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Israel "Cachao" Lopez, "Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos (His Rhythm Is Like No Other)" Video, TL-13442.30
Israel "Cachao" Lopez, "Master Sessions, Vol.1," CD, TL-13328.10
Carlos Del Puerto & Silvio Vergara, "The True Cuban Bass," Book, TL-13591..70
Review: Cachao Documented, and a Book on Bass Playing
by David Peñalosa
Israel "Cachao" Lopez was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1918. A prodigy, Cachao made his debut with the Havana Philharmonic at age twelve playing bass while standing on a wooden box. During the 1930s, while playing in the famous charanga orchestra Arcaño y Sus Maravillas, Cachao and his brother Orestes wrote over three thousand danzónes. In 1939 the two brothers composed a danzón entitled "Mambo." The rhythmic counterpoint introduced in that composition began a movement which eventually led to the mambo craze which swept the world. In the late 1950s Cachao brought together the best musicians in Havana to record his now famous descargas. Descargas are open ended jams similar to jazz with an emphasis on improvisation. Other innovations of Cachao's include his various recordings where he played bass with folkloric percussion such as batá drums, guiro (chekeres), abacua, rumba and comparsa. Without a doubt, Cachao is the greatest living innovator of Cuban music.
Now at 76 years old, he has finally begun to get the recognition he deserves. Many black master musicians have not been appreciated during their lifetime for their contributions. A case in point is Arsenio Rodriguez, a contemporary of Cachao, who despite his many important innovations in popular Cuban music, died a pauper.
Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos
CD - Crescent Moon * Epic
Cuban-American actor Andy Garcia has produced a fine documentary film about "El Maestro." Garcia himself is seen on screen frequently in the documentary Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos. His love and respect for Cachao are evident to anyone watching this video. Another thing that becomes evident is that Andy Garcia has some ability playing conga drums. He is seen playing congas on several songs in the performance, in Miami, which is at the center of the documentary.
I'm very grateful to Garcia for exposing Cachao (and his importance to Latin music) to more people than ever before, but I found his on-screen presence an unnecessary distraction. This was especially true during the performance footage. The historical show featured the masters of their respective instruments: Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros (trumpet), Paquito D'Rivera (alto saxophone/clarinet), José "Chombo" Silva (tenor saxophone), Jimmy Bosch (trombone), Nestor Torres (flute), Nelson Gonzales (tres), Richie Flores (congas), to name a few. It would have been fine if at some point in the performance, Cachao asked producer Andy Garcia to come up on stage to play congas, sing or whatever, for one tune. It's too bad this fine actor couldn't have been satisfied being in the background in his role as producer. In the video we see both Richie Flores and Andy Garcia playing several congas each. Flores with his awesome technique can play quite busily, sounding at times like two drummers. Garcia plays pretty busily at times too flailing. Most of the time though, his microphone is turned off. At one point in the video Garcia says jokingly that the other musicians let him participate because he "bought the sandwiches." Other celebrities seen in this film include Robert Duvall (enjoying himself at the rehearsal) and Gloria Estefan, who came up on stage to play clave and sing for one song. (Estefan's CD Mi Tierra featured some outstanding Latin musicians, including Cachao.) During Ralph Irizarry's timbale solo the camera stayed for the most part on Gloria Estefan who was singing in the chorus. This was obviously a joyful gathering of Cuban-Americans sharing in the rich tradition of their music, but I got the feeling that the producers of this video thought that they needed a pop star's and movie star's presence to make this incredible music palatable to American audiences.
There's a nice segment where Flores plays accompanying congas for Garcia's reading of a poem about the Cuban port city of Santiago. It is here, and in his role as MC, that we see the actor demonstrate his true talent on stage.
With all the superb players present, this was definitely a musical summit. However, the impression I got from watching the film is that these sessions were, above all, a summit between Cachao and Paquito D'Rivera. It's a joy seeing the mutual respect they share. These two giants knew each other in Cuba, although Paquito was a young boy at the time. Another collaboration between these two masters is the CD 40 Years of Cuban Jam Session by Paquito D' Rivera (Messidor Records). This recording also includes Chocolate, Chombo Silva and Andy Garcia(?!). Although 40 Years is a superb recording, I feel I must warn you that the title is misleading. It is not a record of descargas, but rather a diverse collection of material reflecting Paquito D'Rivera's vast musical experience.
Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos centers around the before mentioned performance, the rehearsal for it and some informative interviews with "El Maestro." There is some interesting historical information in the interviews, including George Gershwin's and Igor Stravinsky's interest in Cuban music. Cachao himself comes off as a gracious master who directs with the utmost authority. The amount and diversity of material covered in the performance is formidable. If you look closely you can see players waiting for cues (missing at least one). The high caliber of talent, though, insured that this show came off brilliantly. You can see the musicians enjoying themselves and inspiring each other. After watching this, one gets the feeling of actually getting to know, to some degree, Cachao and the other musicians. One dominant feature of the documentary is the cutting back and forth between the rehearsal and performance during a song. This is an interesting technique, but it's frustrating when we are watching someone who is taking a solo in the rehearsal, while what we're hearing is the solo from the performance. It looks kind of like bad lip-synching.
Despite its flaws, Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos is a very valuable and enjoyable video. In fact, I found it to be the best performance video of Latin music that I have ever seen. I have watched it over a dozen times and will no doubt watch many more times still.
Cachao: Master Sessions, Vol. 1
CD - Crescent Moon * Epic
This CD, also produced by Andy Garcia, delves into the many styles of Cuban music in which Cachao has demonstrated his genius: danzón, mambo, son, guajira, descarga, comparsa, rumba, guiro. The compositions and personnel on this recording are nearly the same as on the video.
Cachao is still a phenomenal player with an incredible tone that no one can touch. Many of the performances are allowed to stretch out in a descarga flavor. There are some moments where Paquito D'Rivera, Jimmy Bosch, Chocolate and Nestor Torres are all playing at once. They are exciting climaxes that swing with a looseness not often found outside of live performances.
One surprise treat is percussionist Francisco Aquabella and vocalist Lazaro Galarraga on the rumba "Lindo Yambú" and the Lucumí piece "Cachao's Guiro." Galarraga is a renowned Akpwon (a caller of Lucumí songs), while Aquabella is one of the most knowledgeable and talented drummers of Afro-Cuban cult music.
Master Sessions Vol.1 will no doubt live on as a true classic and is such a pure musical work that it is sure to appeal to a wide range of tastes. I hope that those responsible will be putting out Master Sessions Vol. 2 before too long.
El Verdadero Bajo Cubano (The True Cuban Bass) by
Carlos del Puerto & Silvo Vergara
Book - Sher Publications
The bass player for the Cuban super-group Irakere, Carlos del Puerto, has written an excellent instructional book-cassette combination. I especially appreciated the fact that it is bi-lingual with clearly written charts. This is almost an "everything you wanted to know about Cuban bass" book and tape.
The True Cuban Bass takes more time dealing with the earlier traditional styles than Funkifying The Clave (Manhattan Music) which spends far more time on funky interpretations of Afro-Cuban bass. These two different instructional book-cassette sets actually complement each other quite well.
The tape uses bass examples and recordings of classic songs (with the bass boosted in the mix). The sound quality is not very good. One could imagine somebody putting this rather low-tech instructional package together in their living room with a few common consumer-level electronic products. Regardless of how it was produced, though, the information is presented in a clear manner.
While the obvious group of people one would expect to be interested in this tape and book would be bass players who want to play salsa, jazz bass players could also benefit greatly from The True Cuban Bass.
If you're a percussionist or piano player in a salsa band, it is essential for you to understand the role of the bass as well. | <urn:uuid:ac452f30-f9fc-4b42-8f9a-f0f775e5fbe4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.descarga.com/cgi-bin/db/archives/Review58?qIzR8ToX;;331 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959955 | 2,064 | 1.625 | 2 |
The Hammond 1. A legendary grandfather which I'd always wanted for its beauty, mechanical ingenuity, and historical importance. It is not extraordinarily rare, but I only recently (spring 2003) found one that I could afford -- a battered, dusty machine which turned up on eBay. It is serial number 10892, which according to Peter Weil was made around 1889.
I decided early on that I wasn't going to try to restore this typewriter to original condition. For one thing, I just don't have the skill. For another, it's not necessarily a virtue to erase the signs of history. After all, one of the features of a typescript as opposed to a word-processed document is that the typewritten page bears marks of the writing process -- deletions, additions, corrections. So I thought it was all right for my Hammond to look 114 years old, not brand new. What I hoped to do was clean it and bring it back into working condition. This page documents the process.
Here's the typewriter as I received it, fresh from its long desert slumber.
The machine came from a lady in Arizona who had acquired it some years before when she bought the entire contents of a storage building in New Mexico. It had a little water damage and a great deal of dust -- fine, dry Southwestern dust which smelled of cigarette smoke.
The machine was obviously dropped at some point or bashed with a heavy object. Some veneer is missing from the back and sides of the wooden base, along with a lock which would have connected the base to the missing cover. The horizontal part of the paper support was gone, and the posts were bent. The mechanism moved, but very sluggishly.
Fortunately I had some guidance as I began disassembly, thanks to articles by Richard Dickerson and Robert Nelson in ETCetera. Once you unscrew two semicircular wooden pieces, the keys can simply be lifted out of the machine; they are not attached to the mechanism. The black metal plate at the rear of the machine is also easy to remove.
I cleaned the ebony keys with Pledge, which left them smooth but not shiny. I cleaned the key levers with fine steel wool. The next step was removing the mechanism from the wooden base. Two heavy screws came out easily, but the typewriter was still glued to the base by the old rubber feet which had fused to the wood. I had to use a table knife to pry the mechanism loose. It finally came out with a slightly scary "crack." Here it is, looking like the skeleton of some odd sea creature.
In the picture above, I have removed the celluloid cover over the center turret. This is a fragile piece that is often missing. It is held on by two small screws on either side of the turret. When I washed it with a mild soap solution, it released a god-awful sulphurous smell. A ghost of the Hammond logo was still visible in the right light. The ribbon spools, which lift right off, let off the same nasty stench but came out looking brand-new. There was a bit of plastic ribbon tied to the core of each spool, suggesting that someone may have actually typed with this machine 70 years or more after its manufacture.
The base was filled with at least half a cup of fine dust. A toothbrush removed the dust effectively. Unfortunately, the fine threads of the velvety green cloth also came right off, leaving a dull and faded fabric. There was probably no way to save the velvet. Someday I may put down a new semicircular velvet strip under the keys (the space between the keys is the only place where you can glimpse the cloth). Notice the thin wooden piece at the back of the base which is present in the second picture, but not in the first. This piece can simply be lifted out. It is quite thin and fragile at its narrowest point.
The parts of the base which had been under the semicircular wooden cover revealed their rich tones after a little cleaning; the parts that had been exposed showed many signs of age. I rubbed the base repeatedly with Johnson paste wax, which the dry wood soaked up greedily. Result: it still looks old, but at least it looks cared for. (This base is oak. Some other specimens of the Hammond 1 have mahogany bases.)
Reviving the mechanism required many happy hours. I did not disassemble the whole thing (I am not that mechanically gifted), but I did unscrew various parts in order to understand the machine better and have better access for cleaning and polishing. A toothbrush and a canister of compressed air were helpful for removing the dust. The two feed rollers were glued together and had to be pried apart -- whereupon they spun as beautifully as when they first left the factory (although the rubber is severely cracked). The paper basket is just a curved tin sheet which was easily lifted out for cleaning.
Liquid Wrench and 3-in-1 Oil helped everything move again. When the dust was off, the carriage moved smoothly back and forth. The tension was still perfect after more than a century. (Good thing, because the key to increase the spring tension is missing. I believe it was separate and was inserted through a hole in the rear of the case.) After lubrication, the two-lobed type shuttle glided back and forth with ease. But it is currently locked in the "figs" position, and I am reluctant to force it down into the normal position. I put a shine back on the parts with fine steel wool and Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish.
Here is a rear view after reassembly.
Welcome back, Grandfather.
Thanks to Steve Maloney for inspiration; to Richard Dickerson, Robert Nelson and Peter Weil for information; and to Rob Blickensderfer and Peter Weil for parts. | <urn:uuid:2d33b4f8-6cbc-440b-b517-aca242db202c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/hammond1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978716 | 1,216 | 1.5 | 2 |
Work under way for $1 billion coal mine
Walter Energy granted $25 million in Tuscaloosa County tax breaks
Published: Friday, July 20, 2012 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, July 19, 2012 at 11:54 p.m.
TUSCALOOSA | Walter Energy’s new $1 billion-plus underground coal mine that will be developed over the next six years was granted about $25 million in tax abatements Thursday by the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority.
The mine project, which was announced in early May by Hoover-based Walter Energy’s CEO Walter Scheller and Gov. Robert Bentley, will see a $1.2 billion investment by Walter Energy with development in four Alabama counties. The lion’s share of the investment will be in northern Tuscaloosa County, where the mine with its underground coal reserves covering about 20,400 acres will be located.
Some site preparation work for the mine has begun near Brandon School Road and Alabama Highway 69, said Dennis Hall, a Walter Energy spokesman.
The mine will produce 3 million to 4 million tons of metallurgical coal yearly when put into production and will be in production for 40 years. Metallurgical coal is a highly valued, low-sulfur coal that is used to make steel.
The new mine, which will operate as a new Walter Energy subsidiary called Blue Creek Energy Inc., will have its coal shipped by barge and train to Mobile, where the coal then will exported mostly to South America with some going to Europe.
The mine will employ 450 full-time people in Tuscaloosa County by 2019, according to information provided by the industrial development authority.
Hall said the mine is expected to be put into production in late 2018 or early 2019.
Hiring for the mining jobs is still several years off, but he said about 3,000 construction workers will be employed in building the mine and its support facilities over the next several years.
Construction of the future mine’s ventilation shafts will start this summer, Hall said. Then work will begin on an almost two-mile-long underground entrance that will allow vehicles to transport miners and equipment to the coal seams and transport coal out.
Additional construction will include coal processing facilities and a new eight-mile railroad spur line that will be used to move some of the coal to the Norfolk Southern rail line in Fayette County. A 14-mile giant conveyor belt will be built to move additional coal to a barge-loading facility on the Black Warrior River in Walker County.
As part of the project, Walter Energy also acquired the old U.S. Steel coal terminal site at the port of Mobile. The terminal has been torn down and a new state-of-the-art coal terminal will be built on the 35-acre site.
Under a new state law, Walter Energy also might be eligible for tax abatements in the other counties in which it will be making investments for the project.
“This is not chicken feed,” said Tuscaloosa County Probate Judge Hardy McCollum. “This is going to create some good, high-paying jobs for two generations.”
The mining jobs on average will have annual wages and fringe benefits of about $125,000 per worker.
In addition to the pay and fringe benefits, Hall said Walter Energy will spend more than $100 million annually to keep the mine running and furnished with updated equipment.
In addition to the new mine, Walter Energy owns and operates two Jim Walter Resources underground coal mines near Brookwood and the North River underground coal mine in Fayette County. Those mines also produce metallurgical coal.
Hall said the North River mine is approaching the end of its production and its miners will be moved to the company’s other mines over the next few years. He said their positions are not part of the 450 jobs that will eventually be created at the Blue Creek mine.
Walter Energy, whose stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, also has coal mines in West Virginia, western Canada and Wales. It has natural gas wells in Tuscaloosa County, a coking plant in Birmingham and other coal-related businesses. It has about 4,000 employees, the majority of which are in Alabama.
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:57b8bd7c-92f0-4745-81aa-1044b6c87d7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20120720/NEWS/120719745/1291/news300?Title=Work-under-way-for-1-billion-coal-mine- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958324 | 930 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The company we know today as Tama was first introduced by Hoshino Gakki in 1965 as Star Drums (Hoshino is “star field” in Japanese). The drums were manufactured at Hoshino's subsidiary, Tama Seisakusho, which had opened in 1962 to manufacture Ibanez guitars and amplifiers. Though the production of guitars and amps was moved out of the factory by 1966, the production of drums there continued to grow. The two higher lines of drum models, Imperial Star and Royal Star, were introduced to the American market and were successful lower-cost drums competing against more expensive American-made drums.
By 1974, Hoshino had decided to make a concerted effort to make high-quality drums and hardware and resolved to start marketing the company’s drums under the Tama brand, named for the owner's wife, which means "jewel" in Japanese. In keeping with its heritage, "star" continues to be used in the names of Tama's drum models to this day. Read More> | <urn:uuid:b0927f85-b30d-415a-96cf-df5ad7b8d573> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guitarcenter.com/Tama,Case-Included-No.gc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992512 | 217 | 1.695313 | 2 |
No one can discount the convenience offered by credit cards, but plastic is not the only type of currency available to you. While credit cards do offer unparalleled convenience, you are paying for that convenience each time you offer plastic as payment at the register. It’s important to consider both the amount you pay each month in interest on your balance and the occasional late fee. Together, those costs can really add up over time—and if left unattended can grow into a financial disaster.
There are several alternatives to using credit cards. Try some of the following options to reduce the likelihood that you'll get into money trouble:
Make the time to create a monthly budget in order to plug spending leaks now so that you don’t have to rely on credit cards to get by in the future. | <urn:uuid:2b929f66-393c-4584-827a-35222d515e74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cashcourse.org/uc/articles/id/1767/categoryid/101/getting-by-without-credit-cards | 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 | 0.963414 | 161 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Will gold be the “worst investment of 2013?”
Has been so far:
Year-to-date returns to 7 March
(%, equities in lighter shade)
Gold held above $1,600 yesterday. You’d think it would do better. Ben Bernanke just pledged to keep his printing presses whirring, even though the economy is improving.
Won’t an improving economy bring more of this printing press money out in the open, where it will bid up prices? And if the economy doesn’t improve, won’t Ben Bernanke keep printing money, even increasing the output of his dollar-printing machines, until the old buck finally gives way?
So, why is gold doing so badly? Is the bull market in gold, which began nearly 14 years ago, finally over?
Those questions were put to a panel of which we were part, in Cafayate last weekend. The questioners were mostly 'hard money' people. The questioned, including your editor, had a generally goldbuggish bias too.
So, what were the answers?
We can only recall our own:
“A couple of years ago a cache of gold objects and coins was found in Yorkshire. These were items that had probably been buried to hide them from the fighting that was going on in the area during the 8th century. No one knows what happened to the owners, but they never returned to dig up the treasure. Instead, it was found by accident, 1,300 years later.
“And yet, the gold of which the objects were made is just as good as it was then. And the value of it – compared to goods and services on offer – is also about the same, at least inasmuch as we are able to piece together prices from that era and compare them with prices today.
“That, and everything else we know about it, leads me to believe that gold in the future will be worth more or less what it is worth today too. In our lifetimes, we’ve seen gold go up and go down. But it doesn’t go away. And if you had gone out to buy a new Buick in 1935 or so, you could have paid for it with about 25 gold ounce coins. You can do that today, too.
“So, if you are thinking of the long run, you will definitely want to hold gold rather than shares in today’s corporations or today’s paper dollars, or promises by government to repay you in its own IOU paper currency.
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“Of course, I know that many of you are not concerned with the long run. In the long run we’re all dead, so what does it matter? It’s the short run that matters. And in the short run what is gold likely to do?
“Who knows? But it would be very strange for a 14 year bull market to end with its subject still reasonably priced. Typically, they end with unreasonable prices. Gold is not especially overpriced now. There is no gold mania happening. The cover of Time magazine is not featuring a gold coin or predicting the end of paper money. Adjusted for even the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation rate, gold still hasn’t come near its high set 32 years ago.
“Most people in America have still never seen a gold coin. But they will. Unless this time is really different, unless this really is a new monetary era, you can presume that what happened in the past will happen again. And what happened in the past was that paper money systems always blew up and gold always becomes infinitely expensive in terms of the depreciating paper money.
“We don’t know when this will happen. But we don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t. They keep telling us that the Fed is doing no harm by printing $85bn more each month. Inflation rates are low, and falling, they say. But if they calculated the inflation rate the way they did when people were wearing ‘Whip Inflation Now’ badges, back in the Carter years, the CPI would be at 9.6%. And bond yields would be at 10% or 12%.
“And people would be struggling to pay 13% mortgages, and the feds would be desperate to sell bonds with 15% coupons, and the dollar would be collapsing, and the whole system would have the shakes,
“And we wouldn’t be having this discussion. We’d all be expecting inflation to hit 20% and happily waiting for gold to reach $5,000 an ounce.
“No one in this room or anywhere else knows where the price of gold is going next year or the year after. All we know is that the risks of owning it are fairly low, while the risks of not owning it are high.”
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Sign up FREE to Money Morning here. | <urn:uuid:fedfb45e-a000-444a-92ab-4381f77f0aa8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/economics/global/daily-reckoning-is-gold-the-dog-of-the-year-63200 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971715 | 1,292 | 1.773438 | 2 |
As of June, 2011, the United States of America is still a free country. As long as you operate within the parameters of laws and ordinances meant to preserve public order, you can pretty much do whatever you want. You can choose your own profession, your own hobbies, where to live, what movies to watch, what brand of humor to laugh at and what to eat and drink.
I’m not aware of any law that explicitly forbids you to willingly eat toxic waste and wash it down with a cocktail of battery acid and pesticide. That would be suicidal, as long as you were aware that drinking it was severely life-threatening. There is, of course, a law against suicide, but that only begs the question: “How do you come up with a punishment to fit that crime?”
You can eat and drink whatever you want, but the greatest impediment to your wanting to drink things like battery acid or pesticide is not a backlog of scientific findings by chemists, firmly establishing the extreme dangers of introducing highly corrosive acids into the human body. That scientific discovery and many others were eventually absorbed by the consciousness of the public at large and became incorporated into a very useful faculty known as common sense.
As pertains to all matters of human life, it would be hard to overstate the crucial role common sense plays in ensuring a beneficial outcome to pursuits of every kind. Common sense is why we don’t leave banana peels in the middle of the kitchen floor. It’s why we don’t look down the barrels of guns that may or may not be loaded, then pull the trigger – just to make sure. It’s why we don’t jump out of an airplane wearing a parachute pack that doesn’t actually have a working parachute packed in it.
I know what you’re thinking: “People actually have done all those things.” Unfortunately, you are correct – they have indeed. We can only hope that a residual effect of news reports relating details of these inopportune calamities is a decline in the occurrence of similar disasters.
It comes down to this: Common sense didn’t get it’s name because absolutely everyone came into the world stocked with a generous supply of the stuff; it got its name simply because it doesn’t come as a complete shock to find that many people you meet actually have some of it.
But what is to be done about people who—though they’re equipped with a respectable supply of common sense—have neither the specialized training or the free time to derive enough specialized knowledge of a given issue to form a carefully considered, fact-based opinion about it? Dorway’s answer is that we should try to help them by any means at our disposal. We should supply them with ample amounts of unbiased information (not including our editorials, of course!) on which to base their decisions – scrupulously obtained, scientifically accurate information that is uncorrupted by market forces—forces allied with political/corporate influence brokers who are for sale to the highest bidder.
It is an ironic reality of life that people who lack common sense are putty in the hands of unscrupulous market forces—partly because their lack of common sense deprives them of the very capacity necessary for recognizing their deficiency. Moreover, they are easy targets who frequently disregard warnings intended to ward them off harmful substances. As for those people who don’t really have a care for anything but the dragon they’re chasing, they just turn away from all reliable information that muddies up their particular instant gratification fix and regard it as an annoying buzz-kill.
Don’t think the Captains of Industry reaping untold billions from the sale of aspartame, cigarettes, alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs (to name just a few) are unaware of the willingness of some people to pay through the nose to destroy their own health and put themselves to an untimely end. Make no mistake: Nothing is more profitable to Corporate America than the monkeys on American’s backs.
After all, who’s a more reliable source of windfall profits than the customer who can’t get through a single day without having to feed the monkey? | <urn:uuid:a4c7edf8-1a81-426c-ae57-f217e73a9d18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dorway.com/pick-poison-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965481 | 875 | 1.828125 | 2 |
"People Return To Charred Cities After Colorado Wildfires"
"Residents began returning to charred areas of Colorado Springs on Sunday after the most destructive wildfire in Colorado's history forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and left the landscape a blackened wasteland."
"Bears and burglars posed further danger to home owners who headed back to towns and cities after the fire, which killed two people.
The so-called Waldo Canyon Fire has scorched 17,659 acres, burned 346 homes and devastated communities around Colorado Springs, the state's second-largest city, since it began eight days ago.
Governor John Hickenlooper said he believed the worst was over and almost all of the blazes around Colorado were under control."
SEE ALSO:Source: Reuters, 07/02/2012 | <urn:uuid:ce3fd6a6-ce7a-4963-8ca0-47f1d36e70b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sej.org/headlines/people-return-charred-cities-after-colorado-wildfires | 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 | 0.959271 | 164 | 1.84375 | 2 |
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic researchers discovered it is safe -- and much more convenient and less costly -- for many patients to undergo coronary angiography and elective valve surgery on the same day, it is reported in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
We have developed a protocol to allow patients to safely have coronary angiography on the same day as their elective surgery, says David Holmes Jr., M.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic and one of the study authors. For patients, we are providing quality care and saving them the time and money it takes to make two trips to the hospital for the test and then surgery.
The impact of this research could be significant: Nearly 48,000 heart valve replacement or repair surgeries were registered with the Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Database in 2005, the researchers point out.
Coronary angiography, which is recommended preoperatively for all patients who are considered at risk for coronary artery disease, is frequently done several days or even weeks before surgery; the patient goes home and then returns for surgery. With coronary angiography, a dye is injected into the blood vessels through a thin, flexible tube; the dye or contrast medium allows the physician to see narrowing or blockage.
One of the primary concerns of performing coronary angiography the same day as surgery is the risk of acute kidney failure, an independent predictor of death after cardiac surgery; mortality rates have been reported as high as 44.4 percent to 63.7 percent, the researchers report. The dye used in angiography is associated with radiocontrast-induced nephropathy, which can cause kidney failure.
