic and read the quotes to my family,” he says. “They were almost word for word the same.”
Last January, few were talking about the war in Afghanistan as a looming disaster. Barack Obama walked on water back then and Greenwald saw the press paddling right behind him. He began raising money to make a documentary called Rethink Afghanistan. Major funders warned him to stop. He didn’t. Some pulled out. Determined to continue, Greenwald made his film one video section at a time, shaking the tambourine for money to make the next video, putting it up, and releasing the whole film online, for free. He engaged his viewers to hold house parties and share the videos with friends.
In the film, Greenwald and his team ask Afghans themselves if American troops are making them safer, liberating women, and gradually rebuilding their shattered country.
The answers are no, no, no, a thousand times no. The film and its grisly images of mutilated wives and starving children for sale in displaced people camps is a graphic indictment of America’s reliance on military occupation by foreign soldiers. “There is no good reconstruction by the Americans in Afghanistan,” says a village chief. Former Taliban and women leaders and members of parliament, along with former CIA officers, show how the American occupation has been successful only in helping the Taliban to recruit more fighters, killing a disproportionate number of Afghan women, and enflaming a nationalist backlash by the Pashtun tribes who control the seamless border with Pakistan.
“One of the most shocking things to me in making this film was to see the conditions for many women—so much worse now than under the Taliban,” Greenwald told me. “The corrupt Karzai government we represent is legitimizing the Taliban, and women and children are bearing the greatest brunt of our bombing.”
The strongest argument in the film against our mission is made by Robert Baer, the former CIA field operative in the Middle East, whose book See No Evil was the basis for the film Syriana: “The more we fight Afghanistan, the more the conflict gets pushed across the border into Pakistan; the more we destabilize Pakistan, the more likely it is a fundamentalist government will take over the army… and… will have al Qaeda-like groups with nuclear weapons.”
Through viral distribution, Greenwald has built a politically active network with an email list of more than one million. The only baldy in the group photo of the staff of Brave New Films, Greenwald is being retrofitted as a Millennial by his staff of 40 twenty-nothings. Young women and men in all shades of white to black, they are compulsive about ferreting out the best days and times to put up a new video and how to generate the most pass-alongs. They are doing what corporatized television is finally figuring out—getting the message out virally.
The full-length feature film Rethink Afghanistan is “the first real-time documentary,” says Greenwald. Over last weekend, while eight Marines were being gunned down by the Taliban, the film was being shown by The Nation, AlterNet, Credo, and Madre. Enthusiastic audiences were stirred to spread the message by buying the DVD (for $20) and inviting local members of Congress and friends to a screening. After a showing on Capitol Hill, Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards, a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, predicted that a large number of Democrats will desert Obama if he decides to send more troops to Afghanistan.
“The critical job is to wean people off the heroin—our continuing addiction to the idea that our military can solve all the problems,” Greenwald insists.
At least there is awareness in some quarters of the Obama administration that the military is not the answer. When will we shift to more civic engagement of the population in building roads and schools and hospitals and the conditions for jobs? How else can we win the hearts and minds of a people tortured by war that have but one reliable fallback—they know how to repel foreign occupiers.
Let’s hope Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films can help the White House find a brave new policy.
Gail Sheehy is an American writer and lecturer, most notable for her books on life and the lifecycle. She is also a contributor to Vanity Fair.
|
<urn:uuid:0cc5baa7-77fc-42a2-84b0-e729ca801ffa>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/10/10/can-this-film-save-afghanistan.print.html
|
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
| 0.96657
| 1,428
| 1.828125
| 2
|
“We send probes into deep space to listen to alien worlds. But alien world’s aren’t always that far away.” – Reed Ghazala
I recently finished reading Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments. This is probably the easiest, and quickest way to get you up to speed in the field of Circuit-Bending. Reed Ghazala, the internationally recognized “Father of Circuit-Bending,” provides a concise compendium of most issues that will arise during your alien spelunking adventures.
Is this book for you?
Depends. For myself, the book was absolutely worth it. My background is mostly digital. The text introduced me to very rudimentary skills required to build these instruments. Skills such as: soldering, quasi-electronics, drilling, painting, etc… If you can already do these things, even on a basic level, you might not get much from these chapters.
Where this book truly excels is Ghazala’s personal insight and experience. His writing is candid, humorous at times, and allows the reader to get a glimpse of how his thought process works. In many ways, this book is more than just a DIY guide. It is also about composing through the process of electronic experimentation.
In other words, good stuff.
Part of Get Bent.
|
<urn:uuid:e1a53180-a446-4d5a-ad6d-5a5040242509>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://codehop.com/tag/review/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.943579
| 280
| 1.640625
| 2
|
Northwest Iowa — Influenza activity across Iowa has been unusually high this year. It hit early and the Centers for Disease Control says it’s been severe. Health officials say this is the worst nationwide flu outbreak in four years.
Dr. John Weber at Orange City Area Health System says flu activity is higher than has been seen in past years. He says we’re just now getting into what is traditionally the “flu season”, so it’s not too late to get your flu shot if you haven’t yet. Click here for the full story including Dr. Weber’s comments.
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 2nd, 2013 at 8:27 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
|
<urn:uuid:78f2d8f3-5d66-464a-8593-da4601e27357>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.siouxcountydailynews.com/?p=13055
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.975438
| 177
| 1.75
| 2
|
Making Nonprofit Work in a For-Profit World
How one company added a for-profit weatherization business to its nonprofit organization — and how they now work successfully together.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) low-income weatherization funds are now winding down. In some states, like Idaho, that have spent all of their funds, agencies are looking for ways to keep their new, and seasoned, weatherization staff and contractors employed. As Congress continues to argue over national budget funding levels (and at present they don't look very favorable for our weatherization network), many agency executive directors and weatherization managers are looking for ways to continue funding weatherization for low-income households across the United States.
For the most part, our industry has very little control over Congress as to how much federal money DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) will receive. However, at one time or another, we have all faced the decision to move forward or to pass on a new project. Usually moving forward when oppor-tunity knocks means stepping out of our comfort zone to start a new adventure. And that's exactly what happened in 2005, when the South Central Community Action Partnership (SCCAP) decided to create a for-profit limited-liability corporation, Home Energy Management, LLC (HEM), to help support our nonprofit low-income weatherization program. Since 2005, SCCAP has adopted social enterprise as a model of management, which has allowed our nonprofit organization to generate nonfederal resources to support SCCAP's mission. That mission is to retain trained weatherization staff, especially with the loss of ARRA weatherization funding, and to continue providing energy conservation services to homes and businesses. HEM is based in Twin Falls, Idaho, which has a population of less than 50,000. In the surrounding communities of the eight counties where we provide low-income services, population ranges from 300 to 20,000 residents.
Our opportunity knocked in the spring of 2005, when we were approached by Susan White of ACKCO, Incorporated, to participate in a special project she was managing funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Native Americans. Based in Phoenix, Arizona, ACKCO, Incorporated, is a professional services company that is American Indian — owned and operated. Since 1972, the company has successfully managed more than 300 federal and state agency projects, teaching sound business practices, flexible management systems, and controlled fiscal accounting systems.
Susan White is nationally recognized as DOE's primary financial trainer on fiscal management and procurement for WAP projects. These projects follow federal regulations for states and agencies that receive weatherization funding through DOE.
The special project we were presented with — called the Indian Social Entrepreneur's Guides — was designed to develop the four phases of business planning. The guides are entitled Developing a Marketing Plan, Performing a Preliminary Feasibility Study, Preparing a Business Plan, and Securing Financing.
SCCAP participated in the development of the third guide, Preparing a Business Plan. When Susan contacted me, she was aware that SCCAP had contemplated creating a for-profit company through our nonprofit organization for several years. Several factors had kept us from moving forward with our for-profit business. These factors included several unknown risks, extra workload, and not knowing what it would take to start a fee-for-service company after operating a nonprofit, federally funded weatherization program since 1979.
But when the opportunity came knocking, I didn't hesitate to agree. Susan White is known as one of the best financial management advisers in the nation. And I would be following through on a dream I'd had for many years — the dream of creating a for-profit energy conservation company.
Once that was decided, I knew that SCCAP (and I) would have to take certain legal steps, set certain policies, and meet certain financial requirements before undertaking this project. The first item of business was to present the idea to the SCCAP board of directors. Without their approval and support, this project would be dead before it began. Before presenting, I would need to do some preliminary research. That included completing an agency assessment, getting buy-in from key weatherization and administration staff, and consulting the state office administrating our WAP contracts about our intentions.
Since we are a 90% crew-based organization, our key players were our management team (WZ director Randy Wright and his crew supervisors Ed Campos and Rod Burk), along with the crew themselves, who would ultimately be responsible for completing the fee-for-service work. We also needed support from our chief financial officer, Michelle Picklesimer, who would be overseeing the financial end of the operation. After strategizing with all the key players, and reviewing our strengths and weaknesses, the risks inherent in starting this business, and our nonfederal cash resources, we developed a business model that we could present to the board.
The business model that we presented to our board of directors consisted of four parts. It explained what we would perform, who would perform it, how we would finance it, and what we expected to receive in profits. In the first part, we described the primary focus of our project. Our weatherization auditors would perform energy audits for middle- to upper-income homeowners. They would check insulation, windows, doors, and heating and cooling systems using blower doors, Duct Blasters, CO analyzers, and multimeters to determine where energy savings could be captured. At the end of the audit, we would provide homeowners with a written detailed analysis, including a list of ways that they could save energy — all for a fee of $300.
The list might include adding insulation to the attic, floor, or walls, or sealing and insulating the ductwork. It might include air sealing, or replacing inefficient windows and doors. We would quote a price for work that our weatherization crews could complete. If we determined that the heating or cooling system was unsafe or was not operating efficiently, we would act as a general contractor and bring in HVAC contractors that we'd used in our low-income weatherization program — which would ensure that they were qualified, dependable, and reasonably priced.
In the second part of our model, we described our staff structure and explained how we would operate the business. The structure included using our current weatherization supervisors, auditors, crew members, office staff, and financial officer, and myself. We would work on Fridays and Saturdays only, because we worked 10 hours a day for our nonprofit during the week. Our SCCAP weatherization program had a staff of 13 - 8 of whom signed up to work for our for-profit company.
In the third part of our model, we described how we would pay the start-up costs. This included the cost of whatever new equipment we needed. We inventoried agency equipment that had been purchased with nonfederal funds, and decided what nonfederal cash resources we could designate to the for-profit company. Then we prepared a financial proposal that listed our assets and said what equipment and supplies we would need to purchase.
In the last part of our model, we described what profits we expected to make. We knew that energy conservation was becoming more important to homeowners (thanks to the rising cost of energy, and the awareness created by Energy Star products). We were confident that there was a market for (and profitability in) the business that we were proposing.
As every good board of directors should, our board had questions about a project of this size, and about the risk the agency would run if it failed. Fortunately, we have board members with professional experience in banking, private business, corporate business, and public office. They posed the following questions:
- What will the legal structure of the business be?
- Will there be a clear separation between the federal program and the for-profit business?
- Who will do the bookkeeping, payroll, and invoicing?
- How will we generate business, and what percentage of the profits will we add on to projects?
- Will we burn out our crews with a longer work week?
- How much money will we offer our staff?
- Will we be using trucks and equipment that SCCAP does not own?
- How will we be perceived by the private-sector contractors doing the same work?
Before doing anything else, we needed to answer all of these questions to the board's satisfaction. We began by setting up our legal structure as a limited-liability corporation (LLC), following the advice of our legal counsel. We stated that the LLC would protect the nonprofit should the for-profit default. We'd be sure to keep all records and transactions separate between the two companies, which would provide transparency. We would also be purchasing new financial software for the financial tracking of payroll, invoices, and payments to vendors.
We created an operating agreement that defined how our office and warehouse space, along with office equipment owned by the nonprofit, would be allocated for cost reimbursement back to SCCAP. To address the problem of crew burnout and the question of salary, we explained that with eight staff wanting to work for the for-profit company, we could have crew members working alternate weeks, since it would be very unlikely that we would need to have all eight of them working at the same time. However, we left crew members the option of deciding how often they wanted to work, provided that our workload was covered. After creating some imaginary projects based on different services that we might perform, we were able to calculate how much we could afford to pay our employees, and work out some profit margins. We wanted to make sure that we could pay our for-profit employees $3 to $5 more per hour than we were paying our nonprofit employees. This was to compensate for the fact that our for-profit employees would receive no benefits, such as paid vacations, sick leave, or retirement. We would also require them to provide all of their own hand tools, as is standard practice in the construction trades. We would provide the major equipment, such as pneumatic tools, compressors, table saws, chop saws, ladders, and insulation equipment, as well as the diagnostic equipment. We would also require the crews to provide their own transportation to and from the jobsites, but they would be reimbursed for their mileage. All of this would be outlined in the employee handbook that each for-profit employee would receive.
The board also wanted to know how business would be generated, and what profits we expected to receive. Our advertising plan was to have our name in the yellow pages under Home Inspections, Windows, Insulation, and Home Improvement. In addition, we planned to attend industry events to get the word out that a nonprofit had created a for-profit that would be doing energy efficiency and conservation work, with the profits going back to help the nonprofit (and, in turn, the low-income organizations).
We also planned on meeting with Realtors and banking institutions to give them the same message. Finally, we would meet with big-name home builders and ask them to consider using us for their next building project. We were a viable option as our staff had over 30 years of experience in installing energy efficiency measures.
When it came to determining the profits, we calculated our costs and decided to set our rates with a 20 - 30% markup on each job, to cover our overhead and allow for a modest profit.
We believed that contractors in the community might be hostile to a for-profit company if it received federal funds. Therefore, we informed the board of directors that no federal funds would be used to operate the company, and that we would be competing on a fair and level playing field with the other contractors. Our company would definitely stand out, as there was currently no other company offering the type of energy service we were going to provide.
We answered all of the questions posed by our board of directors to their satisfaction. The board approved our business model and signed a resolution supporting the creation of a new LLC company, to be called Home Energy Management (HEM). With that support, we were able to start our new adventure in the fee-for-service market. But there was still much to be done before we could begin to provide weatherization services. The first step was to develop our business plan.
Developing a Business Plan & Final Preparation
Because we had been selected to participate in ACKCO's project, ACKCO helped us to research and develop our business plan. The plan consisted of two parts. The first part was to complete a marketing plan, and the second part was to conduct a feasibility study. These two parts summarized the business concept and the description, direction, and forecasted financial statements of the company. It took us about four months to finish our business plan.
After receiving approval from the board of directors and before we could go out and perform our first fee-for-service energy audit, there were a few legal steps that we had to complete. First, we had to apply for our employer identification number with the IRS. Second, we had to file articles of organization with the state of Idaho. Third, we had to apply for Idaho contractor's licenses. Finally, we had to purchase general liability and workers' compensation insurance. We also had to purchase accounting software and set up accounting procedures and new accounts with material suppliers.
We developed an employee manual and job descriptions, and finally purchased our blower door and Duct Blaster equipment. After all the pieces were put together, we were open for business!
Working in a For-Profit World
When we began bidding on and completing projects for profit, we learned through trial and error that we needed to adjust how much we quoted for our services. Although business got off to a slow start (because we were advertising solely by word of mouth and with ads in the yellow pages), we were soon making money doing the same energy efficiency work for higher-income households that our nonprofit company does for low-income households. This enabled our staff to earn more money, and when ARRA funds ran dry in March of this year and we had to lay off three employees from SCCAP, we were able to retain them to work for HEM.
This business venture also allowed us to expand our partnerships to bid on projects not typical of low-income weatherization programs. These partners included USDA/Rural Development, HUD, and Idaho Power. Without our LLC, we would not have been able to enter into private contracts with these partners. Our partnership with Idaho Power has been particularly valuable. Idaho Power's strong commitment to conserving energy through its DSM programs has allowed us to provide efficiency services to electrically heated homes of customers who do not qualify for our low-income weatherization program. HEM has provided services to more than 105 homes that were originally out of our reach (not able to meet requirements for our low-income program), and we expect to provide services for another 16 to 20 such homes before the end of November 2011.
Creating and operating a fee-for-service company has been an exciting adventure, and once we established ourselves in the market, we soon found our profits growing. Although we got off to a slow start, in our five years of business we have never recorded a loss when filing our income taxes. In the past two years, we have grossed over $440,000 in revenue and have netted over $81,000 in profits. We have used those profits to help support our nonprofit; we lease our office space from SCCAP for $198 a month, or a total of over $11,869 over the past 5 years — which is all money that SCCAP would not have received if HEM wasn't in business. HEM has also contributed over $25,000 toward the purchase of additional property for SCCAP, to allow for a larger fenced-in staff parking lot. Most recently, HEM was able to help support program operations for two of SCCAP's low-income programs whose regular budgets had been cut. These contributions from our profits have allowed HEM to meet our mission by supporting the work of our nonprofit.
The Future of HEM
The future looks very bright for HEM; however, we are still in the development stage. One day, we will be a stand-alone company with a full-time staff. When that day comes — and until it comes — we will continue to make profits that will come back to our nonprofit organization, to further our fight against poverty.
- FIRST PAGE
- PREVIOUS PAGE
Enter your comments in the box below:
(Please note that all comments are subject to review prior to posting.)
|
<urn:uuid:232ec6e4-0fc9-4287-982a-ba5848f80a63>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.homeenergy.org/show/article/nav/multifamily/magazine/25/page/1/id/1734/viewFull/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.977234
| 3,439
| 1.546875
| 2
|
Beginners: please read this post and this post before posting to the forum.
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
How come the other HS-225MG didn't fry?
are those regular speeed servos?
5) Most servos won't break if you reverse voltage, however one of my HS-225MG servos went up in smoke . . . literally tons of smoke. A wasted $35 My other HS-225MG, four of my HS-311's, a Futaba S3114, two HS-5245MG's, and two of my HS-225BB servos survived without a problem.
Figured I'd give a quickie update.The newest version has been fully assembled (see attached image), minus the on off switch that I forgot to make a mount for . . .Its significantly more stable now that I got that second omni wheel in there. The new claw can finally grab and hold stuff. Still haven't bought a replacement shoulder servo . . .Currently I am working on getting the blackfin camera functional, and soon after that Ill be trying to get my Axon to communicate with it. I also made a mount for my digital compass, so at some point I'll [finally] integrate that too.Now I just got to make sure the ninja arms don't karate chop the camera off during testing . . .
What is the laser for and what does it do?
Are you using PID with your drive servos? How do you accelerate and slow down? I have a hard time figureing this out for my robot and didn't find samples on the net to help me out.
QuoteAre you using PID with your drive servos? How do you accelerate and slow down? I have a hard time figureing this out for my robot and didn't find samples on the net to help me out.Are you referring to using encoders with servos?I'm somewhat religiously against PID . . . I prefer using fuzzy logic for robots. It's simpler, faster, and almost as reliable. You are only kidding yourself if you think deadreckoning works for home based robots . . . With a few exceptions, I'm mostly against encoders, too . . .
i wonder if u could explain to me the properties of using the omni wheels?
[admin spam]The contest ends in ~3 days, help me win!vote here by clicking 'vote' at the top right-ish area of the page:http://www.instructables.com/id/Experimental-Robot-Platform/[/admin spam]
The author of this Instructables will receive a trip to the June 2009 RoboGames in San Francisco, CA! Includes airfare for one from anywhere within the continental US, 4 nights in a hotel near the event, and VIP access/entry fees.
Started by Tarek
Mechanics and Construction
Started by Admin
Started by megaman935
|
<urn:uuid:a6c1054b-444d-4b8f-9c3a-7ed0625cde6c>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=1218.msg34759
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.94923
| 618
| 1.570313
| 2
|
Sitting around a table with a group of people reminescing times past is an experience that we have all gone through some time or another. I have fond memories of a parapett in Gozo that in its heyday served as a stopping point for many an ambler enjoying the summery nights of Marsalforn. Stories, rumours and recollections are part of any social fabric and their role is highlighted on a rock of a few kilometres squared inhabited by nigh half a million souls.
Among the stories that I picked up in my childhood I was always most fascinated by the accounts of the deeds and misdeeds of Mintoff and Mintoffianism. In post-war lore I believe you could equate the standard of this kind of story with that of the deeds of Arthur and his knights or those of Robin Hood and his merry band. Obviously there was less myth and much more fact in the accounts of Mintoffian errantry or socialist theft in the name of the poor, but the personal timbre and impression given by whoever took the baton of chief raconteur was just as manifest as it was inevitable.
Mintoff’s effect on the social, political and even physical lanscape of these islands is an indelible mark left by a trailblazing meteor that rose from the ashes of war torn Malta, blazed through the puberty of a nation in search of an identity and then erratically stuttered to a shaky stop in its twilight years. The Mintoffian stamp on Maltese society spans six decades and can hardly be reduced to a one hour overview.
Every step from the post-war rise within (and without) the ranks of Labour to the epic battles with the powers colonial and ecclesiastic would require contextual analysis based on a multidimensional perspective of the politician and his deeds. It is not a sense of partisan justice that underlies this requirement for rigorous analysis but a the historical paradigms of contextuality and clarity – as far as they could possibly be achieved.
Falkun Films have pulled off a magnificent feat of marketing by managing to tap into the vein of curious controversy that is the main selling point of any current affairs item in Malta. “Dear Dom” has hit the airwaves and the opinion columns in full force and the Maltese buzz is out doing what it does best – a concoction of summary exectutions, intransigent condemnations and unreserved plaudits delivered by a mixture of consenting viewers and disdained abstainers alike. In doing so, Falkun Films and Pierre Ellul proved one important point even before the cinema tickets were sold: Dom Mintoff is still hot stuff.