When worsening kidney function occurs, serum creatinine levels begin to increase after 24 to 72 hours, peak within three to five days and return to normal within another three to five days, thus the reason for the delay between the angiography and surgery, Dr. Holmes say
Contact: Traci Klein | <urn:uuid:6a70239e-167b-4240-99ac-b84ac8307bdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-3/Same-day-coronary-angiography-and-surgery-safe-for-many-patients-591-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940846 | 405 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Air Force: Reading WikiLeaks May Be Espionage
Air Force personnel who read the WikiLeaks cables on their work or home computers may be subject to prosecution under the Espionage Act, according to a memo released by the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC).
DO NOT access the WikiLeaks information on government or personal computers; DO treat the leaked materials like any other content assumed to be classified, reads the Feb. 3 memo issued to personnel.
The Air Force Material Command, based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, maintains, tests and upgrades the Air Force's weapons systems.
WikiLeaks began publishing the 250,000 classified U.S. Embassy cables on Nov. 28 of last year. The Air Force has since blocked the WikiLeaks website from its computer systems. Also blocked are news websites, including those of The New York Times and The Guardian, that have published stories based on the leaks, Wired reports.
The AFMC memo takes its anti-WikiLeaks stance a step further, declaring that Air Force members and their family members who view the WikiLeaks cables may be prosecuted for espionage .
On Feb. 7, Air Force headquarters issued a statement saying that the guidelines lain out in the AFMC Feb. 3 memo were under review.
The battle between WikiLeaks and civil liberties wages on in Iceland as well, where Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland's parliament and a WikiLeaks supporter, is fighting a U.S. Department of Justice request to obtain records pertaining to her Twitter account going back to 2009.
The hearing, scheduled for Feb. 15 in Alexandria, Va., will seek to overturn the Dec. 14 court order requiring Twitter to release Jonsdottir's private account records, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, is representing her.
Also included in the motion are Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and U.S. computer security researcher Jacob Appelbaum -- both avowed supporters of WikiLeaks -- along with its founder, Australian-born Julian Assange.
Assange, meanwhile, is dealing with a separate legal battle of his own. He is currently fighting extradition to Sweden over an investigation alleging that he raped one woman and molested another during a visit to Stockholm last August. | <urn:uuid:d7ce0594-1691-471e-bdf8-8eedcc0537ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technewsdaily.com/6593-reading-wikileaks-is-espionage-air-force-says.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939621 | 464 | 1.765625 | 2 |
For I would not have them enter
Through those portals bright and fair
Bearing not a single token
For my Master waiting there.
Golden moments, as you carry
Trophies on your upward flight,
Take my character to Jesus;
For I’ve kept it clean and white._
Mrs. Worthington was not only a prayerful mother, but a mother wise in home government. Her wisdom, however, came from God. Many a time she felt incapable of giving the advice her young daughter needed; but she always remembered the scripture which reads, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given.” After she had spent a season in prayerful meditation, God would supply the words and understanding. Thus she could say with the apostle Paul, that her strength was made perfect in weakness, because her dependence was in Christ.
O mothers, let us learn that God, the Author of home and families, is always interested in the quality and the training of the children. He does not create to cast aside. Neither does anything come by chance. He wills that each tender human plant be nourished and cherished until well fitted to fill its place and calling in life. In childhood’s dependent days, the parents should be all to the children that they can not be to themselves. It is not enough that your child be well fed and clothed; its young mind must be guided into proper channels. What work is more noble, more elevating than the teaching of the undeveloped mind? Let not the duties of life nor the claims of society so press upon you as to cause you to neglect your child’s character or its education in either temporal or spiritual matters.
As Solomon says, “Take away the little foxes that destroy the vines.” It is the little things passed carelessly by that grow larger and larger, and stronger and stronger, within the young heart until at last the unsuspecting parents awake in alarm to behold their child in dreadful bondage. Beware! Guard your child every moment it is under your care. You can not go as companion to your child upon the street or to school, but your influence may attend his every path through life. Do not be discouraged should you hear him use a slang word, but take him at once and tenderly tell him what slang phrases will lead to. Do not speak harshly, but explain in the most loving manner possible. In this way you will cultivate in him a distaste for impure language. A pure, refined nature will be the result. Moreover, as that child realizes through your faithful instruction, the true meaning of sin, he will make you his confidant and will come to you rather than seek the counsel of younger companions. Thus you will be able to control his mind and to instil within his mind pure and upright desires. | <urn:uuid:f317d828-443a-490f-b457-c67aa655aab2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/12042/17.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973139 | 603 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Hun Sen offered no promises, but expressed a desire for closer economic ties with the United States, Rhodes said.
In essence, Rhodes said, Obama was delivering a similar message in both Cambodia and Myanmar.
At the dinner Monday night, Obama and the other regional leaders wore shirts of batik, the colorful cloth that express Southeast Asia's tropical culture. The president sat between Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Hun Sen.
The visit to Myanmar created "Obama fever" in Yangon, with crowds waving U.S. flags lining the street from the airport to greet the U.S. president. His meeting with Thein Sein took place in the nation's largest city, rather than the isolated capital.
Obama's image also featured on T-shirts and mugs for sale in city stores.
Before his trip, Obama insisted the visit was "not an endorsement of the Burmese government."
"This is an acknowledgment that there is a process under way inside that country that even a year and a half, two years ago, nobody foresaw," Obama told reporters in Thailand on Sunday, the first stop on his Asia trip. He added that the country was moving "in a better direction."
Western governments have responded to Myanmar's progressive efforts by easing sanctions that targeted the military regime. On Friday, the U.S. eased restrictions on imports of most goods from Burma.
But the country has also witnessed bouts of turmoil in recent months. Violence between Rohingya Muslims and local Buddhists broke out in the western state of Rakhine.
During the latest eruption of tensions, the United Nations said at least 89 people were killed over two weeks of violence and 110,000 were displaced. | <urn:uuid:1179a829-2b3f-4481-9853-a6f809b54c2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wmtw.com/news/politics/Obama-lauds-courage-of-Suu-Kyi/-/8791900/17467566/-/item/2/-/4s2v88z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966651 | 345 | 1.726563 | 2 |
With the advent of recent astronomical discoveries positing the existence of a Multiverse, immortality and law of attraction concepts likely now have confirming backup scientific evidence. At the close of 2010 scientists monitoring the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) pattern perceived at least four concentric rings of lower temperature variation. This would indicate that even before the “Big Bang” at least one other universe has buffeted ours, suggesting parallel universes. A crucial aspect of the Multiverse theory is its ramifications for the concept of immortality and of time.
It is now supposed, by some, that (with the discovery of the Multiverse), there exist infinite, unique you’s scattered throughout the universe. How indeed does this new information impact theories on the powers of the mind, miracle occurrences and the law of attraction? According to Kuan Yin, the mind is the cosmic mystical force hidden behind the curtain of so-called space/time, creating all physical manifestation. The brains amazing sequential and non-sequential functionality is the expression of a soul’s unique will to discover, create and be.
Kuan Yin maintains that we are spiritual beings who’ve incarnated on earth to “play our adventures from [our] beliefs”. To comprehend the true extent of our humanity, we need to understand the nature of the soul: “This Authentic/Always Self is the part of you that lives before and after this lifetime, that is eternal,” explains Kuan Yin. As earth is a place where, “smaller energies evolve into larger, stronger energies”, the very act of choosing to be born on the earth means we are learning to “think ourselves there”; that we have the potential to align ourselves with our highest vibration.
Regard incarnating into a life as landing in a small portion of a quantum labyrinth. Your waking reality represents just one of myriad reality focus frame systems. You might believe you develop only certain skills and strengths as you mature throughout your life. While you may be initially attracted to one or two areas of expertise or problem solving, you can enter other parts of the ‘maze’ at any point in your existence. Therefore, all options are ultimately available. Believing there is only a single you (your only existence) traveling this pathway, however, could cause a person to lament that they’ve forever reached a dead end or are in some endless circuitous life route. Quantum Theory posits, though, that there are always multiple possible outcomes, some more likely than others.
Since articulated thoughts (affirmations) have both particle and wave properties, we have the power to increase a probable outcome through affirming what we most want to manifest. Free to choose your own “path of liberation”, there is no set mode or time limit. Therefore if you don’t achieve what you want in this life there are infinite reincarnation opportunities.
Modern computers solve problems through very rapid calculations utilizing only one pathway. What if a quantum computer could be developed where infinite problem-solving pathways are used for calculations? It could initially suggest multiple probable solutions for a single problem; finally determining the most likely or beneficial answer. Or it could suggest more efficient ways to pose a question for determining a certain outcome.
Having multiple problem-solving modes (for example, waking, trance and dreams), our minds more closely resemble the quantum computer I’ve described above. In our day to day lives, if we begin to stagnate we could experience a dream ‘wake-up call’. One can have extraordinary insights during an ordinary dream and/or an extraordinary daydream or hypnotic trance during an otherwise ordinary day. The latent actualization pool of our All That Is Consciousness contains a sea of infinite information and problem-solving abilities waiting for the curtain; the linear veil of waking reality, to rise.
It is an interesting concept; that we have endless probable realities to hone our problem-solving and manifestation skills. Until now, only certain religions posited the doctrine of reincarnation. But theories of a Multiverse now support the concept that we are multidimensional beings living myriad parallel lives.
How does one reconcile parallel lives with traditional definitions of time and theories of reincarnation--that one is reborn into a succession of lifetimes? According to Kuan Yin, events in all fields of consciousness (including trance and dreams) are valid: that the soul is an eternal voyager in a timeless universe.
For survival reasons, ego/waking mind has always been endowed with a high proclivity towards attachment: “Only the body dies. People get too attached (to their physicality). But, they have to. One’s consciousness must be fairly strong in order for the soul’s desire to continue. The more we feel our humanity, the more help we can give and the more joy we can create.”-Kuan Yin
A central part of the Kuan Yin spiritual teachings is that “focused intent” is the catalyst for the creation of reality. The magnetizing force of personal beliefs is so strong that it can draw groupings of specific objects and events from the scattered you’s around the universe into your personal experience. When necessary, there can also be intervention from the divine realms: “…There are straight slivers coming from a central ball of light. These straight slivers of light become a person who plays out adventures from his or her beliefs. When you put all the slivers together they form God. It is as if one takes a small chip of gold from a cave made of gold. The cave and chip of gold are separate. Yet, they are the same.”-Kuan Yin
As we do not live in an accidental universe, a miracle is not simply luck or some happy accident. The human mind is something amazing to behold. It can, in the appropriate circumstance, attract magical, healing events that are inexplicable even in scientific terms. The mystery and wonder of the human mind is its perfect flexibility. It is miraculously wired to not only interact with waking reality but also the divine and other realms.
Whether we are aware of them or not, the divine realms are also available to us in dreams. They offer a potential catalyst for healing during sleep (when ego’s perhaps annoyingly persistent and limiting thought forms can be circumvented by positive affirmations, for example). Such a positive ‘focused intent’, when spoken just before retiring for bed, can help facilitate the Authentic Self’s natural alignment with the healing powers of the universe. We could, though, take for granted this process; that the stomach flu present when we retired for bed is completely gone the next morning. In dreams, beliefs and emotions are actually ‘played out’ as myriad probable scenarios. That there exist in and out of time mental problem-solving mechanisms suggest that the mind is already primed for evolution and its most expansive outcome.
There can be miracles when you least expect them. However, it is usually only when faced with severe upheaval, stress or trauma that the ego will finally drop its guard, allowing in the physical or psychic healing powers of All That Is; what could be called a ‘miracle’:
“Let the magic happen. It is always there. Abundance and love are always there. Believe in the highest good. There is a higher essence to everything. The realm you’re in has a heaviness that mutes energy. You can penetrate through it, no matter how dark and heavy…Just don’t forget to keep it open. Don’t get too bogged down…Prosperity can happen at any time!”-Kuan Yin
References: “The Universe Will Bring What You Want: the Science of Miracles” (Available on Kindle as an e-book download or to be freely borrowed from the Kindle Library. http://www.amazon.com/Kuan-
For more information on Hope Bradford books such as “Oracle of Compassion: the Living Word of Kuan Yin” please go to: Hope Bradford’s Amazon Author Central Page: http://tinyurl.com/23g98ea | <urn:uuid:48932104-4f0e-4417-a361-e1da2517bfc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ufodigest.com/article/gods-miracles-and-law-attraction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932374 | 1,695 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s signature healthcare law Thursday in a 5-4 decision that vindicates Obama and helps define Chief Justice John Roberts.
The court said the health law’s individual mandate, which requires most taxpayers to either buy insurance or pay a penalty, is a tax and is constitutional. The court also altered the law’s Medicaid expansion without striking it down entirely.
The ruling is an enormous victory for President Obama and congressional Democrats, who had long insisted the healthcare law is constitutional.
The fact that Roberts — a bona fide conservative appointed by former President George W. Bush — wrote the majority opinion is a blow to Republicans who had claimed the mantle of the Constitution in opposing the individual mandate.
Republicans will press ahead with symbolic votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but they will have to make significant gains in November’s election to actually stop Obama’s signature domestic achievement from taking effect.
“Our mission is clear — if we want to get rid of ObamaCare, we're going to have to get rid of President Obama,” GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Thursday.
The GOP also signaled after the decision that it intends to make the question of taxes a centerpiece in its argument against Obama. Romney said the law would result in a huge tax increase, while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) warned the decision could allow the IRS to come after the uninsured.
Roberts tacitly acknowledged the passionate opposition to the healthcare law, but he said policy decisions belong to the elected branches of government, not the court.
“It is not our job to save the people from the consequences of their political decisions,” he said.
The decision allows Roberts — whose legacy will rest in large part on this case — to avoid the severe repercussions that both sides of the case had feared. The court did not strike down the signature domestic achievement of a sitting president, nor did it give its approval to an expansion of Congress's powers.
The ruling will also change the way the political left and right view Roberts, who with his majority opinion became a target for conservatives.
Roberts’ opinion on the mandate was joined by the court’s liberal members — Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Democrats heralded the ruling even though the court took an unexpected route to uphold the law. The justices upheld the mandate as a use of Congress’ tax powers — not as a regulation of interstate commerce.
Obama argued repeatedly during the legislative debate that the mandate is not a tax, and the law would have been even more difficult to pass if Democrats had described the mandate as a tax.
But the Justice Department has consistently defended the mandate in court as both a use of Congress’ taxing power and a use of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause.
The five justices in the Supreme Court’s majority are the first judges in the country to side with the Obama administration’s tax argument. It was rejected in every lower court, even those that ultimately upheld the healthcare law.
Roberts’ majority opinion cited estimates that as many as 4 million people will choose to pay the penalty rather than buy insurance.
“That Congress regards such extensive failure to comply with the mandate as tolerable suggests that Congress did not think it was creating four million outlaws,” Roberts wrote. “It suggests instead that the shared responsibility payment merely imposes a tax citizens may lawfully choose to pay in lieu of buying health insurance.”
Politically, Democrats had insisted that the mandate is not a tax. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wasn’t concerned that the court upheld the mandate on tax grounds.
“Call it what you will, it is a step forward for America's families. And you know what? Take 'yes' for an answer. This is a very good thing for the American people,” she said at a press conference.
Many of the law's supporters thought before oral arguments that Roberts might vote to uphold the mandate, but on different grounds. After the arguments, conventional wisdom held that Roberts would vote to strike the mandate and Justice Anthony Kennedy would be the swing vote in the healthcare case, fulfilling his traditional role on the court.
Kennedy, though, not only sided with the court's conservatives, he read a statement from the bench summarizing the strongly worded dissenting opinion.
“The majority rewrites the statute Congress wrote” by deciding the mandate is a tax, Kennedy said from the bench.
The dissenting justices said the mandate is unconstitutional and the entire law should have been struck down.
“The court regards its strained statutory interpretation as judicial modesty,” Kennedy said. “It is not. It amounts instead to a vast judicial overreaching.”
The court did chip away at the healthcare law's Medicaid expansion without striking it down entirely. It said the federal government cannot withhold all Medicaid funding from states that choose not to take part in the expansion, but must give states a choice between participating in the expanded program or leaving it as is.
Twenty-six states and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) filed the lawsuit as soon as Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.
NFIB executive director Karen Harned said she was “very disappointed” in the court's ruling.
“There's going to be a public outcry from our members. I can assure you of that,” Harned said, speaking just outside the Supreme Court.
The ruling was met with angry protests from conservatives, who said the court had paved the way for a single-payer healthcare system. One speaker rallied protesters to elect “conservatives — not Republicans, but conservatives” in the fall, to ensure that the law is overturned in Congress. | <urn:uuid:22fc5c3d-44f4-4d30-9824-1c1e4ca1d33d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.livewithlisaradio.com/index.php/home/latest-greatest-news-missed/1693-supreme-court-upholds-obama-health-law | 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 | 0.966597 | 1,203 | 1.742188 | 2 |
How We Got Here
Back when the Ancient Chinese Masters mapped the earth's energies and meridians through this metaphysical science of Feng Shui, the earth was a pretty balanced place. Everything was in harmony, ebbing and flowing together.
There was always a gentle balance of Yin and Yang. FEMININE ~ YIN energy is love, compassion, tenderness, caring etc. and MASCULINE ~ YANG energy is doing, protecting, exploring. All wonderful qualities when working in co-operation with each other, however about 2000 years ago things changed drastically and our planet has been living according to the rules of unbalanced MASCULINE ~ YANG energy ever since.
Our society honours and defines itself by the MASCULINE energy of control and endless doing. The loving, compassionate, FEMININE implies the loss of power and women and men ignore their nuturing instincts and their personal needs by continuing to embrace this unbalanced expression of MASCULINE energy.
You only have to turn on your TV, or check out the news online to see that it's true.
MASCULINE energy tips the scales to the extreme. Corrupt business practices, endless civil and international wars, terrorist bombings and hate crimes, gang wars, and the savage rape of innocent women and children, as well as the natural resources of Mother Earth continues.
Everyone one of these violent acts a misguided expression of MASCULINE energy. Because it's been ongoing throughout recorded history, we're desensitized to this condition. Unnatural as it may be, living by the principles of unbalanced MASCULINE energy is our way of life. These behaviours are tattooed on our psyche and are so much a part of us they are as natural as breathing. | <urn:uuid:406bc4ba-da45-4475-b083-ad39d8f01722> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.masterheartmagazine.com/Master_Heart_How.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946413 | 363 | 1.59375 | 2 |
OpenFlowProject page: http://www.openflow.org
OpenFlow is a protocol that provides control of the flow tables within network switches and routers. I was involved in the specification process for several versions of the protocol, I managed the reference design for one version of the specification, and contributed to the test suite. I'm also involved in a number of projects that utilize OpenFlow, including the MobileVMs demo, OpenPipes, and work on processing via waypoints.
NetFPGAProject page: http://www.netfpga.org
NetFPGA is a platform for network teaching and research that enables the construction of line-rate networking devices. My primary focus is the NetFPGA-1G (the 4 x 1 Gbps platform). I was a large contributor to the board design and the software infrastructure. I have also implemented a number of projects on the platform, including a packet generator/replay device, an RCP (rate control protocol) test implementation, and OpenPipes (a system that simplifies distributed hardware design). | <urn:uuid:e76ee58c-b336-4c6a-ac68-baac07df3033> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yuba.stanford.edu/~grg/projects.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93078 | 217 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Yesterday, a reader calling himself "Richard Miller" left behind a critical comment about my meeting with Congressman Nadler in which I will ask him to sponsor a "Sense of the House" resolution calling for climate change policy based on what is scientifically necessary rather than just politically possible.
Richard asked, "How are you going to feel in a few years when your pet causes are proven to be hoaxes and frauds?"
I thought it would be fun, in today's post, to answer that question:
First off, almost no one serious, except for oil industry spin doctors (and welcome, "Richard," even if you are one), discounts climate change anymore. Even the current Administration accepts that it exists.
Indeed, most political observers agree that the real attacks on science pointing to climate change come from people and organizations who don't like the regulatory implications. They find it easier to try to obfuscate the science than to fight the resulting legislation on its merits (though, "Richard," if you would like to actually discuss the merits here on the blog, you would be very welcome).
Only yesterday, in fact, New York's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, called attention to the anti-regulatory attempts to manipulate science. According to Andy Revkin of the New York Times blog DotEarth, Bloomberg compared climate-change naysayers to tobacco-industry spin-merchants:
[Bloomberg] focused on smoking, reviewing how the tobacco industry spent decades sprinkling doubt into discussions of science showing links between smoking (and secondhand smoke) and cancer and other illness. While many wealthy countries have moved to constrain and tax smoking, the world, Mr. Bloomberg said, is still on a path toward a billion smoking-related deaths in this century.
He then shifted to climate and energy, describing how science has been distorted not only by industries and anti-regulatory groups, but also political operatives working within government agencies. The latest example, Mr. Bloomberg said, was the ongoing politics-driven push to subsidize ethanol from corn. [Read the text of Bloomberg's speech here.]
But to return to your question, "Richard," since many of the measures needed to deal with climate change have a lot of positive benefits, if it turns out to not exist, I will first praise God in thanks and then I will think:
- I am glad we created 5 million or more new jobs here in the United States in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable generation.
- I am glad we created a culture that relies less on foreign oil, so that our children can live secure lives, knowing that the energy rug can't be pulled out from under them.
- I am glad we have found a way to save people and industry billions upon billions of dollars by making the use of energy more efficient.
- I am glad the millions of children who suffer from asthma can now breathe easier thanks to the fact that we aren't pumping the air full of toxins from our exhaust pipes and smokestacks.
- I am glad that, by no longer burning oil and coal into our air, we've put an end to acid rain and the devastation of our aquatic life.
- I am glad that we created good, reliable, fun-to-use public transportation system so that families no longer have to raid their budgets to pay for cars and gas.
- I am glad we've stopped building suburbs, which make people unhappy and are designed for cars not people, and instead build villages where people can have strong community bonds that help make life fulfilling.
- I am glad we now have fuel-efficient automobiles.
- I am glad that we've learned as a culture to get off the work-more-to-spend-more treadmill which gobbles up resources and leaves us unfulfilled and instead turned to a way of live full of meaning and purpose.
- I am glad that we have rejected the philosophies of survival of the fittest and competition for resources as driving philosophies and have instead embraced a philosophy of compassion and justice.
- I am glad that we have understood that a sustainable society cannot work without supporting all of its people and that we looked for and found ways to improve the lives of everyone.
- I'm glad that we've come to see people rather than things as our most valuable resource and that, in embracing the respectful and loving principles of not wasting, we have learned not to waste youth in prisons but instead to get them help for their drug addictions and alcoholism.
- I am glad that, in realizing our resources are limited, we have come to use them to do what is important and to help each other rather than compete with each other.
- I am glad that we have come to see education as the ultimate in sustainable industries.
- I am glad that we have developed distributed, renewable energy technologies that allow kids in all parts of the world to have electric light so they can learn how to read.
- The list goes on and on, but in short, I am glad that we have embraced the opportunities presented by the crisis of climate change in order to improve our society in ways we should have done anyway.
Now, a question for you, "Richard." Since I've answered your question honestly, I hope you'll do the same with mine.
What would you feel if we went your way and you turned out to be wrong? What would you feel if we all assumed, as you do, that we need not do anything about climate change, but then that it turns out that we should have? What would you feel if we buried our heads in the sand, ignored the problem, and then irreversibly damaged the planetary habitat that we depend upon for our health, happiness and security?
Image courtesy of WrongWay.org. | <urn:uuid:586522fe-110e-41e3-a891-79cb9d4c59dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/what-id-say-if.html | 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 | 0.963457 | 1,177 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Grassroots groups work to improve access to healthy food
Spotlight on Kantner Fellowship recipient Lindsey Rose
May 23, 2012
Families with food insecurity lack access to healthy food as well as the means to purchase it, explains Rose, who recently completed her doctoral degree in communication studies at Ohio University. With support from the university’s Kantner Fellowship, she spent the past year following Community Food Initiatives (CFI), a grassroots organization in Athens that emphasizes self-reliance to access nutritious food.
“CFI is doing remarkable things to make up for what food pantries and food stamps aren't getting at,” Rose says. “I was drawn to them because of some of the really positive impacts they've been having in the community.”
Lindsey Rose. Photo courtesy of Rose.
CFI sponsors a number of initiatives that promote self-reliance as a means to achieve healthy food security. One program, "Community Gardens and Educational Workshops," provides space and tools for gardens, as well as workshops to learn different skills to promote self-sufficiency, such as organic gardening, canning and drying foods. One project, the Athens Westside Community Garden, became independent in early 2011, making it CFI’s first graduate.
The organization’s Donation Station is a fixture at the Athens Farmers Market, where they accept monetary or produce donations that are used to provide fresh produce to food pantries and local organizations in need. And the “Farm to Cafeteria” program includes projects such as the Edible Schoolyards, in which children can gain hands-on experience in growing their own food, as well as similar programs for hospitals and prisons.
“They're teaching kids who don't know the difference between cauliflower and broccoli —what it is, how to cook it, and making that full-circle connection,” Rose says.
Her background in organizational and health communication allows her to look at CFI from different angles, such as “how people are organizing to inspire social change and health disparities in particular,” Rose says. What we eat is heavily tied to place and tradition, and overcoming “the sensitivity of food and the resistance people have to shifting food habits that have been ingrained in their lives since they’ve been born” can be a real battle, she says.
Austin Babrow, Rose’s advisor of four years, says that her research will benefit CFI as well as other grassroots organizations. “This is a real organization doing real work in a part of the world that has substantial issues,” Babrow says.
Rose, who plans to continue to publish from her dissertation research and teach after leaving Ohio University this year, is excited about the tangible effects CFI is having on food pantries and regional organizations.
“There are people who are out there making decisions about whether they’re going to have dinner that night or pay the electric bill,” she says. “There are major disparities in our community, and part of that has a big effect on health and food access.”
By Jessica Salerno | <urn:uuid:75971ef5-2f2c-4e16-845c-73cd88ad6e99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ohio.edu/research/communications/rosefood.cfm | 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 | 0.976277 | 650 | 1.820313 | 2 |
December 22, 2009
What Baby Jesus Symbolizes for Obama
President Obama visited a Boys & Girls Club in Washington, D.C. yesterday to deliver some cookies and talk about the baby Jesus.