I wanted to reserve my judgement to when I witnessed what the movie had to offer with my own eyes and I finally got to see the film on Easter Sunday. A fitting date, many would opine, to see the return of the saviour before the eyes of his people. Waiting in the ante-chamber at the cinemas someone remarked that they could not fathom why some would choose not to watch the movie… “At least you could learn something”. That, I think is one of the main points here. Is “Dear Dom” a documentary? Does it have any educational value?
Or was “Dear Dom” after all the latest in a long line of attempts at destroying the hero-factor that the name Mintoff still carries on? Was the man worshipped by our Leader of Opposition (by his own admission) being dismantled in a new medium of local propaganda?
You do not need to sit through the full hour of Dear Dom to notice that there is nothing documentary-like about the movie. The monotonous narration reads like a long j’accuse from the beginning to an end (not this J’accuse). Intentions, motives and nefarious plans are imputed without missing a beat. What is missing is the facts that back the assertions. Sure, many sitting in the theatre – especially those who have brushed up their history lessons – would know the background to the interdett, the obsession with integration, the swing to separation from the UK, the control economy, the battle with the church and more.
I did ask myself however – what would someone who had never heard of Mintoff and his story make of this film? Not much I’m afraid. The film depends on a priori knowledge and relies strongly on preconceptions. It taps into the narrative that has been woven in the parapetti, the pjazez and the kitchens of the nation. You enter the cinema armed with your idea of Mintoff and walk out nodding or shaking your head – not because you have been given a theory based on historical investigation but because the film has touched upon those nerves that have been lying dormant for a while and you’ve risen to the provocation.
If you have none of those preconceptions you are probably still wondering who the interviewees are, you are probably asking more questions about the relationship between Mintoff and the Church, between Mintoff and the English, between Mintoff and the Nationalist party. You’re probably dying to find out what makes the torch of Mintoffianism still burn to this day and why his many followers are reluctant to shed his heritage.
The magnificent and purposely charged typographic shifts from one scene to the next will have done little to satisfy your justifiable curiousity and the motley band of interviewees might only have served to give you a tiny fraction of the impact of Dom on Maltese lives and Maltese life. Artistically I would dare say that Dear Dom is an emotionally charged “skizz” or “makkjetta“. In sharp contrast to the documentary portrait that one expects but that it is not, “Dear Dom” is a cross between a caricature, a parody and a picassian esquisse that has evident limits in both time and space.
Which is why J’accuse firmly believes that the film is a must watch. It is a must watch because we need this kind of provocation. It is a must watch because if it is true that we shy away from controversy and from dealing with our heroes (maybe thanks to the censors in our head) then any start is a good start. It is a must watch because notwithstanding the shortcomings and failings on a historical level therein lies a wealth of visual retro-porn that is awaiting the history fetishist.
I must admit that I sighed with that twisted sense of oxymoronic nostalgia for an era that I hope will never return when I saw the rows of Sanga (or was it Soldini) shoes in a factory. The short tourism ads and clips that were sampled included such wonders as the old Hilton and Gozo’s Hotel Calypso. The library of reels picturing Mintoff in various negotiating moments are also a jewel that should be preserved – hopefully for a deeper, longer and more purposive analysis that is waiting to be made.
Dear Dom is not and could never be the only source of the controversy that has dominated the scene over the Easter break. Yana Mintoff will secretly see the movie as a godsend as it has given her some popularity (notoriety?) points and drawn the media to an otherwise bland latecoming hopeful to the political scene. The naysayers who wouldn’t watch the film (and still judged it) proved that the controversy has nothing to do with any movie or its content but simply with the fact (and probably the fear) that the man elevated to hero status was being brought back into the limelight. The fact remains – Mintoff and all things Mintoffian is a recipe for controversy… even in 2012.
A recently uploaded episode of “kwartakollox” on youtube dealt with Mintoff and seemed to have kicked off on a much better track than the Dear Dom movie – ironically it took a quarter of the time. Dear Dom got much more attention than a one hour edited series of clips and photos with a voiceover plus some great typography deserved. Had it not made it to the cinemas and had there not been any well timed marketing leading to controversy it would not have caused such a stir among those who might have got down to watching it.
Rather than binning Dear Dom we can only hope that more effort is put into this kind of production. More effort could bring more perspectives, more angles and more history being put under the lens. Our young nation needs this kind of effort. So do the artists and historians who have for too long been operating under a system of self-imposed censorship.
And after that? Well, after that… the world goes on.
|
<urn:uuid:4fd27f4a-f637-41af-8517-13a3fe046b44>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.akkuza.com/2012/04/10/dear-dumb/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.968862
| 1,787
| 1.5625
| 2
|
|The Mathis Canyon fire burns on the other side of the Bookcliffs from Kenilworth last summer as a team of firefighters look on at one of the many briefings that took place during the effort to defeat the blaze. The Mathis fire is considered to be the second biggest story of the year in Carbon county next to the Crandall Canyon mine disaster.|
Numerous major events occurred in the Castle Valley region during 2007.
The local news coverage of some of the incidents spanned many months, while several were short-lived, but had a significant impact on the area.
The editorial team at the Sun Advocate reviewed the events and idrentified the six major news stories for the year. The top stories include:
Crandall Canyon disaster
They started in the early morning hours of Aug. 6 when a huge bounce occurred at the Crandall Canyon mine near Huntington.
Management of Crandall Canyon claimed the bump was an earthquake, while scientists at the University of Utah indicated that the disturbance was caused by the mine collapsing.
Trapped inside the mine were six local miners, Don Erickson of Helper, Manuel Sanchez of Price, Kerry Allred of Cleveland, Jose Luis Hernandez, of Huntington, Juan Carlos Payan of Huntington and Brandon Phillips of Orangeville.
At first, there was hope that the miners would be rescued from the mine as crews moved in to drill holes into the areas where officials thought the men might be.
Rescue teams scrambled to clear the debris from the portal in an attempt to reach the trapped miners through the existing tunnel system.
But on Aug. 16, three rescue workers were killed when a tunnel crews were clearing exploded from the sides. The collapse was caused by the pressure from rock above the shaft.
The incident halted the rescue efforts within the mine as the area mourned the loss of MSHA roof control specialist Gary Jensen and Castle Country coal miners Brandon Kimber and Dale Black.
After Aug. 16, all hopes were pinned on the holes being bored from the surface into the mine.
But with each drill completion, hope went downhill as rescuers found mine tunnels via a portable camera filled with debris and no sign of life.
Drilling continued up through the first part of September and a search robot was sent down one of the holes to look for the miners, but failed.
The miners were never recovered and the ramifications concerning the situation have gone on through the entire year for the community.
A mining commission was established by the state to look into mine safety. Layoffs have occurred involving safety issues and many additional coal mining related situations have come to light during the ensuing months.
Mathis Canyon wildfire.
On July 5, a severe thunderstorm produced numerous lightning strikes, one hit an area in Mathis Canyon near Willow Creek and created a blaze that turned into the number one priority wildfire in the nation.
The wildfire threatened coal mining operations in the Bookcliffs and numerous federal resources were committed to fight the blaze.
At one point, 600 firefighters and support personnel were on the scene and the blaze was extinguished within a few days.
Education board fails to renew superintent's contract
On Jan. 10, the board of education voted to not renew the contract of David Armstrong.
After serving as superintendent for five years, Armstrong negotiated with the school district and vacated the position in March, when Patsy Bueno assumed the helm.
The move triggered many personnel changes in the district during the next few months as new principals were named at three elementary schools and at Carbon High.
Unemployment dips, while turnovers climb in county
The unemployment rate in Carbon County dropped to the lowest level in recent memory during 2007.
The strong economy in Utah in general and the energy industry in particular created the situation.
For the first time in many years, widespread help wanted signs appeared at businesses around the county.
The Crandall Canyon disaster and subsequent layoffs did not significantly affect Carbon County's jobless figures and the high rate of employment continued through the end of 2007.
CEU, SEATC merge
The 2007 Utah Legislature merged the College of Eastern Utah and the Southeast Technical College, effective July 1.
CEU handled many SEATC functions until the early 1990s by CEU, but the state had separated the two to create different educational tracks.
Students who attend SEATC can now take classes on the CEU campus.
The reunification was not painless and some issues between the two entities are still being worked out at years end.
Plane crash claims two lives
On June 22, a small Mooney M20C passenger plane crashed approximately one mile north of Carbon County Airport, killing pilot Richard P. Hall, 48, and Theresa Cerrone, 50, of Billings, Mont.
After landing at the airport for fuel, the pilot had taken off and headed toward Moab en route to Arizona. For an unknown reason, the plane attempted to return to the airport, hit the power lines and flipped onto the ground.
|
<urn:uuid:e9d5ca51-988f-41f8-a057-7355ff7657bc>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.sunadvocate.com/print.php?tier=1&article_id=12415
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.968219
| 1,025
| 1.828125
| 2
|
Energy Security: Risks and Advantages of Partnering with Russia
A presentation by MARTHA BRILL OLCOTT, Senior Associate, Russian and Eurasian Program, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., at the conference on Security Issues and Impacts: Comparative Perspectives on Europe and Eurasia, UCLA, June 1, 2007
Please install flash or upgrade to a browser that supports HTML5 video
Dr. Olcott specializes in the problems of transitions in Central Asia and the Caucasus as well as the security challenges in the Caspian region more generally. She has followed interethnic relations in Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union for more than 25 years and has traveled extensively in these countries and in South Asia. She is the author of numerous books and publications, among them Central Asia’s Second Chance (2005), which examines the economic and political development of this ethnically diverse and strategically vital region in the context of the changing security threats post 9/11; Vladimir Putin and Russia's Energy Policy (2005); KAZMUNAIGAZ: Kazakhstan's National Oil and Gas Company (2007). In addition to her work in Washington, Dr. Olcott co-directs the Carnegie Moscow Center Project on Religion, Society, and Security in the former Soviet Union. She is a Professor Emerita of Political Science at Colgate University, where she taught from 1974 to 2002. Dr. Olcott served for five years as a director of the Central Asian American Enterprise Fund. Prior to her work at the Carnegie Endowment, she served as a special consultant to former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger. Soon after 9/11, she was selected by Washingtonian magazine for its list of “71 People the President Should Listen To” about the war on terrorism.
Download File: Olcott-presentation.ppt
Center for European and Eurasian Studies
Published: Friday, June 15, 2007
|
<urn:uuid:24e0b556-d218-49a5-97f0-4a1bec87be92>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://international.ucla.edu/podcasts/article.asp?parentid=71997
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.943617
| 400
| 1.664063
| 2
|
The following words and terms, when used in these rules, shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly states otherwise:
"Appointing authority" means a person or group of persons having power of appointment or removal.
"Appointment" means the offer, acceptance and commencement of employment.
"Base salary" means an employee's rate of pay exclusive of any additional payments or allowances.
"Career Service" means those positions and job titles subject to the tenure provisions of Title 11A, New Jersey Statutes.
"Certification" means a list of names presented to an appointing authority for regular appointment.
"Chairperson" means the chief executive officer and administrator of the Civil Service Commission.
"Class code" means a designation assigned to job titles in State and local service with ranking based upon an evaluation of job content.
"Closing date for examination" means the date by which an applicant for an examination must meet all of the requirements contained in the examination announcement.
"Commission" means the Civil Service Commission.
"Days" means calendar days unless otherwise specified.
"Demotion" means, in local service, a reduction in title or scale of compensation, and in State service, a reduction in class code.
"Department" in local service, where not otherwise defined by statute, means the largest type of organizational unit established by ordinance or resolution, as appropriate, that is not a sub-unit of any other organizational unit for the purpose of administering the political subdivision. In State service, "department" means a principal executive department of State government.
"Disposition" means the written report of actions taken by an appointing authority regarding a certification.
"Eligible list" means a roster compiled or approved by the Department of Personnel of persons who are qualified for employment or reemployment.
"Filing date for examination" means the date by which an application for an examination must be received in the office designated in the announcement. When mailed, the filing date is the date by which a properly addressed application must be postmarked.
"Fine" means a disciplinary penalty which requires the payment of money or the performance of service without pay or at reduced pay.
" Immediate family" means an employee's spouse, domestic partner (see section 4 of P.L. 2003, c. 246), child, legal ward, grandchild, foster child, father, mother, legal guardian, grandfather, grandmother, brother, sister, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and other relatives residing in the employee's household.
"Layoff" means the separation of a permanent employee from employment for reasons of economy or efficiency or other related reasons and not for disciplinary reasons.
"Local service" means employment in any political subdivision operating under Title 11A, New Jersey statutes.
"Open competitive examination" means a test open to members of the public who meet the prescribed requirements for admission.
"Part time employee" means an employee whose regular hours of duty are less than the regular and normal workweek for that job title or agency.
"Permanent employee" means an employee in the career service who has acquired the tenure and rights resulting from regular appointment and successful completion of the working test period.
"Position" means the assignment of specific duties and responsibilities requiring the employment of one person.
"Promotion" means, in local service, an advancement in title, and in State service, an advancement to a title having a higher class code than the former permanent title.
"Promotional examination" means a test open to permanent employees who meet the prescribed requirements for admission.
"Provisional appointment" (PA) means employment in the competitive division of the career service pending the appointment of a person from an eligible list.
"Regular appointment" (RA) means the employment of a person to fill a position in the competitive division of the career service upon examination and certification, or the employment of a person to a position in the noncompetitive division of the career service.
"Removal" means termination of a permanent employee from employment for disciplinary reasons.
"Senior executive service" means positions in State service designated by the Board as having substantial managerial, policy influencing or policy executing responsibilities not included in the career or unclassified services.
"Spouse" means a husband, a wife, or a party to a civil union, in accordance with N.J.S.A. 37:1-1 and P.L. 2006, c. 103.
"State service" means employment for the State of New Jersey.
"Suspension" means temporary separation from employment for disciplinary reasons.
"Suspension on the record" means a suspension for disciplinary reasons imposed for record purposes only, without loss of pay, benefits or seniority.
"Title" means a descriptive name that identifies a position or group of positions with similar duties, responsibilities, and qualifications.
"Title scope" means a defined group of job titles used as a factor in determining eligibility for promotional examinations. Title scope may also include educational, experience and other specific requirements.
"Title series" means titles involving the same kind of work and ranked according to level of difficulty and responsibility.
"Unclassified service" means those positions and job titles outside of the senior executive service, not subject to the tenure provisions of Title 11A, New Jersey Statutes or these rules unless otherwise specified.
"Unit scope" means a defined part of a governmental agency used as a factor in determining eligibility for promotional examinations.
"Working test period" means a part of the examination process after regular appointment, during which time the work performance and conduct of the employee is evaluated to determine if permanent status is merited.
|
<urn:uuid:88c50d3a-c38c-4823-9f7b-8c74551122e1>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.state.nj.us/csc/about/about/title4a/ch1_1.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.94329
| 1,166
| 1.757813
| 2
|
Socialist Feminism: A Strategy for the Women's Movement
By Hyde Park Chapter, Chicago Women's Liberation Union
We have written this paper to express and share with other women ideas for a new strategy for the women's movement. Currently there are two ideological poles, representing the prevailing tendencies within the movement. One is the direction toward new lifestyles within a women's culture, emphasizing personal liberation and growth, and the relationship of women to women. Given our real need to break loose from the old patterns--socially, psychologically, and economically--and given the necessity for new patterns in the post revolutionary society, we understand, support and enjoy this tendency. However, when it is the sole emphasis, we see it leading more toward a kind of formless insulation rather than to a condition in which we can fight for and win power over our own lives.
The other direction is one which emphasizes a structural analysis of our society and its economic base. It focuses on the ways in which productive relations oppress us. This analysis is also correct, but its strategy, taken alone, can easily become, or appear to be, insensitive to the total lives of women.
As socialist feminists, we share both the personal and the structural analysis. We see a combination of the two as essential if we are to become a lasting mass movement. We think that it is important to define ourselves as socialist feminists, and to start conscious organizing around this strategy. This must be done now because of the current state of our movement. We have reached a crucial point in our history.
On the one hand, the strengths of our movement are obvious: it has become an important force of our time, and it has also succeeded in providing services and support for some women's immediate needs. Thousands of women see themselves as part of the movement; a vaguely defined "women's consciousness" has been widely diffused through rap groups, demonstrations, action projects, counter-institutional activity, and through the mass media. Women in the movement have a growing understanding of common oppression and the imperative of collective solutions. With the realization that what we saw as personal problems were in fact social ones, we have come to understand that the solutions must also be social ones. With the realization that all women lack control over their lives, we have come to understand that that control can only be gained if we act together. We have come to understand the specific needs of various groups of women and that different groups of women have different ways in which they will fight for control over their own lives.
On the other hand, the women's movement is currently divided. In most places it is broken into small groups which are hard to find, hard to join, and hard to understand politically. At the same time, conservative but organizationally clever entrepreneurs are attaching themselves to the movement, and are beginning to determine the politics of large numbers of people. If our movement is to survive, let alone flourish, it is time to begin to organize for power. We need to turn consciousness into action, choose priorities for our struggles, and win. To do this we need a strategy.
Our movement's strategy must grow from an understanding of the dynamics of power, with the realization that those who have power have a vested interest in preserving it and the institutional forms which maintain it. Wresting control of the institutions which now oppress us must be our central effort if women's liberation is to achieve its goals. To reach out to most women we must address their real needs and self-interests.
At this moment we think that it is important to argue for a strategy which will achieve the following three things: 1) it must win reforms that will objectively improve women's lives; 2) it must give women a sense of their own power, both potentially and in reality; and 3) it must alter existing relations of power. We argue here for socialist feminist organizations. We are not arguing for any one specific organization but for the successful development of organizations so that we may be able to learn from experience and bring our movement to its potential strength.
To make this argument we have written this paper. It has been designed as follows:
- Socialist Feminism--the concept and what it draws from each parent tradition.
- Power--the basis for power in this society, and our potential as women to gain power.
An applied example of our strategy.
- Consciousness--the importance of consciousness for the development of the women's movement, its limitations, and its place in a socialist feminist ideology.
- Current issues and questions facing our movement--A socialist feminist approach to respond to and develop a context for our programs and concerns.
- Organization--the importance of building organizations for the women's liberation movement and some thoughts on organizational forms.
The ideas that we are presenting are probably shared by many women in the movement, but so far they have not been articulated or identified nationally. We are not organized partly because our tolerance for different approaches, which our ideology encourages, makes it hard to present a new or contrary position. Furthermore, certain factors in our movement work against any kind of organization. Fears of elitism, the emphasis on personal alternatives and strengths, fear of failure, disbelief in the possibility of winning, and even fear of winning, have all played a role in our hesitancy
We are addressing the paper now to women who share our ideas of socialist feminism, whether they are women working in the movement, women who have never been active, women who have dropped out of the movement, or women working in mixed organizations. We hope that it may provide a common language in which we can begin to talk, a context in which we can meet to plan how to move.
I. SOCIALIST FEMINISM
We choose to identify ourselves with the heritage and future of feminism and socialism in our struggle for revolution. From feminism we have learned the fullness of our own potential as women, the strength of women. We have seen our common self-interest with other women and our common oppression. Having found these real bonds as women, we realize we can rely on each other as we fight for liberation. Feminism has moved us to see more concretely what becomes of people shaped by social conditions they do not control. We find our love and hate focused through our feminism““love for other women bound by the same conditions, hate for the oppression that binds us. A great strength we find in feminism is the reaffirmation of human values, ideals of sisterhood: taking care of people, being sensitive to people's needs and developing potential.
From feminism we have come to understand an institutionalized system of oppression based on the domination of men over women: sexism. Its contradictions are based on the hostile social relations set into force by this domination. This antagonism can be mediated by the culture and the flexibility of the social institutions so that in certain times and places it seems to be a stable relationship. But the antagonisms cannot be eliminated and will break out to the surface until there is no longer a system of domination.
But we share a particular conception of feminism that is socialist. It is one that focuses on how power has been denied women because of their class position. We see capitalism as an institutionalized form of oppression based on profit for private owners of publicly-worked-for wealth. It sets into motion hostile social relations in classes. Those classes too have their relations mediated through the culture and institutions. Thus alliances and divisions appear within and between classes at times clouding the intensity or clarity of their contradiction. But the basic hostile nature of class relations will be present until there is no longer a minority owning the productive resources and getting wealthy from the paid and unpaid labor of the rest
We share the socialist vision of a humanist world made possible through a redistribution of wealth and an end to the distinction between the ruling class and those who are ruled.
We have come to understand that only through an organized collective response can we fight such a system. Sisterhood thus also means to us a struggle for real power over our own lives and the lives of our sisters. Our personal relations and our political fight merge together and create our sense of feminism. Through the concept of sisterhood, women have tried to be responsive to the needs of all women rather than a selected few, and to support, criticize and encourage other women rather than competing with them.
Our Vision--Socialist Feminism is Desirable and Not Possible Under the Existing System
The following would be among the things we envision in the new order, part of everyday life for all people:
- free, humane, competent medical care with an emphasis on preventive medicine, under the service of community organizations
- peoples' control over their own bodies--i.e., access to safe, free birth control, abortion, sterilization, free from coercion or social stigma
- attractive, comfortable housing designed to allow for private and collective living
- varied, nutritious, abundant diet
- social respect for the work people do, understanding that all jobs can be made socially necessary and important
- democratic councils through which all people control the decisions which most directly affect their lives on the job, in the home, and community
- scientific resources geared toward the improvement of life for all, rather than conquest and destruction through military and police aggression
- varied, quality consumer products to meet our needs an end of housework as private, unpaid labor
- redefinition of jobs, with adequate training to prepare people for jobs of their choice; rotation of jobs to meet the life cycle needs of those working at them, as well as those receiving the services.