When Obama said it's important to remember why Christmas, one of the children piped up and said, "I know!" Obama asked, "Do you know?" The child said, "The birth of baby Jesus." Here's how Obama responded, according to a transcript provided by the White House.
The birth of baby Jesus, and what he symbolizes for people all around the world is the possibility of peace and people treating each other with respect. And so I just hope that spirit of giving that's so important at Christmas, I hope all of you guys remember that as well. You know, it's not just about getting gifts but it's also doing something for other people. So being nice to your mom and dad and grandma and aunties and showing respect to people -- that's really important too, that's part of the Christmas spirit, don't you think? Do you agree with me?
He asked the children if they had an interesting observation.
Child: I know why we give gifts to other people.
Obama: Why is that?
Child: Because the three wise men gave gifts to baby Jesus.
Obama: That's exactly right. ... You know, the three wise men, if you think about it, here are these guys, they have all this money, they've got all this wealth and power, and yet they took a long trip to a manger just to see a little baby. And it just shows you that just because you're powerful or you're wealthy, that's not what's important. What's important is what's -- the kind of spirit you have.
So I hope everybody has a spirit of kindness and thoughtfulness, and everybody is really thinking about how can they do for other people -- treating them well, because that's really the spirit of Christmas. | <urn:uuid:a0e2243a-6361-49a4-a52e-a0f41b5f5391> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/12/what_baby_jesus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972598 | 408 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Missouri Innovation Campus Offers Accelerated Training for Technology Fields
Contact: Jeff Murphy
WARRENSBURG, MO (Jan. 23, 2013) – Thanks to a unique collaborative effort involving the Lee's Summit R-7 School District, the University of Central Missouri, Metropolitan Community College and a number of business partners, area students are receiving the opportunity of a lifetime. Through the Missouri Innovation Campus, located at the R-7 School District's Summit Technology Academy, 19 high school juniors are participating in a rigorous, accelerated program that prepares them for high-demand careers and reduces their higher-education costs to almost nothing.
Through the program, which began in fall 2012, students will complete an associate's degree from Metropolitan Community College by the semester after high-school graduation, earning a bachelor's degree in systems engineering technology from UCM within two years after high school graduation. Throughout the students' involvement in the four-year process, they are also participating in high-impact internships and on-the-job education thanks to the partnering businesses.
These companies, which include Cerner, DST and Saint Luke's Health Systems, enter into participation agreements with the MIC and receive grant funds from the state to help them hire the student interns. The companies then help underwrite the cost of training provided through the Innovation Campus. So far, the MIC project has received state grants totaling $1.5 million to assist with these costs.
For the students, the benefits are significant as they will complete their bachelor's degree just two years after high school graduation and pay virtually zero for their tuition from MCC and UCM. Through the business internships, it is anticipated that students will have the opportunity to become full-time employees of the partner companies immediately following graduation.
"We’re building a new model for the way we deliver higher education that creates a win-win situation for students where college will cost less, take less time to complete, prepare students to be job ready and leave them debt-free," said UCM President Charles Ambrose. "The corporate participation in the Missouri Innovation Campus is exceptional, and we’re especially grateful for the enthusiasm shown by our state leaders and Gov. Jay Nixon, who not only supports what we are doing, but is encouraging similar collaborations across the state."
Cindy Herbert, computer science faculty member and program coordinator for MCC-Longview, added that blended courses and project-based learning have been critical in this group effort. "The hard work stakeholders and students have put into the MIC project will be more rewarding when we get to see the first graduating cohort of students receive their bachelor's degree in systems engineering technology."
An important part of the program's success is Summit Technology Academy, which has focused for many years on high-tech career training with the help of business partners. For this reason, the Lee's Summit school is uniquely positioned to serve as the first location for the Innovation Campus program.
"Our district is proud to be a part of the Innovation Campus, which is serving as a model for programs nationwide that truly partner high schools, higher education and industry," said David McGehee, R-7 superintendent. "In addition to the advantages to the students, the program is meeting our state's workforce needs in high-demand areas."
Jeff Banhart, Innovation Campus information technology teacher at Summit Technology Academy, said he has seen an increased interest in information technology careers among his 19 students. "We try to relate the class work and the career to the students constantly, but until the student sees the career as a viable and soon-to-be attainable option, very little interest is displayed," he said. "The Innovation Campus program is working with an understanding of this dynamic to get the students to invest their time and interest and expend the energy to prepare for a position not four or five years from now, but four or five months from now."
The Innovation Campus students, who come from all three Lee's Summit R-7 high schools as well as high schools in seven other districts, have also been enthusiastic about the higher-education and internship aspects of the program.
"Starting college early is a great opportunity because it not only comes at a reduced cost but also because you finish your degree earlier," said Keaton Thomson, Innovation Campus student from Lee's Summit West High School.
Armaja LaRue-Hill, from Raytown South High School, agreed. "This class has taught us many valuable job skills, including maintaining professional attitudes and troubleshooting problems that occur," she said. "There are plenty of job opportunities in IT, and this course will benefit me in taking advantage of that bright future."
Another vital element of the Innovation Campus is the partnering businesses. Mike Mallett of Saint Luke's Health Systems said that hiring and developing people's skills and knowledge is vital to the success of a business. "The MIC information technology program provides Saint Luke's an avenue to share our technological advancements with future job applicants."
Laura Evans of Cerner added that her company is exploring multiple ways to fill current and future needs for technical talent to support Cerner's continued growth. "The MIC approach challenges status quo by developing accelerated methods for students to not only gain a degree but the work experience needed to successfully apply their skills solving real-world problems in a team-based, professional environment," she added.
The information technology course at MIC is just the beginning for this advanced program. In fall 2013, the second student cohort will be launched with a digital electronics course, which will be open to qualifying students from Lee's Summit R-7 as well as the 18 area high schools sending students to Summit Technology Academy. The sending high schools pay tuition to the R-7 School District for the MIC courses as well as other high-tech programs offered at the school. | <urn:uuid:362cfa45-0673-4906-923b-09f2af13cff8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ucmo.edu/news/innovationcampus.jan13.cfm?my=1&dy=2013 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969094 | 1,182 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Illinois has joined the list of states considering legislation in response to the Casey Anthony murder trial. The legislation would make it a crime for a parent or guardian to fail to report when a child is killed or goes missing. Anthony's daughter Caylee was missing for about a month before Anthony's parents called the police. A Florida jury found Anthony not guilty of murder. Representative Jack Franks, a Democrat from Marengo, is sponsoring one of three so-called Caylee's Laws that were voted on yesterday. He says it would plug a hole in the state's criminal code:
"Though it may seem untenable that any parent would fail to report their child's death, unfortunately it appears that we need a criminal law that requires it."
Several legislators complained that there are already laws on the books that would cover that kind of crime, like obstruction of justice.
Despite those objections, all three measures passed unanimously. They're now pending in the Senate.
Support Your Public Radio Station | <urn:uuid:5c33b3fb-63dd-43ea-ba8a-926c9ddaf088> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2012/03/02632_Casey2_060240.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981306 | 199 | 1.5 | 2 |
Sunday, March 27th, 2011
I contributed the following to a NYTimes.com Room for Debate asking “Will Egypt’s Youth Movement Be Pushed Aside?”. The other contributors are here.
Stepping Up to the Challenge
By Mona Eltahawy
March 25, 2011
Young people are already stepping up to the challenge of forming a viable coalition with new initiatives like the Youth Revolution Coalition and the Tahrir Council. These groups represent youth activists and are aiming to field parliamentary candidates who are younger than 40.
The minimum age to run for parliament right now is 30, which would bar many of the people who issued the call for protests two months ago. In its latest meeting with the military council, the Youth Revolution Coalition asked that the minimum age for president be reduced to 35 from 40 and to 25 from 30 for parliament.
Surely aware of how time isn’t on their side, the groups recognize that they must marry what has worked for youth activists (the Internet) with what works for the remnants of Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party and the Muslim Brotherhood (networks on the ground). There is a huge Egyptian youth presence online. We saw it respond to the initial call for protests by the April 6 Youth Movement on Facebook and Twitter.
The Tahrir Council initiative already has a Facebook page and an online form for prospective candidates as well as applications for young Egyptians interested in managing election campaigns.
As with the Youth Revolution Coalition, the Tahrir Council is open to all political affiliations. That is crucial to youth representation in any future parliament or government. Youth activists are better able to talk across political lines than their parents.
The resounding victory for the “yes” vote in last weekend’s referendum was a reminder that the revolution can’t remain trapped in either Tahrir Square or on social networks. To hold onto a revolution they helped start, Egyptian youth know they have work to do, but they’re doing it. | <urn:uuid:232851a7-f392-44ea-8279-9a38eab15c3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.monaeltahawy.com/blog/?p=458 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954436 | 412 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Prof. of the week: Matthew Bowen
Matthew Bowen started teaching at the University this semester with Introduction to Child Psychology. At first, Bowen was wary of teaching such a large lecture class at the University since he said he prefers more intimate class sizes. But the opportunity of teaching at the University was a major incentive.
Before he came to Charlottesville, Bowen went to graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, and then he started his own private practice for child and adult neuropsychology.
Bowen's academic and professional careers not only include a stint as a member of the neurosurgery department's faculty at Stanford University's Medical School, but he also spent time as a director of a neuro-rehabilitation center for brain-injured children.
Bowen came to Charlottesville to take care of his mother, a well-known southern novelist, in 2000. His mother was the literary protégé of William Faulkner, the University's first Writer-in-Residence. Their correspondences are archived in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.
Bowen did not simply relax when he moved to Charlottesville; he began to teach a Child Psychology course at the local community college. He also began another clinical practice, this time mainly serving combat veterans. He also began working on a documentary film about veterans from World War II to the present. Bowen taught a course at James Madison University called Combat Experience, based on the interviews he collected for his film.
After Bowen's mother died in 2004, he wrote a play called, "Me Too, Mr. Faulkner," which is about her relationship with Faulkner.
Along with these academic and artistic commitments, Bowen also works as a clinical psychologist. Soldiers contact him for evaluations through the Wounded Warrior Project.
-compiled by Fiza Hashmi | <urn:uuid:879658c4-f918-40ce-9f6b-796f38dae583> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2012/03/prof-of-the-week-matthew-bowen/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978288 | 371 | 1.632813 | 2 |
“I’m not going to be on Oprah,” said Zackary Sholem Berger matter-of-factly about his new book, “Zog khotsh l’havdil / Not in the Same Breath.” He’s realistic about his completely negligible chances, not because Oprah’s show and book club have just come to an end, but because he knows his work of original Yiddish poetry is not destined for a wide audience.
With no U.S. city today coming anything close to what pre-World War II Warsaw was (or even what New York was, for that matter) in terms of Yiddish publishing, producers of new literature in mameloshn need to go it alone and get creative about getting their work out there. Berger, 37, having translated a number of popular and beloved children’s picture books into Yiddish over the past decade, was well aware of this prior to writing his collection of poetry. He and his wife started their own Yiddish House (formerly Yiddish Cat) publishing company in 2003 to produce and distribute their Yiddish translations of Dr. Suess’s “The Cat in the Hat” and “One Fish Two Fish,” and “Curious George” by Margret and H.A. Rey.
With poetry aimed at an adult Yiddish-reading audience, as opposed to parents and grandparents tickled by the novelty of childhood favorites translated into Yiddish, Berger is changing his tactics this time. Whereas the children’s books are still ordered regularly by Jewish book stores, and gift and museum shops, those who desire to purchase “Not in the Same Breath” will be able to find it only online. The soft cover collection of poems (mostly in Yiddish with English translation, but also some solely in English) is available through the Amazon.com and Lulu.com self-publishing sites. “This system is great,” noted Berger. “This time around, we’re only printing on demand, so we won’t have to add to the large book inventory stored in our basement.”
Berger admits, however, that having inventory in the basement of his Baltimore home is better than his having had to store books in mini-storage in New York, where he and his family lived until two years ago. A poet and journalist on the side, as well as a Forward contributor, Berger’s day job is as a physician at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He is mainly self-taught when it comes to Yiddish, having taken an interest in the language as a high school senior in Louisville, Ky., when an English teacher who also knew German offered to supervise him in a Yiddish self-study program. He would sit at the back of the class reading the Forverts, and he recalls that the first Yiddish book he read was Sholem Asch’s “The Nazarene” trilogy. “It was really quite amusing that it was that particular book, given that I was in the Bible Belt,” Berger humorously reflected.
He later continued his autodidactic streak in Yiddish while studying at Cal Tech, and on a fellowship at Oxford from 1995 to 1996. He eventually arrived in New York for medical school in 1998, finding a Yiddish-speaking and Yiddish-revival community to which to belong.
Indeed, the Yiddish community has been key to the publication of “Not in the Same Breath.” Taking advantage of the Web and social media not only for printing and publicizing his poetry book, he also used them to finance the project. Last September, Berger put it on Kickstarter.com, and within about a month, contributions from 83 supporters (ranging from $5 to $130) surpassed his $3000 goal. Donors received various Yiddish-related rewards, with the poet even writing a special poem for one contributor’s wedding.
“I never thought I’d reach my target,” Berger said, “but I did, and we ended up creating community around the book.” He is fully cognizant that the audience for this book is smaller than for his others, but he nonetheless “feels more invested in this.” | <urn:uuid:b17cb81a-6b2e-463d-b156-09fcb9d81e6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/138314/a-new-breath-of-yiddish-poetry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981452 | 917 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Building Your Starter - Day 1
Happy Saturday! I know you’re excited. What better way is there to spend your Saturday than by making some sourdough?!? Not much I can think of.
Yesterday , I told you all about what exactly a sourdough starter is, and how easy it is to grow one! Today, we’ll begin the process of growing your very own wild yeast culture.
Let’s start with finding a place to keep your starter, preferably something with transparent sides. Both plastic and glass are okay, but don’t use metal. The fermentation of the starter will corrode the metal and can ruin your bowl over time and make your starter taste metallic.
I decided to go for a recycled pasta sauce jar. They’re nice because you can easily see if your starter has had any activity. Whatever you decide to store it in, make sure it’s not air-tight. You can cover it with saran wrap and secure with a rubber band or you can use a tupperware and poke a hole in the lid. I just stabbed the lid of my jar and that works just as well.
The next thing you want to do is weigh the empty container.....
Thanks, and have a great Saturday! | <urn:uuid:6a8dd88b-83b4-46ce-b34a-9fb5ebf558fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefreshloaf.com/print/26001 | 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 | 0.938915 | 264 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Skip to comments.No one has the power to redefine marriage
Posted on 06/12/2012 9:21:24 PM PDT by ReformationFan
It is not for federal judges to redefine marriage for us. When they do, it is tantamount to cultural suicide, and we should not be surprised at the cultural and social degradation sure to follow.
William Bennett writes in his book The De-Valuing of Society, Our common culture embodies truths that most Americans can recognize and examine for themselves. These truths are passed down from generation to generation, transmitted in the family, in the classroom, and in our churches and synagogues. But the truths of our culture and the traditional American family are now being attacked and demagogued like never before in our history in the name of tolerance and rights.
Granting homosexuals a newly created right to marry will have unimaginable detrimental effects on society. The fact that the federal courts have no constitutional authority to grant rights is only one aspect of the problem. They positively have no authority to define marriage for us.
It is really no surprise that it has come to this. After all, we have been given many such rulings by the courts in the past: no-fault divorce, abortion rights, and nude dancing in public and burning the flag the latter both defined as free speech. This is what happens when the Constitution is understood to be a living document.
The fact is that no court, no lawyer and no churchman can redefine marriage or grant new rights based on a new definition of marriage. Their pronouncements to the contrary, marriage is what it is and nothing else; and when these judgments are disconnected from any moral grounding, a just and decent society should not respect or accept them.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
G-d defined marriage.
Governments can call a cat a mouse if they wish.
Considering that God has defined marriage ... no one has the right to “redefine” marriage.
Governments / states have no power to redefine a thing.
I asked my “stated” gay nephew this simple question:
“Do you think marriage is any contractual relationship between 1:n adults (for the moment). If so, what is therefore the theoretical basis for “marriage?” I have thousands of years of the societal basis for marriage. What is the theoretical basis for marriage of 1:n adults?
He sputtered and was never able to answer that simple question.
When my liberal nephews and nieces make their emotional arguments they never can make arguments beyond “because I think/want so.”
>>Governments / states have no power to redefine a thing.<<
I beg to differ — they defined the “thing.” They can redefine the “thing” but they must also define the basis for the definition of said “thing.”
If the legislature says a “balloon” is a “person” it must be able to defend that definition.
No human has any greater power to define marriage than does any other.
True, but it was defined later by Black’s Legal Dictionary for decades which is what our laws are based on—a union between one man and one woman.—Lots of laws are based on this fact and tradition.....inheritance, private property, etc.
There is no Right to Sodomy. It is evil. Our Rule of Law is based on “Just Law” which is derived from Virtue—that Virtue—Justice. There is no Justice in laws that promote evil, dysfunctional, nihilistic behaviors, which deny Natural Law—the fundamental Theory which our entire legal system is built upon. Natural Law Theory’s moral law states there is a teleological meaning to human beings. It never can embrace Sodomy.
Just Law has to be inline with Natural Law Theory to be Just. Unnatural behaviors can not be promoted in a Just society.
It is Marxist ideology that is designed to destroy traditions and history so they can redefine human nature. Marxism is incompatible with our Constitution because Marx throws out God (our God=given Rights) and throws out Natural Law so they can put in artificial constructs in the children’s reality-—like two men can “marry”. Such insanity is irrational and Just Law is enshrined in Reason and Logic and Science.
From the beginning of creation,
God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.
Not to dispute this, we may say that God defines marriage not only through pronouncements but in nature, and I find evidence for this, in particular, in the outrage that the Roman satirist Juvenal felt and expressed in his description of "gay marriage" as he saw it being practiced in decadent Roman society circa 100 A.D. He presciently noted, "Yes, and if we only live long enough, we shall see these things done openly: people will wish to see them reported among the news of the day." I feel sure he would have been amazed that this would come true at an interval of 2000 years hence, although he did say as well, "To these ways of ours Posterity will have nothing to add."
So “marriage” doesn’t exist at all?
Once marriage no longer means “marriage” then the majority of Americans and Western Civilization will have to come up with a new word to describe real marriage, so that we don’t have to go through the 20 questions game every time normal humans are mentioning their friends and family getting married.
Marriage is a concept, not a physical object. Different cultures define it differently. Are you allowed to choose your partner, or must others do that for you? Does one family owe anything to the other, and if so, what? Can the relationship be terminated, and if so why and how? Does one party to the relationship have either rights or duties the other does not, and if so, what? What's the minimum age at which can a marriage rightfully/legally be consummated? Is it valid if the wife is not a virgin? Can the state control who may or may not be married? To be valid, must the ceremony be performed by a state official, or by a religious official? Is it still "marriage" if the required official doesn't perform the ceremony?
Note, please, that despite splinter groups to the contrary, successful civilizations generally accepted that one man with one woman was the normal familial arrangement, even in the absence of Judeo-Christian teachings.
Ever wonder why that was?
Because it is the most stable framework for raising children, the one which has few conflicting interests besides raising the children in the family of two parents, which provides the stability necessary to care for and pass the culture on to those progeny.
Multiple wives create conflict over which children will receive most heavily of resources available to the family, something which happens even today in 'Brady Bunch' style families (the TV show, not the anti-gun advocates).
Despite all our supposed 'maturity', there is a definite and instinctive tendency to protect and nurture our own progeny ahead of others in the immediate environment, which can be overcome to provide an egalitarian environment in which all children are loved and nurtured the same, but often is not.
So, as social 'concepts' go, the most viable, after centuries of testing has proven to be the traditional one man one woman marriage. Those tend to be better formed if the union is not taken lightly as in the case of readily available divorce, and longevity provides the structure by which a society, a culture, and its traditions can propagate and continue into the future.
Otherwise, the tendency is for disruption of a culture (as we are seeing in America today), with the crumbling of the nuclear and extended family. Once the traditions, the values, and the essence of that culture is no longer passed along in that context, each successive generation can be set against another, and the culture crumbles--easy fodder for those who would seize control of the rudderless and lost populace.
Whether one chooses to believe the religious material in the Bible, at the very least there is sound advice for a stable and civil culture to be found there.
And so you concede my point. All else is irrelevant.
Read the rest of the post.
One doesn’t even need to use religion to know that two men do not and cannot make a marriage. It’s simply not possible. That’s not to say people can’t create artificial constructs that temporarily seem to defy reality, but truth is what it is regardless.
In an electric circuit, one must have a difference of potentials, a negative and a positive. Without that difference, there is no circuit, and it doesn’t matter if millions vote otherwise.
I just know of no plainer way to say it. Man and woman each make 1/2 of a real union. The parts don’t work any other way. Now we might try to be nice to those poor souls who have unnatural urges, but I refuse to deny reality for their sake.
That’s where I draw the line. It is one thing to tolerate nonsense. It is something entirely different, and far more serious, to say sodomy equals marriage. They can’t even describe it themselves without calling it “gay marriage.” Why? Because “marriage” is something else. Gay marriage is a modification, a distortion, to what everyone instinctually already knows to be true!
Again, it’s very difficult to describe reality to people who willingly blind themselves to it. Many of us understand these self evident truths, but how do we reach those who don’t?
One duty of government is secure liberty; it is not to promote licentiousness, that which is detrimental to the civil society.
At creation the woman was taken out of the man. In marriage they are re-united.
By definition, marriage cannot be between two people of the same sex.
So marriage doesn’t exist in America? Doesn’t exist in Western Civilization?
Sodomy is a sick, degenerate, abnormal, unhealthy sex act that will surely put you in your grave if you engage in it.
The anus is for exit, not entry. Anyone that disagrees with this and thinks sodomy is natural is not knocking on all 8 | <urn:uuid:bfc12eb8-b222-40bd-9ed3-56c458592537> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2894658/posts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956723 | 2,226 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Why can't I sign in to the Windows Store?
If you're having problems signing in to the Windows Store, check to make sure you entered the correct Microsoft account and password. If the info is correct, but you're still having problems, you might need to reset your password.
To reset the password for your Microsoft account
Go to the Reset your password website.
Choose the option that matches the problem you're having, and then follow the instructions on the screen.
Choose how you want to reset your password, and then follow the instructions.
After you've reset your password, it's a good idea to add as much security info as you can to help make your account more secure. If you forget your password, or if someone else tries to take over your account, you can use this info to get your account back. | <urn:uuid:6958b8e8-a937-4954-855a-b079574eaad3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://windows.microsoft.com/en-id/windows-8/why-sign-in-windows-store | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938904 | 171 | 1.835938 | 2 |
D.C. Board of Elections Interprets Vote Retention Law Liberally in order to Avoid Disqualifying Republican PartyTuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Ballot Access News (excerpt):
The District of Columbia defines a party as a group that polled as much as 7,500 votes in the last election, for the offices that do count. When it became apparent that no Republican had polled as many as 7,500 votes this year for an office that counts toward the vote test, it seemed that the party had lost its qualified status.
However, the D.C. Board of Elections has now interpreted the law to mean that a party that meets the vote test for its presidential nominee is then immune from having to meet the vote test in the following midterm year. The law itself is worded ambiguously. It says, “The nomination and election of any individual to the office of Delegate, Mayor, Chairman of the Council and member of the Council shall be governed by the provisions of this subchapter. No political party shall be qualified to hold a primary election to select candidates for election to any such office in a general election unless, in the next preceding election year, at least 7,500 votes were cast in the general election for a candidate of such party for any such office or for its candidates for electors of President and Vice President.” | <urn:uuid:83aa8907-2712-495f-975f-343f13973ee2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independentsforkerry.org/tag/d-c/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986647 | 277 | 1.546875 | 2 |
I highly recommend the MakerBot Cupcake CNC, a very cool tool! I’m an engineering student and worked as an intern for MakerBot last summer, which gave me the opportunity to play around with their bots a lot. I got one for myself, and am very happy with it. For those unfamiliar with the MakerBot Cupcake CNC, it’s a desktop 3D printer that takes digital design files and builds objects up to approximately the size of a large cupcake by laying down many minute layers of ABS plastic.
The MakerBot comes as a kit requiring assembly. All you need to put one together are some basic tool skills, and a few days of work. It took me a weekend of on-and-off work to get mine from boxed-up to printing. The most complex, and definitely the process requiring the most adjustments, and a little bit of basic soldering, is the construction of the extruder. Once your bot is built, it shouldn’t take you more than an hour to get it printing.
Since building a MakerBot is a large DIY project, some things will not be perfect and will require some tinkering on the builder’s part. You might come across some problems such as loud, shaky X- and Y-stages, an angled Z-stage, or an extruder that clogs, but MakerBot has lots of solutions to the most common problems on their wiki.
There’s nothing else similar that’s readily available for purchase. The RepRap is in many ways the antecedent of the MakerBot, but it’s not for sale as a kit, as is the MakerBot. Since the RepRap project and all of MakerBot Industries are completely open-source, they have worked together. All the boards used to run MakerBots are actually used to run RepRaps, and many of the parts sold in the MakerBot store, such as motors and electronics, can be used to build a RepRap.
I’ve used my MakerBot to build a 7-piece block puzzle and Owl Headphone Wraps (pictured), and in the future I plan to build a refrigerator clip and a small puzzle box with my MakerBot, among other things.
I would also highly recommend looking at all the cool stuff on Thingiverse.com. It has a lot of free design files of things you can print with your MakerBot. The website was created by Bre Pettis and Zach Hoeken, two of the three MakerBot co-founders.
Printing the Statue of Liberty on a MakerBot 3D Printer! | <urn:uuid:7fbd3f97-a958-4dbc-9815-6b1fc620c89f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/4214 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962888 | 542 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The Westie stands up
to 11 inches tall at the shoulder. He has a straight, wiry, double coat
that is solid white in colour. With his black button nose and bright dark
eyes, the Westie is an engaging little dog.