- political and civil liberties which would encourage the participation of all people in the political life of the country
- disarming of and community control of police
- social responsibility for the raising of children and free client-controlled childcare available on a 24-hour basis to accommodate the needs of those who use it and work in it
- free, public quality education integrated with work and community activities for people of all ages
- freedom to define social and sexual relationships
- a popular culture which enhances rather than degrades one's self respect and respect for others
- support for internal development and self-determination for countries around the world
We outline this vision to be more concrete about what a socialist feminist society might mean or try to be. This vision of society is in direct opposition to the present one which is based on the domination of the few over the many through sex, race and class. While there are concessions that it can make, the present form would not or could not adjust to the kind of people-oriented society outlined above.
Contradictions--An Alternative Is Necessary
Socialist feminism is not only desirable but it is also necessary because the current system of capitalism is not stable and cannot last in its present form. However, this does not mean that the society will inevitably become socialist. A fascist or barbaric form is also an alternative. The system that will replace capitalism will be determined by the orientation and power of groups fighting for alternatives. Hence, we must struggle to bring our vision of socialist feminism to fruition.
Contradictions are phenomena necessary to maintain the system but by their own internal logic produce forces destructive to it. A knowledge of them helps explain the chaos around us, giving a stable context to understand the historically changing process we are in. Such an understanding also helps us pick out weak spots of the process, points for defense and attack. Examples of these contradictions are all around us in varying degrees of severity. Sexism and capitalism reinforce one another, shape each other and have shaped us.
Contradictions in Our Power
Any analysis of the distribution of power and its effect on society's institutions must recognize the historical context of our oppression. Our oppression is different from that of our sisters at the turn of the century who had no legal rights, were confined to the home, and bore children from maturity to death. Thus, what is liberating at one time may be a factor of oppression at another. For example, women were denied their own sexuality because of social attitudes, inadequate birth control, the shelter of the family, women's private role in the economy, and the lack of knowledge about their bodies. The development of a more advanced technology (the pill and machines) and education objectively gave more freedom to our sisters. At the same time, these developments also made possible new forms for the oppression of women, increased sexual objectification and abuse.
In the realm of women and work, legislation which protected women was of great benefit in easing their burden. Currently, however, in the name of easing our burden, such legislation is used to deny women equal opportunity. Of course, women and all people have a right to safe and good working conditions; but these need to be fought for all workers.
Understanding our changing history helps us to avoid stereotyping our opposition or our own notions of what liberation means. The development of a strategy makes it clear that technological advances, legislative changes or educational developments are not good or bad in themselves. When we know the context in which any specific change occurs, we can judge the value of that change for our goals.
We have learned from history that, in fact, what is progressive for the system as a whole is also the seeds for its destruction. For example, increasing the availability of jobs for women and encouraging talented women to enter the labor force helps employers and strengthens capitalism but at the same time gives women an opportunity to come together physically and unionize as a collective force for change. Other women, seeing this, will raise their expectations and demands on the system for a larder share than it can offer all.
Knowing that these contradictions are the reality in which we live, we can fight that otherwise supposed "monolith" of control at its weak points and gain strength for ourselves. If our analysis is correct, on the basis of those contradictions, women and other powerless people will find concrete bases for unity to struggle in their self-interest. Now we see severe contradictions and possibilities for fights for structural changes on issues of childcare (for adequate care and community control), inclusion in the political system, jobs and working conditions for workers' control, etc.
Many analyses have identified various institutions (e.g., the family or sexual relations) as the crucial contradiction of sexism. However, these contradictions reflect the social relations of a sexist society, or institutions in which sexism occurs. Eliminating these "prime factors" would neither eliminate sexism nor necessarily create supportive alternatives for women. As the factory may be the locus for capitalist exploitation, it is not the basis of that exploitation. Private ownership and profit is the basis, giving rise to the class relations. Similarly, the family is a crucial locus of sexist oppression but it is not the basis of that exploitation. Control by men over women and the relegation of women to secondary roles is the basis of sexism, giving rise to a sexist society.
We do not find helpful the constant cry that before we organize, we need to develop a complete theory of the nature of our oppression or findthe prime contradiction of our oppression (as if there is just one). Some analyses, in fact, have led us only to further inaction with the rationale of not having the total picture.
Every institution oppresses women as long as the society is based on the oppression of women. Our struggle against sexism is against those institutions, social relations and ideas which divide women and keep them powerless, and subservient to men. At different periods our oppression may be greater in one area than another, and this should direct our struggle.
The social relations of society--its institutions, culture and ideology--grow out of this system. But these ideas take on a life of their own, no longer dependent on or necessary to the economic base. In fact, they can develop in contradiction to that base. So, for example, racism or sexism serve much more than narrow economic function. Thus, what is important is not just redistribution of goods but a change in authority, control and ideas. Clearly, all elements of a class society are not reflections of the economic relations; however, in the last instance (at the point where contradictions become revolutionary in dimension) economic relations are the crucial link.
Contradictions at every level of society influence each other and within each level (economic, social, ideological) they are mirrored and overdetermined. That is, the pace at which contradictions develop is complex, sometimes reinforcing, sometimes canceling each other. Thus, long range planning and a carefully worked out strategy are needed to continually respond to the complexity of the contradictions in American society. But we reflect in our theory that there are contradictions and that an alternative system is 1) desirable and not possible now, and 2) necessary to provide a true end to hostilities (between classes, sexes, races, nations).
We find it futile to argue which is more primary--capitalism or sexism. We are oppressed by both. As they are systems united against our interests, so our struggle is against both. This understanding implies more than women's caucuses in a "movement" organization. What we as socialist feminists need are organizations which can work for our particular vision, our self-interest in a way that will guarantee the combined fight against sexism and capitalism. At times this will mean independent organizations, at other times joint activity recognizing situations and general conditions.
The American Context of the Contradictions
The forms of oppression we face are filtered through the unique conditions of the American situation. We have a very heterogeneous working class, more diversified by ethnic background, race and job status than most other countries. This gives us many different strengths but also many internal divisions. Also, we have a heritage of slavery with an oppressed black and minority population. This now is as basic to the society as is sexism and is linked with it.
In addition, the power of the ruling class is widespread and disseminated through every aspect of the society. This makes for a difficult enemy--hard to isolate, focus on at its root, and hold accountable while its ideas filter into our minds. As the leading world imperialist power, our national struggle must consider strategic relationships linking our struggle with those around the world. Also, we live in a society with relative material comfort. This means that what we have to offer must not be just economic solutions. The question of quality of life is not- only to be raised but also ideas for a new social order.
We also are cut off from our history of left struggle since the destruction of the left in the fifties. To our great leek this has sometimes denied us a sense of long-term struggle and strategy development. One of our overriding responsibilities at this particular historical period is to develop a strategy which will both call into question the validity of current economic and social relations and at the same time make socialist feminism a meaningful possibility. This will hot occur except as more and more people gain the political experience necessary to develop a concrete understanding of the viability of our vision.
Role of Ideology in the Development of Strategy
The preceding section outlines our ideology--socialist feminism. It is this ideology which guides the development of our strategy and tactics, sets our priorities, and gives us an overall focus for our work. The key ideological understanding is that all issues are political, are based on power, and that our actions have political implications.
We develop this ideology both out of practice and in reading and discussion--matching theory to the real world. To an extent ideology plays the role of consciousness--it is a clear picture of reality which strengthens our ability to communicate and argue for our position. Stated explicitly, ideology helps provide links for women, in seeing how one struggle is related to others. Some individuals, aware of many social contradictions, may make an intellectual leap -- understand the parts as a whole through a socialist feminist ideology.
Most people are guided by an ideology Our own particular relationship to ideology has two special functions. First, it provides ideas which guide us, defining the framework and reason for our actions. Second, it defines our view of the world concretely, thus providing a system of analysis through which women can understand socialist feminism as a world view.
The ideological underpinnings for a socialist feminist strategy are laid out here and should be evident in the paper. But this paper is designed primarily to propose a strategy. It flows from and should help us define our ideology even better in the future; but it is a different undertaking--determining what we should do NOW.
This is one reason we feel confident in describing a strategy when we do not have the full blueprint for how revolution will occur. One is not developed full blown and then the other becomes possible.
Neither is this an attempt at overall strategy. Overall strategy helps us to see the way to seizure of state power and the critical break from the past, developing new institutions and a new social order based on equality of people and redistribution of wealth and resources. We can only develop an understanding of exactly how this will occur as we gain experience in building our movement. Continually moving from political work to further theoretical development and back to political work is a necessity. Revolution has several stages and it is important to have an understanding of the historical period we are in.
Therefore, given the ideology presented here, we have developed the following priorities for this particular point in time:
Now the crucial need is to weaken the power of the ruling class, give women a sense of their own power, and improve our lives so that we are welded together as a force prepared to struggle together. Concern with these issues is the basis for the socialist feminist strategy we outline in the next sections.
- We must reach most women. We must work toward building a majority movement. Our analysis tells us this is possible if we proceed in the right way.
- We must present intermediate goals that are realizable as well as desirable to show the necessity and possibility of organizing
- We must develop collective actions.
II. POWER AND SISTERHOOD
As socialist feminists we have an analysis of who has power and who does not, the basis for that power and our potential as women to gain power. Sisterhood is powerful in our personal lives, in our relationships with other women, in providing personal energy and maintaining warmth and love. But sisterhood is revolutionary because it can provide a basis on which we can unite to seize power.
The focus on power is an institutional focus, one that examines the structure of existing institutions and determines who, specifically, has power and how that power is used to oppress women. This includes understanding the interrelation between the economic sector and the social institutions which reinforce ruling class control. The family, church, schools and government priorities which oppress us reflect and reinforce this control. These are reflected in and are served by the dominant ideology, a cultural dominance which controls our everyday private lives.
In America, our culture so reflects the ideas of those in power that it is often difficult to identify who the enemy is. The opposition seems to be all encompassing and everywhere, hard to pinpoint in origins or basics. The ruling class, so reinforced, often appears as a monolith of control. However, as feminists and as socialists we are able to analyze the basic structures of society and how these are used to oppress women. This focus on power provides a framework for analyzing how power relations can be altered.
In this section, we focus on a strategy for developing mass women's organizations by focusing on the relationship that we see between reforms and power. There are three questions crucial to our conception of this relationship: 1) Will the reform materially improve women's lives? 2) Will the reform give women a sense of their own power? 3) Will the reform alter existing relations of power?
The Self-Interest of Women
Women are for liberation not just for abstract reasons and a sense of what is "correct" for women, or because they will be the "wave of the future." They are attracted because we present a picture of reality that they also know, as well as hold out a vision that they wish to share. But talking of such a reality is not sufficient. If we are going to be a movement of all women, we must be able to serve our own self-interest. Unable to fully offer alternatives for women ourselves, we must be able to hold out the realistic promise of obtaining some of these alternatives through struggles which can be won.
We emphasize self-interest because we feel that recently the movement has gotten far away from thinking about it or what moves women to act, or what moves us to act. idealism alone now guides us abstractly. We argue it, we live it, we see it. But we cannot always count on it. We raise the subject of self-interest to insure that we really are speaking to women's needs.
However, we do not emphasize .self-interest in any narrow sense. Self-interest is not just the accumulation of all physical and concrete needs. We know women do not live by bread alone and want deeply for themselves and others the enjoyment of culture and relationships that express their hopes and accomplishments. Self-interest is the interest of our sisters and our class. It means bringing into being and recognizing our consciousness, culture and control of the society.
We must develop ways to transform women's currently felt interests in line with our vision. Real sisterhood changes concern from individual needs into concern for one's group, organizational and class needs. With strategy and struggle for short-term goals, women can come to perceive a long-term self-interest. Abstract social goals are defined and given concrete form in program. We should choose issues for our direct action campaigns around which women will unite, can win, and on which their views of what is advantageous to them will change.
For example, while destroying racism is a deep concern of ours, we would not organize white women around racism as an issue. Stated as such, it is not concrete enough to do something about; and it is not a concern for most white women. However, uniting white and black groups around common concerns would be a concrete way to objectively also fight racism. We also can develop means to discuss and make explicit these ideas. But direct action for concrete reforms makes our ideology have real content.
If we want to speak to most women, we have to be serious about winning. Women have been losers too long. Women will only flock to women's liberation ideas when they know that it will help them and others become winners, gain something that they want for themselves and their daughters and others. This differentiates us from many groups such as PL, IS, and purist sects more concerned with the correctness of political principles than in converting a simple, true idea into a means for winning something for the people involved.
We want better lives for ourselves and others now. We would not want success for some at the expense of others, but we want to fight to win for success. Out of this commitment to our sisters, we have challenged our own thinking, our own sense of weakness, and our own inability to push ahead, so we may solidify the gains our movement is making and move to greater gains.
We know this treads on our fear of success (often greater than our fears of failure). "If you win, do you really lose? " Women have been losers so long, we often resist any chance at material victories. It is important to consider how we define victories to avoid co-optation. This goes back to our original criteria for strategy. We fight for reforms that will improve women's lives but we place priority on developing struggles which will also give women a sense of their own power and limit the arbitrary power of those in control.
We do not believe that reform built on reform will eventually lead to socialism or women's liberation. We anticipate a severe rift in social relations or many such breaks prior to full alterations in power. But we think that the increased demands for real benefits created by this strategy will heighten contradictions and prepare us for struggles leading to the rift. The nature of this revolution and the future that follows it will bet ~ fined by the struggles leading up to it.
As long as we are not effective, winning, feeling our strength, sometimes there is a danger of resentment toward our sisters with statements like, "why is it they can't see and they won't join us? " This will happen to an extent as long as we're not effective. The main burden is on us to provide activity that women will want to join. If women do not join us, our first thought must be: what are we doing that is not clear enough, not related sufficiently to the specific problems women are facing that they are not joining us? Of course, there are many reasons women may not join us at certain times, for example, threats from their husbands, fear of social identification, lack of babysitters or real disagreements. Our task is finding ways to develop and build our strength as a movement. To this end we propose this strategy.
Power and Reform
The socialist feminist strategy aims at realigning power relations through the process of building a base of power for women through a mass movement united around struggling for our self-interest Our goal is to build this movement. We oppose the utopian position which argues against any change until the perfect solution is possible. On the other hand, we also are not for working on any and every reform action that presents itself. Our strategy allows us to define priorities and timetables to lend structure to issues in terms of particular situations.
Decisions about what reforms to fight for and how. must be made on the basis of the following three criteria:
1. WILL THE REFORM MATERIALLY IMPROVE WOMEN'S LIVES? Our lives as women are oppressive in many ways; therefore we want to work to improve our lives now. Whatever our priorities, we must focus on meeting our immediate needs. When we can show that we can meet women's needs they will want to join us. While we believe that sexist capitalism cannot implement all of the reforms we are for, it is possible to use its own rules against itself. That is, we can force change through pressure. Thus, our strategy is quite different from that of raising maximalist demands--demanding something that can't be done under capitalism in order to prove that capitalism is bad. Many reforms are really beneficial to us, can be won and build our confidence. Nevertheless, the reform itself is not the only end. We also are oppressed by our real (and felt) lack of power to control that reform.
2. WILL THE STRUGGLE FOR THE REFORM GIVE WOMEN A SENSE OF THEIR OWN POWER? We need to struggle around issues where success is obviously our victory rather than a gift from those in power. Our struggle for reforms must build our movement. Our movement's strength can only be sustained through organizations. Through organizations, individual women can collectively have a sense of their power. Otherwise, even when we win, we don't know it or can't claim it. (Who forced troop withdrawals in Indochina--the President or the movement? Who forced abortion law reform in New York--the state legislature or the women's movement? ) Through organizations, one victory builds on another. They have a life longer than the individual participants and strength greater than their parts.
3. WILL THE REFORM ALTER EXISTING RELATIONS OF POWER? Women in American society have little control over any aspect of our lives. We want not only concrete improvements but the right to decide on those improvements and priorities. We want power restructured, wealth redistributed, and an end to exploitation. Those most closely affected by institutions have the right to decide what those institutions do. (This means councils of workers, consumers of an institution's services, parents in childcare centers, etc.)
Most projects now, of great value to our movement, work on only one or two of the above points. The third is the most difficult and least developed in our movement. Specific battles may not win or even try to work on all three levels. But our lasting success will depend ore interrelating the three points on and among projects.
Toleration and Priorities
We want to emphasize the need for a multi-level approach to womenºs liberation. Having such an approach, we can avoid some of the pitfalls of dogmatic sectarianism about the correctness of a single issue or program. We must be open and encourage alternatives. The need for a coherent strategy which encompasses education, service and action--but mixes them consciously--cannot be emphasized too much. There are some moments when an issue is ripe and other times when it is important, but will not move women, cannot be won and does not speak to women's felt needs.
But we cannot degenerate into a vague pluralism that says any effort is as good as any other effort. We can be anti-sectarian, encourage a variety of approaches and know that we must move to many approaches end' reach the many aspects of our lives as women. At the same time, we can follow a coherent strategy to set priorities for immediate work that we think are important. Of course, the test of tolerance and sectarianism is in reality. We must see how we are perceived, received and grow. Reality is a good cure.
Applying the Three Criteria
We welcome almost any activity that works for women. At this time, however, we wish to emphasize the importance of all three criteria mentioned earlier: improving women's lives, giving women a sense of their power, and altering relations of power. The three criteria should be applied to any proposed activity.
On the abortion issue, for example, the socialist feminist approach is different from seeking only legislative change by working through closed channels and thereby maintaining the right of those in power to make the rules. Victories on the abortion issue must be WON by women actively fighting for their rights. During the struggle it is important to focus on who is making and influencing decisions about abortion and to identify these individuals and institutions to women.
This approach is broader than a "write your senator" campaign. It means, for example, finding out and publicizing the church groups lobbying against abortion and challenging their tax-exempt status for lobbying. It also means finding out what corporate executives are on those church 'boards and launching consumer action against them and their businesses for their support of the church's lobby. Any campaign undertaken should identify such interconnections. We must unite women in direct, political action to change such repressive measures as the abortion law and at the same time focus on the power relations of those involved. Victories can be achieved and our campaigns are specific enough so that we can measure our success or failures.
Positive action may include a variety of activities, such as:
- Confrontation with specific demands
- Forcing an issue at a public hearing
- Embarrassment pressure--picketing, for example
- Public expose in the press or in a hearing
- Mass public protest meeting
- Mass demonstration tied to a specific campaign
- Guerilla and dramatic activities (WITCH, etc.)
- Legal, disruptive actions--strikes, boycotts, stockholders meetings, for example.
- Civil disobedience--This may be useful on occasion, but we think at many times other tactics may be just as effective, less alienating to potential allies, and less costly.
The point is activity selected should be related to an overall strategy around a particular issue and with an eye toward what will achieve the reform and build the movement.
The political action approach described above is different from many activities of such groups as Moratorium which organized direct actions without a permanent mass organizational framework. Such groups do not involve a mass of women in continuing, persistent work and do not focus on targets that can result both in reform victories and a shift of power relations. Large demonstrations are fine to focus attention on an abstract issue of a generalized principle (such as free abortion on demand, no forced sterilization, free 24-hour client-controlled childcare, etc.). However, to win in both the above senses, the demand must be directed toward some individual in the institution from whom a response is demanded and who actually has the power to do something.
Groups such as SWP-YSA do not acknowledge the importance of these power demands in mass struggles. They have no intermediate strategy to move from reform to revolution such as this workers' or client control strategy provides. As a result, they fluctuate between ultimate demands with no possibility of winning (free, 24-hour child-care, for example) and minimal reform demands (the right to leaflet, for example) unable to build a challenge to existing power relations.
Issues for further consideration
No strategy is without difficulties, or right for every circumstance. This strategy we have found most useful for a great variety of current situations. We need to further develop the ideas, learning from action, so that we not only win, but win what we want. As we develop, we need to keep in mind issues such as the following:
- This is an intermediate strategy. We must re-evaluate our work to insure that we move along a revolutionary trajectory.
- We must provide ways that people can move from an understanding of specific issues, to an understanding of inter-related social reactions.
- We need keep both ultimate and immediate concerns in mind. We must be conscious of ways in which our ideology is defined and implied in specific struggles. Doing so, we must take into account the needs and strengths of the individuals, their understanding of what is possible and the nature of the opposition.
To help do all these things, we need reference groups which can put our organizing efforts into context. Such groups help us choose priorities between struggles and develop strategy for revolutionary struggles.
Role of Counter-institutions
A major trend in the current women's movement is to organize counter-institutional projects to directly meet the needs of women. This work is important for the women's movement but must occur in the context of a movement which has other foci as well.
Counter-institutions can do a number of things. They can help to raise the expectations of women who use and staff the institutions as to what is possible. They can provide services which meet the needs of women now. They can demonstrate that the problems addressed are social in nature and in solution. They convey to the broad constituencies we seek to address that we have positive programs to offer for solving the problems we draw attention to, and that we are not simply negative in orientation. In contrast to consciousness-raising, such programs dispel the specter of endless problems without apparent solutions.
For example, a feminist-sponsored health center provides a needed service that materially improves our immediate condition. It demonstrates that women acting together can change some of their circumstances. It can contribute to building an organized base of power among women ready to fight on an ongoing basis for their rights.
However, counter institutions have some limitations. They may foster false optimism about change by indicating that problems can be solved in the spaces between existing institutions. Such programs could take up all the time of more than all of us involved in the present movement and never meet all the needs. Such activities cannot alter the power relations if they make no demands on those in power.
We argue the importance of combining counter-institutions with direct action organizing to build on the strengths of each. Such organizing focuses demands on social institutions, thus countering the conclusion that society is unchangeable. It also counters an over-optimism about the potential of self-help to change women's lives by pressing the point that significant changes can be made for all women only through far-reaching changes in power relations. The most useful role of the counter-institutional projects is providing a vision for an alternative and at the same time demonstrating the need for demanding change from those in power.
How Do We Get Power? (Or Building and Maintaining Real Sisterhood)
Focusing specifically on political or direct action, how do we incorporate this approach into our movement? We believe that many women would join us if we had the structures and activities so they could become involved in struggles on concrete issues. We need a perspective which will allow us to undertake both short and long term struggles and campaigns which have a focus on winning. Following is a partial summary of the criteria we feel must be considered in selecting and planning a program for direct action:
The goals of the movement should be ones which can:
- broaden and relate to many aspects of women's lives
- convert a vision into specific activity
- help women gain self-respect
- unite women and build a mass organization because it focuses on women's needs
- identify the felt needs that would move women to fight on the issue
A project should be chosen so that it:
- moves women into direct action and groups where they can evaluate their efforts (e.g. ongoing organizations)
- can identify specifically what institutions and who within those institutions exercises control over the issue and has the power to make reforms in response to pressure
- identifies what a victory would be
The project should:
- be broken into parts and fought as reforms that can conceivably be won
- provide step-by-step activity for involvement
Application of the Strategy: An Example
In developing a concrete strategy, it is necessary to plan full campaigns having many aspects which translate a general issue into an implementable program. Here is an example of how some of us developed one project--fighting for child care with the Action Committee for Decent Childcare. We based this project on the kinds of ideas offered in this paper.
Ideology. We had decided that a struggle for free, 24-hour, client-controlled childcare would meet our ideological criteria. However, this position, as an initial statement of our goals, had an immediate weakness. Raising this demand before we had an organization alienated us from even the women who later became our strongest allies. Our vision seemed so wild-eyed, so far from the existing situation, that it appeared completely unrealistic. Once we won some specific demands, raising these same ideals became more rational and acceptable because the possibility was real--women began to gain a sense of their own power.
It should be pointed out that we had decided to form a mass organization. We were attempting to reach a different group of women from those already in the Chicago Women's Liberation Union, an anti-capitalist feminist organization. We felt that women who worked with the Action Committee for Decent Childcare would, at some point, become interested in joining CWLU. Such women would probably never join a women's liberation organization without some intermediate alternative. But whether or not they joined CWLU, the movement's ideas and strength would grow with this mass form.
This is not to say that it is necessary to have an organization like CWLU before a more mass based organization can be built. Rather, in individual cities, women will need to determine who they are attempting to reach, and the specific political context of their situation.
We are also not opposed to raising our vision as a demand; and in fact, there are some instances where that may be very important. Out of our experience, however, we learned the significance of fully understanding who the constituency is, and what the organization is attempting to accomplish.
A second problem we faced was in our understanding of our oppression as women. We knew that childcare was an issue for many women, but failed to take into consideration the problems such women face. The very women we hoped to involve (those with young children) were among the least likely to ever be active in any kind of social movement. They simply don't have the time (because they don't have childcare), are less mobile, and don't think of themselves as active community members. The prevailing notion that women need something to do after their children are in school also makes these women less likely to consider becoming involved.
Development of a strategy. We spent three months gathering information about every aspect of the issue of childcare and considering all of the alternatives for vying for power. After the initial period, research was used to serve actions. We immediately eliminated the federal level since it is too remote to attack without a national organization to force some change. However, in instances where local offices really have power they might be appropriate targets. State and local agencies (and perhaps a few federal branches with responsibility for implementing guidelines or overseeing state and local programs) appeared to be easier and more successful targets. With the state level dominated by Republicans and the local level by Democrats (as is often the case) we also considered ways to play one off against the other.
In carrying out this research we attempted to determine the real sources of power versus the window dressing or public relations functions. With childcare, a problem exists, because there really is no money allocated. Therefore there is little real power that can be fought for. It is much more ambitious to demand that childcare be a priority (which necessitates an appropriation of funds) than to redirect existing funding, increase, or control it.
The specific focus for our initial work included consideration of:
1. Whose Problem Is It? Who is our possible constituency? How do they see the problem? Each aspect should be considered, and specific appeals and actions developed for each. For example, women who need child care are those who:
- work days or nights
- are in schools or training programs
- can't afford child care-poor, middle-class
- are accused of child abuse or are in rehabilitation programs (i.e., drug abuse programs often have large budgets)
- want to go off welfare or are being pushed off
- want to influence the type of care available for their children (including part-time and nursery school users, who often see themselves separately from full child care users.)
- need child care to go shopping or on other errands
- need it for social service work or civic responsibilities (i.e., churches, hospitals and shopping centers could be made responsible to their constituencies and supporters and people who keep them in business)
- are single parents and must work
- want a few hours away from their children (Setting up tot lots where housewives can socialize might bring such women together, breaking down their isolation doing private work in the home.)
- just like to work with children
- own day care centers and can't keep them going with the high cost and rigid requirements
- as taxpayers, want their money to be used in the interests of women
2. What are the Sources of the Problem?
This included research into the various public and private interests involved, such as:
- Department of Children and Family Services
- Community Coordinated Childcare (4C's)
- Department of Public Aid
- State Legislature
- Department of Human Resources
- City Council
- City departments with responsibility for licensing
- Department Stores
- Shopping Centers
- Building Contractors (Also federal guidelines for contractors, e.g. HUD codes)
3. Who has Information About the Problem?
Here we talked with various bureaucrats, researchers, lobbying groups, social service agencies, local community organizations, social service groups and groups of women working to open childcare centers.
The Initial Strategy Undertaken. We considered institutional targets such as: colleges--students and staff; churches--parishoners and local communities; industry--employees. Each had some limitations as an initial project. For colleges, this seemed to be a more localized struggle where we would need to engage in campus organizing from the beginning and where we did not have an initial base. For churches there seemed to be some interest but most could not move ahead because of licensing laws in the city. For industry, we focused on developing contacts within unionized plants, for the union is the agent of the employees and had no reason to trust us before we had developed a real organization. We also considered welfare but here, too, we did not have the initial base for our first project.
After examining each of the above areas with the continual question of what we could do to meet women's real needs, give women a sense of their power and alter power relations, we decided on an initial strategy. Given the funding situation, we focused on licensing, an equally great problem, but one that was more manageable. Existing licensing laws prevented centers from opening rather than encouraging new centers.
Women became involved because of their need for childcare. Day care operators joined because we could provide services, communication and expose their problems with the city government in order to win real changes. This meant they took risks of retaliation by the city (any center can be closed down by using the arbitrary licensing laws against them) When enough operators were involved and singling out any one individual became difficult. Those who were vulnerable had parents organized for protection (with community hearings, tours for the press of beautiful centers about to be closed down for lack of political pull).
Another important aspect in this issue is women's concern as taxpayers that their taxes are being used against their interests. This also broadened who joined us““women who were not mothers, but concerned about women and as taxpayers felt they had a right to speak up.
Although initially we believed our constituency would be all white (this was our base in the beginning), we very successfully developed a black and white organization on the basis of self-interest. In a black area, women demanded the creation of child care centers, because there were none. In an adjoining white area, women demanded that the few existing centers not be closed down. Once united, other common issues were raised.
We discovered that a few initial victories are extremely important for self-confidence. A reputation that you can win brings others into the organization. In one year, the Action Committee for Decent Childcare:
- forced the city to undertake a complete review of all licensing procedures.
- forced the Department of Human Resources to end closed-door meetings on childcare.
- sponsored the first public meeting with the Department of Human Resources in August 1971 on day care licensing problems.
- forced the city to set up a committee under Murrell Syler, Director of Childcare Services in the Mayor's Office, to review licensing (ACDC had half of the members on that committee).
- written an analysis of the current codes, with recommendations for change that were used as the basis for the new licensing codes.
- sponsored a series of community meetings in Hyde Park, the Southwest side, and the North side areas to which state representatives, senators, and aldermen were invited to present their positions on day care and to pledge support for specific proposals.
- started moving toward community control of childcare.
- made existing childcare groups more active in pressing for changes.
The next struggles will be to win changes, institution by institution, while other struggles are, going on for women's community decision-making over licensing and funding in the city (which we have won partial victories on).
Organization. Out initial work focused on how to build an organization that could implement our strategy. Locally-based community groups working both on their own local issues and on concerns which required city-wide action seemed (and were) the best alternative. Such groups are particularly important when working with a group of women who are not very mobile and at the same time heighten the democracy of the organization and provide for the development of skills among the women involved. We also found it necessary to develop different structures for the many different roles women wanted and could play--local chapters, forums, day care operator councils, plus a steering committee for coordination and decision-making In the organization.
Out of our experience, we believe that it is important to continually assess how the activities of the organization build its base and its power. All actions should be geared toward building the organization as well as the importance of the issue. When a decision is made to do an action because it is abstractly worthwhile, ways should be built in to expand the organization--in resources, finances, new constituencies, prestige, publicity (that will later add to our strength).
We also discovered that it is crucial to have full-time organizers for sustained activity. Initial funding is also necessary to ensure the maintenance of the day-to-day operations of the organization. Once off the ground, an organization can raise its own funds but the initial period is most difficult. Lacking funds, the Action Committee has been forced to suspend operation.
NOTE: We offer training sessions for women interested in organizations such as the one described above.
Consciousness-raising is a process by which women come to understand the nature of reality so that they may change it. One's consciousness is related to one's objective conditions. It is the subtle interplay between the two (consciousness and conditions) which we emphasize in this section.
Consciousness is a word that has been used very loosely and has meant many things: the development of a positive self-image, individual change and growth, new emotional and sexual relationships with other women, or any of these coupled with the more general notion of a women's culture. It also means an understanding of how power is used in society and the experience of changing that society
The conception of consciousness-raising has been an extremely significant contribution of the women's movement The whole notion of support and sisterhood has arisen as a result of women's realization of their prescribed roles and attitudes toward one another. Women have come both to feel less isolated through consciousness-raising and to learn that women's isolation is a social phenomenon We have come to understand more about the incredible problems which women confront in daily life and to respect the solutions we have been forced to make for survival. Consciousness has therefore been both a source of strength to women and a source of personal analysis. We have learned, for example, some sense of how power is used because we can see how it functions in individual relationships
Consciousness and Objective Conditions
Consciousness is one's awareness of her own fleas about her situation and how the world functions What excites us about women's liberation consciousness is that we think it is the most useful description of reality for most women. This is the key to a socialist feminist understanding of consciousness. We believe that we see a basic reality, and it is this true picture of how things are and how they got that way that, primarily, we have to offer. We are not suggesting one of many ways that things might be working now--we offer a description of the underlying relationships. This understanding makes us more effective It is useful to women so that they can act and change what they understand. Socialist feminist consciousness is of such value because it is useful, it is true.
Of course there is a great interplay between objective conditions--the various material and social arrangements of our lives--and consciousness. With material changes such as children, a mate, a home, one often becomes more circumspect because such a person must be able to provide for others (by law and social pressure). Or, a sister is not treated equitably (in job, school, social situations) or denied rights she had come to expect and suddenly the women's movement is no longer just "them." In everyday ways, objective conditions affect our minds.
Change may also come through receiving information which touches our crucial values (values which may ordinarily function to maintain us where we are) and jolts us. It may be of women dying from illegal abortions or of My Lai massacres. Information changes our consciousness (somewhat ahead of our conditions) by putting our lives into a new context. Usually, we think, this change happens in ways consistent with women's pasts rather than through absolute, abrupt breaks from it.
Most often, a change in specific conditions and consciousness occur simultaneously, part of a process developing over months, if not a lifetime. Our material lives change and our thoughts about it and ourselves change. (Thus, Freud is so popular in relating all events to childhood because we are, of course, the same people or had the same origins as our "old" self). One situation or series of situations may be acatalyst to a new perception of reality, but this is often a culmination of other events.
In our movement we think it is important to emphasize the obvious about consciousness. We all have consciousness. We all have contradictions in our own "level" or "levels" of consciousness. Certain factors of our lives may mean that we emphasize certain things we see to be true; and ignore, or deny, or just agree to live with others. Our movement needs to offer women feasible alternatives. These new alternatives can help close the contradictions with which they live. (The same may be said about ourselves).
Here it is important that what we offer is a view of reality. For example, women often cannot see who their enemy is because he is not right on the scene. So, often people vent their anger on a relatively powerless agent who is carrying out another's will (e.g., the waitress) or cannot function well in the conditions but who does not have the power (alone) to change (teacher, mother). What we have that makes us attractive, is that we see the roots. That is the meaning of the word "radical."
What Our Consciousness Has To Offer
So what does our conception of consciousness have to offer? It allows women to generalize from their specific situation or series of situations to see patterns. This provides a picture of reality that will allow them to function better because the pieces fit. But we can provide more than a pattern: we identify causes for events. Only if we understand these causes will we know how to change those events (not repeat or be overwhelmed by them). It provides a systematic way to develop our ideas from ideology to strategy, to program and tactics, because it identifies things in relation to their importance in reaching our goals.
We must understand consciousness raising in relation to objective conditions. Women cannot have "higher consciousness" by trying harder. There are real limitations on women. Just presenting alternatives does not often make them adequate or real to women. We must always relate to the lives of women, in the concrete form.
The most wonderful thing that a consciousness-raising group does is to help us see that problems we once felt were personal are social. We must continue to see how we are not so different from most women. We react to so many of the same objective conditions (from the pill, economic job scarcity, more youth in college, etc). This helps to keep things in perspective. For example, it is not women's liberation that is making problems for the nuclear family. In part, we are an outgrowth of many of its problems. In part, we affect its future and the alternatives offered. So there is the constant interplay of objective and subjective forces. Popularized women's liberation consciousness itself (as we all know) is not what causes social change.
Implications of Socialist Feminist Consciousness
We began our paper with a three-point guideline to strategy: 1) win real concrete reforms that meet women's needs; 2) give women a sense of their own power; 3) alter the relations of power. Our understanding of consciousness allows us to understand the real (root) needs of women, and the ways in which our powerlessness affects us and gives us the desire to alter relations of power.
It unites talk and action, constantly, describing a place for emphasizing each. It helps us set priorities in terms of a concrete situation. (Thus we move away from abstractly "pure" issues, but see each issue in a specific situation as one that may or may not demand our attention, depending on how it relates to the lives of the women we are able to address and other strategic considerations. )
It also make us fairly tolerant of what choices women make with their lives because we see how bound rip conscious decisions are with immediate situations. We have a great belief in the almost infinite perfectability of people (given changes in social institutions and generations of change in consciousness). But we are cautious about the extent of personal perfection. We know no one can be liberated in this society, no matter what their consciousness. We are bound in networks of limitations, immediate, specific and affecting our whole lives.
Thus, consciousness is not abstract (though it may at any one point be unclear). It does not come from an individual's mind (though intellectual focus develops it). It is not necessarily reflected in all personal actions of an individual, but is in social actions. A socialist feminist consciousness is certainly not a natural or spontaneous process that will always happen when a group of women come together. As events move quickly to clarify social forces (as declarations of war, arrests, economic hard times, increased divorce rate, etc. often move events), so our consciousness is clarified. Consciousness is a key to power, not only in our individual lives, but as a social force coming into its own and able to work on its own behalf.
Many things have moved us to believe in women's liberation. Talking to other women, we came to realize our oppression by understanding the nature of our upbringing and of our lives as, women. However, the changes we think will be most permanent in us are those made by participating in a variety of activities, which, through our involvement, lead us to further understanding and change. In the process of struggling to change our oppression, me begin to understand both the specific forms of oppression and how they are related to one another.
We find that ideology guided only by reflection and discussion loses touch with reality and-is not accepted by most women. Further, if our movement is to continue to expand and to move forward to change our oppression as women, we must unite in a variety of activities which will build our power base. This in turn further develops our ideology and our understanding of the oppression of women.
The method of consciousness-raising used most frequently in the women's movement has been the rap group. The fact of group participation has been very important in changing women's feelings of isolation and individuality. It has made it easier for us to understand the commonality of interest among all women and what is necessary for change. The rap group format is one in which everyone can contribute. Women can develop skills through understanding one another's experience and dealing with the feelings that experience has created. But because consciousness and conditions are intertwined, rap groups by themselves may be a dead end.
They can lead to a concentration on the improvement of ideas or one's self with no eye toward action. The purism of endless refining and redefining should not be mistaken for success. A good analysis is not equal to action. Consciousness must not become an end in itself and an inhibitor to seizing power. We are arguing neither for an uncritical turn of mind nor for the blissful ignorance of all but the most narrow issues for the many. We are arguing that ideology must be integrated into the on-going life of the movement, and that this is best done in relation to and with testing, by concrete changes resulting from actions.
The rap group format may present another obstacle to the full development of the movement. Discovering more and more examples of the effects of oppression on personal life can make the task of social and personal change seem impossible. It is not difficult to reach the stage where any work toward liberation seems irrelevant because early socialization practices cannot be changed at once. Direct action supplements rap groups. It provides opportunities to develop and use new skills while bringing about change. In this context, both rap groups and the development of a socialist feminist analysis can proceed without the dangers of purism or hopelessness.
The full development of women's capabilities may be hampered by the very things in consciousness-raising which at fast seem to stimulate somuch growth. Women come together as sisters on the basis of shared weakness and common problems. As women grow stronger, they themselves may become frightened; sometimes the strength of one may divide the others from her. Thus sisterhood may be lost as strength is gained.
To make more concrete what we mean by socialist feminism, in this section we address a few issues currently facing the women's movement. For each of these issues we sketch what we see as a socialist feminist context. The issues include independent women's organizations separatism, class organizing, counter-culture, lesbianism and vanguards.
Independent Women's Organizations
With the isolation and unorganized state of the women's movement in a number of areas of the country, many women who might agree with ideas presented here are not presently working as part of the independent women's movement. Many women have filtered back into mixed organizations or left the women's movement, feeling that it rejected their skills.
Many women in mixed organizations who know they are for women's liberation are caught in the bind of either feeling guilty or hostile to the independent women's movement (because they feel that the movement condemns them for the choice they made). Our concerns, we expect, are shared by many women in mixed organizations. We hope emphasizing the need for an independent women's movement also helps develop ways for working with women and men in mixed organizations.
We argue for developing organizations and having organizational pride. This is a point many act as if we had "overcome." We argue for developing leaders and organizers responsible to such organizations and through them to us in the movement. A few years ago it was not "in" to be for organizers. Now leaders are "out." We argue for a leadership that is responsible (again, not so obvious to some) and useful to all of us. There are so many more points, but these should provide some for argument and discussion.
All women's fates are bound with that of the independent women's movement. The movement's advances will concretely affect the lives of all other women. So too, individual women's advances and defeats, multiplied, will help shape the movement.
Other reasons for women working with women have been said often, and still are true. Bias with any group with common interests, once those interests are identified, much is shared and a common perspective can be developed more readily. It is easier to follow our own agenda. (At least it lessens the likelihood of forgetting our own self-interest, which is so often submerged in other organizations and institutions). Of course, there are situations in which organizational problems develop among women. We find women are just nicer to work with than men.
But the most basic argument for the independent women's movement and organizations is that the relations of power are unequal between women and men. As long as this is true, men will maintain control u mess we have separate organizations to identify our needs and strengths. Unequals, treated superficially as equals, will remain unequals. This will be true unless women come together on the basis of self-respect and separate organizations or caucuses.
We argue this partly in the interest of ever maintaining democratic and effective mixed organizations. Women must be united (in caucuses or separate women's groups) to act on our own program. Otherwise, feeling our ineffectiveness, we will focus solely on attacking chauvinism in organizations in a more and more personalized form. Without a strong caucus through which women can be strong, they suffer--for example, being told they are "not political" or to submerge their desire to fight on women's concerns. Organizations also suffer, unable to proceed, having-to deal with internal problems of chauvinism at every step. Alternatively, they will not deal with chauvinism et' all.
As socialist feminists, we argue for using the principles of power realities to guide democracy in the organization. Women, in mixed organizations, would fight for and win the program they wanted and know they had won it. This would begin to alter structurally the relations of power in the mixed organization through common struggles in action. At the same time, we must remember our greatest enemies are those in or serving the ruling class.
Working With Men
Objectively, men as a group have vested interests opposed to those of women as a group. We will, for example, cut into their jobs, challenge their position of comfort in the family, and take personal power away from them. In the short-run, and in some ways, men are an enemy.
Why work with men at all? At many points, our interests and the interests of men are shared. We commonly are united in our class position against such things as bad health care, insufficient jobs, long hours and a powerlessness to affect priority decisions of our society. Also, at points, sexism oppresses men. At these points, we can join in common struggle (e.g., they are trained to kill and be killed, have tenderness drilled -out of them). Even then, we must be able to organize separately so that we may come together.
In addition, women have historic and emotional bonds to men. When men and women come together, it is out of the forces of social reality. Those social bonds are not destroyed by ideological argument alone, but only when that social reality changes. In many cases, women have no real choice but marriage for survival, self-respect and warmth or love. We must look at the lives of most women with fewer assumptions to discover what their real alternatives are and in what is their happiness. Our perspective for our struggle must not deny to these women the sources of support they have found in the past (possibly through men or children).