The Westie, though small, is a
tough little character with the spunky personality and outgoing nature common to
terriers. He is affectionate, playful, fun loving, and active. The Westie
loves the company of people, and is a wonderful playmate for children as
he can tolerate rough housing. Alert, bold, and loyal, he also makes an excellent watchdog.
As with most terriers, the Westie will
stand his ground against other dogs, and will benefit from early training
and socialization. Intelligent and assertive, early training will also help curb his instinct to
chase other household pets, particularly cats. His small size makes him a
good choice for almost any accommodation in both the city and the country.
He enjoys walks and play time and has a high activity level. The Westie's exercise needs
can be met with a daily walk. Make
sure your yard is fenced and escape-proof because this dog's a digger! | <urn:uuid:7a65573c-2517-4b6e-9027-b86a5398b498> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canadogs.com/BreedWestie.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958496 | 259 | 1.570313 | 2 |
As yet another report on migration statistics is published, how long can it be before the elected realise that small cities really cannot cope?
According to xPRESS, Peterborough has been allocated 78% of migrants in the East of England.
In 2001 there were an estimated 8,000 new arrivals in Peterborough. Many had limited English. The number posed a threat to social stability. It also placed pressure on public services and housing provision.
It’s now 2007 and we are seeing wave after wave of legitimate working migrants into Peterborough. In typical first-generation migrant fashion, houses are now multiple occupancy with two or more families sharing houses, leading to social problems with car parking on city streets, neighbour relations, etc.
Supermarkets now stock produce from migrant home countries and advertise in their home tongue. I’m sorry, but if you move to a country then you should be expected to learn the language. Maybe it’s being narrow minded and in fact the supermarkets are the clued up ones – if you’re unfamiliar with the culture, of course you’re going to shop where you can read the labels!
Maybe now is the time for a new business strategy! Instead of starting up yet another hand car wash, using immigrant population to serve the “locals”, focus your business on the immigrants themselves. Encourage them into restaurants, pubs and bars, shops, etc. Take their money – they worked for it, help them spend it! | <urn:uuid:5e7e24f8-973e-4630-a6d8-c15e072c9505> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.jofftastic.co.uk/2007/08/78-percent-of-immigrants-head-to-peterborough/ | 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 | 0.958685 | 304 | 1.820313 | 2 |
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The Qinghefang Pedestrian Street in Hangzhou has become a tourist attraction in itself. Known as one of the most interesting spots in Hangzhou, Qinghefang Street is lined with shopping and dining treats that can satisfy any traveler. Due to its huge role in Hangzhou’s business and commerce, the Qinghefang Pedestrain Street is now considered as a prestigious national AAAA-level scenic spot in Hangzhou.
The street is named after general Zhang Jun, who defeated the Jin Army in Mingzhou City, also known presently as Ningbo. When the general was hailed as the viceroy, he established the Qinghejun Mansion on Taiping Lane; it was positioned right along Hefang Street. After some time, the whole street was simply renamed as Qinghefang Street to honor the general.
During the Sony Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty, Qinghefang Street was known as the most prosperous commercial street in the city. Today, mixing Qing and Ming architectural styles and housing an overwhelming number of shops, the street is truly a sight to behold.
Things to do
If you’re traveling in Hangzhou and you wish to familiarize yourself with the local flavor and personality of Hangzhou, then Qinghefang Pedestrian Street is the place to go. Extending up to 460 meters, the Street is considered as a best-preserved historical street in the city. Thus, tourists flock there not only to take part in Hangzhou’s lively commerce but also to admire the ancient buildings, many of which date back to the late Ming and the early Qing dynasties.
The street’s prominence is not just because of its antiquity, but also of the important role it plays for Hangzhou City. Even in the past, Qinghefang was considered as a highly prosperous area in Hangzhou. In fact, during the Southern Song Dynasty, the street housed great numbers of stores and shops. It was thus considered as the cultural, political, and commercial center of Hangzhou.
Aside from the thriving local businesses in the area, the Street has also played a key role in keeping China’s ancient tea culture, medicine culture, and authentic Chinese cuisine alive. Guests are therefore encouraged to stop and check out the various shops along the street. Some of these date back to the olden times.
Indeed, many prominent shops and businesses of the past still stand and do business today in Qinghefang Street. Some of the most popular ones, which tourists should definitely look out for, include:
• Huqinyu Drugstore. The drugstore was originally owned by Hu Xueyan, an entrepreneur who lived during the latter part of the Qing Dynasty. The shop has a unique graceful shape and comes with plenty of classical adornments such as pavilions, bridges, and fountains. It is certainly unlike any drugstore in the area. In fact, it even has different sections, namely the Display Hall, the Traditional Chinese Medicine Manual Workshop, the Health Protecting and Care Clinic, the Business Hall, and the Medicine Diet Hall.
• Baohe Drugstore. The Baohe Drugstore has been in Qinghefang Street for 1000 years now. It is highly reputed for its charitable health care services for the poor. Visitors can even go there just to contribute to the cause by buying any of the drugstore’s self-manufactured herbal teas and medicinal liquors.
• No. 1 Scholar Hall. Known as the first noodle restaurant in Hangzhou, this is very famous among tourists who want to taste authentic Ningbo, Sichuan, and Hangzhou dishes. The hall has two levels divided into 20 uniquely designed compartments; all in all, it can hold 600 customers at once.
After checking out the famous shops along the street, visitors should also check out the newer additions to the street. These include the Global Currency Museum, the Zheijiang Ancient Pottery Collection Hall, the Global Currency Museum, the Guanfu Classical Art Museum, the Shaoxing Wine Store, and the Taiji Tea House, among others. | <urn:uuid:f141b29b-7948-408f-87c7-29b39d800bcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chinatravel.com/hangzhou-attraction/qinghefang-pedestrian-street/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963489 | 869 | 1.75 | 2 |
April 25, 2012
ECE Professor Radu Marculescu, Ph.D. alumnus Umit Ogras (currently with Intel Corporation) and post-doc Paul Bogdan have earned the 2011 Donald O. Peterson Best Paper Award for their paper, "An Analytical Approach for Network-on-Chip Performance Analysis."
The award, sponsored by the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation, recognizes the best paper published in Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems. The award is based on general quality, originality, contributions, subject matter and timeliness. Nominated articles must be published during the two calendar years preceding the award. Marculescu's paper, which is the first to present a complete analytical solution to the fundamental problem of average performance analysis of embedded multicore architectures, appeared in the journal's December 2010 issue.
Marculescu and his co-authors will accept the award, consisting of a plaque and cash prize, at the ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference this coming June in San Francisco.
Marculescu and his co-authors will accept the award at the ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference this coming June in San Francisco. | <urn:uuid:07f5cd0d-4db1-436b-920c-34e654edb28a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ece.cmu.edu/news/story/2012/04/researchers_earn_best.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948824 | 252 | 1.585938 | 2 |
One of Spurlock's favorite sources in his book is the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. After the Center for Science in the Public Interest, PCRM ranks second on his "Acknowledgements" page, and he uses them in both the text and the end notes. He runs an exerpt from a book written by Neal Barnard, the group's founder (p. 93). Barnard also gets a brief appearance in Super Size Me. It's probably safe to say that the group helped out with a good deal of the book's content. See Spurlock's blog here, where he mentions his attendance at PCRM's swanky black-tie fundraising gala.
So what exactly is the Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine? They aren't physicans. Less than 5% of the group's membership are actual physicians.
In fact, PCRM is a rather militant animal rights group. Its aim? To end medical research on animals, and to foster public fear of eating cheese and meat with scare campaigns. Through lawsuits, intimidation, and stealth media placement, they're trying to push the vegan lifestyle.
PETA has directed more than $1 million to PCRM over the years. The group has been repeatedly and publicly reprimanded by the American Medical Association for spreading misinformation on the use of animals to test new AIDS treatments. The AMA's president said of PCRM in 1991, "They are neither responsible, nor are they physicians." PCRM has also called for an end to donations to groups like the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association because those groups support testing on animals.
Barnard is a psychiatrist. He has no training in nutrition, diet, or internal medicine. Yet for some reason, Spurlock and others take him seriously when he talks about the health effects of meat and cheese consumption. Barnard has lobbied government agencies to put a "biohazzard" warning label on meat and dairy, and once called cheese "morphine on a cracker." He has said, "there is no room for chicken in a healthy diet." And he's an inductee in the "Animal Rights Hall of Fame."
More disturbing, however, are PCRM's ties to animal rights terrorism. Barnard has engaged in several letter-writing campaigns with a guy named Kevin Kjonaas, who has ties to two animal rights terrorist groups, including the Animal Liberation Front. Kjonaas is now on trial on domestic terrorism charges.
Then there's Jerry Vlasak. Vlasak is a former spokesman for PCRM, and author of several of the group's publications.
Vlasak advocates murdering scientists who use animals for healthcare research. That's not an exaggeration of his position. From the Guardian:
A top adviser to Britain's two most powerful animal rights protest groups caused outrage last night by claiming that the assassination of scientists working in biomedical research would save millions of animals' lives.Blogger Brian O'Connor has assembled a few other choice Vlasak quotes:
To the fury of groups working with animals, Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon and prominent figure in the anti-vivisection movement, told The Observer: 'I think violence is part of the struggle against oppression. If something bad happens to these people [animal researchers], it will discourage others. It is inevitable that violence will be used in the struggle and that it will be effective.'
Vlasak, who likens animal experimentation to the Nazis' treatment of the Jews, said he stood by his claim that: 'I don't think you'd have to kill too many [researchers]. I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives. . .
You can listen to audio of Vlasak here. He rather causually (and chillingly) notes that extremist pro-lifers who assassinate abortion doctors "have a good thing going."
You can justify, from a political standpoint, any type of violence you want to use." — "Penn & Teller: Bullshit!" (Showtime cable network) 4/1/04 "I think that violence and nonviolence are not moral principles, they’re tactics." — "Penn & Teller: Bullshit!" (Showtime cable network) 4/1/04 "If someone is killing, on a regular basis, thousands of animals, and if that person can only be stopped in one way by the use of violence, then it is certainly a morally justifiable solution." — "Penn & Teller: Bullshit!" (Showtime cable network) 4/1/04 "I think we do need to embrace direct action and violent tactics as part of our movement … I don’t think we ought to be criticizing someone, whether we’re criticizing [them] because they’re writing letters, or whether we criticize them because they’re burning down fur stores or vivisection labs. I think we need to include everybody in that circle." — Animal Rights 2002 convention 6/27/02 "[The police] are protecting the circus, they are protecting the meat and dairy industry, they are protecting the vivisection industry and I equate them in my own mind on a moral and ethical level with the -- no different than say guards in a Nazi concentration camp." — at a panel called "Coping with Law Enforcement" at the Animal Rights 2003 LA convention 8/2/03 "I don’t have any doubt in my mind that there will come a time when we will see violence against animal rights abusers." — "Penn & Teller: Bullshit!" (Showtime cable network) 4/1/04.
I think this bears repeating: this group is second on the list of acknowledgements in Spurlock's book, people without whom, he writes, "this book would not have been possible." | <urn:uuid:f8510794-c16c-4e1b-bcb3-acbe3d2ded64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spurlockwatch.typepad.com/front/2005/07/pcrm.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95405 | 1,208 | 1.625 | 2 |
Most sheet goods — plywood, particleboard, OSB, etc. — come from the factory as nice square rectangles. Recognizing this benefit, Club member David Oliver of Somerville, New Jersey, keeps track of the factory edges and corners (provided they’re square) by marking them with a pencil. By guiding these edges against the saw fence, he’s able to ensure square cuts for his workpieces. Because these edges get worn and can look ragged, it’s best to cut them off if they’re used in a joint or if they show. | <urn:uuid:b1afa1ab-3fb7-436c-91d0-310d3d8100af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wellingtondailynews.com/article/20130314/NEWS/303149938/1014/LIFESTYLE?rssfeed=true | 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 | 0.940828 | 122 | 1.5625 | 2 |
- The police were sent to the wrong address.
- The call should have had ‘immediate’ rather than ‘priority’ response.
- Insufficient effort to establish the welfare of the caller.
- The standard by which police handled the call was unacceptable. IPCC Commissioner Amerdeep Somal said:
" Our investigation has found this particular 999 call was badly mishandled. Northamptonshire Police has reacted constructively to our findings by introducing new procedures in handling abandoned 999 calls in accordance with national guidance and retraining relevant staff." | <urn:uuid:2f4f89a4-8444-4930-91fd-e8b27bcb96f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itv.com/news/central/update/2012-02-28/key-findings-of-ding-murder-inquiry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962081 | 114 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Miles Away (34')
A video documentary by Titus Simoens, Daniel Dumitrescu and Bram Mervillie
Cow Camp, Idaho 2009. The closest grocery store is about an hour drive away.
You can go for miles and miles in any direction without finding any signs of civilization.
At the end of each year, during 'round up',
this place is packed with people who help bring the cattle down to the valley
before the frost of winter takes over.
It's August 2009 now and it feels like Cow Camp is the most desolate place in the world.
For six months, this is the place that Gene and Josh, two young cowboys, call home.
During this time, it's their duty to take care of the cattle, doctor them if needed,
manage the land and repair the fences.
The small house that they live in only provides them with the most basic needs.
Running water or electricity are luxuries that are out of place in the life they live at Cow Camp.
Life out here is tough, but it is their friendship and the love of the lifestyle that keeps them going.
To Gene and Josh there is no existence more sacred.
Born a cowboy, die a cowboy. | <urn:uuid:248c00e5-ef22-42e4-9d4f-f155cf2f0961> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.titussimoens.be/index.php?/video/miles-away/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94025 | 258 | 1.695313 | 2 |
the world is a pretty big place. there’s lots of room, just ask someone who’s lonely.
if you believe in free will, then you believe in choice. and the most important choice you can make in everything you do is to decide if that thing you’re doing is filling this world with love or hate. the smallest of actions and the most important of decisions, all create varying amounts of love or hate.
you can take the pain the world gives you and bottle it up inside, you can pass it on to someone else, or you can let it go. if you don’t let it go, it will turn into hate - for yourself, your friends, your lovers, or your enemies.
anyone who considers themselves to be a good person usually considers themselves to be aware of their impact on the universe.
so while i strongly believe in the wisdom of sagan’s thoughts on the pale blue dot, and that in many ways what occurs in our lifetimes on the whole is insignificant, i still have to pause and wonder: “how could anyone take pride in being a hater?”
is it perhaps some sick way of pulling for the underdog? because when you ask google, you haters are losing. and i don’t see you catching up anytime soon.
and just because this was way more concise and eloquent when i was in the shower, let me really ruin this with a quote from a guy who knows a lot about hate.
drinkocracy is a social / political structure, or if you’re less motivated, a drinking game.
drinkocracy is democracy, but you get a vote for each drink you’ve consumed. votes are to determine the next activity. the system works because drunk people suggest fun activities due to reduced inhibitions.
“The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.” - J. Robert Oppenheimer
i work in a digital world and live in an analog one. in the digital world, you can create limitless copies of something, and manipulate each in a different way to see the result. in our world, every moment is unique and can not be cloned for the purpose of determining the best possible outcome via trial and error.
we make choices in real time and live in the result of those choices. the words you say, the actions you take, and the attitude with which you approach the world all irreversibly alter your life, and the lives of others, perpetually.
i know several people who say they live without regret, knowing full well that they are what they are because of this phenomena. while i imagine thinking this way is comforting, much like religion, i find it to be closed minded to a world of no longer possibilities and a greater understanding of how you got where you are and how the world became what it is.
the digital world has nurtured my inquisitive nature and habit of destructive testing. my inner drive to understand how things work often leads to me breaking them, but in the digital world the consequences of this are minimal.
in the our world, actions influence much more than nearly imaginary ones and zeros. they affect the lives of ourselves and others. unfortunately, my habit of destructive testing follows me into the world in which i live, and i have broken many great things that i wish i could have just accepted for what they were.
this is my blog. there are many like it, but this one is mine.
ah, pop culture references, if i could speak entirely in them i would. i don’t, because that would be really hard, and if i’m anything it’s lazy.
how lazy you ask? well, i’ve had the resources and know-how to start this whole blogging thing ages ago. i could use the hosting i purchased, install wordpress or something, design a template, and all that.
so what held me back? content. what would i post? sure, i have the usual makings of blog content: a job, friends, opinions on everything from philosophy to technology to current events.
but who am i to feel that my experience is so unique, important, or interesting that it’s worthy of documenting for the world to see if they choose to? would i choose to post my inner most thoughts and feelings on a lamp post each evening on the way home from work?
of course not, that would be crazy. but do it on the internet and it’s normal. we live in the age of the network, and i’ve been involved in creating, maintaining, and using parts of that network most of my life. but before this, i really haven’t contributed much to that network. so why now?
the same reason i do most things. the same reason i do anything, a girl i know suggested it.
if i keep this blogging thing up, you will quickly catch on to this pattern of behavior. i’m nothing if not a creature of habit. | <urn:uuid:6641d89b-0de3-447e-a5ac-acdcc83dc910> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://poolnoodl.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949318 | 1,057 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Allocating funds among hundreds of school districts to ensure all provide the "thorough and efficient" education required by the state constitution is easier said than done, as Gov. John Kasich is learning.
Soon after taking office less than a year ago, Kasich pledged to overhaul the state formula for funding public schools. By January - next week - a plan would be in place, the governor thought.
He was wrong. His advisers say the January deadline was a self-imposed one that won't be met. Better to get it right than to get it on time, they add.
They are right, of course. Public education reform is among the chief concerns of many Ohio residents. But merely finding a way to dole out money more equitably is not enough.
When the state Supreme Court ruled a few years ago the funding system had to be revamped, one of the justices' top priorities was equitability. Too much reliance on property taxes to fund schools left poorer counties behind their richer neighbors, the high court decided.
Such rulings have been made in several states. And school funding formulas have been changed to distribute money more fairly. But improving schools has been another matter.
It may well be that Kasich and his advisers - after emphasizing they wanted to improve public schools, not just change how they are funded - are concerned about how the state could use its power better to reform failing schools. That and the funding issue go hand in hand.
So the governor and his advisers are right to insist on developing a good school reform plan rather than simply churning one out in a hurry. Let's hope they make good progress on that during the coming year. | <urn:uuid:5dfb925c-0302-4704-8b73-9c828d4acb87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://advertiser-tribune.com/page/content.detail/id/543030/Plan-is-late--but-needs-to-be-right.html?nav=5006 | 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 | 0.983807 | 335 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The National Pulse
Stating the Obvious
Next Big Issue: Can an Invention Be Denied a Patent ‘Just Because It’s Stupid’?
Posted Oct 24, 2006 5:53 AM CDT
By Steve Seidenberg
You needn’t be a Thomas Edison to get a patent. Far from it. In recent years, it has sometimes seemed as if anyone can get a patent on almost anything.
A 5-year-old, for instance, received a patent on initiating forward motion on a playground swing by pulling on the ropes and swinging sideways. Another person obtained a patent on cutting or styling hair using scissors or combs in both hands. Then there are the patents for a crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and for storing music on a server and letting users access it by clicking on a list of the music available. But don’t put all the blame on overworked examiners at the Patent and Trademark Office. Even when an invention seems obvious, the PTO may be prevented from rejecting the application because of the standards laid out by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
In 1999, for instance, the PTO rejected a patent application on the basis that the so-called invention merely combined two existing items, and it was generally known that combining these items was obvious. The Federal Circuit reversed, holding that any such general knowledge “must be articulated and placed on the record.” In re Lee, 277 F.3d 1338 (2002). This ruling, then-Deputy Patent Office Commissioner Esther Kepplinger told the Los Angeles Times, meant “we can’t reject something just because it’s stupid.”
Kepplinger is far from the only one to complain about the Federal Circuit’s standard for obviousness. The Federal Trade Commission issued a 2003 report that stated there were too many poor-quality patents, largely because of the Federal Circuit’s test for obviousness. The National Academy of Sciences issued a 2004 report with these same conclusions. And for years, many lawyers, business executives and academics have been clamoring for a change in the Federal Circuit’s standard.
That change may soon arrive, thanks to KSR international Co. v. Teleflex Inc., No. 04-1350. The case, which will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court this term, marks the first time in 30 years that the court will examine the standard for determining which inventions are obvious.
The KSR case could produce enormous ramifications for the patent system and all who use it. If the court significantly alters the Federal Circuit’s standard, it could become harder—or impossible—to patent many inventions. Defendants in infringement suits could find it far easier to challenge the validity of plaintiffs’ patents.
“It would be a very hostile environment for patent applicants and for those who have obtained patents,” says Cheri Taylor, a patent attorney in Reston, Va., who co-chairs the Patent System Policy Planning Committee of the ABA’s Section of Intellectual Property Law.
The invention at issue in I may seem obvious. Take adjustable pedals for automobiles, which have been used in cars since the 1970s. Then add a technology found in cars since the mid-1990s: pedals that use electronic sensors, instead of cables, to control the engine. The result is an adjustable pedal that uses electronic sensors. Teleflex applied for a patent on this combination in August 2000. It received the patent nine months later. After rival KSR landed a big contract to supply this type of pedal assembly for GM’s light trucks, Teleflex sued KSR for infringement in November 2002. The trial court threw out the suit on a summary judgment motion, ruling in December 2003 that Teleflex’s combination was obvious and thus unpatentable. Under the Patent Act, an invention cannot be patented if, “at the time the invention was made,” it “would have been obvious ... to a person having ordinary skill in the art.”
The Federal Circuit overturned the trial court’s ruling in January 2005, reinstating Teleflex’s infringement suit. The three-judge panel found there was no evidence that at the time Teleflex submitted its patent application, automotive engineers had any explicit teaching, motivation or suggestion to combine the two different types of pedals.
The Problem with Hindsight
The ABA’s IP section has adopted a resolution in support of the Federal Circuit’s teaching-suggestion-motivation test. “The test is a means of guarding against the use of hindsight,” says Taylor. As of late August, the ABA was considering filing an amicus brief. At least 17 amicus briefs had been filed by Aug. 22.
The problem with hindsight is that it is 20-20, say supporters of the Federal Circuit’s approach. It is all too easy to look back and say that a combination is obvious—because we already know about it. At the time, however, the combination may have been undreamt of by anyone except the inventor. By requiring some clear, explicit reason for people to combine the invention’s elements, the Federal Circuit’s test prevents unfettered hindsight from invalidating new and innovative combinations.
Critics of the Federal Circuit rule say it imposes an undue burden on patent examiners and others who are trying to show that an invention is obvious. After all, scientists and engineers publish articles about what is innovative, not about what is common knowledge. So it can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a defendant to find any explicit teaching, suggestion or motivation for an obvious combination.
“The way the standard has been applied in recent years, it has been very hard to prove a patent invalid for obviousness,” says Dale Heist, a patent litigator in Philadelphia. Critics also claim that the Federal Circuit’s test contradicts numerous Supreme Court precedents, which have held that a combination of existing items can be patented only if the combination creates an unexpected synergy. “If the Supreme Court’s cases are read literally, when you assemble known parts and each part does what it is already known to do, your invention is obvious,” says George Best, a patent litigator in Washington, D.C. “That creates a much higher bar to patentability than exists under the current Federal Circuit standard.”
Many observers expect the court will use this case to alter the current Federal Circuit test for obviousness, thus making it harder to obtain patents on obvious inventions. “The reason that the court took the case is to change or abolish the teaching-suggestion-motivation test,” says Katherine Strandburg, who teaches patent law at DePaul University in Chicago.
When asked repeatedly to comment on this case, Teleflex and its outside counsel failed to respond. KSR’s counsel had no such reticence.
“I think [the justices] will vote 9-0 to reinstate the district court’s judgment,” says James Dabney, a New York City litigator who represents KSR. “That’s what the solicitor general has urged them to do, as well as the patent office. So I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb here.”
A Taste of Things to Come
For 40 years, the U.S. Supreme Court paid little attention to patent law. But that’s all over, if the court’s last term is any indication.
In its 2005-06 term, the court heard oral arguments in four patent cases. It was the largest number in four decades, and it showed the court’s growing interest in—and concern about—patent law.
The most important of last term’s patent cases, eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, 126 S. Ct. 1837 (2006), rejected the Federal Circuit’s rule that once infringement is shown, an injunction should issue against the infringer absent some “exceptional circumstances.” The court held that patent cases should be treated the same as other cases, with injunctions issuing only if the plaintiff satisfies the traditional four-part test for an injunction. The ruling may make it significantly harder for patent owners to get injunctions, which would diminish their ability to push infringers into settlements.
In Illinois Tool Works Inc. v. Independent Ink Inc., 126 S. Ct. 1281 (2006), the Supreme Court overturned its own century-old precedent and held that owning a patent does not create a presumption of market power under federal antitrust law. The decision expands the ability of patentees to profit from their patents by making it easier for patentees to tie the sale of their patented products to the sale of other, nonpatented goods.
What might have been the most important patent case of the term turned out to be a dud. Laboratory Corp. v. Metabolite Laboratories Inc., 126 S. Ct. 2921 (2006), raised important questions about what types of inventions are patentable. There was the possibility that the court would use the case to strike down the patents on thousands of inventions, including business methods. But the court dodged the issue of patentability, ruling instead that certiorari was improvidently granted.
That generated an unusual dissent by Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens and David H. Souter. The dissenters worry that patent protection is being given to too many inventions. “Too much patent protection can impede rather than ‘promote the progress of science and useful arts,’ the constitutional objective of patent ... protection,” Breyer wrote.
“It is clear that the dissenting justices were extremely concerned about the quality of patents that have been issued,” says George Best, a patent litigator in Washington, D.C. He adds that “a number of justices are suspicious that the patent system is not working well and may want to change the system to make it harder to get patents.”
Many expect that the court will be taking a larger and more active role in policing patents. “The Supreme Court has come to take a more critical view of the Federal Circuit’s decisions and its decision-making processes,” says Cheri Taylor, a patent attorney in Reston, Va.
Steve Seidenberg is a lawyer and freelance journalist in Fanwood, N.J., who contributes regularly to the ABA Journal. | <urn:uuid:51c174e8-df8a-4b96-8f7c-edc05c2c4b6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/stating_the_obvious/ | 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 | 0.947805 | 2,195 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Everything is ...fine? by Michele L. Moses is the first in a series of BugBooks.