There has sometimes been a weakening of the skills men have to offer to the movement, by excessive guilt-tripping when men were told to give up their chauvinism. True, the struggle against chauvinism is a constant one. But chauvinism is all around us, constantly conditioning us, and will be most effectively overcome through attacking its institutional roots, through women united against it. We assume men (and we) will reflect chauvinism. Too often our actions contradict our knowledge that originally brought US together--you cannot overcome social problems with personal solutions. Thus a "position" on men should be tactical: it varies with the real circumstances. A position on men is not our program. Sexism, not men, is our political enemy.
Separatism has two meanings now in the movement. One is an ideological position arguing for the separate development of men and women as fully as possible. Another is a tactical position, arguing for separate organizations or life alternatives. We too argue for separate organizations as a tactical decision. However, we argue against an ideological stance of separatism.
It is easy to see how the argument for the independent women's movement could lead to an ideological argument for separatism (or how the two arguments are related). We do find strength in separatist models. They show us concretely, how much we can gain from each other as women. But for reasons previously said we do not believe separatism will solve our problems. Also, because ideological separatism does not have the social basis for attraction to the majority of women, it has turned the struggle to one only within the movement. It moves toward more and more purity, dividing us from our allies rather than uniting us on common ground and developing new common ground on which we can unite.
Ironically, this is much the same position that women in mixed organizations, without strong caucuses, find themselves in. (That is, they turn their struggle to one within the organization-- fighting chauvinism--not to program.)
More basically, under certain circumstances, working with men is feasible, desirable and necessary to achieve our vision. Separatism as personal practice is a matter at choice, as political position is illusory.
In the Name of Socialism
In the name of socialism, arguments have been made against the independent women's movement that did justice neither to feminism nor to socialism. Such arguments were often part of attempts to develop a class analysis of American society and saw women's liberation as a way to bring women into "the movement." Many in the women's movement have responded negatively to the opportunism implied in this using of women's liberation. Although it is now generally accepted that the fight against sexism is a main goal, there are still times when the perspective of women's liberation is challenged for legitimacy from this quarter.
Sometimes the challenge comes in the form that our primary fight must be against racism. Since the women's movement is primarily white, this would mean we need to change struggles. Raising the need to fight racism abstractly only reaffirms the "purity" of those who raise it. We argue that struggles against racism will be meaningful on the basis of common self-interest between black and white groups.
On many issues, whites and blacks may not be able to unite because our relations of power are unequal. However, when social forces touch us commonly in some ways, we can build programs to overcome social divisions. We must not deride the support we do have because it does not inch de all women right now.
At other times the argument is one of "giving up privilege." To some extent this is another abstract purism. More importantly, this is not the image we want to project, nor will it be successful. Women will join us because we win rights for them. No one joins in order to lose something that they need. Rights will be established as they are fought for and won, not because those with privileges and power give them up.
A third challenge to women's liberation has postulated that only productive, paid working (or, more narrowly, industrial working) women area revolutionary force. There have been some interesting but defensive responses to this showing that housework is productive. But we feel the argument and the defense have been too narrow. There are many contradictions in society. Many different kinds of efforts, directed at many different targets, have included so many more women in our movement. Of course, only employed workers can withhold labor necessary for corporations to continue. But the general strike has never won any victories when it wasn't combined with the general political mobilization of all exploited classes. While working for it, organizations of unpaid female labor and community organizing efforts are building the social force we will need for that revolution and revolutionizing future social relations.
The women's movement has brought forth a women's culture with the development of women's poetry, music, art, history, women's centers in the cultural realm, and more practically oriented skills such as auto repair and karate. This culture has provided a place for our creativity to be expressed and enabled us to have more independence and self-confidence in areas where we have been denied knowledge and opportunity for expression in the past.
In addition, it has helped change many women's lives. By providing an example of our vision, women's culture has helped develop a consciousness of how things could and should be better (which helps us understand how we are oppressed now).
At the same time, feelings of frustration and isolation among other things have led many women to seek only cultural alternatives--personal lifestyles of liberation. Many women have chosen to commit themselves entirely to development of a counter culture, dissociating themselves from any action or organizations and frequently moving from the city to the country. For its personal usefulness, we do not argue against it for those who can. But because of its limitation, we challenge this as a political program.
As socialist feminists, we are helping build an extended women's culture but also believe that it should be available for all women. This will fully be possible only if we challenge institutions which have power over us so that we might make it available to all. Our culture should be built into the kind of society for which we are fighting. Currently, our culture is only available to a small minority of women. Women must join together to struggle for power in order to bring about our vision for all women.
As the women's movement developed, the gay movement, too, has grown. The gay movement has more forcefully brought the issue of sexuality into the political arena with an analysis of the oppression suffered by gay people in our society. Hating the conditions that shunt us and loving women with whom we find new strength and new room to be weak, many of us come into lesbian relationships. The gay liberation movement has brought people together collectively to bring an end to that oppression. Gay or straight lives are joined in that these struggles affect us as women.
Lesbians, as outcasts in society because they have stepped out of the prescribed roles for women, have long been persecuted. In lesbians' fights against sexism, all feminists stand to gain. Similarly, since all lesbians are women, lesbians stand to gain from the struggles of feminists. We must join together since our interests are intertwined.
This is not to deny the need for separate lesbian groups or caucuses. Heterosexual bias is so strong that it persists unless lesbians are organized separately to argue for a lesbian perspective. The organizational form may be caucuses or entirely separate groups; but where our interests are ultimately the same, we should fight together for we can then be stronger and gain more power.
In some places, it appears that to be in the women's movement, one must be gay. Sometimes, in fact, it is argued that lesbians should be the vanguard of the women's movement. We do not believe that power for women will be won by a primary focus (for the whole movement) on gayness. We do not believe that a primary focus on any particular contradiction will lead to revolution.
A vanguard has two common meanings. One is a social force in the front of political struggle. The other is a conscious leadership such as a political party provides for certain movements. At different moments, strong forces in the movement have argued that certain groups should be the vanguard (black, working, gay, etc.). Many of these arguments have been so oppressive that some women have reacted against any idea of vanguard.
Yet both functions for vanguards are important at certain points. At times, our movement may be able to use and will need a vanguard, a leading and integrating force. Out of respect developed through past leadership in struggles, a vanguard can synthesize a movement's energies and help to focus it.
A vanguard of conscious, responsible leadership can help us develop the best use of the resources and the varying interests that we will attract. It does not further and further define the pure line so that we attract fewer and fewer women. It does not win its respect by merely identifying itself as a leader. Many previous attempts at vanguard leadership failed, resting on guilt, rhetoric, and self-imposition.
When we are truly strong enough, able to develop program from our independent sectors--in women's, gay, black, medical, educational, along geographic and work lines, overlapping and also leaving spaces--then we will especially need an integrating force, a political party. It will incorporate and build on our priorities of socialist feminism because we will have shaped this vanguard of the people's liberation movement.
V. ORGANIZATIONAL NEEDS
In order to implement the strategy outlined in this paper, women's liberation organizations are needed. Through the strength of organizations, power can be won and the women who participate in them can gain a sense of their own power, a new self-respect, and a form for ensuring the continuation of our movement. Only organizations can be the carrier of victories and the repository of past successes.
Currently, the women's liberation movement is broken into small groups in most places and thus is hard to find, hard to join. Women's liberation has not received recognition for even the few victories we have won up to now, because there is no organized form to articulate our successes. With organization, women's liberation can be in the arena along with other groups, struggling for our own victories.
We fear that the women's liberation movement may die. How can we survive struggling for five, ten or more years without organizations larger than ourselves to carry on? More conservative efforts will be able to claim our victories and attract women and resources unless we offer our own organizational alternative. They will set the tone and the agenda for the movement and it will no longer be ours.
As a movement, we have tried to understand why early feminists died out, sold out, or lost out in history. Concerned lest we repeat their mistakes, we have spent much time saying we should expand our class and racial base. But perhaps a fate similar to the early feminists awaits us because 1) we have not concretely identified the interests of women and fought in common for real gains on that interest; and 2) we have not developed organizations that would fight around that interest. If we can do these things, we should be able to overcome the limitations of the earlier women's movement and actively recruit women to our movement.
In this paper we are not arguing for any one specific organization, although in the future we would hope a socialist feminist organization might be possible. Rather, we are arguing for an organizational conception which would provide a form for working on the range of problems women face--abortion, child care, health, job discrimination (i.e. "women's issues") as well as all issues which affect our lives as women: taxes, housing, the war, welfare, etc. As those issues affect us, we need forms that belong to us, through which we can respond and reach other women, and which will insure that the solutions won reflect our interests.
The kind of organization we propose reflects our confidence in this strategy, with alliances made on the basis of mutual self-interest and equal power among groups. Sometimes we have participated in coalitions out of a sense of guilt or because we did not have our own work. Often in the women's movement we face requests for our participation in everyone else's program. In a socialist feminist organization, such alliances would only be made as they fit into our own strategy.
Structures Appropriate to Goals and Constituency
As women, we have had many bad experiences with organizations which impeded our personal growth and political progress. Many women, reacting to the way they have been oppressed by such structures, reject all explicit structures. We have found this unrealistic because the structures survive implicitly and continue to affect us while we try to ignore them or live in the spaces allowed us.
The form and structures for organization will vary depending on the type of group being formed. For large, mass organizations, more structure is necessary in order to be able to integrate new members, and provide varying levels of responsibility so that those with less time can also participate. Such organizations, which are designed to achieve specific goals, need structures also in order to facilitate the development of strategy and the implementation of decisions.
A reason for flexibility in organizational form is that women of different styles may feel comfortable in different situations. For example, those with a college background may see more need for philosophical discussion. Some with jobs, family and other commitments may feel greatest priority on starting and ending meetings on time. At times the decision may have to be for the medium amount of comfort for everyone rather than the perfect atmosphere for any.
Within this context, there are several specific organizational ideas that we think are important in building organizations that serve us. We need specific forms clearly stated through which women can see where leadership lies and how to develop it and make it accountable to them. Below are structural elements we think are necessary for developing a mass organization:
- explicit structure and decision-making vehicle
- bevels of involvement to allow women to make more or less of a commitment depending on interest and/or time.
- division of labor, reviewed systematically and designed to help less skilled women gain skills.
- leadership responsible to the organization
- work and involvement having some relationship to decisionmaking
- information dissemination throughout the organization.
Leadership, Elitism and Democracy
There has been much discussion in the women's movement about elitism and leadership. We have been innovative and learned from experiments tried in different parts of the country. The principle of "if you don't know, learn; if you do know, teach" has helped many of us develop and spread our movement.
However, we have seen leadership patterns emerge in every situation. The solution is not to destroy leadership. Rather, we must make leaders responsible to organizations and to the members. In addition, leadership can be an effective catalyst, a stimulator to advance the movement. Elitism can be perpetuated only when we do not train each other in what we know.
We believe in political debate and in voting as a means of distinguishing between alternatives and deciding how to proceed. Operating on the basis of consensus means necessarily that we cannot move beyond the lowest common denominator of agreement. Our movement would never have existed if we really followed notions of consensus in American society. Moreover, consensus often hides real disagreement because there is no structured way for opposition to have a voice, as in a vote. Further, women in the minority on a particular issue can be oppressed by a consensus appraoch because their views cannot be seen as a clear, different position or altering An Such a minority position may be forced into agreement with the majority.
We believe political debate is crucial for maintaining the viability of our movement. We can have political debate without endangering our strong feeling of sisterhood for each other. Sometimes we will win and at other times we will lose; but political debate and struggle provides stimulation and challenges US to develop our ideas and positions.
Conflicting viewpoints, in fact, are healthy in any organization and should not be submerged because of a fear of difference. But for debate to be worthwhile, it needs to be tied to clear function within the organization. While engaging in that debate, we must continue to be clear in identifying the real enemy we are fighting. We can structure debate within the organization so it helps us learn, but it is not our sole function.
To summarize, we have argued for a strategy toward building socialism and feminism for this specific time in history when we have strength in our sense of responsibility to women and yet weakness in our isolated situations. This strategy assumes we want to reach most women andto do that we must understand and build on their real self-interests. We must develop winning programs and now emphasize direct action. We have argued three points in each part of this paper, which define our strategy: 1) win reforms which really improve women's lives, 2) give women a sense of their own power through organization, 3) alter the relations of power. The issue of building and seizing power is the crucial one in our real situation now. Our. consciousness of reality and our vision of what relations we would like to see between people is what guides efforts, attracts people to us and helps define what we mean by winning.
So much of this is obvious, many may ask, "so what's new?" To this we have two kinds of answers. One answer is that precisely because we think it obvious, we wrote the paper. We do believe, as we said, that we are a majority of the movement, and that as our strategy reflects reality, we will (in the course of time) attract a majority of women to our position. Still restating the obvious clarifies where we are, where we have come from and how far we have yet to go. Without a strategic conception, the women's movement has become less clear in its mission and fervor. We hope to reinforce and help each other identify what may have once appeared as common sense (before so many splits and diversions altered our common sense of relating to the needs of women).
But there is another answer to the common senseness of what we have done. Common sense is not always too common. We draw attention to some few points of significance. We hope slur ideas will not be just accepted or rejected but discussed for how they challenge common past practice. We argue for the primacy of self-interest, so often lost in discussion of ideology. Our ideology must guide us, but also must be guided by the realities shaping our lives.
We have learned a great deal in the last few years, but because we had no structure on which to build, we have lost where we could have gained in experience and power. This paper reflects both our frustration and our commitment to the development of a women's movement struggling toward the realization of a socialist feminist vision. We have written this paper so sisters who be lime as we do may come forward and join us.
Primarily, we argue for an aggressive and audacious perspective. It is one that our movement began with when we thought we were the newest and hottest thing going. Now, we have found roots. We will need strategy, organization and so many steps along the way. But we must take the offensive again, and this time fight a long battle--worth it because we believe we can win.
Back To History Is A Weapon's Front Page
|
<urn:uuid:3001cf2a-1282-4ea8-b244-53f45f8fd9c9>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/chisocfem.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.966625
| 18,102
| 1.734375
| 2
|
Young women in crop-tops, miniskirts and fishnet stockings mow down Nazis with automatic weapons. A scantily clad cheerleader chops up zombies with a chainsaw while spouting suggestive come-ons. A young woman gladly consents to an abusive S&M relationship with a controlling older man.
It’s enough to make even the most jaded reviewer flinch. But believe it or not, all of these have been described as “empowering” by various social commentators.
One of the most disturbing trends in pop culture is the appropriation of female exploitation as entertainment. Much has already been written about this topic, but’s what new is that exploitation is now tinged with neo-feminist angst. Content that would have been censured in previous years as “objectifying” or “chauvinist” is now excused on the grounds that it somehow “empowers” women. For decades, critics and scholars have derided a “male-dominated” culture obsessed with the pursuit of sex -- now, strangely, the tides have turned.
From Zack Snyder’s girls-and-guns action flick “Sucker Punch” and video games like “Lollipop Chainsaw” to E. L. James’s bestselling “Fifty Shades of Grey,” inversion of traditional attitudes seems to be the cultural flavor of the hour. Even the family-friendly superhero film “The Avengers” spent plenty of time leering at Scarlett Johansson’s tight catsuit. Yet few feminists have complained. “After all,” goes the justification, “these are strong, confident women boldly expressing their sexuality. We need more of that.”
No, we don’t.
This is not a question of art versus censorship. (“Fifty Shades” began as “Twilight” fan-fiction.) Serious-minded artists will continue to explore questions of gender roles and the relationship between male and female. This differs markedly, however, from the ongoing cultural destigmatizing of the aberrant.
Willing surrender to degradation is not empowerment. Rather, it’s merely another form of exploitation -- exploitation of oneself. The fight against illegal drug use won’t be solved be depicting strong and successful people boldly using drugs. In the same way, the fight against the degradation of women won’t be solved by depicting women voluntarily demeaning themselves. Portraying women as aggressive, sexually voracious alphas is no affirmation: Rather, it is a validation of men’s most depraved paradigms.
According to the biblical worldview, human sexuality is a beautiful and grace-filled gift -- a reflection of Christ’s relationship with the Church. Too often, this has been subverted by abuse, pornography, and domineering patriarchy. Those are evils that both believers and nonbelievers may rightly censure. But society’s answer has been to appropriate and affirm, rather than condemn, the sexual degradation of women.
None of this is to say that culture should depict women as Victorian-era damsels in distress. But the currently “chic” association of femininity with destructive sexuality is a worrisome trend that should concern both genders. Objectification is always wrong -- no matter who’s doing the objectifying.
|
<urn:uuid:0b76e242-f2a1-44d3-a15a-12948fd36a80>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://thepoint.breakpoint.org/tp-home/blog-archives/blog-archives/entry/4/19877
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.937685
| 707
| 1.585938
| 2
|
As 2009 draws to a close, I’ve been thinking a lot about traditions. What is a tradition? Do you have to keep doing it just because you always have? How do traditions get started?
While I was visiting my family in Michigan over Christmas, we decided to visit Frederik Meijer Gardens
, a favorite Grand Rapids attraction, to see the beautiful “Christmas and Holiday Traditions Around the World”
exhibit. More than 40 trees and displays representing the holiday traditions of countries, ethnicities and religions dotted the hallways, each inviting the visitor to explore a new holiday tradition from somewhere outside their own world. Some sparkled with intricate glass ornaments and elaborate embellishments, while some were so familiar, with colored lights and homemade ornaments, that I could imagine them in my own living room.
The first possible tradition I encountered was the blizzard. The last time we visited this exhibit as a family was also during a blizzard. Have we now made it a tradition to brave the inclement weather in the spirit of Christmas around the world? Should we try to keep up this tradition? It seems dangerous, albeit likely considering the high possibility we will, regardless of our own wills, encounter a blizzard on Christmas weekend in Michigan.
The second tradition I encountered has to do with oranges. My sister and I never knew why our mother would always put oranges in our stockings—until we got to the Netherlands tree. Nestled between blue and white Delftware ornaments and handpainted wooden shoes were oranges galore. Our Dutch mother, it turns out, put oranges in our stockings because her Dutch mother put oranges in her children’s stockings, and her mother’s Dutch mother put oranges in her children’s stockings, and so on. A tradition is born.
Be it oranges, blizzards, orange blizzards (Dairy Queen, anyone?)—traditions are unique, and meaningful, and I believe they come and go with time. Maybe I’ll put oranges in my children’s stockings someday, or maybe I’ll realize that kids like regular candy much more. It’s fun to try something new and see if you like it enough to make it a tradition. Here a few ideas for the coming year:
Gather your (adult) family members or friends and sign up for a night of Hearthside Suppers
. The Conner House in winter is magical, cozy and perfectly quaint. If your experience is anything like mine was, you’ll want to come back year after year.
o Try out a Prairie Tykes class
with your 2-5 year old. I often notice many of the same families when I stop in to the different classes, a tell-tale sign of a tradition-worthy experience.
o Come see our baby animals
on opening weekend for our outdoor areas, March 27 and 28. No matter how hard the winter was or how restless the kids are getting, baby animals are a momentary panacea.
Whatever you choose, we invite you into the new year with us and hope you’ll see it as an opportunity to explore, discover and experience
the world around you in new and exciting ways.
|
<urn:uuid:35e33880-20ae-4e10-aa71-b096c4ea2679>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.connerprairie.org/Connect/Staff/Blog/December-2009/Ringing-in-the-New-Year-(with-blizzards-and-orange.aspx?tagid=132
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.956266
| 674
| 1.695313
| 2
|
ETS Surgery for Recurrent Sweating Symptoms
CASE HISTORIES & RESULTS
Missed Kuntz nerves are an important
factor in recurrence of symptoms prompting many of the 142 redo
ETS surgeries Dr. Nielson has performed. Intact Kuntz nerves is
the most common reason Dr. Nielson finds
for persistent symptoms after a patient has undergone bilateral
regeneration has also been found in many redo
surgeriesby Dr. Nielson on patients who had a sympathectomy
by another doctor.
Much less commonly, persistent
symptoms is due to mis-identifying the T3 as the T2 level and therefore
leaving the T2 level completely untouched and free to carry sympathetic
nerve signal to the fingers and face.
Redo ETS R2 caused warming of cold 3/4/5 fingers of both hands!
37 year old man developed recurrent Raynaud's (episodes of
cold fingers) of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th finger and Blushing
8 months following T2/3/4 sympathectomy. Prior to the
redo ETS, touching objects that were slightly cool would
trigger cold 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers - right hand worse than
the left hand and sparing his 1/2 (thumb and index) fingers
of both hands. His first and second fingers of both hands would
remain warm when the 3rd, 4th, and 5th finger would become
very cold and numb.
Successful redo ETS caused immediate warming
of his 3rd, 4th, and 5th finger of both hands after the scar
tissue overlying the 2nd rib head (location of previous sympathectomy)
was precisely divided using a micro scissor. The divided ends
were cauterized to lessen the chance of some of the neurons
being able to reconnect. He was discharged the same day a
few hours after the redo ETS with warm and dry hands (all 5
fingers per hand).
April 2008 CT
guided Thermal (RFA) Sympathectomy of T2. Redo surgery of patient
who was not a candidate for traditional ETS due to adhesions
of the left lung covering the 2nd and 3rd rib heads.(Click
April 2008 Only
the second patient to have CT guided Thermal (RFA) Sympathectomy
of T2. Redo surgery of patient who was not a candidate for traditional
Previous surgeries by another
doctor unsuccessful, Dr. Nielson performs successful repeat surgery:
T4 clamping attempt to resolve facial sweating and blushing
fails by another surgeon. Patient
comes to Dr. Nielson for REDO. After Micro ETS is performed
by Dr. Nielson, the patient's symptoms resolve. (Click
Here to See Video)
12 Clamps placed by another surgeon
caused severe irritation of the nerve (neuroma) making the
patient's symptoms worse than before the clamps were placed. Dr.
Nielson removed the clamps, cut the nerves, and the patient's
symptoms improved. (Click
Here to See Video)
Why have people come to
you to have redo Micro ETS surgery?
Some individuals have come
to me with persistent symptoms (sweating for example) after having
had ETS surgery performed by someone else. I have treated them
with redo Micro ETS successfully and discharged them the same
day despite undergoing a redo procedure.I
have found the cause(s) to be hidden sympathetic nerve/ganglia
under thick tissue making it easy to have been missed the first
time, intact Kuntz
sympathetic nerves crossing the second and/or third
rib(s), and dislodged
clamps that are no longer in contact with the nerves
and cannot interrupt the nerve signal!
Other doctors do a partial
pleurectomy, cutting out a window of pleura so they can see the
sympathetic nerve. This is quite traumatic and causes scar
tissue that sticks like glue to the chest wall.
Probably part of the reason re-do patients tell us their post
op pain and recovery is much less with the Micro single incision
ETS re-do than their original surgery.
T2 Sympathetic Innervation
to The Sweat Glands of the Face
Over several years of experience
in treating patients with recurrent and/or persistent sweating
of the face after undergoing T2 sympathectomy, I have found that
persistence of any sympathetic nerve innervation across the second
rib level, just above the T2 ganglion, plays a significant role
in persistent sweating conditions of the face after undergoing
a T2. T3, or T4 sympathectomy.
It is apparent in some patients
that there are neuronal contributions from lower levels such as
the T3 that pass up over the second rib level on their way to the
face that participate in the sweating symptoms of the face. Some
physicians misunderstand the sympathetic nerve innervation of the
face and believe in order to treat facial sweating it is important
to cut the sympathetic nerve at the T1 level or above, thereby
causing the dreaded Horner’s Syndrome. This, in my experience,
I’ve found not to be the case.
In summary, for successful
treatment of facial sweating, it is imperative that all sympathetic
nerve innervation crossing the second rib level be divided as opposed
to clamped or having lower levels cut or clamped. Also, accessory
nerve branch pathways bypassing the T2 ganglion can or may contribute
to persistent facial symptoms.
Histories and Results
had a Dorsal Sympathectomy who then developed regeneration
of the sympathetic nerve 6 years later. She had had
a dorsal (posterior approach 6 yrs ago with clamps
and excision).Dr Nielson found tremendous lung adhesions
from the previous surgery (Lung adhesions are possible
negative effects of more invasive surgical approaches
by other techniques).
had four previous clampings by another surgeon for
Blushing persisted of his face after all four clamping
attempts. After Micro ETS, facial blushing/hyperpyrexia
resolved completely on both sides.
is a male who had two previous clampings by another
surgeon for facial sweating. Sweating persisted
on one side of his face after both clamping attempts. After
Micro ETS, his facial sweating resolved completely
on both sides.
is a 49 year old female who had ETS five years ago
with a different surgeon and technique. Her facial
blushing persisted after the surgery. She had
Micro ETS of T2 (above) to improve blushing. She feels
much less anxious now with NO post op pain or CS. She
is "very satisfied"
with the results.
had persistent facial sweating after clamping/cutting
of the T2. Dr. Nielson performs a redo on him
and finds that the clamps have fallen off the nerve
where they had beenplaced
just above the T2 ganglion on both sides. By precisely
cutting the sympathetic nerve at the upper border of
the 2nd rib the patient was successfully treated for his facial
Patient had persistent facial sweating after clamping/cutting
of the T2. Dr. Nielson did a redo on him and found that the clamps
had fallen off the nerve where they had been placed just above
the T2 ganglion on both sides. Dr. Nielson reduced patient's facial
sweating (forehead) by cutting the nerve at the 2nd rib level.
His previous surgeon had told him that his persistent forehead
sweating after T2 clamping/cutting was due to T1 innervation to
his eye which if cut to reduce his forehead sweating would also
cause Horner's syndrome. This wasn't the case and Dr. Nielson successfully
treated his persistent forehead sweating by precisely cutting
the sympathetic nerve at the upper border of the 2nd rib.
has previous surgeries with clamps at 2nd, 3rd, and
4th ribs. Patient's facial blushing does not resolve
with either surgery and he developes severe CS and
facial sweating. Twelve days after surgery with Dr.
Nielson, patient reports facial blushing is getting
Patient had two previous surgeries with clamps
at 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ribs. His facial blushing was not resolved
with either surgery, he developed severe CS and facial sweating.
Twelve days after surgery patient reports facial blushing seems
to be getting a little bit better everyday. Rates his facial blushing
as a 1 (on a scale of 1 to 3, being the most severe), but says
he hasn't really been in a situation that would trigger the most
severe episode of facial blushing.
CS of the back and trunk are much improved. Started using the Oxytrol
transdermal patch, but discontinued. CS still seems improved after
has bilateral T2 in Sweden. Four years after surgery,
severe Blushing and moderate facial sweating and moderate
cold hands (but hands still dry) developed. Dr. Nielson
performs micro ETS of T2(above) and blushing resolves
along with facial sweating.
Professional prior to first ETS was terrible.
After has been great, however recurring symptoms are beginning
to effect again. Social and personal have been better since first
ETS as a whole. Since nearly every social activity involves eating,
however, the gustatory sweating has made life miserable from that
standpoint. The Levsin takes an hour to kick in and you can't do
anything spontaneously that way. Gustatory sweating began 6 mo
post op, hands are still warm and dry after first ETS, all other
symptoms started about 4 years post op (facial blushing and sweating).
CS of the chest is moderate, worse with heat and humidity.
Patient thinks the surgeon cauterized T2 bilaterally. Gustatory
sweating started one month after surgery.
Patient has bilateral T2 in Sweden. Bilateral
cautery distruction of the T2 ganglia. Palmar sweating ceased.
6 months later gustatory sweating developed. 4 years after surgery,
severe Blushing and moderate facial sweating and moderate cold
hands (but hands still dry) developed.
Dr. Nielson performs micro ETS of T2(above) (5
years after patient had undergone ETS) and Blushing resolved
along with facial sweating.
year old white male underwent ETS-C (clamping) of T2
for severe Blushing and mild palmar hyperhidrosis that
was unsuccessful. After bilateral Micro ETS of T2(above)
complete resolution of Blushing and palmar hyperhidrosis
22 year old white male underwent ETS-C (clamping)
of T2 for severe Blushing and mild palmar hyperhidrosis. Four months
later he presented with persistent severe cranio-facial erythema
(blushing) and mild hyperhidrosis of the palms despite ETS-C of
T2. Micro ETS of T2(above) was then performed (by me) with precise
division of the sympathetic nerve at the 2nd rib bilaterally. The
titanium clamp was across the nerve 4 mm below the 2nd rib on the
right and had become dislodged from the nerve and was lying 5 mm
away from the nerve on the left side. Complete resolution of Blushing
and palmar hyperhidrosis occurred after bilateral Micro ETS of
at T2 level for blushing & hyperpyrexia (burning)
is successful. Two previous surgeries were performed
at the T3/T4 and later at the T2 level by other surgeon
29 year old asian male with severe Blushing, facial
sweating and mild palmar sweating who underwent ETS-clamping of
T3/T4 without improvement in his facial symptoms and developed
cs (compensatory sweating). His hands had become mostly dry but
were still slightly cool. One month later he elected to have ETS-clamping
of T2 without any improvement in his facial blushing or sweating
and no change in his cs.
He then presented to me 20 months later to haveMicro
ETS of T2 (above) with division (cutting) of the nerve where it
crossed the 2nd rib. Dense lung adhesions to the 2nd and 3rd rib
heads made it too invasive to remove the clamps. The nerve was
divided where it crossed the 2nd rib head using the tips of micro
endoshears. Immediate significant decrease in both Blushing and
facial Hyperpyrexia (burning) symptoms occurred as well as facial
sweating. His fingers became warm too. No change in the degree
of cs that he had preoperatively.
at T2 level for blushing & hand sweat is successful.
A previous surgery was performed at the T3 level by other
Icon to view surgery)
facial blushing after sympathectomy can occur if any kuntz nerve
that crosses the second thoracic rib is left intact, and can
therefore continue to carry nerve signals to the face.
In the many redo's Dr. Nielson has performed for persistent facial
blushing, he has found that the most common reason for persistent
blushing has been missed Kuntz nerves crossing the second thoracic
rib and less commonly dividing the sympathetic nerve at the T3
level by mistake rather than the T2 level.
that arise from T4 can actually cross the second rib several
inches lateral to the main sympathetic nerve trunk, making them
easily missed especially if not examined from an optimized angle
and if the surgeon's technique is one where only very large Kuntz
nerves can be seen. In instances such as these, the incidence
of finding Kuntz nerves is reportedly as low as 5 to 20%.
surgery at T2 level shows scar tissue resulting from
clamping. Missed kuntz nerves are divided & symptoms
Icon to view surgery)
tell us their post op pain and recovery is much less with re-do
than their original surgery.
surgery for facial blushing at T2 level. Symptoms resolve.
Icon to view surgery)
A 24 year
old white male sufferred from severe blushing with severe facial
hyperpyrexia (face/head heat) and moderate palmar hyperhidrosis
for 14 years. These symptoms were refractory to Ativan, Valium,
Effexor and Prozac. He elected to undergo bilateral ETS of T2
by clamping technique three months ago. At that time, two clamps
were placed above and two clamps below the the T2 ganglion bilaterally.
Postop pain the following day he described was significant when
raising his arms but gradually diminished over time. His hands
had become warm and dry immediately after that surgerybut he
had only noticed a 40% decrease in his blushing and no improvement
at all in his facial hyperpyrexia.
to have me perform Micro ETS of T2 todivide
any missed Kuntz nerve branches present crossing the second rib
and to divide the main sympathetic nerve by my micro cutting
technique precisely at the upper border of the 2nd rib on each
underwent Micro ETS of T2 by me and I found a large Kuntz nerve
2mm under the pleural surface crossing the second rib approximately
2.5 cm lateral to the main sympathetic nerve trunk on the right
side and 3.0 cm lateral to the main nerve on the left side. There
were two metal clamps across the main sympathetic nerve at the
second rib level and two at the third rib level (above and below
the T2 ganglion).
By my Micro
ETS technique, precise division of these Kuntz nerves was done
without having to remove a pleural window of tissue just to see
the nerves. After both sides had been precisely divided by my
Micro ETS technique, the patient's blushing completely resolved
as did his severe hyperpyrexia.
The next day after Micro ETS redo surgery, he was in no pain but
just a slight amount of soreness of the inner chest wall lining
(pleura) on deep breaths. He has been enjoying complete cessation
of his facial blushing and hyperpyrexia ever since then.
I find that
the most common reason for recurrence of symptoms or failure
to resolve them is missed Kuntz nerves crossing the second rib.
The second most common reason for recurrence is mis-identified
T2 where T3 is mistaken for T2 and the clamps or cutting is at
the T3 level rather than the T2.
Please contact us for more information
on hyperhidrosis by calling 1-877-837-9379 toll free or submit
|
<urn:uuid:da6887d3-6bd5-4e6b-9e0a-a73561304726>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.hyperhidrosis-usa.com/redos.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.944854
| 3,615
| 1.632813
| 2
|
After searching for a while, I found no way to draw vector/scalable fonts in XNA 4.0 (which would be perfect...) and I am currently in a bind about how to render fonts for my game.
In the game I use fonts of variable size, ranging from very small to quite large, and I have no idea how to efficiently deal with this.
The only way I can currently accomplish what I want is to load a large number of SpriteFonts different sizes, manually pick the font closest to the size I want, and then fine-tune the size with a scale close to 1. (A scale too large or too small will make the font look horrible.) I've also started using the Nuclex font processor which makes the fonts looks somewhat better, but it's obviously not the answer to my problem.
Is there really no other way to deal with this?
It seems very strange to me that something as elaborate and well done as XNA 4.0 has such a profound lack of tools to deal with font rendering.
This is quite a big problem for me currently, so any help and ideas on possible ways to deal with this or even to ease the pain are very welcome.
|
<urn:uuid:79f1ee0a-8726-43d3-bedb-2be03160df6e>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/32356/how-to-deal-with-variable-size-font-in-xna-4-0/32401
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.971372
| 250
| 1.625
| 2
|
Party time: Fine Gael
It is widely presumed that, after the coming Irish general election, the new government will be led by Fine Gael. It is the only party that has entered a sufficient number of candidates in the election to allow it to govern on its own if the electorate so decides, as no other party will has enough candidates to win a majority even if all of them were elected. Furthermore, the opinion polls are strongly suggesting a very sold performance by the party.
In these circumstances, what the party says in its manifesto matters, and we can expect to see many of its promises become government policy shortly.
So as regards higher education, what are these promises? They are contained in section 9.9 of the document, and this provides an insight into what Fine Gael believes now constitute our priorities. This includes what is, in essence, an adoption of the proposals on funding made in England by Lord Browne’s review: there will be no up-front fees, but graduates will be required to make a ‘contribution’ amounting in total to about a third of the cost of their degree programme.
Secondly, Fine Gael wants the universities to pursue ‘greater pay and non-pay efficiencies in the third level system through greater flexibility in working arrangements, in line with the Croke Park Agreement.’
Thirdly, the party wants more coordination of the sector, and so it promises to ‘give students a better third level education by repositioning our universities and institutes to become world leaders in education through greater collaboration, specialisation and focus in every educational institution.’
Finally, the party is intending to double international student numbers. While no doubt there are several reasons, the manifesto emphasises the potential for ‘maximising the revenue potential of this rapidly growing.’
Over recent years the impression has grown amongst politicians that Ireland’s higher education system is too fragmented and inefficient. Fine Gael has been at the heart of this drive to introduce ‘reform’. While the detailed plans set out in the manifesto are somewhat vague, they nevertheless paint a picture of system in which government will exercise greater control over institutions and change the nature of the academic employment relationship. Universities will need to engage with the party as a matter of urgency, with a good case.Explore posts in the same categories: higher education, politics comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
|
<urn:uuid:1d14fd29-687c-46ac-b903-202676e68687>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://universitydiary.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/party-time-fine-gael/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.959804
| 498
| 1.59375
| 2
|
But, then, there are many puzzling aspects to the “tea party” phenomenon.
One of the overlooked questions that nagged at me until very recently is the fact that most of those who have been bamboozled by right wing propaganda seem entirely unconcerned that their children and grandchildren are being priced out of a college education. None of the corporate “news” media have asked any of the suckers about that, to my knowledge.
In fact, second-rate and even third-rate colleges already are beyond the means of millions of Americans, and the genuinely good universities are priced so far beyond the ability of most people to pay that they are now pretty much reserved for the rich — and a few awesomely brilliant scholarship kids, of course.
No one, least of all university administrators, even remembers the purpose of land-grant universities and how they came to be. I don’t hear anyone asking why schools that cannot exist without billions of tax dollars are being priced so that the majority of young people can’t afford them.
State universities, like private colleges, are increasingly only for the very well off, and rapidly headed for the status of rich-kid sanctuaries.
(Land grant colleges– most of which now are universities -– were established by acts of Congress in 1862 and 1890. Essentially, under those acts the federal government gave states land which the states could develop or sell to raise money to endow colleges. The colleges were to specialize in agriculture, science and engineering, but the missions were greatly broadened over the years. The land-grant laws have been revised at least 20 times to give the schools more breadth and depth. Many, probably most, state universities, including my alma mater, would not exist were it not for those laws. The endowments still function.)
People with little money are shunted into community colleges, which, to be blunt, are basically trade schools for people who will, if they are lucky, get middling white collar jobs and never advance beyond the office equivalent of foreman. (I know: It’s another truth we’re not supposed to recognize.) A few very sharp individuals will transcend that arc, of course, but that doesn’t change the basic facts.
If things had been in the 1950s as they are now, neither I nor a majority of my closest friends of similar age would have obtained college educations.
But the people who ride buses chartered by the Koch brothers and carry signs calling Barack Obama a Nazi very obviously don’t give a damn about education.
I recently remembered something I learned when I was a 19- or 20-year-old student at the University of Minnesota.
One of the many myths of this country is that Americans want their kids to do better in life than they have done.
As Ira Gershwin put it: It ain’t necessarily so.
The fact is that a whole lot of people, generally from blue-collar communities and, especially, rural areas, emphatically do not want their offspring to advance substantially, either socially or economically. They won’t often admit that, but it’s a truth I learned from the offspring of blue collar families, and rural people, of my generation. And from their parents.
Periodically, I do a little asking around to see if that has changed. It has not.
(I come from an entirely blue-collar family, by the way, and my parents were skeptical about my going to college, mainly but not entirely because even at the very low cost of a public university in those days, money was a very big issue. I paid at least 90 percent of my own living and university expenses through part-time and multiple summer jobs; that is impossible for a poor kid today, no matter how hard he or she works.)
Pages: 1 2
|
<urn:uuid:70f3bc1c-fb57-4fff-9cd5-3fd0547bc07e>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.laprogressive.com/tea-partiers-kids-uppity/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.978381
| 803
| 1.8125
| 2
|
TILBURG – The Netherlands is traditionally known for tulips, windmills and cheese. More recently its sports fans with orange outfits dominate football and speed skate arenas. With the 2010 IIHF World Championship, Division I Group A in Tilburg, will the world see the next orange revolution?
Ice hockey and the Netherlands are not a well known combination. Nevertheless, the Dutch have been a member of the IIHF for 75 years and they were at the 1980 Olympics with its ‘Miracle on Ice’.
Like many nations below the upper echelon of international hockey, the Netherlands have had their share of ups and downs. From time to time, the country had a team at the A-pool between the late ‘30s and the ‘50s. A few years later, the sport almost died when rinks were closed in Amsterdam and Tilburg. It got back on its feet thanks to new speed skating rinks that were built with hockey rinks. The 60s also saw sponsors step into hockey and it didn’t take long before import players arrived. In the beginning, those imports were mainly Canadians or Czech soldiers stationed across the border in Germany.
One source for new players, and still used today, is to scour Canadian phone books to find Dutch names and ask if anyone in the family plays hockey. During the second world war, thousands of families left the Netherlands for Canada. Dutch hockey fans still dream of the next Jay Bouwmeester, Eric Staal or James van Riemsdyk to suit up in the orange jersey.
In the 70s the domestic league and its tickets were a hot property. It was inevitable that the national team would also improve from the strong league.
The highlight of Dutch hockey came in 1980 and 1981. The team went from the C-pool in 1979 to winning the B-pool in 1980and with that an automatic ticket to the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. The vast majority of the team was Dutch-Canadian. They finished ninth of twelve teams and were the lone country other than Canada and the USA to score four times against the Soviet Union. Of course, this is put into perspective knowing that the Soviets scored 17 goals.
The fairytale of going from the C-pool to the A-pool and the Olympics lasted exactly three years. 1981 was the last time the Netherlands were among the elite and they made sure they wouldn’t be forgotten quickly. Their physical North American type of game sent Canadian super star Guy LaFleur flying literally over the ice. Rick van Gog’s hit on his debut sent a shock through Canada and made the newspapers globally.
The last three decades the Dutch have been mainly active in Division I with an occasional one year stint one level below. Their steadiness warrants their 24th position on the IIHF World Ranking. The last time they made noise were a silver medal in 1992 and two bronze medals in 2004 and 2005.
Since the new tournament setup was established ten years ago, the Netherlands are the only team, together with Great Britain, to play in all editions. The 2010 World Championship, Division I marks the third time in the last decade it is being hosted in the Netherlands.
After finishing fifth the last three years, the team is eager to improve on home ice. Former national team player (162 games) Tom Hartogs is the head coach and his team played five exhibition games in the build-up to the tournament but found itself on the losing end against Romania and Great Britain twice and most recently against top-division team France.
“It’s very sad that we couldn’t win a single game but the preparation schedule was good," said Hartogs. "We have trouble scoring and it showed in the games. A direct result of this is that it does hurt the confidence of the players a little at this moment.”
In Tilburg, the hosts will face stiff competition from Austria, Ukraine, Japan, Lithuania and Serbia. “Austria and Ukraine are A-level teams or will soon be playing there,” Hartogs thinks. “We haven’t played Japan for quite some time so I’m not too sure what to expect from them. Games against Lithuania have always been close and exciting in the past.”
Based on the results the last few seasons, the game against lowest-seeded Serbia will be a must-win game. Hartogs knows the importance of a win. “The last few months we’ve been stating that we want to improve from last year’s position so yes, that game is one we must win to achieve our goal.”
Hartogs was once a dominant player at Division I level, but realizes several countries have leapfrogged the Netherlands, for example Denmark. “All countries in general have improved, but some countries have made bigger strides than us. A decade ago we had players like Dave Livingston and myself who played for the national team for many years. The current squad is talented but young. We lacked a generation in between. Until they have experience, we have to survive on this level.”
Luckily for Hartogs, Mark Tanner (born in Canada) and Stanislav Nazarov (Russia) received a Dutch passport in time for the tournament meaning he can count on their experience on defence.
In last year’s championship, the Netherlands had six players younger then 23. This year that won’t be much different as the Dutch are looking to the future generation. This summer, a new project called CTO (centre for top sport and education) was started. Next to several other sports, 25 talented hockey players 15-18 years old moved to Eindhoven to combine sports with school. Eight practice sessions during the week followed by a game in the weekend is a new concept for Dutch hockey.