Michele understands one thing, men and women are not meant
to live together. But she still has hope and feels as long as there is a strong desire and steadfast patience from both individuals it is possible to achieve what some refer to as living happily ever after.
Michele started developing the Bug Book series out of life’s little frustrations that sometimes feel like the end of the world. But, as Michele learned in her design training, a challenge is actually an opportunity to improve.
So, Michele began to write things down that “bugged” her, which lead to the creation of LittleBug and BigBug---What’s Bugging You?
The Bugs are fictitious characters, any resemblance to real persons you may know is a coincidence. | <urn:uuid:35a2a5d0-1115-4d31-919b-289fe0c8298e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blurb.com/b/3914944-everything-is-fine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968178 | 179 | 1.609375 | 2 |
by William S. Lind
by William S. Lind
Last week, I attended and spoke at a conference on armor in urban operations, put on by the U.S. Army Armor School at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. In listening to the other presentations, the question I was asking myself was, "What are these guys learning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan?"
The question is an important one, because war is a competition in learning curves. Whoever consistently learns faster acquires an increasing advantage. This is the Boyd Cycle or OODA Loop at work on the macro level, and just as in the micro level of actual combat, it is an important determinant of victory or defeat.
So what did I discover? At the level of techniques, when actual units briefed, the learning curve seemed impressive. They had quickly figured out that while techniques tend to be regarded in peacetime as static, in combat they become dynamic: you can't use yesterday's techniques that are always done the same way, the new priority becomes adapting and inventing techniques. Again, the combat units I heard brief seemed to have gotten this. They were innovating intelligently, in ways that were relevant to the situation in Iraq as it is, not as we might like it to be.
When we moved up a level, from units that have actually fought to institutions, the picture immediately got cloudy. Here, the internal priorities of budget and bureaucratic politics still hold sway, despite the fact that we are fighting two wars. One example was a brief from the Marine Corps "Battle Lab" at Quantico (the term is a misnomer: the office is about budgets, not battles, and unlike a laboratory, it does demonstrations, not experiments). The briefing stated at the outset that the keys to success in wars like that in Iraq are "Increased Lethality and Improved Protection."
Well, no. We already have vast advantages over our Fourth Generation opponents in both lethality and protection, yet we're losing. That suggests there is rather more to Fourth Generation war than lethality and protection. Indeed, we have so much of both of those qualities that they may work against us more than for us. Recently, the lethality of U.S. Army attack helicopters was turned on a crowd of young men and boys gathered around a burning Bradley, with catastrophic results for our image among Iraqis. And our Force Protection already seals us off from the people we are supposed to be helping, turning us into an alien and threatening presence. At the mental and moral levels of war, we may need less lethality and protection rather than more.
This points to the big disappointment in all of what I heard at the conference. It was all focused on the physical level of war, to the virtual exclusion of the more powerful mental and moral levels. At the mental level, there were a few mentions of PSYOPS, but even these were misconceived as what we say. Real PSYOPS are what we do, like stepping on the heads of detainees. Only one briefing grasped this essential point.
Of the moral level of war, which John Boyd argued is the most powerful level, there was nothing. Worse, there was no discussion of the central dilemma in Fourth Generation war, that what wins at the physical level tends to lead to defeat at the moral level. Goliath may mop the floor with his smaller, weaker opponents, but in doing so he makes himself universally hated.
In classic Second Generation fashion, the assumption behind almost all the briefings was that if we can only accumulate enough tactical victories, we are certain to win strategically as well. Vietnam should have put an end to this simplistic belief, but the lessons of Vietnam were filed and forgotten almost as soon as that war was over.
The fault here is not that of the combat units, which were doing all they could to get their learning curve up, within the understanding of war that they have. The fault lies with those institutions within our military, such as TRADOC and the "Battle Lab," that are supposed to grapple with the larger, conceptual issues. They have failed for years to do their job, and they are failing still. Their learning curves are as flat as the landscape of the Sunni triangle, where our soldiers and Marines are doomed to continue winning lost victories.
September 15, 2004
William Lind [send him mail] is Director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation.
Copyright © 2004 William S. Lind | <urn:uuid:3e150425-416b-4ade-a573-1c52d5eff03c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lewrockwell.com/lind/lind39.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978657 | 906 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Often disparagingly called the Poor Man's Meat, the family of lentils, including peas, lentils and beans, are finally being recognized as the culinary gold that they are. Full of fiber, iron and protein, and low in fat- they are a tasty way to break away from a meat-guzzling diet ( as Mark Bittman calls it) and into one that places a high value on plant-based foods. Legumes are some very selfless and community-minded plants: as they grow, they convert atmospheric nitrogen into "fertilizer" and enrich the soil. Remember the nitrogen cycle from elementary school science class?
I never met a bean or a lentil that I did not love, but my heart belongs to peanuts! Well, those peanuts too, but mainly these:
I grew up in a peanut-growing region of Maharashtra (in fact, a region that grows all sorts of cash crops like sugarcane, cotton, peanuts, tobacco in abundance, and has the prosperity to show for it), so peanuts have always been a big part of my life. In season, when fresh newly-dug peanuts arrive on the market (with dark soil still caked over the shells), it is time for one of life's greatest edible pleasures: boiled peanuts! Peanut oil is the natural choice for a cooking medium. Even today, my mother buys peanut oil straight from a refinery- every few months, she hops in her car with two stainless steel jerry cans, drives to a tiny oil-pressing unit in the heart of town and waits as they fill the cans with still-warm peanut oil. It is sold by the kilogram. The peanut residue, which remains quite nutritious, is pressed into cakes and fed to cattle (who also live in the heart of town with their owners). Only in Kolhapur!
Recently, my love for peanuts was intensified even more when I heard a talk by a local doctor who is doing some incredible work in the African nation of Malawi- he has developed a peanut-based ready-to-eat paste that has shown impressive results in being to rescue severely malnourished children. I admire a lot of things about this Project Peanut Butter, including the fact that locally produced peanuts are being bought to make this nutritious paste, thus helping the local economy while saving tiny lives (the majority of food relief programs rely on surplus cheap grain being shipped in from far away).
Today, I am making a dry peanut chutney, one of a family of dry chutneys that are very popular in Maharashtrian homes. A scoop of flavorful chutney can liven up even the simplest of meals. It is actually very similar to a number of chutneys I have written about before, such as this garlicky one. This one is heavy on the peanuts, but also contains other flavors that I love, such as coconut and sesame and garlic and coriander, in a very everything-but-the-kitchen-sink fashion. I have tweaked the proportions over countless batches to get the taste that I happen to like the most. Use my proportions, or feel free to tweak them to your own taste. I often make this chutney to give as a small gift from my kitchen, and most people who taste it seem to like it.
(Dry Peanut Chutney)
1 C peanuts, roasted lightly and skinned
2 T sesame seeds
2 T unsweetened dry coconut flakes
4-5 dried red chillies (or to taste)
10-15 fresh curry leaves
2 garlic cloves (optional)
1 T coriander seeds
1 t cumin seeds
1-2 t tamarind pulp (not paste) (optional)
2 t sugar (or to taste)
1 t salt (or to taste)
1. Heat a heavy skillet (low-medium heat) and add the peanuts first. When they are lightly browned, add the sesame seeds, coconut, chillies, curry leaves, garlic, coriander and cumin. Keep stirring and roasting until all the ingredient are toasty and fragrant.
2. Let the mixture cool down completely (the curry leaves will be crispy and dry by then). Place in a food processor/ mixie bowl with the tamarind, sugar and salt. Process until the mixture is uniformly powdered. Keep processing until the oil starts to be extracted from the peanuts and the chutney starts to clump together (not until it becomes peanut butter, mind you). Taste for a balance of flavors and adjust them if necessary.
3. Store in an air-tight bottle at room temperature for 3-4 weeks or so. This recipe yields about a medium jar of chutney- perfect for a family of 2-4.
How do you enjoy this chutney? Let me count the ways...
1. Spread on little buttered crackers to make chutney toasts like in the picture above. They make great little snacks!
2. Stir into yogurt for an instant dip.
3. Sprinkle on hot buttered toast for a spicy breakfast treat.
4. Eat as a podi with ghee and rice.
5. Mix with untoasted sesame oil to make a chutney for idlis and dosas.
6. Serve in a little heap as an accompaniment to any home-style meal such as dal and rice, yogurt rice or chapati and vegetables. This is the way it is traditionally served.
And creative readers mentioned other ways of enjoying it
7. Sprinkle on pizza instead of red pepper flakes (Bee)
8. Sprinkle on buttered bread, then toast the bread on a tava (Shankari)
9. Add some yogurt to the chutney and enjoy with poli/chapati//fulkas (Anjali, Manasi)
10. Eat with hot poli/chapati and ghee (Musical)
10. Eat with vada pav (Pooja)
11. Eat with dhokla (Coffee)
12. Use as a masala over shallow fried green chillies (Roshni)
Enjoy your weekend! | <urn:uuid:a594d931-6a6e-4e18-88fa-6f8059657f6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2008/02/shengdana-chutney.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940753 | 1,291 | 1.84375 | 2 |
You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Cancer’ category.
by Richard Denison, PhD, cross-posted from EDFBlog
Note: We accidentally posted the contents of an earlier Richard Denison post (available here) under this title. We’ve updated the post, and apologize for the error. – TPH Editors
Please help me welcome to the true mainstream of scientific and medical thought the seemingly radical yet commonsense notion that chemical exposures are a significant contributor to cancer, many types of which are rising in incidence even as overall rates decline.
This morning, the President’s Cancer Panel released its 2010 report [available here]. The report is remarkable not so much for its core finding that chemical exposures are a major factor in human cancer, but rather because of its source – an authoritative and bipartisan body — and because of the strong linkages it makes to our failed chemicals policies.
As I noted in “Perplexed by OSHA’s reg agenda,” I’ve made a habit of commenting on the content of the Dept of Labor’s semi-annual regulatory agenda [see links below]. I’ll be the first to admit that our system for protecting workers from well-known hazards with new regulations is onerous and anything but nimble. It needs an overhaul. The obstacles, roadblacks and challenges plague OSHA, but these administrative and burden-of-proof hurdles DO NOT apply to MSHA. Here are just two examples of what I mean:
- MSHA merely has to demonstrate that its decision is not arbitrary and capricious; a much lower burden of proof than the “substantial evidence” test required of OSHA. [see a recent US Court of Appeals ruling on MSHA's diesel particulate matter health standard explaining the "arbitrary and capricious" bar.]
- MSHA, unlike OSHA, is at every one of the worksites under its authority several times a year and can assemble all kinds of data to determine feasibility of controls. MSHA has access to more data than it would ever need to demonstrate exposure, risk and feasibility.
These two factors alone set the stage for MSHA to propose and finalize standards to protect our nation’s mine workers over several months, not years.
Last week Labor Secretary Solis released in the Federal Register on April 26, 2010, her Spring 2010 regulatory agenda for the Department, including her rulemaking priorities for MSHA and OSHA. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act it was published on time in April, in contrast to her Fall 2009 agenda which was six weeks late.
This document is described by the Secretary as a:
“…listing of all the regulations it expects to have under active consideration for promulgation, proposal, or review during the coming 1-year period. The focus of all departmental regulatory activity will be on the development of effective rules that advance the Department’s goals and that are understandable and usable to the employers and employees in all affected workplaces.”
As my mentor Dr. Eula Bingham used to say to her staff (during her tenure as OSHA chief the Carter Administration): the only rulemaking activies that truly count for worker health and safety are publishing proposed and final rules. Efforts that distract, divert, or delay the regulation writers’ duties should be avoided. Currently, OSHA has about 100 full-time (FTEs) individuals assigned to its H&S standards office, and MSHA has about 17 FTEs.
The painful and deadly toll that asbestos imposes on families across the globe is a public health problem of growing magnitude. In the U.S., individuals who are diagnosed today with asbestos-related disease may trace their exposure to the lethal mineral fibers back several decades. The number of new cases of asbestos-related disease in the U.S. has not yet plateaued, and may not for years. Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that 125 million people are currently exposed to asbestos at work or in their communities. What will come of these individuals in the years ahead when the diseases manifest themselves?? Last year the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) produced an amazing, but frightening documentary “Canada’s Ugly Secret” and when I show it to my students, I ask “what will these people look like in 20 years?” Their answers are not pretty and not hopeful.
The time has long past for the U.S. to stand up for the public’s health and pass strong laws to protect future generations from asbestos-related disease. As we mark the end of Asbestos-Disease Awareness Week (April 1-7) and begin National Public Health Week (Nov 5-11) I urged every reader of TPH to take 1 minute to read the policy resolution adopted by the American Public Health Association (APHA) in 2009 calling for the global elimination of asbestos and strong prevention measures. The resolution urges:
- Congress to pass legislation banning the manufacture, sale, export, or import of asbestos-containing products (i.e., products to which asbestos is intentionally added or products in which asbestos is a contaminant).
- NIOSH and OSHA to issue an annual statement to alert workers in high-risk occupationsof the adverse health risks associated with exposure to asbestos and include information on potential early warning symptoms in at least English, Spanish, and French.
- US Administration to support efforts for a legally binding treaty to ban asbestos mining and manufacturing throughout the world.
- Congress to ban the exportation of asbestos or asbestos-containing materials for use or destruction in developing countries.
- US Administration to use its diplomatic influence with Canada, Russia, and other countries to stop their dangerous practice of exporting asbestos.
- Global corporations and development banks to establish policies prohibiting asbestos-containing materials in new construction and disaster relief projects.
- Governments to provide income support and retraining, and funding for relocation if necessary, for workers who would lose their jobs as a result of protective legislation.
Astute public health practitioners knew as early as 1898 that exposure to the lethal miner fibers caused severe respiratory damage. When Selikoff, Churg and Hammond published their study in 1964 of cancer deaths among U.S. and Canadian asbestos insulation workers, the evidence of its harm to people’s health was incontrovertible. Yet, like the tobacco industry, individuals who profit from asbestos peddle their deadly product with no chance of being held responsible for the severe harm caused to others–especially when that harm may not appear for years and years.
By adopting all the recommendations of APHA’s resolution, the U.S. and global community can create a world in which future generations will look at asbestos-related disease as an ugly thing of the past.
Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH is immediate past chair of the OHS Section of APHA. She was pleased to join fellow APHA members Barry Castleman and Linda Reinstein in drafting the resolution on asbestos adopted by the organization at its 2009 annual meeting. She is looking forward to attending the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization’s 6th annual international conference entitled “Knowledge is Stronger than Asbestos” on April 9-11 in Chicago, IL.
By Paul Whaley and Dr John Newby, PhD; cross-posted from Health & Environment
To understand the importance of the new science of epigenetics for health, we have to visit cell development and the cellular processes which, if they go wrong, lead to cancer. Understanding these processes could help us better anticipate and prevent possible health hazards from environmental chemicals, develop better models for risk assessment, and even lead to novel treatments for cancer.
Epigenetics and development
One single fertilised cell, in order to become a human, has to differentiate itself into about 200 cell types. Every single cell, however, contains the same complete set of around 25,000 genes. This means different genes have to be turned on and off at certain times in order for a cell to develop into and function as, for example, a skin cell rather than a liver cell.
This regulation of when genes are turned on and off is governed by epigenetic processes. Rather than mutations, which are changes to the genetic code, epigenetic changes affect genes themselves, like software in relation to DNA hardware.
During development, epigenetic regulation is one factor responsible for determining the course of development of a cell, setting it on the path to becoming a skin cell rather than a liver cell, or a brain cell instead of a muscle cell.
Sometimes, however, external influences can result in genes being silenced or activated at the wrong times. In effect, this can confuse the developmental instructions being acted on by a cell, subtly taking it away from its natural developmental pathway and down an altered route, with a range of potential knock-on effects.
by Richard Denison, PhD, cross-posted from EDF Blog
The Washington Post ran a front-page article Saturday, written by Spencer Hsu, which reported the auction sale by FEMA of most of the 120,000 notorious formaldehyde-tainted trailers it had purchased five years ago to house the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The article cites FEMA as saying that “wholesale buyers from the auction must sign contracts attesting that trailers will not be used, sold or advertised as housing, and that trailers will carry a sticker saying, ‘Not to be used for housing’.”
Think that’s likely to be enough?
By Richard Clapp and Genevieve Howe
The women’s movement and the environmental movement lost a champion on Christmas Day, 2009. Rita Arditti of Cambridge, MA died, at age 75, after a phenomenally productive and inspiring life and a decades-long battle with metastatic breast cancer. She was born in Argentina and educated in Italy as a biologist, which led to doing research and teaching at Brandeis, Harvard, and Boston Universities. For the past three decades, she was a core Faculty member at the Union Institute and University and was professor emerita there at the time of her death. An unwavering feminist, she was a founding member of “Science for the People” and the New Words bookstore in Cambridge; she maintained her ties to the bookstore throughout its 28-year history. Along the way, she wrote a book about women searching for their missing grandchildren who were among the “disappeared” under the military dictatorship in Argentina in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This influential book was titled Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina and was published in 1999. Throughout her life, Rita could always be found at events, rallies, and protests against injustice and suppression of human rights. Occasionally she was a speaker, but she always was present on the side of the oppressed.
Rita also helped found the Cambridge-based Women’s Community Cancer Project, and this is where we got to know her, learn from her, and be inspired by her. The WCCP was founded in 1989 with the goal of sounding the alarm to the public and to the cancer establishment (huge government and private research money and tremendously profitable cancer treatment businesses) about the role of environmental exposures in contributing to women’s cancers. It was the first such group in the U.S. and provided a model for several other now well-known groups around the country. A striking public mural by Be Sargent in Harvard Square, Cambridge, depicts heroines in the women’s cancer movement and calls for implementation of the “Precautionary Principle.” The mural is captioned, “Indication of harm, not proof of harm, is our call to action.” As part of its work, WCCP put forward radical critiques of the male-dominated, reductionist, treatment-focused, approach to cancer research; the influence of pollution-generating corporations on non-governmental organizations such as the American Cancer Society and government agencies such as the National Cancer Institute; and the resulting distortion of mainstream approaches to controlling cancer. Rita was a leader in this organization for the past two decades and in a national and international movement to look “upstream” to the moral imperative of preventing women from getting cancer in the first place.
In a 2006 French documentary film about the “War on Cancer,” Rita said:
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure
If you have any of your clothes dry cleaned it’s more than likely you are being exposed to a chlorinated solvent called PCE (for perchloroethylene aka perc aka tetrachloroethylene/tetrachloroethene). You may be lucky enough to also get some in your drinking water, too (which means you are also breathing it and absorbing it through your skin) — because PCE is also one of the most prevalent groundwater contaminants in the US. It has some other nice properties: it causes cancer and birth defects and probably autoimmune disease. And it isn’t needed to dry clean clothes. Other than that, no problem. Under the heading of “elections matter”, though, consider this. After years of looking the other way, the Washington Post reports that EPA is moving — not rapidly, but moving — to make dry cleaners phase out PCE (perc):
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a decision this week on legal challenges to OSHA’s 2006 rule to protect workers from exposure to hexavalent chromium. In the simpliest terms, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group and the Steelworkers argued that OSHA’s rule was not protective enough, while the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) argued that they should be exempt from it. The three-judge panel, which included retired U.S. Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O’Connor, rejected all but one of the petitioners’ claims, deferring largely to OSHA’s authority. Circuit Judge Rendell wrote:
“we will not disturb the Cr(VI) permissible exposure limit or other policy determination…as long as we conclude that OSHA’s decision was reasonably drawn from the record.”
Linda Reinstein is a mother and grandmother. Linda Reinstein is an asbestos-disease widow. Her husband Alan Reinstein, 67, died on May 22, 2006 from mesothelioma. Like her husband, Linda Reinstein is a fighter, an organizer, an activist. Following Alan Reinstein’s mesothelioma diagnosis in 2003, they founded the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) which is now entering its sixth year. The organization strives to serve as the “voice of the victims.”
Next month, the ADAO will host its 5th annual Asbestos Awareness Day conference (March 27-29, Manhattan Beach, California). Asbestos awareness in the year 2009? What does it say about the state of global and national public health when we still have the need for an Asbestos Awareness conference?? | <urn:uuid:a402a5d8-66df-44df-9bf3-fdcbf6e008d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/category/cancer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954569 | 3,132 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Temperatures are set to continue to soar today, following the hottest day of the year yesterday.
Most of the UK enjoyed temperatures in the high 20s on Saturday.
At Cavendish, in Suffolk, the mercury reached a high of 32.4C (90.32F), eclipsing the previous high of 31.4C (88.5F) recorded at London's Olympic Park on July 25.
Much of East Anglia and the South East saw the hottest temperatures, and the baking heat looks set to continue today.
Yesterday's sweltering conditions saw thousands packing out seaside towns and an increase in sales of barbecue foods and drinks as sun lovers enjoyed the Mediterranean conditions.
Much of the UK was hotter than popular European holiday destinations such as Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, where tourists enjoyed top temperatures of 29.8C (85.64F).
The Caribbean islands are currently experiencing temperatures of between 30C (86F) and 32C (89.6F).
Large parts of Europe were savouring the weather too but it was remarkably hot in parts of France and Italy, with Paris experiencing highs of almost 39C (102.2F) and Florence 38C (100.4F).
Gareth Harvey, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, said today could see the temperatures in the South East rising further. He said: "East Anglia and the South East might see 32C (89.6F) in the afternoon.
"There will be lots of sunny spells but during the afternoon we might see cloud building up and there is a chance of a thundery shower breaking out but that's the exception rather than the rule." | <urn:uuid:e303609c-7e1a-4211-92b2-315eb4291064> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2012-08-19/feeling-hot-hot-hot/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95573 | 345 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly panel has suggested imposition of ban on private practice of government doctors, particularly those posted in the Government Medical College Hospitals in the state.
The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly Committee, constituted to examine the
cause of increase in the deaths in SKIMS, Srinagar and SMGS Hospital (Paediatrics), Jammu, on Tuesday suggested ban on private practice of government doctors, an official spokesman said on Tuesday.
The committee, which met here Tuesday under the chairmanship of MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia, discussed about further streamlining the functioning of government hospitals.
The members, including Zulfikar Ali, Mohammad Shafi Wani, Durga Dass and Charanajit Singh, stressed on expediting the recruitment of doctors and paramedic staff to meet the shortage, the spokesman said.
The committee decided that director Health Services, Jammu, director Health Services, Kashmir, all chief medical officers and medical superintendents would be called in the next meeting to discuss the healthcare delivery system, including the referral system, he said. | <urn:uuid:a5b3e0e8-61f0-4254-aa7e-0daaecd5d55d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hindustantimes.com/Punjab/Chandigarh/J-amp-K-panel-for-ban-on-private-practice-of-govt-doctors/SP-Article1-961849.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944715 | 224 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Tag: student competitiveness
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There's a lot of discussion out there about how students from the US can 'compete' with students abroad, particularly students from China and India. Which group does better on test scores? Which group spends more time in class and studying? While all of that may or may not equate to producing the most successful or competitive students in the world economy, those are two of the major factors that most people consider when assessing student competitiveness. | <urn:uuid:07ea1028-e87c-47c3-bf31-dcd990e35f8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edudemic.com/tag/student-competitiveness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957605 | 101 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Last Words from Richard Rorty
Richard Rorty, one of the most influential philosophers of our time, died on Friday after a painful struggle with cancer. What follows is the opening act of what was to have been a long and wide-ranging interview between us, but sadly had to be abandoned midstream.
With his broad intellectual vision and his nimble, bracing prose style — unique among academic philosophers — Rorty shook things up like few of his contemporaries.
Rorty was among the first to cross the bridge (now better-traveled) between the “analytic” and “continental” schools of philosophy. He breathed new life into the pragmatist tradition of thought, championing the ideas of its founding figures, William James and — especially — John Dewey. Dewey was both his philosophical hero and also his model of a democratic intellectual actively engaged in the cultural conversation of the day.
Rorty followed in his hero’s footsteps. Though never the crusading activist Dewey was, he was outspoken in public debates on a broad range of issues. He was constantly reviewing books and penning essays for magazines and newspapers so as to reach a general readership, not just other scholars.
“In articles on public education, market fundamentalism, and the Iraq War,” the historian Casey Blake recently observed, “Rorty has emerged as one of our most eloquent and impassioned public intellectuals… a model of what Michael Walzer has called a ‘connected critic,’ an intellectual who implores his fellow citizens to live up to the moral values they claim to hold dear.”
Rorty’s many books included Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Consequences of Pragmatism (1982), Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (1989), Achieving our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America (1998), Philosophy and Social Hope (1999), and (with Gianni Vattimo) The Future of Religion (2005).
Last year the philosopher Eduardo Mendieta assembled a very nice collection of interviews with Rorty titled Take Care of Freedom and Truth Will Take Care of Itself (in which I was pleased to have an interview of mine, dating back to 1989, included). And just last month saw the publication of Philosophy as Cultural Politics, the fourth and final volume of Rorty’s Philosophical Papers.
In awarding Rorty the Thomas Jefferson Medal this April, the American Philosophical Society noted his “influential and distinctively American contribution to philosophy and, more widely, to humanistic studies.” His work, the citation went on, redefined philosophy “as an unending, democratically disciplined, social and cultural activity of inquiry, reflection, and exchange…”
In eulogizing the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer in 2002, Rorty wrote that he “vibrantly embodied all that is most valuable in the European humanistic tradition.” Rorty did the same for the American humanistic tradition.
I’ve long been fond of quoting his description of humanism as the notion that “if we can work together, we can make ourselves into whatever we are clever and courageous enough to imagine ourselves becoming.”
He will be sorely missed.
Danny Postel: How do you feel about the spirited engagement with your work in Iran today? You were invited to lecture in Tehran in 2004 and
encountered intense interest in what you had to say. More recently, the Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji sought you out in California and the two of you had a long discussion. I was in a bookstore in Tehran in March and saw several of your books, as well as a collection of essays about you, in both English and Persian. I wonder what you make of this.