The federation, NIJB, hopes this initiative will provide a higher level of play in the future. Chairman Joop Vullers said, “we have four years to build the fundamentals and in six to seven years we expect to take advantage of it on national team level.” Vullers has publically announced his dreams of participating in the 2018 Olympics but remains realistic. “One shouldn’t be afraid to set high targets but if we can become a country that can play for the medals in the Division I and every now and then can promote to the elite level we’ve already done very well.”
Hist city Tilburg has recently built a complete new sports facility including ice rink next to the existing rink and a lot of players/coaches of the local team, the Tilburg Trappers, will meet each other in a different jersey during the tournament. The team’s head coach Mark Pederson has opted to coach Serbia, assisted by Mike Pellegrims while Trappers’ goaltender Yutaka Fukufuji might be between the pipes for Japan.
Ian Meierdres shared the goaltending duties with Fukufuji in Tilburg this season. The Tilburg native is obviously excited to play a championship at home. “As a kid I witnessed previous championships and thought the level was so high. Now I’m there myself even in my own city. That’s awesome. It brings some extra pressure to play in front of your own fans but I get a kick out of that.”
Tilburg forward and native Peter van Biezen is looking forward to play at home. “It’s a great feeling and gives me some confidence. We can sit in our own locker room and know the rink and the fans. It should give us more energy during the tournament.” Van Biezen is also clear about his ambitions. “We want to play for a medal otherwise we can just as well not participate.”
Hartogs also feels it is an advantage to play in Tilburg. “It’s a different feeling to play at home. Positive excitement is building and the media attention is growing. Playing at home in front of the home crowd should be giving us some stimulus though.”
The fans have responded as well. Several games are sold out, something that was never achieved in previous World Championships in the Netherlands. Don’t be surprised if there are goofy costumes and hats or dress bonnet-to-wooden shoe. If the youth project the federation has started up becomes successful the orange revolution could spread through rinks across the borders meaning the world will soon see Orange-clad fans in a nearby arena.
Thirty years ago, the Dutch team was different because the players didn’t speak Dutch. Currently their fans and coloured jersey make the difference. It seems to fit the country to go against the grain. They feel it’s time for revolution.
|
<urn:uuid:72123bfb-ebef-4499-9924-86415b634318>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.iihf.com/fi/channels10/iihf-world-championship-wc10/home/division-i/game-recaps/news-singleview-world-championship-2010/recap/4427.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=4159&cHash=3e3c90baf9
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.974834
| 1,817
| 1.632813
| 2
|
DALLAS – Crazy, biting ants invade by the millions – and kill by the hundreds!
Crazy, raspberry ants are swarming into Texas – and they’re taking no prisons. They are destroying property and attacking humans. There have been 67 lethal attacks in the last two weeks.
The Crazy Ant Poison that U.S. Exterminators use only stops them for a day, and then a fresh horde shows up, bringing babies. You can’t escape these ants. Once they target you or your property – they are relentless and will send millions of troops to get you
The ants have also taken down huge industrial plants and have attacked farm animals. Over 3,000 cows and pigs have been killed by the crazy ants so far.
Controlling them can cost millions of dollars. And there’s no surefire way of controlling them.
“Months later, I could close my eyes and see them moving,” said Jack Mooney, who curates the ant, mosquito and scarab collections at the Texas State Entomological Museum at the University of Texas.
He’s been back to check on the hairy crazy ants. They’re still around. The occupant isn’t. Ant death.
Mooney himself was attacked himself and may have to have his legs and right arm amputated.
This entomologist, Mary Hillstrom, was attacked by the Crazies after she gave a lecture on how to fight them.
The flea-sized critters are called crazy because each forager scrambles randomly at a speed that your average picnic ant, marching one by one, reaches only in video fast-forward. They’re called hairy because of fuzz that, to the naked eye, makes their abdomens look less glossy than those of their slower, bigger cousins.
The “Crazies” on the move from Texas to Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. Some of the ants have taken over some motorcycles (it takes about 2.3 million of them to drive it.)
The ants also overwhelm beehives – one Texas beekeeper was losing 1o,ooo a year in 2010. They short out industrial equipment.
If one gets electrocuted, its death releases a chemical cue to attack a threat to the colony, said Roger Gold, an entomology professor at Texas A&M.
“The other ants rush in. Before long, you have a wall of ants,” he said.
A computer system controlling pipeline valves shorted out twice in about 35 days, but monthly treatments there now keep the bugs at bay, said exterminator Tom Rasberry, who found the first Texas specimens of the species in the Houston area in 2002.
Compared to other ants, these need overkill- and usually even that doesn’t work. For instance, Gold said, if 100,000 are killed by pesticides, billions more will follow.
“I did a test site with a product early on and applied the product to a half-acre … In 30 days I had two inches of dead ants covering the entire half-acre,” Rasberry said. “It looked like the top of the dead ants was just total movement from all the live ants on top of the dead ants.”
The ants are probably native to South America, MacGown said. But they were recorded in the Caribbean by the late 19th century, said Jeff Keularts, an extension associate professor at the University of the Virgin Islands. That’s how they got the nickname “Caribbean crazy ants.” They’ve also become known as Rasberry crazy ants, after the exterminator.
|
<urn:uuid:5abbd21e-9ab6-4ef2-8366-5eb710c320c0>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/38981/crazy-hairy-ants-attack/?like=1&_wpnonce=fb65bac995
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.959823
| 763
| 1.6875
| 2
|
Reading Jackie Her Autobiography in Books (Hardcover) Book
SKU ID #292347
To Order by Phone Call 1-800-344-6336
In the hardcover Reading Jackie book, you'll learn that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis never wrote a memoir, but she told her life story and revealed herself in intimate ways through the nearly 100 books she brought into print during the last two decades of her life as an editor at Viking and Doubleday. Based on archives and interviews with Jackie's authors, colleagues, and friends, Reading Jackie mines this significant period of her life to reveal both the serious and the mischievous woman underneath the glamorous public image. In the Jackie Kennedy book, Reading Jackie, though Jackie had a reputation for avoiding publicity, she willingly courted controversy in her books. She was the first editor to commission a commercially-successful book telling the story of Thomas Jefferson's relationship with his female slave. And you'll learn in the Jackie Kennedy autobiography book, Reading Jackie, that her publication of Gelsey Kirkland's attack on dance icon George Balanchine caused another storm. Jackie rarely spoke of her personal life, but many of her books ran parallel to, echoed, and emerged from her own experience. In the hardcover Reading Jackie book, you'll see that she was the editor behind bestsellers on the assassinations of Tsar Nicholas II and John Lennon, and in another book she paid tribute to the allure of Marilyn Monroe and Maria Callas. Her other projects take us into territory she knew well: journeys to Egypt and India, explorations of the mysteries of female beauty and media exploitation, into the minds of photographers, art historians, and the designers at Tiffany & Co. In the Jackie Kennedy book, Reading Jackie, you'll discover that many Americans regarded Jackie as the paragon of grace, but few knew her as the woman sitting on her office floor laying out illustrations, or flying to California to persuade Michael Jackson to write his autobiography. Reading Jackie provides a compelling behind-the-scenes look at Jackie at work: how she commissioned books and nurtured authors, as well as how she helped to shape stories that spoke to her strongly. In the Jackie Kennedy autobiography book, Reading Jackie, you'll see that Jackie is remembered today for her marriages to JFK and to Aristotle Onassis, but her real legacy is the books that reveal the tastes, recollections, and passions of an independent woman.
Shop for the hardcover Reading Jackie book to explore the fascinating third act of the former first lady.
|
<urn:uuid:f582d281-dd4d-4376-b8d1-9b1adcf28eac>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://shop.history.com/reading-jackie-her-autobiography-in-books-hardcover-book/detail.php?p=292347&v=history-education_promo-m-no-shows&pagemax=all
|
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
| 0.959342
| 514
| 1.679688
| 2
|
Yesterday, the House of Commons saw some to-and-fro rhetoric between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition around counter-terrorism in the wake of the Algerian attack and its aftermath. It's important to recognise within the wide context of the news stories and the political analysis that at the personal level there are families across the globe now who have been robbed of sons/brothers/fathers/husbands - and they need support in what comes next for them in their lives.
In the Commons yesterday, there was an expected increase in rhetoric about the need to fight terrorism. The Prime Minister, towards the end of his initial comments, said:
"In sum, we must frustrate the terrorists with our security, we must beat them militarily, we must address the poisonous narrative they feed on, we must close down the ungoverned space in which they thrive, and we must deal with the grievances that they use to garner support. This is the work that our generation faces, and we must demonstrate the same resolve and sense of purpose as previous generations did with the challenges that they faced in this House and in this country."
In response, the Leader of the Opposition:
"In particular, the task is to understand the nature of the new threat, which is more decentralised and fragmented and takes advantage of the ungoverned spaces and security vacuum in parts of north Africa. At the same time, in its response the international community needs to apply the lessons of the past about the combination of diplomacy, politics and security required to help to bring about stability in the region."
"More broadly across the region, countering the emerging threat of terrorism begins with understanding it and talking about it in the right way. The work to deal with that threat will be painstaking: diplomatic and political as much as military; and collaborative and multilateral, not unilateral. Does the Prime Minister agree that we are talking about a number of distinct regional organisations, some using the banner of al-Qaeda and others not, rather than a single, centrally co-ordinated or controlled group? Each of these threats needs to be monitored and countered appropriately."
Taking the two areas of that on which I feel qualified to speak - the understanding element and the poisonous narrative. I believe one is essential and the other is a deeply misleading concept that blinds us to opportunities and threats.
Understanding the region, the people and groups within it, is crucial to undermining support. Having done some work with narrative research in Egypt the year before the Arab Spring, I can say with some confidence that underlying dispositions arise from small grievances and historical events - usually things that sit well below the radar of analysts sitting far away. It's the coalescence of common grievances and perspectives that tends to drive social movements, and these are only visible at the personal, the local level. It's why we gather experiences and narratives about day-to-day life, not grand events (although those can crop up in the material we collect).
For monitoring, it's more useful to watch for emergent clusters of narrative around common themes - letting the people on the ground tell you what is bothering them. Pre-defined categories and questions can be too directive - gaining us at best answers that fit within our previous suspicions, at worst allowing the people we're hearing the opportunity to give us the stories they think we want to hear. (cf The Hoaxing of Margaret Mead)
The poisonous narrative is a tempting but dangerous notion. It's also a simplistic one that is easier to fit into newspapers and popular discussion than a more difficult, more nuanced one. The truth - as I pointed out some time ago at a conference - is that there is no single terrorist narrative. There are many narratives - each one different in its inception - that, as people become part of the movement, is co-opted and shaped to fit a bigger motivation. It's an end-result after radicalisation, to my mind, less of an instigating motivation. In essence, one person's dissatisfaction with their life warps over time to become "the West is keeping me down".
To mistake the end-point as the motivation is deeply misleading.
There are other problems with this approach too. If we as observers approach the subject with the concept of a single narrative, we emphasis and activate our own cognitive biases - we go into the problem counting basketballs and risk not seeing guerillas. If we're looking for the early signals of rising dissatisfaction and potential radicalisation, a single narrative will blind us. We will miss the early warnings - but more crucially we may miss early opportunities, moments when small incidents addressed quickly will dampen down ill-feeling and dispositions towards violence.
If we see a single poisonous narrative, the temptation is to find a cure or a counter-narrative. And as Dave and I have both commented on in the past, this is a Bad Idea. There won't be a counter-narrative - but there may be multiple local narratives and thousands of micro-narratives. Countering and curing are both approaches that define something as negative and look for that which will eradicate it. Instead, by looking at all those different narratives, the better approach is to amplify some - through action, through diplomacy, through aid and, yes, through military options where necessary - and dampen others.
The approach instead is an ecological one - how do you encourage the plants you want in your garden, weeding out those you don't want early and while they are small. Wait until they've coalesced into something large and its roots are too deep to remove easily.
[At some point, I need to write that article on Gardening and Narratives - I've only been contemplating it for 20 months now. Elephants have shorter gestation periods...]
|
<urn:uuid:6127e5a8-69e1-4e24-a2e5-38726b46285c>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://narrate.typepad.com/whats_the_story/2013/01/understanding-narratives-the-reality-of-counter-terrorism-and-counter-insurgency.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.961915
| 1,180
| 1.5
| 2
|
Governor Jay Inslee today requested legislation that protects and creates agricultural jobs and addresses fish passage and water supply issues in the Yakima Valley region.
"This is a solid step forward for the Yakima Valley and I'm pleased that we have such bi-partisan agreement on this proposal," said Inslee, who has been involved with Yakima River Basin enhancement efforts since 1994 when he served the Yakima Valley in Congress. "More than 5,500 jobs are associated with Yakima's agricultural and food industries and hundreds of thousands of salmon depend on the region's waterways. This is a plan that's good for jobs and for fish."
A broad group of stakeholders worked together on a management plan to address water supplies that fall short of demand and salmon runs and returns that have declined over the past century.
Inslee's Yakima River Basin Water, Jobs, and Fish bill directs the Department of Ecology to implement the plan. The plan calls for $23.6 million to restore fisheries and meet agricultural, municipal and domestic water needs in the Yakima River basin.
|
<urn:uuid:37534dae-9721-4f3c-aad0-3bbeed14fc51>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://votesmart.org/public-statement/759879/jobs-water-and-fish-governor-inslee-introduces?flavour=mobile
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.94903
| 215
| 1.78125
| 2
|
Note: Subscribe now to GreatDad newsletters to receive great info for dads. Also visit GreatDad's page on Books for Dads.
Dads spend their lives thinking about their families. They slog hard at work so that they can bring home the bacon. They allow their own preferences to play second fiddle to others at home. And they routinely forgo their own happiness to bring a smile on the lips of their children.
In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson declared Father's Day a holiday, to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. Fatherís day presents a wonderful opportunity to celebrate fatherhood. Itís a day to reflect back on the special, if often unacknowledged, role dads play in our lives. Itís a time to remember the innumerable sacrifices fathers make for us, and repay them by saying those simple words dads love to hear, ďThanks dad, I love you.Ē
Here are some unique Father's Day Ideas to celebrate the Father's Day:
- Dad doesnít have to wait for his next birthday to feel special. If there is a shirt, a watch or season tickets to a game that dad has been wanting to buy for a long time but just never had the time for, let him know you took the time to care.
- Dads may not be sentimental around the house but they love to display their Fatherís Day cards at work with pride. Give your dad a Fatherís Day card. If you have the time, you can even make your own card, letting dad know how much you love him.
- Spend some quality time with your dad. Make the day a special family occasion by watching a movie together or playing some of his favorite music.
- Treat your dad to dinner at a fine restaurant. Better still, surprise him by cooking up his favorite dish at home. (If you donít cook, order out from his favorite restaurant and have a quiet intimate evening with dad.)
- Get your dad a Fatherís Day gift that is personal and which expresses the measure of your love for him. Give something you know your dad will love and use often. This way, your dad will remember you every time he uses the gift.
Above all, remember, itís not the gift, as much as the thought behind it that countsóespecially, with dads.
|
<urn:uuid:073615f2-d640-4ea4-b0ef-0f2a22de763f>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.greatdad.com/tertiary/379/1616/father-s-day-tribute-to-dads.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.964094
| 476
| 1.804688
| 2
|
3 Bible Tips: Lessons From Laodicea
The apostle John recorded Jesus Christ's messages to seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. After each message, everyone is told, "He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 3:22). What can we learn from the last message?
1. Don't be lukewarm (indifferent, lacking in spiritual zeal).
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth" (Revelation 3:15-16).
2. Don't feel self-sufficient; look at it from God's perspective and see how much we need from Him.
"Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see" (Revelation 3:17-18).
3. Accept and act on God's correction. We should invite Him into our lives, and He will invite us to sit on His throne!
"I am the one who corrects and disciplines everyone I love. Be diligent and turn from your indifference. Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends. I will invite everyone who is victorious to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne" (Revelation 3:19-21, New Living Translation).
To learn more about the lessons of Laodicea, see "The Message to Laodicea: Be Zealous and Repent."
What Bible tips would you add?
Post your comment at Posterous by using your Facebook or Twitter account.
|
<urn:uuid:8275cf38-22a7-4762-8396-e037b5d306b8>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.freebiblestudyguides.org/bible-tips/lessons-from-laodicea.htm
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.95203
| 466
| 1.820313
| 2
|
The DRD is currently bringing forward a plan to build an entirely new grade-separarated dual-carriageway along the route of the A5, from Derry to Aughnacloy. The scheme is known as the A5 Western Transport Corridor, or A5 WTC.
This week the BBC reported that the Public Inquiry into the A5 upgrade, which took place in Spring 2011, will approve most of the road, although recommending that the stretch from Ballygawley to Aughnacloy be postponed, and asking the DRD to revisit the issue of compensation for landowners. I would expect a formal announcement on this subject within the next few days or weeks.
This particular scheme has attracted a storm of controversy. Supporters say that it will encourage investment in the West by providing better transport links, and improve road safety. Critics point to the large number of landowners – mostly farmers – who will be adversely affected, and what they regard as the excessive £844m price tag. Some also argue that anything that encourages the use of private cars should be avoided.
Throughout the years, one of the main reasons for such a divergence of views is not so much disagreement with the specific points made by the “other side”, but rather how much weight they give to those points. This is because the two sides are using fundamentally different evaluation techniques.
Roads Service’s arguments for the scheme are generally concrete and numeric, based on cost-benefit analyses and road safety statistics. Arguments against the scheme are generally more sociological and ideological, based on the impact on individuals, society and the environment. It is hard for concrete/numeric arguments to be weighed against sociological/ideological arguments in any meaningful way. Hence disagreement, impassioned debate and a lack of consensus is almost guaranteed in such proposals.
What I will be doing below is outlining the main arguments for proceeding with the A5 scheme. Counter-arguments are being adequately presented elsewhere. Everyone should make their own judgement based on common sense.
The current road is a single-carriageway road (i.e. one lane each way separated by a white line) and is all-purpose (i.e. all types of vehicle are permitted to use it – lorries, vans, cars, motorbikes, bicycles, tractors, horse-drawn vehicles, pedestrians etc). I have not measured journey times along the A5, but I would estimate that the average vehicle speed lies somewhere between 40 and 50mph. The new road will safely permit sustained speeds of up to 70mph for cars.
The DRD has used a benefit-cost analysis to support the scheme. A benefit-cost analysis is achieved by estimating the average travel time saving along the route, and multiplying this by the number of vehicles predicted to use the route over the evaluation period (e.g. 20 years). This is then multiplied by a typical hourly wage figure (e.g., the minimum wage) to achieve a total saving to the economy over the period. Added to this, then, are the additional benefits to the economy, for example new businesses and jobs attracted to the area by the new road. Also added in are the money saved by the state from dealing with fewer accidents, in terms of the effect of road closures, and the cost to property and the NHS.
For the A5, the benefit-cost ratio was around 1.99*, which means that it will likely bring almost twice as much benefit as it will cost to build. Thus it is calculated to bring around £1.68 billion of benefits over the evaluation period, compared to its cost of £844m.
While this is a very useful sum, and all of these are real benefits, personally I have never been that convinced of the usefulness of this figure. Of course the haulage industry will make real, tangible cost savings from reduced journey times and delays, but most other drivers will not. Most people base their time of departure on their desired arrival time, and then subtract the journey time. Saving 15 minutes on the journey will probably just mean leaving 15 minutes later. In most cases, this will probably not mean a real, tangible saving of actual money. It might just mean an extra 15 minutes in bed, or a more leisurely lunch. The “benefit” figure, therefore, is merely symbolic, a way of making the intangible tangible.
The journey time saving is used in equally silly ways by the scheme’s opponents. Some take the total cost of the scheme and divide by the time saving that could be achieved by someone driving the full length of the A5, and then stating things like “the road is costing £50m per minute”, as if the entire road is being built for the benefit of a single motorist on one journey. This quite consciously makes the scheme sound ridiculous, but is a fairly meaningless figure when you consider that literally tens of millions of people will be using the new road over the next 20, 30 or 40 years. It also falsely suggests that shaving 15 minutes off a journey is the principal motivation of the scheme.
I believe there are two key arguments for proceeding, which I outline below. Of course there are other points to consider, such as whether now is the time to go ahead, or whether this is the road to be spending the money on, or whether farmers will be adequately compensated, but those are questions for another blog entry. For now, these are two of the best reasons to proceed.
1. Improved Road Safety
The current road has a poor safety record. Between 2004 and 2009, 19 people lost their lives on the A5 between Derry and Aughnacloy, an average of about one every 16 weeks. When total traffic levels are taken into account, we can calculate that 8.4 people are currently dying on the A5 for every billion kilometres travelled, which is around the average for roads of this type in Northern Ireland.
The graphic below shows where these deaths took place (along with the average vehicles per day, vpd, on each stretch):
Although we often hear news stories that suggest that “speed” is the dominant cause of deaths on our roads, in fact this is not the case. The roads with the highest speeds in Northern Ireland are also the roads with the lowest death rates – motorways have a death rate ten times lower than single-carriageway roads like the A5. Hence other factors must be at work. Most accidents are caused by poor or careless driving. But because drivers are human it is unavoidable that they occasionally make mistakes and poor judgements. The trick, therefore, is to minimise the opportunities for drivers to make errors. Experience has shown that the most effective way to reduce accidents on major roads is to systematically eliminate the causes of conflict between different vehicles. These include things like:
- Minimising high speed differences by preventing vehicles from having to come to a near standstill on the road to turn on or off the road, usually achieved with slip roads.