Richard Rorty: When I visited Tehran I was surprised to hear that
some of my writings had been translated into Persian, and had a considerable readership. I was puzzled that rather fussy debates of the sort that take place between European and American philosophers, and in which I engage, should be of interest to Iranian students. But the reception of the talk I gave on “Democracy and Philosophy” made clear that there was indeed intense interest in the issues I discussed.
When I was told that another figure much discussed in Tehran was Habermas, I concluded that the best explanation for interest in my work was that I share Habermas’s vision of a social democratic utopia. In this utopia, many of the functions presently served by membership in a religious community would be taken over by what Habermas calls “constitutional patriotism.” Some form of patriotism — of solidarity with fellow-citizens, and of shared hopes for the country’s future — is necessary if one is to take politics seriously. In a theocratic country, a leftist political opposition must be prepared to counter the clergy’s claim that the nation’s identity is defined by its religious tradition. So the left needs a specifically secularist form of moral fervor, one which centers around citizens’ respect for one another rather than on the nation’s relation to God.
My own views on these matters derive from Habermas and John Dewey. In the early decades of the twentieth century Dewey helped bring a culture into being in which it became possible for Americans to replace Christian religiosity with fervent attachment to democratic institutions (and equally fervent hope for the improvement of those institutions). In recent decades, Habermas has been commending that culture to the Europeans. In opposition to religious leaders such as Benedict XVI and the ayatollahs, Habermas argues that the alternative to religious faith is not “relativism” or “rootlessness” but the new forms of solidarity made possible by the Enlightenment.
The pope recently said: “A culture has developed in Europe that is the most radical contradiction not only of Christianity but of all the religious and moral traditions of humanity.” Dewey and Habermas would reply that the culture that arose out of the Enlightenment has kept everything in Christianity that was worth keeping. The West has cobbled together, in the course of the last two hundred years, a specifically secularist moral tradition — one that regards the free consensus of the citizens of a democratic society, rather then the Divine Will, as the source of moral imperatives. This shift in outlook is, I think, the most important advance that the West has yet made. I should like to think that the students with whom I spoke in Tehran, impressed by Habermas’s writings and inspired by the courage of thinkers such as Ganji and Ramin Jahanbegloo, may someday make Iran the nucleus of an Islamic Enlightenment.
DP: You mentioned the fervent attachment to democratic institutions that Dewey helped foster, and also the “equally fervent hope for the improvement of those institutions.” How much improvement are our democratic institutions in need of today, in your view? Three years ago you wondered whether we were moving into something you called “post-democracy.”
RR: Before 9/11 I would have said that the principal area in which democratic institutions needed improvement is the old familiar one: we need to put those institutions to use in order to level the life-chances of poor children and rich children. It looked as if, with the end of the Cold War, we might get back to that traditional social democratic agenda.
After 9/11, however, it became clear that the political right would try to substitute “the war on global terrorism” for anti-Communism as an excuse not only for keeping the national security state intact but for undermining the political institutions of the old democracies. The article that the editors of The London Review of Books re-titled “Post-Democracy” was originally titled “Anti-terrorism and the national security state”.
At the time that article was published (April of 2004) I was terrified that the Bush administration would carry American public opinion with it, and would succeed in brushing the liberties of the citizen aside. I feared that 9/11 would make it possible for what President Eisenhower called “the military-industrial complex” to extend its power over the US government in unprecedented ways. I predicted that if the terrorists were to explode even one suitcase-sized nuclear weapon in a Western city, democratic institutions might not survive. The security agencies in the Western democracies would
be granted, or would simply seize, powers comparable to those of Gestapo and the KGB.
The Bush administration has now been repudiated by US public opinion, and the Iraq debacle will make future European governments hesitant about following America’s lead. But I still think that the end of democracy is a likely consequence of nuclear terrorism, and I do not know how to guard against this danger. Sooner or later some terrorist group will repeat 9/11 on a much grander scale. I doubt that democratic institutions will be resilient enough to stand the strain.
DP: Would it be fair to say that you’ve moved a bit to the left over
the past few years?
RR: I’m not aware of having moved to the left, and am curious as to why I might seem to have done so. When I heard the news about the Twin Towers my first thought was “Oh, God. Bush will use this the way Hitler used the Reichstag fire.” I have never thought of the Republicans at any time since Reagan’s election as more than greedy, unscrupulous scoundrels. In regard to the “war on terror” I have described the same trajectory as a lot of other leftists: in favor of the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and against invading Iraq. In regard to domestic policy, I am still in favor of soaking the rich and redistributing the money to the workers (though not of nationalizing the means of production). On “cultural” matters, there was a time when I had old-fogeyish doubts about gay and lesbian marriage that I no longer have. But that doesn’t seem much of shift.
Shortly after sending him a follow-up question, I received a message from his wife that his health had taken a sharp turn for the worse. He died two weeks later.
Danny Postel is Senior Editor of openDemocracy (www.opendemocracy.net) and the author of Reading “Legitimation Crisis” in Tehran: Iran and the Future of Liberalism. He interviewed Ariel Dorfman in the December 1998 issue of The Progressive.
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CURRENT ISSUE: June 2013
Spying on Occupy Activists
Matthew Rothschild | How local law enforcement and Homeland Security help Wall Street.
The Commerce of Violence
Wendell Berry | The cheapening of life is surely the dominant theme of our time, from Guantánamo to the Boston Marathon.
Jason Collins, Meet Brittney Griner
Dave Zirin | Dave Zirin says Jason Collins and Brittney Griner can teach the guys in the huddle a lot.
Preserving Our Home on Earth
We’ve released our second eBook from a new “Hidden History“ e-book series: monthly installments of riveting selections from our archives.
"Since we only have one planet to call our own, it might be worth reading this book." —Bill McKibben
Welcome to The Progressive Magazine | <urn:uuid:aed65bb5-47d9-4c14-b9ba-7602057bc616> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.progressive.org/mag_postel0607 | 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 | 0.966119 | 2,407 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Snoop software gains power and raises privacy concerns
Earlier this year, Rick Eaton did something unusual in the world of high technology: he made his product weaker.
Mr. Eaton is the founder of TrueActive, which makes a computer program that buyers can install on a target computer and monitor everything that the machine's user does on the PC.
Spying with software has been around for several years but Mr. Eaton decided that one new feature in his program crossed a line between monitoring and snooping.
That feature is called "silent deploy," which allows the buyer to place the program on someone else's computer secretly via e-mail, without having physical access to the machine. To Mr. Eaton, that constituted an invitation to install unethical and even illegal wiretaps. He made the change, he said, "so we could live with ourselves."
[ Read more ]
By subscribing to our early morning news update, you will receive a daily digest of the latest security news published on Help Net Security.
With over 500 issues so far, reading our newsletter every Monday morning will keep you up-to-date with security risks out there. | <urn:uuid:9332bb3f-9df4-425c-bee4-19882f3d0ab4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.net-security.org/news.php?id=3779 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963853 | 234 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Paul went his first TeachMeet just before Christmas, and has found an explosion in his professional learning since getting involved with twitter, and wanted to bring this idea to children.
He heard about the first KidsMeet which happened last year, and the Thorney Close TEDxKids, which show that Primary school children can have great results in sharing in a very public context. Childrne presenting across BETT this week have also given some great presentations about what they are learning, and Paul wants to make this happen more often than once a year.
Ad-libbing without his presentation slides, Paul asked for regular time checks from the judges, each time adding another example of great sharing of learning by the kids themselves. Paul and friends are looking to organise regular KidsMeets, at first in London and then beyond, so if you are interested sign up here.
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Amy took Kodu into the classrooms of a year 5 and year 3 class. more
Year 2 BEd student Emma started looking at why we should use tools for classroom more
Emma was givena collection of iPod touches and iPads, and she set out to push more
'Anonymous' was quickly outed as Colin Hill, one of the key people in getting #ukedchat more | <urn:uuid:1ec54857-59b2-44f6-9d7a-3255c422db59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oliverquinlan.com/liveblogs/?p=300 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978346 | 256 | 1.835938 | 2 |
If todays iPad event happened six thousand years ago it might have played out like this;
And on the twenty seventh day of the first month of the two thousandth and tenth year the gods of Apple decided to bless the mortals of the earth with a bounty of media, email and photos. And the mortals rejoiced greatly looking upon the work of the Apple and seeing that it was good. And due to the personal nature of this gift, it’s texture and flatness the name iPad was bestowed upon it by the mortals. But, outside the garden were mortals who were jealous of the gods. “Why have the gods not seen fit to give us a camera or allow us to partake in the games of Flash or even output our video at 1080i?”. These mortals thought they knew more than the gods, they became insolent and hoped the righteous mortals choked on their iPads. They had forgotten about all the wonderful contributions Apple had given them to date including the modern user interface not to mention the 50.2 billion dollar track record the gods had already set.
These rebellious mortals began to bicker, plan and build altars to the gods of Microsoft, Dell and Asus. These mortal became jealous of the power Apple wielded. After many offerings and sacrifices the false gods were unable to extinguish the fire of the iPad.
All joking aside there are some interesting things to take into consideration. It seems as if most people love or hate the new iPad. Some excellent points were made today at the event. I do believe that the iPad fits a specific second screen market. For instance, if you are watching TV and want to use the internet then your smartphone is probably too small. Your laptop is too large, hot and bulky and your netbook is too small/slow. The iPad does provide a light, thin quick second screen experience. Don’t get me wrong i don’t really believe that it is a perfect device (handed down by Gods).
I would like to see;
- Wireless Syncing
- Flash Support (Fancst.com, hulu.com)
- Silverlight support (netflix.com)
- IR port (Use as universal remote)
- Larger SSD (150 Gig)
- Camera (Skype)
For a Rev 1 device in a totally new vertical you have to admit this is a good start. Remember it is not a netbook, Apple once again has sat back and watched the netbook craze compiled user feedback and positioned themselves within this new vertical.
Now for untapped goodness. Let’s just say that people outside of the Apple fanboys hate the iPad and it gains no traction with the mainstream user base. Apple has already positioned themselves with businesses. Get a iPad download the Saleforce.com app and you have a technical advantage of other salesman in your field. Even if Apple fails they win, i like those odds.
Many including myself will critique Apple at times, second guess and ask for more. No matter what we say or do we have to admit, Dang, they know how to make $$$. | <urn:uuid:9b9e71a6-2277-4483-9230-5af9529fb8cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shaungehring.com/tag/wi/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960573 | 637 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Can a Mexican Cop Find Asylum in North Texas?
As drug violence escalates, Mexican cops are fleeing the country. A Dallas immigration judge may decide whether one cop on the run lives or dies.
One day in April of last year, four-year police veteran Jose Alarcon and his partner, Capt. Felipe Galindo, detained two armed drug dealers after making a traffic stop in Juarez, Mexico. It didn’t take long for the Juarez Cartel to learn about the bust. The Cartel had a network of street spies, and it had even infiltrated the police department itself. On Alarcon and Galindo’s squad car radio, the voice of a Cartel thug broke in and ordered the two cops to release their detainees immediately—or else. The duo complied with the order, and the drug dealers, for whatever reason, were gunned down by Cartel soldiers a few minutes after their release. Alarcon and Galindo were then dispatched to the bloody crime scene. On their way, the Cartel voice broke in on their radio with another message: no matter that they’d done as instructed. Both officers were marked to die.
The next day, Alarcon found himself in a bloody gun battle and narrowly escaped with his life. Today, the 26-year-old is in hiding from the Juarez Cartel with his wife and two children somewhere in North Texas. In fleeing to the United States, Alarcon has joined a growing number of police officers, journalists, lawyers, businessmen, and regular citizens who have fled their nation’s violent drug cartels to petition for American asylum. Alarcon is the only such refugee so far to seek asylum in a Dallas immigration court. “If I ever have to go back to Mexico, and they find out, they’re just going to kill me. I’m sure of it,” he says through an interpreter.
His prediction might be put to the test. Immigration judges weighing these cases more often than not have sent Mexican asylum seekers back to face the cartels, according to a half dozen immigration lawyers who have handled these cases, from Texas to Pennsylvania. The judges are essentially ruling that asylum law, as currently written, does not cover foreign victims of crimes that have no political motivation. Other judges, though, have granted some asylum petitions.
Sometime early next year, on the fourth floor of the Earl Cabell Federal Court Building, Dallas-based U.S. Immigration Judge D. Anthony Rogers will have to decide into which camp North Texas will fall on Mexican asylum seekers. His ruling could determine whether other Alarcons will find sanctuary in the Dallas area. Judge Rogers has admitted various asylum seekers from nations farther afield, but he also is known as a tough skeptic and a strict interpreter of law.
Hoping that publicizing his story might help, Alarcon and his Dallas immigration attorney, Ludo Gardini, agreed to talk with D Magazine. In return, they asked only that Alarcon’s exact whereabouts not be revealed.
Alarcon’s lawyer will have no trouble showing that police work is dangerous in Juarez. Torture houses abound, and decapitated corpses turn up with regularity. It’s been that way since 2006, when President Felipe Calderón declared war on trafficking organizations. He deployed troops to retake entrenched cartel strongholds all over Mexico and remove dishonest public servants, especially in border towns that had been turned into drug transit hubs. Calderón’s campaign set off bloody conflicts between drug gangs themselves and also between those gangs and government forces. In Juarez, where two cartels are dueling for control of an important smuggling route amid thousands of federal troops, the body count for the year climbed to more than 1,780 at the end of September. That already tops the total for all of 2008, according to tallies kept by the newspaper El Norte. At least 44 cops and federal agents are among that number. Money was once paid to top police commanders and distributed downward for obedience, but that all changed after Calderón launched his war.
“Now, there’s no more money,” Alarcon says. “It’s ‘You follow the rules, or you die.’”
Juarez officers have been slaughtered in broad daylight, assassinated in their homes, kidnapped and left mutilated at station houses. Once an officer is killed, folkloric songs celebrating gangster life—known as corridos—play over the radio. At one point last year, the Cartel erected a huge poster on a public thoroughfare. Under the heading “For those who didn’t believe” were the names of all assassinated officers. Under the heading “For those who should believe” was a long list of officers still alive and working. Galindo’s name was on that list, Alarcon says.
In this environment of terror, Alarcon and Galindo came to trust only each other. After work most nights, they caravanned together away from the station, private weapons readied in laps, headlights turned off until one or the other of them was safely at home.
“I always respected him a lot,” Alarcon says. “He saved a lot of his men’s lives by getting them fast out of the wrong neighborhoods. He was my captain, but outside of the station, he was my friend.”
During their four years together, the partners managed to avoid trouble with the Cartel, until the April day they picked up the two drug dealers. Back at the station, none of the other officers would speak to the pair or go near them. The following day, Alarcon and Galindo resisted going out on calls, knowing fellow cops would report their movements to assassins. And they knew the Cartel monitored radio dispatches. When the shift ended, Abraham Carrillo, a rookie officer too new to have been corrupted, begged them to drive him to an auto parts store. Galindo didn’t want to take him but gave in, and the three officers went to an AutoZone.
In the parking lot, a pair of SUVs screeched up, one on either side of their vehicle. Alarcon recalls seeing a man leap out with a fully automatic AK-47. The first fusillade hit the windshield and killed Carrillo in the backseat. Galindo, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, managed to fire two rounds before seven bullets punctured his vest and body. Alarcon, largely unscathed, could manage only to fire his Beretta 9mm blindly; he emptied its 15-round magazine through the windshield. He believes he hit one of the assailants, because the shooting stopped. “I heard one of them say, ‘Pick him up. Let’s go,’” he says.
Amazingly, Galindo was still alive. The captain had stumbled out of the car and onto its hood. “He looked at me and started to turn purple,” Alarcon says. He pulled his wounded friend back inside and tried to start the car. The engine wouldn’t turn over. Alarcon used his police radio to call for backup, his last act as an officer.
Later that afternoon, a group of heavily armed gunmen arrived at Alarcon’s house to find only his mother at home. Alarcon had hurriedly collected his wife and children, and fled over the border to El Paso. Alarcon’s wife Claudia later told an American asylum officer what transpired at the house. “They told my mother-in-law that whenever they find us, they were going to kill us,” she said. “They wanted to kill the other person, but since my husband fired back at them, they now want to kill him because they want revenge.” Asked what she believed would happen if she returned to Mexico, Claudia answered: “They are going to be looking for us everywhere. I think that they would look for us and kill us when they find us.”
When Alarcon’s asylum case is heard early next year, government lawyers and the judge will want to know if that threat had any real longevity. There is an answer.
Some days after the shooting, Alarcon was ecstatic to learn that Galindo had survived his wounds and was hiding out more or less illegally in El Paso. For more than a year after the shootout, the former partners stayed in touch. Galindo rarely went back to Mexico, only to pick up his disability checks and cash them. Alarcon hated that Galindo would risk those trips. But his former partner wasn’t the same painstakingly careful man as he was before the shooting. Galindo assured him the appearances at the station were necessary if he were to earn his retirement pension in 2010.
“Felipe was hoping the assassins had all been killed since the shootout,” Alarcon says.
In July, more than a year after the ambush, Alarcon traveled with his family to spend time with Galindo and his family in El Paso. They were going to have a big barbecue after Galindo returned from Juarez to cash one of his checks. But the Cartel killers had made good on their threat. They caught Galindo not far from the bank, where he’d lingered to chat with some friends. His wife heard the fast popping of gunshots and ran to find him dead on the sidewalk.
Todd Bensman is an investigative reporter based in San Antonio. Write to firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:aad77caa-9063-409a-90e0-af23ac8928cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2009/November/Can_a_Mexican_Cop_Find_Asylum_in_North_Texas.aspx?p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983037 | 2,022 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Early effects of castration therapy in non-malignant and malignant prostate tissue
Early Effects of Castration Therapy in Non-malignant and Malignant Prostate TissueBACKGROUND. Androgen ablation, the standard treatment for advanced prostate cancer, results in increased apoptosis, decreased cell proliferation and subsequent involution of the prostate gland. The mechanisms behind these responses are largely unknown, but effects in the prostatic epithelium are believed to be mediated by primary changes in the stroma. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate short-term cellular effects of castration-induced prostate tissue involution in mice and humans.METHODS. Prostate tissue factors affected by castration were investigated using cDNA-arrays, micro-dissection, RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis. The effects of local insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) administration were investigated in intact and castrated mice. Non-malignant and malignant epithelial and stromal cells were micro-dissected from human prostate biopsies taken before and within two weeks after castration treatment from patients with advanced prostate cancer. These tissue compartments were analyzed by RT-PCR and/or immunohistochemistry for IGF-1, IGF-1 receptor, androgen receptor (AR) and prostate specific antigen (PSA) expression. Treatment-induced changes in these factors were related to apoptosis and proliferation as well as to clinical data and cancer specific survival.RESULTS. Similar to our observations in mouse ventral prostate (VP), non-malignant and malignant human prostate tissues responded with increased epithelial cell apoptosis and decreased proliferation after androgen withdrawal. Also, the PSA mRNA levels were reduced within the first days after therapy both in non-malignant and malignant human prostate epithelial cells. However, neither of these changes was related to subsequent nadir serum PSA or to survival. Locally injected IGF-1 increased epithelial cell proliferation and vascular volume in intact but not in castrated mice. IGF-1 was found to be mostly, but not exclusively, expressed in the stroma, and it decreased rapidly after castration in both humans and mice. This decrease was, however, largely absent in prostate tumor stroma, and tumor stroma cells showed lower pre-treatment levels of AR than stroma surrounding normal epithelial glands. Furthermore, decreased levels of IGF-1 mRNA in the non-malignant and tumor stroma cells, and in tumor epithelial cells in response to castration, were associated with high levels of apoptosis in epithelial cells after therapy.CONCLUSIONS. In the prostate, IGF-1 may be an important mediator of stroma-epithelial cell interaction that is involved in castration-induced epithelial and vascular involution. Moreover, reduced AR in the tumor stroma may play an important role in prostate cancer progression towards androgen-independency, resulting in inadequate IGF-1 reduction and apoptosis induction in response to castration. Most primary tumors initially respond to castration with markedly decreased PSA synthesis and cell proliferation, and moderately increased apoptosis. Death due to metastatic disease is, however, still common, despite primary tumor regression. This may suggest that tumor cells in metastases respond differently to treatment than primary tumor cells, probably influenced by a different and possibly androgen-independent stroma. Further studies should test the hypothesis that the effect of castration therapy can be enhanced by simultaneous blocking of IGF-1 signaling.
Source Type:Doctoral Dissertation
Keywords:MEDICINE; Morphology, cell biology, pathology; Pathology; Prostate cancer; human biopsies; androgen ablation; stroma; epithelium; micro-dissection; PSA; IGF-1; IGF-R1; AR
Date of Publication:01/01/2005 | <urn:uuid:5e3a9d49-dca8-488e-99c3-84ecd509f411> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.openthesis.org/documents/Early-effects-castration-therapy-in-417573.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933803 | 792 | 1.539063 | 2 |
November 13, 2010
Of the many events that celebrated Rollins’ 125th Anniversary, one particular event allowed family members to collaborate with students in contributing to the restoration of a Winter Park treasure – the Genius Reserve. In doing so, parents and students took in the scenery at the majestic 50-acre tract, once home to Rollins’ late president, Hugh McKean.
Before becoming McKean’s residence, the property was acquired in 1920 by Charles Morse, a Winter Park philanthropist. Jeannette Genius Mckean, Morses’ daughter and Rollins student, later inherited the land along with her husband, Hugh Mckean. Lined with mesic and live oak trees, the area was a habitat for hawks, ospreys, bald eagles, otters, gopher tortoises and red foxes. In 2002, it became a restoration project for the Department of Environmental Studies at Rollins College and the Elizabeth Genius Morse Foundation.
The Genius Reserve offered an excellent service-learning opportunity for Rollins students and parents. Professor of Environmental Studies Bruce Stephenson and the Office of Community Engagement came together to offer parents the opportunity to learn about ways to be involved at the Genius Reserve including giving them the chance to mark trees needing to be relocated.
This is this third year that Rollins families have been involved in community-based projects during Family Weekend. The idea was inspired by Interim Provost Laurie Joyner, who wanted to engage parents in mission-driven experiences while visiting the Central Florida Community.
By Ateesh Gupta '13 | <urn:uuid:4cb05281-a81e-4a60-bda6-554afbe41367> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rollins.edu/news/2010/11/parents-students-get-engaged-during-family-weekend%20.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951767 | 318 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Meeting of the Bay Area Charter Foundation, Inc. Board of Directors, November 30, 2012 at 10:30am.
Meeting of The Florida Charter Educational Foundation, Inc. Board of Directors, April 5, 2013
Request for Proposal - Special Education Clinical Services
Charter Schools USA (CSUSA) is accepting competitive bids for speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, behavior specialists, mental health counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and nurses to conduct evaluations and/or to provide special education clinical services, and/or related services to CSUSA managed schools during the 2013-2014 school year. The Request for Proposal can be accessed here.
A Charter Schools USA "A" school in Overtown is making a difference in its students' lives.
Click here to see more.
Uniform Vendor Information
We are pleased to announce that Woodmont has chosen All Uniform Wear for all future uniform needs. All Uniform Wear currently services the majority of Charter Schools USA schools and is in the process of scouting locations for a permanent store in our area. All Uniform Wear has an excellent reputation for providing quality merchandise to our schools in a timely, professional manner. A web store will be up and running by the end of January. In the meantime, All Uniform Wear is currently taking any new orders via email: Lisandra@alluniformwear.com
Now Enrolling Students
Apply online today for 2013-14
Woodmont Charter School
Welcome to Woodmont Charter School. We are a tuition-free public charter school serving students in grades K-8 who reside in Hillsborough County. Woodmont Charter School is a member of the Charter Schools USA (CSUSA) family of schools and will provide Hillsborough County with a great neighborhood school of choice.
Vision: Woodmont Charter School will be the pillar of the community. All students will develop the skills, knowledge, and confidence to be successful in life.
Mission: To provide students with a rigorous and challenging curriculum and experiences that will successfully develop the whole child!
Theme: Have you filled a bucket today?
What is a Charter School?
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools of choice, but each charter school is governed independently. Unlike traditional public schools, every charter school must demonstrate success, or it will lose its charter.
The Woodmont Charter School is a member of the Charter Schools USA family of schools. CSUSA is one of the largest providers of education management services in the nation. CSUSA manages private and municipal charters for grades Pre-K through 12.
For more information on charter schools or Charter Schools USA, please visit www.charterschoolsusa.com. | <urn:uuid:ed1d664c-c330-4736-a698-7cbc8ce9d42e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.woodmontcharter.org/ | 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 | 0.934649 | 546 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Only two days separated the deaths of Romo’s close friend and her grandfather, leaving her in a state of shock that ultimately gave her life. She began seizing every opportunity she could handle from taking classes that were too difficult to joining clubs and sports she thought would strengthen her character. The result: a well-defined goal.
“In middle school, I did what I could to get A’s and it was never really more than that,” she said. “After that week (of losing her friend and grandfather), which was one of the hardest weeks of my life, I kind of realized that life is a gift and there is no time to put it on the sidelines. We shouldn’t waste time with anything.
“If you are wanting to do something with your life then you shouldn’t take any time just to sit there and do nothing because there could be a day where it’s all over and all gone. So I am spending every moment I have now to reach my dream. Losing them was painful, but it was a huge catalyst to me being successful today.”
The ever-growing motivation Romo developed opened opportunities for her to excel in Advanced Placement courses, student government, cross country, musical theater, speech and debate, drill team and ROTC. The 16-year-old said high school was the perfect place for her to “put everything in one basket” in order to be a part of as many things as possible.
Romo said her role as Company Commander in the ROTC program at Spanish Springs High has helped her develop leadership and motivational qualities she plans to use later in life. She said she leads about 60 students each day, who have have been more than just people following her orders.
“Being a Company Commander teaches you to be really calm with people, because when you get angry at them, they are not going to listen to you. So it teaches you to work with people and how to get your point across,” Romo said. “It is kind of hard getting people pumped up, but you learn different techniques. You learn that if you have an upbeat personality, and you are willing to show people that you are there for them, then they will do everything in their power to be there for you.