- Minimising the risk of striking a turning vehicle by banning right-turns, by providing flyovers to let drivers turn right without crossing opposing traffic.
- Minimising the risk of head-on collisions by providing a central safety barrier, and also by providing a dedicated second lane in each direction to permit safe overtaking.
- Minimising the number of junctions by banning most or all private accesses, and limiting access to local roads to a few carefully selected locations.
- Minimising accidents resulting from leaving the road at bends by allowing only gentle, sweeping curves with plenty of forward visibility.
- Motorways – 0.8 deaths
- A-Class Dual Carriageways – 4.2 deaths
- A-Class “normal” roads, like the A5 – 8.9 deaths
- B-Class and below – 6.0 deaths
So normal (i.e. single-carriageway) A-class roads have the worst safety record of any type of road while motorways, which have all of the features outlined above, have the best. Clearly, then, upgrading the A5 will lead to lives being saved. The proposed A5 will be of a higher standard than the “A-Class Dual Carriageway” in the above list, in that most A-Class DC’s in Northern Ireland still allow right-turns and T-junctions. In fact, the proposed standard is just a little below that of a motorway; the only significant differences being that slow vehicles such as tractors are banned from motorways but will not be banned from the upgraded A5, and that the new road will not feature hard shoulders.
It is obvious that upgrading the existing A5 could not achieve the standard necessary to reduce deaths significantly. There would still have to be plenty of T-junctions, lots of private accesses, steeper curves, poorer forward visibility and (incidentally) significantly more property demolition. An upgrade of the existing road would offer some benefits, but would result in a more dangerous road than that which is proposed, offer fewer benefits than the proposed scheme, and lead to more deaths than the proposed scheme.
But even if we take the figure for A-Class DCs as the reduced death rate that will result from upgrading the A5 (and it’s probably too high) the number of deaths over the six years following construction could be expected to fall from 19 to 9. In other words, after six years ten people will still be alive who would have been dead had the upgrade not taken place. To facetiously borrow the phraseology of the road’s critics, this works out at £84m to save a human life.
2. Reduced Driver Stress
Some have (correctly) pointed out that the majority of the A5 is currently running below capacity. A single-carriageway road such as the A5 will generally perform adequately up to about 13,000 vehicles per day. As you will see from the map above, only the Omagh and Strabane throughpasses, and the stretch connecting those two towns, exceed this level. It is notable that the short stretch from Ballygawley to Aughnacloy is much lower than the others.
However, this is not an argument for saying that the upgraded road is not needed. A capacity figure is purely a reference to traffic congestion. It does not say anything about the general safety of the road, although increased traffic will tend to increase conflicts and hence accidents. Neither does it say anything about driver stress, which is a more important consideration for investment.
Driver stress is created whenever a driver is forced to drive in a manner that is below the way they would “like” to drive. Drivers are humans, not machines, and they respond like humans, not like machines. Anyone who has been stuck behind a tractor on a twisty road will understand how being forced to drive more slowly than you would like to can soon result in feelings of irritation and perhaps frustration.
Being stuck behind a slow vehicle with no means to get past is only one of many ways that driver stress manifests itself. Roads that require more concentration than others, perhaps because of numerous curves or lots of blind corners, create a more stressful driving experience. Being stuck at a junction waiting for a gap to turn out is another. Inching slowly through towns and villages on a long-distance journey is yet another. Each element by itself is not that significant, but added together a particular road may offer hundreds of tiny stress elements that add up and add up to create an overall stressful driving experience.
It is my view that the greater the amount of driver stress offered by a road, the greater the potential for accidents and the less willing people are to use the road. Why do most people choose motorways rather than parallel roads to go long distances? Because it’s quicker, safer and less stressful.
This is why the A5WTC will lead to increased investment in the West. By making it less stressful to get to/from towns like Omagh and Strabane, it will be enough to tip the balance for a lot of people who hitherto were not prepared to make the journey. This will make it more likely that new businesses will locate, or choose to remain, in towns such as these. It will also give greater freedom to the people living there, as leisure pursuits further away from their homes will come within each.
Bizarrely, providing a new road is one of the few areas where it is regarded as A Bad Thing if investment in a service results in more people using it. If you improve a shopping centre, or a visitor attraction, or a hospital, or a school you would not expect people to criticise it if it then attracted more people. Roads are a service, and they are meant to be used. In fact, there would be something wrong if a new road did not attract more traffic.
If the upgraded A5 succeeds, i.e. if traffic levels increase after it opens, it will be a signal that people are being given greater opportunities for commerce and leisure, and that people are investing in the West.
*A5 Public Inquiry transcripts, 9 May 2011, p132
|
<urn:uuid:0473369f-9a79-47a5-975d-d2e526610485>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://wesleyjohnston.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/reasons-to-support-the-a5-wtc-dual-carriageway/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.964976
| 2,730
| 1.71875
| 2
|
High school researcher combines sustainability with passion for chemistry
RIT joins American Chemical Society to provide summer research opportunity
Aug. 14, 2012
by Paul Stella
Follow RITNEWS on Twitter
It’s hard to imagine any teenager spending summer cooped up inside a laboratory, particularly by choice. But meet Omega Christian. While his peers enjoyed the outdoors, this Rochester City School District student remained indoors to pursue his passion for chemistry—exploring recycling technologies at RIT’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability.
“Most of my work in the lab deals with lithium ion batteries, finding out what’s involved inside the batteries and trying to help the future of society,” he says.
Soon to be entering his senior year at John Marshall High School, Omega earned the opportunity through a grant from the American Chemical Society. His principal, Susen Hart, nominated Omega for the organization’s Project SEED summer program, which provides fellowships to students from economically challenged environments. The program allows them to participate in research within academic, government and industrial settings.
Gabrielle Gaustad, assistant professor at the Golisano Institute for Sustainability, says she selected Omega based on his academic interests. His desire to pursue chemistry made him a good partner in her efforts to study the environmental impact of battery waste. Omega was charged with leaching metals from batteries at the end of their life cycle to better understand their composition. This provided an opportunity to evaluate the potential for recovering these metals through recycling.
“We dumped him underwater right away,” Gaustad says. “For someone who has only had high school chemistry, working with a bunch of Ph.D. students who have had many years of schooling beyond that, he did a really great job. He’s a quick learner.”
“Every day I came here just felt amazing,” Omega adds, “waiting to work on something new and being able to learn something every day.”
Omega enjoyed the opportunity to present his findings as part of the Undergraduate Research Symposium held at RIT on Aug. 10. Now his focus shifts back to school with prospects of attending college on the horizon. Spending the summer at the Golisano Institute for Sustainability reinforced his interest in chemistry, but he says there is also a greater appreciation for how that translates in ensuring society a more sustainable future.
“This is what I love to do. My life is based on chemistry.”
|
<urn:uuid:b4d01bf1-478b-4678-8690-19bd05f05ed5>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=49312
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.965978
| 520
| 1.765625
| 2
|
Please click on the link entitled Honor Roll at the top of this page for a list of 3rd Quarter Gaffney Middle School Honor Roll students. Congratulations to these students for a job well done!!
Abraham Duenas, a local artist and member of KNOW(2), was the guest speaker at Gaffney Middle School Exploratory Art classes. Duenas, a Gaffney metalsmith, works with various types of metals and made the gates for the Cowpens Battlefield, the huge copper medallion hung in the Department of Public Works, the ladybug and dragonfly for Hatcher Park, as well as many other beautiful works of art. More photos may be seen by clicking on the Art link at the top of this page.
Gaffney Middle School yearbooks are now for sale through the school! The cost of each yearbook is $49.00. You may see Mrs. Threadgill in Room 202 for an order form, and all checks should be made payable to Gaffney Middle School. Remember to order your yearbook as soon as possible, as there is a limited amount! Any questions should be directed to Mrs. Threadgill or any member of the GMS yearbook staff.
10. Select a consistent place to study. Some people need total quiet while others can study well with music in the background. The key is to find a comfortable place and study there regularly, such as the kitchen table, a desk, a favorite chair, bed, etc.
9. Don’t wait until the last minute. Study a little every night instead of cramming late the night before the test. A good night’s sleep helps. Bleary eyes and a tired body do not.
8. Buy an agenda book and use it. Most students have an agenda book, but they don’t write anything in it. On Monday, write down all of the week’s assignments. Most teachers have them posted in the classroom.
7. Dedicate a space for every class in your book bag. In the department store aisles, there are boxes and boxes of binders, folders and organizational tools. For every class, dedicate a binder, folder or notebook. There should be a place for class notes, handouts and homework assignments. Some of the larger binders can accommodate all classes. It is really a matter of personal choice; just keep papers separated by class.
6. Stay organized throughout the year. Most students have many binders and folders, but they do not use them. Many stuff every single paper from school into one binder. Half of their papers become misplaced or lost. Do not use the “shove” method when papers are returned, i.e. shove everything in one binder. Place them in the correct folder.If you are using a three-ring binder to keep papers organized, take the time to open the metal prongs and place them securely in it. If someone helps you organize your papers, take the time to continue putting everything in its place.
5. Make study cards. On the front of a note card write the word or idea. On the back, write the definition or important information. Have a friend or parent ask you about the word and/or provide a definition.
4. Make your own study guide.
3. Talk about assignments with friends. Discussing assignments with friends is another great way to study. This is very helpful when studying for novel tests. Friendly discussions about books help deepen understanding.
2. If you are struggling, ask for help. Start by talking to the teacher. The guidance counselor generally has a list of tutors in the area. Some high school students need to complete community service hours to be in clubs or in honor societies. You may be able to get a free tutor.
1. Make academics a focus in your life. Studying takes time and effort. Get organized, ask for help and put forth effort aimed at improving your study habits now.
THE FEATURED CHARACTER TRAIT FOR THE MONTHS OF APRIL/MAY IS
If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again. ~Flavia and the Dream Maker
6th Grade After School Academy
The GMS 6th Grade After School Academy is held on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30 until 5:00 p.m. All students who are members of the Academy are encouraged to attend every day when possible.
Students need to be picked up promptly at 5:00 p.m. at the keyhole entrance in front of GMS.
The last day for our After School Academy is May 9th.
|
<urn:uuid:4e0db3be-a695-428c-92dc-b457e2315cd3>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.cherokee1.k12.sc.us/gms/?cat=1
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.950438
| 975
| 1.648438
| 2
|
August 31, 2007
Beginning next week, several Routt National Forest campgrounds will be closed as a Forest Service contractor sprays trees with a pesticide officials say will prevent pine beetles from attacking the trees next spring.
Stories this photo appears in:
Routt forest sites to close for bark beetle extermination
When you've got termites, you call the exterminator. When you've got pine beetles, you call the U.S. Forest Service.
|
<urn:uuid:4168ef5b-f232-4e7e-acdd-00091c92ce41>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.steamboattoday.com/photos/2007/aug/31/7398/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.931839
| 94
| 1.648438
| 2
|
For example, I was recently at a pub quiz and the scores were tied at the end of the evening. One member of the two tied teams had to stand at the front and they were asked a series of questions. The quizmaster said to the first guy "OK. Are you ready?" and he replied "Yes. Hit me with it!" He meant "Ask me the question."
- For Teachers
|
<urn:uuid:96ee6dad-df02-4b4a-b0d7-daba19280456>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/129250-hit-me.html
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.991281
| 82
| 1.53125
| 2
|
During the first day of the College and Career Academy Summit hosted by Cagle, Floyd County Schools, the Floyd County College and Career Academy and GNTC, the lieutenant governor said that rather than denying the truth, it is better to embrace the fact that there is a skills gap that needs to be addressed.
“We all need to recognize that we’re losing,” he said. “Don’t try to hide behind it. It’s better for us to deal with reality than fantasy… and if we’re going to sit still, we’re going to be left behind.”
Instead of the industry falling by the wayside, Cagle challenged the leaders to build the economy around education because the two, he said, are yoked together.
Among the business, industry and education officials in attendance were State Superintendent John Barge, Commissioner Ron Jackson of the Technical College System of Georgia, GNTC President Craig McDaniel, Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Career and Technical Education Matthew Gambill and Superintendent of Floyd County Schools Lynn Plunkett.
The event continues today.
During his speech, Cagle pointed out that during the summit’s panel discussion listeners were reminded just how rapidly business and industry moves in today’s world, and also that the present economy is vastly different than the economy of just 30 years ago.
“Each of us has the chance to shape what this economy and what this future for all of us is going to look like,” Cagle said. “It’s a huge responsibility… Quite honestly I don’t think there is anything, as a public policy maker, that is more important today than the education system in this state.”
Cagle emphasized that in order for the economy to flourish, the education system must be tapered to fit the industry’s technological needs. Also, if domestic workers aren’t available to fill those needs in the workforce, they will import workers who can.
“We know that we have to compete on a worldwide stage,” Cagle said. “When you look abroad, we’re losing the educational fight. We’re losing it on a worldwide stage; … we’ve got to innovate and we have to raise the bar every day across every educational spectrum.”
Cagle said that huge economic opportunities are arising in the U.S. because of events occurring in Asia and Europe, resulting in companies such as the manufacturing giant Caterpillar Inc. and Baxter, a pharmaceutical company, coming to Georgia.
“What is interesting about those industries is that they all located where there was a college and career academy,” he said. “We’re leading the nation in workforce development because of … what we’re doing with our college and career academies.”
Summit attendee Brian Anderson, president and CEO of the Dalton Chamber of Commerce, said he was more than aware that there is a skills gap in the state.
“I heard a lot confirmation of things we already knew,” he said. “We’re continuing to have problems producing the graduates we need for the jobs that are available.”
However, Richie Johnson, who handles government relations at the Technology Association of Georgia, said the key to solving that issue is educating students about the technological skills they actually need in the workforce.
“As we move forward in developing the 21st century economy, we want to ensure that our students have the appropriate skills and the appropriate opportunities to advance themselves,” he said. “One of those components to moving up in America is making sure we have a strong technology background and a strong understanding of careers that are presented to you.”
Cagle said that for most of the 20th century the U.S. had a huge competitive edge in the workforce over the rest of the world. But as the economy suffered during the last 30 years America’s educational system was surpassed on almost every level worldwide.
“What was once our greatest advantage is slowly becoming our Achilles heel,” he said, adding that the key to building the economy around education is abandoning the idea of a one-size-fits-all model that was predicated on a 1960s educational system.
“When you put the students first and you give them the opportunity, great success can occur,” he said.
|
<urn:uuid:20b9d9be-5a8a-4752-84c5-520537272d3f>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.romenews-tribune.com/view/full_story/20855099/article-Cagle-urges-education-reform-at-College-and-Career-Academy-Summit-
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.968487
| 921
| 1.5
| 2
|
Kemble, John Philip, 1757-1823; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616; Poetry; Letters
J. P. Kemble writes an unnamed correspondent thanking him for his comments on Shakespeare and expresses his hope of calling on him when he passes "through York" on his way to visit the Earl of Aberdeen.
Catherine Clive writes to a Mrs. Racket about the "strange treatment" she received from Mrs. Eva Maria Garrick after the death of her husband David Garrick. Clive asks Mrs. Racket to inquire as to why Mrs. Garrick has not called upon her for the...
Lawrence, William J. (William John), 1862-1940; Letters; Archer, William, 1856-1924; Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950; Gregory, Lady, 1852-1932
Writing from Dublin, Lawrence thanks Archer for his research at the British Museum and mentions seeing George Bernard Shaw at the premiere of Lady Gregory's play "Shanwalla" at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
|
<urn:uuid:181f3c17-bbce-498b-b21d-e1cd434c8941>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/search/collection/phl/searchterm/sometime
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.946593
| 218
| 1.59375
| 2
|
Resignation Fails to Soothe Bulgarians
by Matthew Brunwasser
The Bulgarian government tried to defuse mounting public anger by giving up power, but the Parliament's vote to accept the resignation of the prime minister and his cabinet on Thursday did little to calm discontent over rising prices and falling standards of living or to mend political divisions that have plagued Bulgaria since the fall of Communism more than 20 years ago.
The vote to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Boiko Borisov and his ministers was overwhelming — 209 to 5, with one abstention — but the path to fresh elections, now expected in April or May, remained fraught.
The ministers will stay on as caretakers until President Rosen Plevneliev appoints an interim government, perhaps as early as next week.
Large protests across Bulgaria have brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets in the past 10 days, and led to clashes with the police in Sofia on Tuesday. Mr. Borisov swiftly offered his resignation as politicians on all sides decried the violence.
Although criminal mafias that appeared post-Communism have a history of internecine killings, political violence has been rare in Bulgaria, even in 1989, when fellow Communists ousted a longtime dictator, Todor Zhivkov. Bulgarians recoiled at the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia and the violence that convulsed Romania when it overthrew its dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu.
“We have always been people of order,” Mr. Borisov told deputies in Parliament shortly after the vote Thursday. “Anyone who would ever try do anything with public order would never be accepted as one of our sympathizers, and we would always consider him as a provocateur.”
“Bulgarian citizens,” said the departing interior minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, “absolutely do not support those who want to destabilize the country.”
The prime minister, a burly former karate champion and head of a security firm, thanked the deputies for their vote before leaving the legislature building and trying to persuade a crowd of several hundred of his supporters to go home.
After the vote, Mr. Plevneliev said at a news conference broadcast live on television, “In a crisis situation, political parties and politicians are the ones who need to show statesmanly behavior.”
“The most important thing now is not to threaten civil peace, the rule of law and our democratic order,” he said.
While some protesters suggested changing the Constitution to prevent monopolies like those in electricity distribution, which they accuse of raising rates, Mr. Plevneliev said that only policies could prevent monopolies and that they must come from elected legislators and a government.
Mr. Tsvetanov accused opposition parties of fomenting the chaos. The opposition, in turn, accused the government of corruption, economic mismanagement and cronyism.
Current polls suggest that the Socialists, now the biggest opposition party, will do well in elections. But the vote is distant enough, and the current protests so apparently spontaneous, that predictions are difficult and uncertain.
Most in the pro-Borisov crowd outside Parliament were retirees, waving his party flag but denying that they had been sent there by party operatives. Farmers driving five tractors and a truck with live pigs joined them.
“There is no other Bulgarian politician these last 23 years who has this level of support from the people,” said one protester, Stefka Tsankova. “Boiko Borisov is loved.”
The protests are economic, not political, she added. “People are angry because bills are high and salaries are low.”
Ivan Stoyanov, 67, waved dismissively at the Parliament building. “They all deserve the guillotine,” he said — with the exception of Mr. Borisov.
“Mr. Borisov is the best leader Bulgaria has had until now,” he said. “There is no way he could have undone all the damage which has been done to the country in the last three and a half years.”
Svetoslav Iliev, 38, a lawyer, expressed fear of the Socialists, whose origins lie in the former Communist Party. “I support the government because I don’t want the Communists to come to power,” he said. “It’s a threat to democracy.”
Protesters opposed to the electricity price rises vowed to continue their demonstrations, including nationwide rallies on Sunday.
All rights reserved, 2001-2013 (c) Novinite Ltd.
You are permitted to use any of the articles in this message only if you kindly quote the source - Sofia News Agency (novinite.com).
|
<urn:uuid:a87424ec-b7f9-48b0-b9ac-88eeffbffb47>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.novinite.com/newsletter/print.php?id=148125
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.969974
| 1,000
| 1.5625
| 2
|
Have you been watching President-elect Barack Obama’s appointments to his administration with a sense of confusion? A feeling of anti-nostalgia? Crying out, “Why all the ClintonAdmin re-treads!?”
Steve Fraser is your man. Writing in The Nation, Fraser echoes a familiar complaint by liberals about recent appointments, registers dismay at the nearly uniform “neo-liberal” ideology, and compares the group think to the greater diversity that stocked Franklin Roosevelt’s cabinet during a transition period frought with peril.
Worth reading for historical boning up, I suppose, but I was more interested in Fraser’s call for bolder action:
Under the present dispensation, the bailout state makes the government the handmaiden of the financial sector. Under a new one, the tables might be turned. But who will speak for that option within the limited councils of the Obama team?
A real democratic nationalization of the banks–good value for our money rather than good money to add to their value–should be part of the policy agenda up for discussion in the Obama era. As things now stand, the public supplies the loans and the investment capital, but the key decisions about how they are to be deployed remain in private hands. A democratic version of nationalizing the financial system would transfer these critical decisions to new institutions created by the Congress and designed to pursue public, not private, objectives. How to subject the flow of credit and investment capital to public control ought to be on the drawing boards if we are to look beyond the old New Deal to a new one.
Or, for instance, if we are to bail out the auto industry, which we should–millions of jobs, businesses, communities, and what’s left of once powerful and proud unions are at stake–then why not talk about its nationalization too? Why not create a representative body of workers, consumers, environmentalists, suppliers and other interested parties to supervise the industry’s reorganization and retooling to produce, just as the president-elect says he wants, new green means of transportation–and not just cars?
Why not apply the same model to the rehabilitation of the nation’s infrastructure; indeed, why not to the reindustrialization of the country as a whole? If, as so many commentators are now claiming, what lies ahead is the kind of massive, crippling deflation characteristic of such crises, then why not consider creating democratic mechanisms to impose an incomes policy on wages and prices that works against that deflation?
Why not, in effect, assert greater control by the people over the economic forces that affect them? “Cuz that way lies socialism! Aaagh!” Onoz. Heavens to betsy. And, well, probably not. More like neo-social democracy.
|
<urn:uuid:e85e1af9-724f-44e4-8fa4-67580329cdd9>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://mooreroom.wordpress.com/tag/social-democracy/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.94281
| 582
| 1.59375
| 2
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.