“Not only am I leading those 60 people, but those 60 people are all individually helping lead me. That is what has been really great about it is that I have learned so many different things from the people in my company. It is not just them learning something from me. We work really well together and I enjoy watching that unfold.”
Romo said her experience during three years of being on the school’s drill team, which will attend nationals in Kentucky for the first time in school history, has been essential to her success. Though seasons were not always worth mentioning, she said the overall value of being a member of the team was worth suffering some defeat.
“It just reminds me how important hard work is,” she said. “Sometimes you forget and procrastinate, and I have done that so many times, but we have to remember to keep our heads up. We have had our losses before at drill meets and we have gone to meets knowing we didn’t try our hardest, but what we didn’t do was let that keep us back.
“We have worked really hard with our kids and there are times when we want to mess around with each other because we are all so close, but we also have those people who are going to put their foot down and get everyone’s attention and get them to work. We have had a good balance of good attitude and stern leadership to keep us on track.”
Romo has established a post-graduation plan which begins with applications being sent to service academies across the country with hopes of landing in Colorado Springs, Colo. at the Air Force Academy. She said any service academy provides a “great opportunity” and she plans to complete a major in aeronautics during college in order to pursue a career in state politics and government.
“I see the benefit and importance of having good leadership,” Romo said. “Right now I know our nation is going through a tough time so why not make it better? Why not help it get better and and be a part of that?
“My dad was in the Navy and my uncle is now in the Air Force, so they are a huge inspiration to me with all the work they have done. I have always had an interest in flying and I want to be a prominent figure in that area so I can help design new things that are going to go up into the sky.”
Romo said Nevada is definitely a place she would come back to for her government career, but said she wouldn’t mind being a part of a new state if the opportunity was presented to her.
When she is not participating in school-related activities, Romo is actively involved in the student ministries at Summit Church in Sparks. She holds a leadership role amongst her peers, sings for the worship team and is one of about 30 people who will travel to Kenya this summer to strengthen the church’s community overseas.
“I love to travel so getting involved in my world around me and not just here in my high school is important to me. I will get to experience a lot of different things I have never experienced before,” she said. “If I didn’t have my church, I don't know if I would be able to handle everything that I have been dealing with. It is a good place to go and not think about anything else.” | <urn:uuid:10e9a732-0430-4b38-8fdf-329d9160183e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dailysparkstribune.com/view/full_story/21636573/article-%E2%80%98Life-is-a-gift%E2%80%99?instance=news_lead_story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989908 | 1,191 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I have a webpage on my university's server, which means I cannot access the root directory and change files there.
Is there some other way to give access to robots to my page?
|show 3 more comments|
you can set the meta tag:
or you can go to Google AddUrl and add your URL to Google. But when you have no good content on your site you don't get so much site so the index. In the last time its very important to place sites to google in a good position.
Before you should read some things about SEO optimizing. | <urn:uuid:17a9039c-00bb-4930-9da4-59c64f0f2cc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/13511/how-can-i-let-robots-access-my-site | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930614 | 118 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Welcome to the North Woods blog site. I will be putting in some info this weekend on what the wildlife around here (here being the Adirondacks) have been experiencing this winter. It hasn’t been a good one for the those that don’t hibernate and I will fill you in on that shortly. Happy Hiking!!
So far the winter of 2008/2009 has been pretty severe in Adirondacks. The amount of snow we have had the past couple years has taken it’s toll mostly on the deer herd. I have seen deer where just about the only part visible was their head above the snow. Displacing that much snow when they move consumes alot of energy which isn’t easy to replace. Any of the mast crops that fell last fall are buried under 3-4 feet of crusty snow with more surely to come in the next month. Deer have been browsing heavily on evergreens which offer very little in energy and nutrition. I suspect the winter kill will be fairly high this year. As sad as that is it’s a part of the natural cycle of life in the wild. For every deer that succcumbs to the elements there are other animals and birds that will live to see another winter. Fox, coyotes, fisher, hawks,crows and turkey vultures will leave little to waste. Usually the longer the winter the higher the mortality rate among the population as their fat reserves they stored up in the fall are almost depleted once mid March arrives. If we can get through this month with some warmer temperatures and some what of a thaw then they may fair better. I certainly know I would be much happier if this winter was over. If by chance your hiking or snowshoeing and come across a winter deer yard try not to disturb the area. The more you push the deer around the more precious energy they needlessly burn up and may not be able to replace. | <urn:uuid:93c79c2e-15ac-4903-b522-b6607683347b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northwoodsguides.com/blog/?m=200902 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96495 | 400 | 1.8125 | 2 |
"What you did to the least of these, you did to me." Although Jesus said many things, His clearest concern was for the vulnerable. The vulnerable include our veterans, seniors, children and families.
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Posted March 21, 2010
When we got the word Saturday that the Tea Party activists were hurling racial and homophobic slurs at members of Congress as they walked into the House chamber, Catholics United sprang into action. In just 12 hours, we were able to mobilize 150 people of faith to join in a prayerful peaceful counter presence outside the Capitol building.
When Speaker Pelosi linked arms with Congressman John Lewis to march into the Capitol, Catholics United was at their side cheering them on.
And the members of Congress were grateful. As they walked into the chamber to make their historic vote, many of them stopped to thank us for our positive and life affirming witness. The highpoint came when a number of Catholic members of Congress heard about our witness and asked for some of our signs. A few minutes later, these members of Congress were on the balcony of the House chamber with our signs, cheering us on.
Our vigil was covered by CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, the Wall Street Journal and many more news outlets. This was a great day for the American people and I'm proud that Catholics United was right there helping make it happen. Click here to see a video compilation from Sunday.
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Are you a Common Good Catholic? Become a member of Catholics United by signing up here: | <urn:uuid:cb017b81-8ec1-458b-944e-5e8b7dbe7505> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholics-united.org/node/879 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976612 | 400 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Grace McDonnell would write messages for her mother in the bathroom window.
On the first day without Grace, the bathroom fogged up and mom glanced at the window. And right there was a message from beyond the grave.
The little girl had drawn the peace sign, her favorite symbol. Above it was a heart with the words: "Grace, Mom."
"She was all about peace and gentleness and kindness," said Lynn McDonnell.
Amazing, Grace. A girl who lived by the family's mottos: "Live for the moment" and "Soak it in."
The McDonnells are now part of a community bound together by the tragedy of what transpired at a Connecticut elementary school, joined by a nation that has grieved with them.
Yet amid the memories of that awful day in Newtown, signs of hope have emerged.
Gene Rosen won't forget his connection. It's touched his soul and made him believe more in God and angels again.
Rosen went out back to feed two of his cats shortly after 9:15 a.m. on December 14. His home sits on an acre of land on Riverside Road, with his backyard on a hill overlooking Sandy Hook Elementary.
That day, he heard staccato gunfire -- Boom! Boom! Boom! -- coming from the vicinity of the school. The retired psychologist convinced himself it was fireworks.
Andrei Nikitchyuk was working in his home office that morning. He received a robocall from the school that it was in lockdown. He didn't think much of it -- the school recently had two lockdowns for false alarms: a suspicious car and bank robbery.
Inside the school, his son, Bear, walked down the hall with a friend toward the main office. Gunshots whizzed by.
Teacher Janet Vollmer huddled with her children away from doors and windows. Someone turned on the intercom system. The sound of gunfire and a woman crying was piped into every classroom.
Vollmer told her kids she loved them and began reading out loud.
A loss of innocence
It shattered a town and brought a president to tears. Twenty children -- all aged 6 and 7 -- were gunned down in the safest place they had ever known, their home away from home. Six educators died, too, hailed as heroes.
Never had an act of violence seemed so heinous, so horrifying in America. An attack on pure innocence at a school that symbolized peace and love.
Since then, residents of Newtown have been dealing with the arc of life in unimaginable ways -- of death and loss, of pain and suffering, of shock and horror, of beginning to heal.
Couples who settled here years ago had grown close to one another through their children and their schools. Teens in middle school had babysat the first-graders slain at Sandy Hook. Some teens had played on sports teams with siblings of the slain children; others attended dance class with sisters of girls killed at the school. College students, home for the holiday, saw the school they loved desecrated.
"I can't even tell you how hard it is for these kids," said Lillian Bittman, former chairwoman of the Newtown Board of Education. "A lot of these kids have been here their whole lives. That's why these connections are so strong.
"They've lost their childhood."
Newtown's Pastor Rocky Veach had been a preacher in Littleton, Colorado, when the Columbine shooting occurred. He said the biggest lesson he learned from the 1999 massacre was "that a lot of things are going to pan out over the next months here, even years, and you will see God's hand was in this, but you can't see it now."
Maybe it's too soon, too difficult to imagine another reality further in the future. Right now, residents can only think of the town they once knew and how everything changed that Friday.
For most, the pain is just too fresh, the attack too senseless to comprehend.
In the wake of the massacre, Americans have begun looking at gun control and mental health issues. It's also forced our society to take a deep introspective look: Have we become too polarized? What can we learn from those children? | <urn:uuid:9121c3f6-745c-4de5-89b1-80a0adb734da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.click2houston.com/news/A-message-from-beyond-Peace-in-Newtown/-/1735978/17880876/-/item/0/-/eove73z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983793 | 876 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Jamil Dakwar is the Director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Human Rights Program (HRP) which is dedicated to holding the U.S. government accountable to its international human rights obligations and commitments. He leads a team of lawyers and advocates who use a human rights framework to complement existing ACLU legal and legislative advocacy primarily in the areas of counter-terrorism, racial justice, immigrants’ rights, women’s rights, and criminal and juvenile justice. HRP conducts human rights research, documentation and public education, as well as engages in litigation and advocacy before U.S. courts and international human rights bodies.
HRP’s docket includes both domestic lawsuits and petitions before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of individuals sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for crimes committed when they were children; victims and survivors of torture, forced disappearance, trafficking and domestic violence; disenfranchised felons; domestic workers and low-wage undocumented immigrants; as well as a challenge to the Oklahoma constitutional amendment banning the use of Sharia and international law. Jamil also serves as the ACLU Main Representative to the United Nations, and has testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, United Nations human rights bodies, and the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE), about human rights violations in the U.S.
Prior to joining the ACLU in 2004, Jamil worked at Human Rights Watch, where he conducted research, advocated, and published reports on issues of torture and detention in Egypt, Morocco, Israel, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Before coming to the United States, he was a senior attorney with Adalah, a leading human rights group in Israel, where he filed and argued human rights cases before Israeli courts and advocated before international forums. He is a graduate of Tel Aviv University and NYU School of Law. | <urn:uuid:8177ab69-91ef-4105-b35c-4acca1dcbf31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aclu.org/blog/author/jamil-dakwar?page=1&quicktabs_blogs_by_author=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956212 | 378 | 1.53125 | 2 |
More than 20-thousand people received a helping hand in time of financial crisis or some kind of trouble last year.
They were able to feed their families when possibly they felt all hope was gone.
“Because when people are in need they're always there with a helping hand,” says one God’s Pantry customer.
But now God's Food Pantry finds itself in its own crisis. Its building along with its neighbors could be torn down to make room for a new $22 million judicial center. Donations operate the pantry and a board member provides the rent. That could change with a move.
“For us to go somewhere else and assume 6 to 8,000 square feet, the rent will be a major burden on us,” says God’s Food Pantry Executive Director Debbie Long.
County officials say no decision has been made to acquire the buildings on the town square but the judge executive says if they choose the location they could break ground before winter which means the pantry could be forced to move during its busiest time of the year, the Holiday season.
So with the clock ticking fund drives are being scheduled, a big one is set for September 8.
Food pantry workers hope to raise about $70,000 for the move.
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November 16, 2012
The big winner of the UVa Entrepreneurship Cup was "PhageFlag" a rapid diagnostic test for bacterial diseases. The seven students from UVa Health Systems who collaborated on the project will share $20,000 in prize money.
Eight teams of students from different departments at UVa presented to a four-judge panel on Friday. "The competition is to encourage activity, tolerance of business risk and encourage the habit of entrepreneurship in the UVa community and central Virginia community at large," said Michael Straightiff, director of UVa Licensing and Ventures Group.
PhD student, Mindy Moran, presented a machine-learning tool that facilitates customized instruction. "There are a lot of big brains here so it was fun to hear how other fields at UVa look at things and how the world works," Moran said.
The UVa Entrepreneurship Cup is sponsored by Third Security, LLC.
First Place ($20,000) -PhageFlag; rapid diagnostic test for bacterial diseases
Second Place ($10,000) -HD MicroSampling; addressing blood-glucose measurement accuracy in the ICU
Honorable Mention ($5,000) -Virginia Toastie; food truck catering to vegetarian tastes, -TestConnect; platform for instructors to provide personalized exam feedback
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by David Finley
The concept behind a "Dr. Sketchy" session revolves around a specific theme instead of just body study. The models dress in different costumes and pose situationally while you draw them. There's an element of performance art meeting standard posing.
For this particular session, the theme was the disco era, studio 54.
I've never attended a figure drawing session that served alcoholic beverages or had a DJ working before, but after getting used to it, the volume of the music actually helps you drown out distractions and focus.
It was the kick in the pants I've been needing to do some good old traditional medium work, i.e. charcoal, conte', and ink. I've had a lot of success working digitally lately, but before Friday's session I had been hitting a wall with more standard materials.
The whole experience reminded me again just how important it is to participate in community as an artist. When you spend hours in your studio laboring over your work, it is easy to become insular. Engaging other artists not only provides companionship, but also helps you improve your work with valuable feedback, and creates opportunities to work with others to help advance both your career and the careers of your peers.
I've decided to attend more drawing sessions, despite the drive. Cameron Art Museum is also host to a more traditional weekly figure drawing session. Maybe I'll see you there. | <urn:uuid:d56a187f-f422-415f-bac1-8a9b87564561> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.havenforscofflaws.com/2012/04/dr-sketchy-at-cameron-art-museum.html?showComment=1334719070290 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969088 | 288 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present
by Cory Doctorow
Review by Ernest Lilley
Thunder's Mouth Press Paperback ISBN/ITEM#: 1560259817
Date: 28 January, 2007 List Price $15.95 Amazon US / Amazon UK / Show Official Info /
Overclocked, which you probably recognize as a computer term for running a processor faster than the clock rate it's rated for, generally courting some sort of meltdown, is a fantastic collection of stories about people living with technology for better or worse and you should feel free to stop reading here and just go buy the book. At least if there's a drop of geekazoid blood anywhere in your veins, which there is or you wouldn't be here.
Still while you're here, I'll tell you a bit about the stories.
First off there's a short short that CD whipped up for the science journal Nature about the logical extension of the intellectual property law nonsense applied to 3D printers, which we'll all have someday, unless lawyers manage to prevent it. The story does what Cory manages so well, putting a human face on a technological dilemma.
Then comes a touching and truthful tribute to sys admins. With which the SF readership is rife. I've been one, and there's no doubt in my mind but that this vision of geeks holed up in a data center while the outside world falls apart and all they can do is try to keep the internet going is dead on. Like Heinlein's heroes in "The Roads Must Roll", we'll go to the mat to keep the wide world of the web from failing.
Then, "ripped from today's headlines" as he puts it, in order to predict the present, comes "Anda's Game" in which a girl gamer comes face to face with the realities of life in the midst of the virtual world. Again, it's all about giving human dimension to technology. In this case it's about the clash of classes between first world school children and third world sweatshop workers, and it's got some fine insights in it. If you haven't encountered Cory's naming riff before, you should note that "Anda's Game" is loosely a homonym for "Ender's Game" and it's part of a quest the author has set himself on to write stories with the same names as SF classics. Titles, you see, can't be copyrighted.
Following his re-imaging of classic titles comes a natural: "I Robot". These riffs on the original themes are really good and interesting, and I'd love to see a collection that paired the original with the new. In this one we see, not for the first time, the strain between US Conservatism and Techno-Progressivism, though there is a sense that it's not a question of which is more useful in the long run, just that the old will ultimately lose out to the new and we might as well get used to it.
One of the very best stories in here is "I Row-Boat" and yes, he threatens more mutations on the title, possibly writing a story about a sentient cheese sandwich ("I Rarebit"). There are lots of good comments on intelligence, consciousness and the meaning of life, all presented as an engaging theological argument between an AI row boat and a jumped up coral reef. To say nothing about the human. I'm sending the blog/podcast link off to a friend of mine, a presbyterian minister who reads SF, just to mess with his head.
In the last story, "After the Siege," Cory channels his grandmothers recollections of surviving Hitler's siege of Leningrad. He'd once thought, "how dramatic is that", but came to understand that she was right when she had told him that he could never imagine the horrors she'd lived through. He uses it as a platform for another assault on the evils of intellectual property rights keeping poor nations from uplifting their populations by manufacturing the drugs and goods they need regardless of who owns the rights to them. He cites the US's first hundred years as an example of a pirate state that bootstrapped itself by doing much the same and now seeking to keep anyone else from doing it again. I'm sure he's right on both counts, but this isn't then, and in today's global economy it's not like those countries would be content to make just enough for themselves and not compete with others. I'm certain that Cory knows all that, and accepts it, but he's not trying to tell us what will actually happen next...just what's happening now in future-ific terms. He calls this the "future present" and he's got it exactly right.
Some gifted short story writers get seduced by publishers that want them to write novels, preferably in groups of three. Quite often they're not as good at novels as they were at short stories, but that's where the money is, and we never see them again. Fortunately for us, Cory Doctorow breaks this mold, but then doing the unexpected is nothing more or less than what we expect from him.
Which is not to say I don't like his novels. They're quite good, sometimes even very good...but his short stories deliver a much more concentrated does of mind expanding conception with just the right amount of humanity and drama to make sure we're sucked in, and it's where he shines.
The hard part of all this is that every one of these stories deserves consideration for a Hugo and I'd hate to see him split his own vote as a result. Not that it matters. What matters is that this is a collection really worth reading, sharing, downloading and generally infecting others with. Overclocked is SF info-warfare ammunition of the highest caliber. Load up, move out, and remember, take no prisoners...let Asimov sort em out. | <urn:uuid:a3244efe-94c0-4499-8ef4-84ecedff6d40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=4779 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975845 | 1,207 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The words “arousal” and “orgasm” are almost universally associated with sexual pleasure—a biological itch that goes away (or at least temporarily subsides) when scratched. But what if scratching only exacerbated that itch, so much that it became an intractable ache often compounded by burning, throbbing, and swelling?
These symptoms were truly unbearable for Gretchen Molannen, a 39-year-old Florida woman who committed suicide earlier this month. Roughly 16 years ago, Molannen developed a rare and little-known condition called persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD). Like many women who suffer from the debilitating disorder, Molannen was forced to quit her job and had difficulty maintaining relationships with family and friends, let alone boyfriends. She underwent diagnostic procedures and sought treatment for her symptoms from a variety of doctors, none of whom could provide her with any answers or long-term relief. Molannen divulged every detail of her battle with PGAD to The Tampa Bay Times—from her masturbation habits to previous suicide attempts—for an exposé that was printed the day before she put an end to her suffering.
There may have been other triggers that led to Molannen’s suicide, but doctors who specialize in PGAD and other pelvic pain disorders say severe depression is not uncommon among their patients. Dr. Robert Echenberg, a gynecologist and founder of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Women in Pain, said he’s seen at least seven suicide attempts among his 125 patients in the last year, one as recently as last week. Just five months ago, a Dutch woman with PGAD took her own life.
“Depression and pain and hopelessness are a bad combination,” Echenberg told The Daily Beast. Even with Molannen’s suicide spotlighting the condition in the media, PGAD remains largely ignored or misunderstood in the medical world. “So many patients feel hopeless because they have been treated over and over again without success, and have frequently been told the pain is ‘in their heads,’” he said. “Others tell me they’d rather have cancer just so doctors would listen to their plight and they could develop a plan for health care.”
‘Some women have pierced their own genitalia to drain the blood that pools in their genital region.’
Still widely misconceived as a “sexual disorder,” PGAD is one of many conditions that falls under the umbrella of vulvodynia, or chronic pelvic pain—an issue that affects 20 percent of reproductive-age women, according to Dr. Echenberg. PGAD was introduced to the medical world in a 2001 study by the late Sandra Leiblum, a pioneer in modern sex therapy.
A small group of researchers scattered around the world have since connected the phenomenon to the pudendal nerve, the sensory neuron that triggers arousal. Dr. Michael Hibner, a gynecological surgeon in Arizona, says PGAD develops when the pudendal nerve is compressed or irritated, causing the clitoral dorsal nerve to fire off at random. As a result, women afflicted with the disorder feel constantly on the brink of the big O.
The concept of multiple, occasionally spontaneous orgasms titillates many women and men, even those in the medical profession. Kim Ramsey, 44, was working as a nurse in an emergency room when she first learned she had PGAD. “My colleagues would be like, ‘Wow, you’re so lucky,’” she said. “But I genuinely thought I was having some sort of nervous breakdown. I felt flushed. My vagina and breasts were engorged. I kept thinking, ‘How do I keep a grip on reality and function in a patient-nurse setting without people knowing?’”
Uninformed doctors have left other patients at their wit’s end, some of whom feel they have no choice but to take matters into their own hands.
“Some women have pierced their own genitalia to drain the blood that pools in their genital region,” said Anna Reid, 26, who lives in Australia and was diagnosed with PGAD last March. She has since worked with Dr. Hibner and found comfort in online support groups, which were originally launched by Jeannie Allen, 51, in 2006. Allen’s PGAD Support was the first such network to be established and remains the most well-known worldwide, with roughly 400 active members.
But that number reflects only a small portion of women around the world with PGAD, which doctors like Hibner estimate to be in the thousands. Other authorities on chronic pelvic pain say causes and treatments are too complex for most gynecologists to comprehend.
On NewsBeast, Lizzie Crocker and Michael Moynihan discuss Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder.
“The only nerve that is ever talked about is the pudendal nerve, but that’s not the only one that innervates the pelvis and the urogenital region,” said Christine Veasley, executive director of the National Vulvodynia Association, the only organization advocating for pelvic pain awareness on The Hill and with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “How can gynecologists conduct nerve blocks and other types of neurological intervention when most of them aren’t trained to do nerve examinations and don’t understand the whole nerve supply of the urogenital region in women?”
Part of the reason clinical care hasn’t advanced in this area is because none of the research has been government-funded, according to Veasley. And she’s not optimistic that the government will step in anytime soon, even after vulvodynia was officially recognized as a form of chronic pain by the National Institutes of Health in November.
“We’ve come a long way, but we still don’t have the science to differentiate PGAD from other conditions,” she said. “Most importantly, how do we know what treatments work? The treatments that exist certainly don’t work for all patients.”
Elyse, 63, says she’s tried every known treatment since she was diagnosed with vulvodynia seven years ago at Kaiser Permanente Hospitals in California. She’s had botox and steroid injections in her clitoral region; pudendal nerve blocks and spinal cord stimulation (the latter has left her with a numb left foot); a kind of pacemaker implanted in her lower spine to stop her pelvic muscles from spasming. She’s seen chiropractors, acupuncturists, and hypnotists. At her doctor’s suggestion, she underwent a vestibulectomy, a surgery that involves removing painful tissue in the vulva.
But the pain persists, and her condition has recently been complicated by PGAD symptoms.
“I just put in a call to my doctor and said I felt like my insides were falling out,” she said through tears. “It’s very depressing. I’ve wanted to commit suicide myself.”
While it seems that women like Elyse aren’t in the minority, Dr. Hibner insists many of his patients have reported significant, albeit often temporary improvements after getting botox injections, venal surgeries, nerve blocks, and other treatments he offers.
“If a patient has reached the point where they’re ready to kill themselves, they tell me they’d give anything for just a few weeks of relief. Sometimes just validating that they have a real disease helps in some way.” | <urn:uuid:294211e6-9d91-4057-91b2-52b603fea6bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/19/suicide-spotlights-persistent-genital-arousal-disorder.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969463 | 1,604 | 1.742188 | 2 |
"Californians, here they come -- right back where they ... " Wait a minute, hold on, this ain't the place they mostly "started from" -- Texas, I mean; my home state. But, gosh, are "they" coming, here and elsewhere, to escapes the miseries of unemployment and high taxation in the once-Golden State?
California remains, in many respects, a wonderful state, and I don't have the slightest interest in bashing it. How could a state that nurtured Ronald Reagan not have wondrous, praiseworthy attributes? I recently spent some time there at the Hoover Institution, located at one of my alma maters, Stanford. I can attest to the continuing worth of these noble institutions and to the beauty of their surroundings. I like California, even if more people, reportedly, are leaving it rather than getting there for the first time. My point is a larger one -- a good Leninist point, I might add.
The late -- hardly to be lamented -- Lenin observed during his campaign to enslave Russia that, as respecting where the Russian people wanted to live or not live, they were "voting with their feet." A memorable phrase. People do vote that way. They do it all the time. They register their approval or disapproval of a place, and its living conditions, by staying put or moving along.
A corollary proposition is that the people in charge, unless they happen to be stupid or else as mean and vicious as Lenin, need to notice what's going on. The people in charge don't want to lose a referendum like that. A place gets drained that way -- of talent, resources, initiative, gumption and other indispensable commodities. When the first-rate people move on, a first-rate place becomes second-rate or worse.
California's brains-and-people drain came to notice several years ago. From 1985 to 2000, 111,000 Californians moved to Colorado; another 199,000 sidled over into neighboring Nevada -- though whether the real estate collapse there has propelled some of the new immigrants in new directions, we don't know just yet.
Various websites exist to guide Californians toward acclimation to Texas. One Californian headed our way noted that in Texas, "I can have a five-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot (plus) home with a pool for one-third the price of my 1,350-square-foot home near the freeway." That's assuming, no doubt, he's got a buyer for his home near the freeway. He goes on: "I can put 10-12,000 extra in my pocket each year due to no Texas state income tax." (California's top marginal rate is 9.3 percent.) | <urn:uuid:02f276c3-b495-4823-8a83-518dfcb5969a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://townhall.com/columnists/billmurchison/2010/10/05/voting_with_their_feet | 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 | 0.967413 | 566 | 1.507813 | 2 |
End of January I participated in a panel discussion on Big Data, held during the CISCO live event in London. One of my fellow panelists, I believe it was Sean of CISCO, said there something along the line:
… ideally the cluster is at 99% utilisation, concerning CPU, I/O, and network …
This stuck in my head and I gave it some thoughts. In the following I will elaborate a bit on this in the context of where Hadoop is used in a shared setup, for example in hosted offerings or, say, within an enterprise that runs different systems such as Storm, Lucene/Solr, and Hadoop on one cluster.
In essence, we witness two competing forces: from the perspective of a single user who expects performance vs. the view of the cluster owner or operator who wants to optimise throughput and maximise utilisation. If you’re not familiar with these terms you might want to read up on Cary Millsap’s Thinking Clearly About Performance (part 1 | part 2).
Here are a some observations and thoughts for potential starting points of deeper research or experiments.
Multitenancy. We see more and more deployments that require strong support for multitenancy; check out the CapacityScheduler, learn from best practices or use a distribution that natively supports the specification of topologies. Additionally, you might still want to keep an eye on Serengeti – VMware’s Hadoop virtualisation project – that seems to have gone quiet in the past months, but I still have hope for it.
Software Defined Networks (SDN). See Wikipedia’s definition for it, it’s not too bad. CISCO, for example, is very active in this area and only recently there was a special issue in the recent IEEE Communications Magazine (February 2013) covering SDN research. I can perfectly see – and indeed this was also briefly discussed on our CISCO live panel back in January – how SDN can enable new ways to optimise throughput and performance. Imagine a SDN that is dynamically workload-aware in the sense of that it knows the difference of a node that runs a task tracker vs. a data node vs. a Solr shard – it should be possible to transparently better the operational parameters and everyone involved, both the users as well as the cluster owner benefit from it.
As usual, I’m very interested in what you think about the topic and looking forward learning about resources in this space from you.
Filed under: Big Data, Cloud Computing, FYI, NoSQL | <urn:uuid:4291ef27-4772-4076-9e93-53841ae0ce0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.advogato.org/person/mhausenblas/diary.html?start=66 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943304 | 537 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Two years ago, a mental health nonprofit looking for funds to renovate its headquarters building called on a family foundation based in the Midwest. It appeared to be a natural fit. The nonprofit was engaged in important work that aided poor, infirm residents in an area of the country that the family's late patriarch, the founder of the foundation, had specifically wanted to help. Initially, the foundation was concerned about the lack of business expertise reflected in the charity's proposal, even though the organization clearly meant well. After a bit of further due diligence, the picture grew worse. "We analyzed the proposals and numbers, and things were not adding up — literally," says Miki Akimoto, a market philanthropic director for U.S. Trust's Philanthropic Solutions Group, which helps administer the foundation. Indeed, it turned out there was some question as to how many more years the charity could survive.
What to do? An entrepreneurial culture had long permeated the family as well as its foundation. So rather than reject the charity's application out of hand, the foundation offered to provide something it felt the charity needed more urgently than simply a lump cash sum, no strings attached — a thorough business analysis by outside experts, and then the careful construction of a long-term fiscal plan. The process helped the nonprofit not only to resurrect itself financially but also to create a new, more focused and more practical approach to its work. Full-scale renovations to the organization's headquarters were put on hold in favor of dedicating funds to a new program — providing in-home health services for needy patients across the region — that is actually beginning to generate income for the charity.
The tack taken by this particular foundation is emblematic of a growing trend in philanthropic circles. While some donors may prefer the ease of simply writing checks to organizations they know and trust, an increasing number of givers are behaving more like financial backers in the private sector than traditional benefactors. Like venture capitalists or angel investors, these donors take a vested interest in where the money goes and how successfully the recipients pursue their stated mission. A term has even been coined to describe the best practices of this entrepreneurial breed of giver: "impact philanthropy."
One of the prime motivators of this movement is the simple utilitarian desire to understand where one's charitable dollars might do the most good. Headlines about irregularities at a few charitable groups, among other factors, have spurred high-net-worth donors to become even more diligent and strategic about their philanthropy. It's noteworthy that in the recently-released 2012 Bank of America Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy, conducted in partnership with the Center on Philanthropy at the Indiana University [create hyperlink to report], 71% of high-net-worth benefactors reported having a strategy for their giving in 2011, and 61% said they are operating within a budget. Meanwhile, the same advances in technology that have enabled people to leverage their talents and money in so many other fields have given philanthropists a new sense of possibility. Sitting at home while on their computers, givers now have the ability to go beyond traditional acts of generosity, such as contributing to their college or building a hospital wing, to effect real global and social breakthroughs — combining their generosity with the entrepreneurial spirit they've long cultivated.
Not surprisingly, many young entrepreneurs have gravitated to impact philanthropy, particularly those from the tech sector. Eager to use their energy, creativity and newfound wealth to move the needle in any number of areas, they are in many ways helping to define the movement. "They're full of innovative ideas about how business and philanthropy can work together," says Danielle York, a director at 21/64, an advisory firm that works with young givers on their "strategic philanthropy." But it's not just youthful entrepreneurs. The movement encompasses a whole spectrum of givers that are applying business-world wisdom to their charitable endeavors, from large benefactors and old-line family foundations, like the one in the Midwest that helped the mental health charity, all the way down to individuals donating in increments of a hundred dollars or less, pooling their funds via innovative Internet-based crowdsourcing platforms like Kiva.org. [create hyperlink to kiva.org] The overall trend has entered the zeitgeist, influencing even donors who give in more traditional ways. Almost as a matter of course, charitable acts of all varieties are now preceded by at least some level of due diligence and performance analysis of the nonprofit receiving one's hard-earned dollars, says Claire Costello, National Practice Executive, Philanthropic Solutions group, U.S. Trust. "In recent years," she adds, "donors have grown markedly more sophisticated."
Plenty of resources are available for those interested in entering the world of impact philanthropy. The University of Pennsylvania's Center for High Impact Philanthropy, for example, is a clearinghouse for best practices and research on causes ranging from education to the global fight against infectious disease. "There are just so many more resources available today to help donors get up to speed," Costello says.
Part of Bank of America, U.S. Trust's Philanthropic Solutions Group works with clients across Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust to build and sustain their charitable missions. A large part of the job is helping potential donors take advantage of resources like Penn's Center for High Impact Philanthropy in developing their strategic philanthropic plan. But even before that important step, Costello and the Philanthropic Solutions team can help clients discern their own values and sharpen their goals to figure out what causes interest them, and how best to get involved.
"You've got to be passionate about the organizations you're giving to," Costello says. "If you're not fully engaged, the impact will not follow, at least not readily." Adds Mark Kramer, a founder of the nonprofit consultancy FSG Social Impact Advisors and a senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government: "You have to pick a problem that really matters to you, because it's one you're going to need to stick with for years. Change doesn't always happen quickly."
The process of defining your personal high-impact philanthropic mission includes finding a cause where your donations and efforts can be most efficiently used to generate the greatest eleemosynary yield—what some call a "social return on investment," or SROI. Take diseases in Africa. As worthy as AIDS vaccine research undeniably is, a philanthropist looking to make a measurable impact in disease relief in the developing world might choose to focus instead on lesser-known health problems in Africa that still do enormous harm. Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), the term for a class of mostly parasitic diseases all but eliminated in the first world, cause immense suffering and economic loss despite the existence of several inexpensive and highly effective treatments. Deworming a single school-aged child in Africa, using a drug called albendazole, costs less than $1. A multi-drug combination, costing less than $2 a year, treats multiple debilitating infections. With drug companies largely donating the needed medications, a philanthropist might consider financing health education and the delivery and administration of the drugs, says Donald Hopkins, vice president for health programs of the Carter Center, a leading coordinator of such efforts (and a Merrill Lynch client) that was founded 30 years ago by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn. In other words, dollars donated to fighting NTDs "go a very, very long way." says Hopkins. A child protected from these easily treatable diseases is a child that has a far better chance of becoming a healthy and productive adult. And if $100,000 can treat as many as 500,000 children a year, it could mean an improved quality of life, and greater hope, across entire communities.
According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, there were 102,146 arts and culture nonprofits based in the U.S. in 2010, 157,334 dedicated to education, 88,605 focused on human services — and more than 1 million in all. Which is to say, no matter how narrowly potential donors focus their search, they will confront a significant problem: how to choose among multiple organizations, each one staffed with dedicated people working hours upon hours to do great things. It's one of the reasons donors are increasingly relying on metrics and analytics to help quantify the results achieved by nonprofits. The trend has become entrenched enough that nonprofits have come to expect it. To attract donors, they realize that they need to show, with data, the extent of the direct impact each dollar would have on a given social goal.
Michael Weinstein is the chief program officer of the Robin Hood Foundation, an organization founded in 1988 by Paul Tudor Jones, then a 30-year-old hedge fund manager, to focus on providing financial support to antipoverty groups in New York City. Weinstein says the organization began using metrics in its early days. Though well funded, Robin Hood didn't have unlimited resources; it had to make tough decisions about which nonprofits to support. And so, Weinstein says, the organization needed to formulate a rigorous method to assess which programs delivered the most impact. For example, for charities that train chronically unemployed individuals to find and keep work, Robin Hood's metric focuses on how much the program helps boost the worker's future income. Using that information, Robin Hood estimates which job-training programs impact incomes the most for each dollar that it spends.
It's a difficult estimate to make, to be sure. Perhaps the reason that graduates of Program X earned less than Program Y is because the latter taught fewer students with learning disabilities. In their decision making, Robin Hood looks at factors like these and tries to determine how much the program has improved the lives of the participants, compared with if they had never enrolled. Even then, Weinstein stresses that hard numbers are only one input for complex decisions that also take into account many other factors about each charity. He likens metrics to a standardized test that might help a college admissions staff assess an applicant, even as the student's essay, grades, extracurricular activities and other factors also play a big role. "We never, ever make a decision based just on arithmetic," he says.
Once a donor has found a cause and the best organizations involved in tackling it, the real entrepreneurship begins. Many impact philanthropists, no matter the size of their giving, face an issue that's also common in the for-profit sector: the need to scale up. This is especially true if you're somewhere below the size of the Gates Foundation. With limited monies, how can you juice your philanthropic returns?
There are ways. One of the best is through donor collaboration, in which funds from a variety of smaller givers are pooled together. As crowdsourcing on the Internet has shown, getting together with like-minded souls can leverage the talents and resources of a group in order to have a much broader reach than any individual could alone. "A pooled fund of $1 million is always going to have a bigger impact than separate checks of $100,000 from 10 different donors," says U.S. Trust's Akimoto. The seven-figure gift can make a major impression, energizing a nonprofit and generating publicity that can, in turn, pull in other large contributors. It also gives the donors greater leverage when it comes to influencing how the money is spent.
Miki Akimoto and Christine O'Donnell, a fellow market philanthropic director in the Philanthropic Solutions Group, have recently helped a number of clients find and join such pools. They point to one that funds a new preschool program in Brooklyn, and another that supports summer camps for underserved youth in the Boston area.
Less formal than foundations, collaboratives don't need to be registered nonprofits. Members often simply write their checks individually so they can claim their charitable deductions on their tax returns. In other cases, where the groups want to make their contributions in a lump sum, they'll usually get an IRS-recognized charity to act as its sponsor so members can still claim their deductions. The clients supporting the Summer Fund Boston summer camp program, for example, established their fund under the auspices of Associated Grant Makers, a Massachusetts-based association of foundations and corporate giving programs.
Scale and leverage can also come from how you structure a gift — a concept similar to the ways in which deals are structured in the private sector. Donors can use challenge grants, a time-tested philanthropic model, to make their contributions contingent upon other people's donations. Akimoto, for example, once set up a $75,000 grant to benefit a very successful program at a college to help first-generation students from low-income families. Concerned that the gift, if funneled directly into the program, would be of only temporary benefit, the foundation stipulated that the gift, plus a required matching contribution from other sources, be used to launch a permanent fund for generations of students to come.
Another way to structure a donation — and leverage its power — is to limit the duration of support. If a recipient has the clear understanding that your donations will continue for just two or three years, the group may be moved to show rapid results and to cast a wider net for other donors. You might also stipulate that continued support depends on achieving certain performance benchmarks, such as a reduced level of early infant health problems, training for mothers or higher academic test scores for participants in an after-school program.
At the same time, being too hard-nosed in demanding quick results may backfire, Christine O'Donnell warns. In attempting to leverage a gift so that it does the most good, strings are invariably attached. But there are good strings and there are bad strings. If donors have unrealistic expectations, they may inadvertently disrupt the operations at a charity that is forced to scramble to meet those excessive demands, undercutting the core mission. Furthermore, says Costello, donors need to recognize the importance of the gift with no strings attached. Not every dollar given to a charity can go toward the food that feeds the hungry child. Traditional no-strings donations help pay the electricity bills and the salaries of workers who have often sacrificed the opportunity to pursue careers in far more remunerative professions. "You can't always be so strategic and proactive about giving," Costello says.
Indeed, the best kinds of strings are often those that allow you to gain an intimate enough understanding of an organization's operations to figure out just how much to demand, and how much not to. Bill Eaton is a Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor who participates in the Boston chapter of a group called Social Venture Partners. A national organization started by a group of Seattle philanthropists, Social Venture Partners matches financial gifts with a commitment by group members to donate their expertise and time. In that sense, they are similar to the angel investing networks in the private sector that frequently insist on an active two-way dialogue with the startup ventures they nurture through their earliest stages. "We might give an organization $30,000," Eaton says. "But the monetary value of what we bring to the table, in terms of professional expertise and time, could be more like $300,000. We're saying, "In return for your money, you're getting us too. We're going to take the time to get to know you and get involved with you.'"
WHERE PHILANTHROPY MEETS BUSINESS
If the basic goal of impact philanthropy is to find a way to make each donated dollar do the most good — to leverage one's giving — then the ultimate method for achieving that goal sometimes involves the profit motive itself. It is both controversial and, in some cases, experimental, but an increasing number of philanthropists have come to believe that certain elements of the private sector — the mechanisms of the free market, the ability to mobilize large sums of money — can boost the impact of charitable works by an order of magnitude.
This might be especially the case when it comes to some of the world's biggest and most intractable problems. In part, that's the idea behind research-and-development prizes. Probably the best-known recent effort along these lines was the X PRIZE Foundation, in which founder and entrepreneur Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, frustrated with the lack of attention at the federal level to furthering commercial space travel, offered $10 million to the first private company or group to develop and launch a reusable space vehicle that could withstand two trips to space within two weeks. The Ansari X PRIZE, which was won by Mojave Aerospace Ventures in 2004, ignited a wave of aerospace startups and technological breakthroughs. The foundation, which looks to private funding for its competitions, has since ventured into other areas in need of technology advances, such as the life sciences, education and global development.
There can be problems with this model, however. No matter how large it might be, a prize cannot guarantee a breakthrough if there isn't the infrastructure in place or the seed capital available to get the initiative off the ground. In such cases, the prize money can just sit there, doing little work. But that's where a new bleeding-edge form of impact philanthropy known as social impact bonds may be able to help. Instead of simply trusting the private sector to figure out how to get from A to Z, social impact bonds actively engage the same capital market structures relied upon by startups and more mature companies to raise their funds. The concept began as a way for cash-strapped governments in Great Britain, Australia and elsewhere to accelerate the scaled development of proven, innovative social programs. Recently, for example, in the first social impact bond offering in the U.S., Wall Street investors raised $10 million to combat recidivism among convicts at the New York City's Rikers Island prison complex. If the programs these investors funded succeed in cutting recidivism rates by more than 10% over the next four years, the city has agreed to pay back the investors' investment, plus a rate of return of about 20%. If the programs fail to meet the goal, the investors lose about a quarter of the principal, with a private foundation agreeing to step in to guarantee the remaining losses. In the end, these instruments potentially allow governments to scale successful social programs more quickly, without having to put their own money at risk.
Now, Guillermo MacLean, a director with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, is among those looking to use social impact bonds not just to help governments fund worthy programs but also to underwrite causes wherever they exist. Having spent years working to set up similar financial structures to improve housing and sanitation in various parts of Asia, Africa and South America, including his native Peru, MacLean is preparing to solicit major philanthropic donors—and smaller givers whose pooled money would amount to large sums—to enter into commitments to put up sums of money that will be awarded upon the realization of similarly elusive and compelling social goals. He will then take those commitments out to the capital markets and put the proposition to the private investor community: How much might they be willing to put at risk now in an attempt to eradicate deaths from hospital-borne infections in the U.S., or to raise math and science scores in Cleveland by 50%, if there is an opportunity to earn $100 million in 10 years' time if the dream is achieved? These types of social impact bonds involve the transfer of risk, just like any investment," MacLean says. "We're transferring risk from the philanthropist who is willing to give away a large sum of money, but who wants some guarantee that the money will achieve the stated goal, to the socially minded investor who is willing to take on more of the risk upfront as long as he has an opportunity for a sufficient rate of return."
If the vision of MacLean and others comes to fruition, he says, a liquid market could be developed — an exchange — where philanthropic commitments could be traded and social initiatives could be floated and securitized like newly issued shares in an IPO, presumably rising in value the closer they get to achieving their goal.
As exciting and auspicious as these hybrid models are, for-profit systems can never fully replace philanthropy. For securitized social commitments to work, the people on the philanthropic side of the ledger have to be willing to give their money away; even though such instruments directly tap the profit motive as a means to an end, they will always require that basic human quality — generosity. But there's something more to it. After all, it can be said that the act of striving to produce the greatest good for each gift is in itself an act of generosity. When givers use social impact bonds to make their dollars go as far as they can toward curing a problem, they are acting on the core promise of all impact philanthropy: to see that the altruistic spirit is maximized.
Institutional Investments & Philanthropic Solutions ("Philanthropic Solutions") is part of U.S. Trust, Bank of America Corporation ("U.S. Trust"). U.S. Trust operates through Bank of America, N.A. and other subsidiaries of BAC. Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC. Banking and fiduciary activities are performed by wholly owned banking affiliates of BAC, including Bank of America, N.A. Brokerage services may be performed by wholly owned brokerage affiliates of BAC, including MLPF&S.
Investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Asset allocation, diversification and rebalancing do not ensure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets
The information presented here is not intended to serve as a recommendation or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any type of security. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
The investments discussed have varying degrees of risk, and there is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities. Some of the risks involved with equities include the possibility that the value of the stocks may fluctuate in response to events specific to the companies or markets, as well as economic, political or social events in the U.S. or abroad. Investments focused in a certain industry may pose additional risk due to lack of diversification; industry volatility; economic turmoil; susceptibility to economic, political or regulatory risks; and other sector concentration risks. Bonds are subject to interest rate, inflation and credit risks. Investments in foreign securities involve special risks, including foreign currency risk and the possibility of substantial volatility due to adverse political, economic or other developments. These risks are magnified for investments made in emerging markets. Structured investments may not be suitable for all investors.
Investor should note that investments that invest exclusively in one sector or industry involve additional risks. The lack of industry diversification subjects the investor to increased industry-specific risks. | <urn:uuid:b993c632-13c4-4332-a641-934f669815b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wealthmanagement.ml.com/wm/pages/ArticleViewer.aspx?TITLE=Impact-Philanthropy&cnav=mymerrill | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960187 | 4,664 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Blueseed hopes to anchor floating metropolis for tech startups off Calif. coast
(CNET) - Imagine a floating city of entrepreneurs; a veritable Googleplex of the sea. That's the vision behind Blueseed, a San Francisco startup.
The company plans to deploy a cruise ship 12 nautical miles from Silicon Valley -- in international waters -- and convert it into a metropolis of floating offices so foreign workers can launch their companies without obtaining work visas.
Despite a number of bills currently in Congress that aim to expand immigrant work visas, "there is no entrepreneurial visa," says co-founder Max Marty. "I think that's a terrible problem."
The answer, according to Marty and his team, is to take to the high seas.
So what will this startup metropolis look like?
The ship will have pools, massage areas, gyms, rock climbing walls, and indoor soccer fields according to Marty. His model is very Google-esque--the fostering of creativity through colors, aesthetics, and food.
"Those elements are the same sort of thing we're bringing to this workspace," he says.
But unlike the Googleplex, where employees can actually walk out the door, entrepreneurs must take a ferry (or helicopter) to the mainland. Right now Marty is anticipating twice daily ferry service costing up to $30 a ride.
Marty says over 250 companies have expressed interest in coming aboard the vessel, where standard cabins cost $1,600 a month.
However, the challenges to Blueseed are many. There are steep regulatory hurdles and immigration and maritime laws to contend with. Beyond that, there are social elements to consider.
"The average entrepreneur is 39 years of age," says Vivek Wadhwa, a fellow at Stanford Law School. "The average entrepreneur has a family. They're going to move them out to a ship? If they do, what are the kids going to do? Go to school?"
Wadhwa's vision of a floating Googleplex is decidedly more comical.
"Think about it...a thousand nerds on a boat by themselves," he says, "You're going to go crazy over there. You could do a reality show."
The sobering side of Blueseed is that people are so desperate to come here and start companies that they'll go on a ship, says Wadhwa.
And despite how grandiose our images are of this international floating tech incubator, for some people it highlights an even darker reality.
"This uncovers a pessimism of what our government can do to solve these problems," says Patrick Gallagher, an audience member at a recent Commonwealth Club event where Marty was part of a panel discussion. "Instead of working through those channels or working to make change, the thought is... let's create a ship out in the ocean and create our own society. It seems like giving up."
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Werner Groebli Interview
He was born Werner Groebli, but the world knows him as “Mr. Frick”.
Born in Basil, Switzerland in 1915, Werner Groebli came to the United States
in 1937 with Hans Mauch and together they formed “Frick and Frack”.
They became two of the highest paid skaters of the time.
Eventually, Werner Groebli would go solo, known to Ice Follies fans as “Mr.
He is most famous for his cantilever spread-eagle.
“Mr. Frick” spoke with us about his life both on and off the ice.
Q – “Mr. Frick” what are you doing living
in Palm Springs (California)? Do you play golf everyday?
A – No. I don’t play golf. It takes too long time and they cost
a lot of money. I chose Palm Springs just to get away from the Swiss town Zurich,
mainly. They (Palm Springs) have milder weather. I’ve spent the last
eleven, twelve winters here mainly for my wife’s sake. I don’t
care too much for it. But, I’ve come to the end now because she passed
away, December 2nd 2002. I just finished my affairs here. A million newspaper
clippings go down the drain. Posters. The pictures I cleared out. I sent all
the programs away. I sent my blades to the Smithsonian Institution, the United
States Figure Skating Association, in Colorado Springs.
Q – Where did your skates go?
A – To the Figure Skating Association.
Q – And your programs?
A – Partly to the United States Figure Skating Association. Also, some
to the University of Wyoming, the Heritage Foundation and the rest I sold.
Q – Where did you sell your programs?
A – Just to individuals at skating events and ice rinks that I used to
go when they had ice here in the desert. Here in the Palm Desert, there was
an ice rink, now it’s gone. There’s no ice between Bakersfield
and Phoenix. Just sand.
Q – I guess that means you’re not skating, are
A – No, I’m getting older. If you fall, there will be that risk
with your bones.
Q – What happened to Shipstad’s and Johnson Ice
A – Oh, it just dissolved. It’s complicated. Feld Jr. practically
took it over. The circus (people). They took it over in the end, in the final
years and converted it to Disney On Ice. There are four such units of these
touring the country, somewhat smaller and no particular star, but, good production.
My former assistant partner is now vice-president over these shows. At least
four circulate the globe. Fortune Magazine called it a “musical chair
in ownership”. The circus bought the ice show and the show bought the
circus. Mr. Feld I saw in Los Angeles at the championship. He watched at the
Q – What would you do with yourself in-between performances?
I know there were some days you did two shows here in Syracuse, anyway.
A – On Saturday, we did 3 (shows). On Sunday, we usually did 2 (shows).
We’d sleep. We’d go down and ride the elevator, the only elevator
at Hotel Syracuse that announced, a female voice that automatically announced, “First
Floor, coffee shop”. If you didn’t step back far enough or interfered
with the door closing, the elevator said, “Please step back. Please,
close the door. You are delaying service”. I used to pull the newspaper
in and walk off on the same floor. The automatic voice went on, “Please
close the door. You are delaying service. Please close the door”. That
was the only hotel that had that fun voice. What we did is skated a little
in the daytime. We’d have at least one rehearsal a week. We skated for
fun, did some of the ice dances. The ice was free and we picked up the mail
at the rink.
Q – Is it true that you came to America with $50 in
A – Yeah. That’s right.
Q – Is it true that you made a lot of money in the stock
A – Well, supposedly. I could’ve. I told other people how to make
it, and never had enough patience to hold on. So, I made a little. But, my
reputation is probably better than my results, for my own.
Q – Is it true that you hate elevators?
A – Yes. I’m scared. If I can walk-----I walk. Once I got stuck
for a few seconds in New York and I got almost panicky. I don’t like
these people who turn around in elevators and amuse themselves and fool around.
Yeah, I don’t like elevators.
Q – I’m surprised you remembered about the Hotel
Syracuse elevator. I would imagine that the whole cast of the Ice Follies
would stay at the Hotel Syracuse when you were in town.
A – Yes, mostly as a rule. There was another hotel, oh, two blocks away.
They usually got the best rate in one place. In Rochester, N.Y. I don’t
know what hotel they stayed at. I stayed at the Holiday Inn. We used to have
a bus take the company from Rochester to Syracuse. I got fed up riding buses,
so, I took a cab and passed the bus that boarded in Rochester. The other fellow,
Richard Dwyer, a skater, joined me. We split the fare. It was only $50. We
didn’t have to ride that bus. We were there ahead of time. (Laughs).
Q – What didn’t you like about the bus?
A – Oh, eventually, you don’t like traveling in buses. We traveled
a lot in buses. Years ago, we used to have airplanes, but, that’s too
short of a trip. It’s just to get away from things.
Q – Is it true that you would start the day off with
a shot of burbon over a grapefruit?
A – Yes.
Q - Is it true that you still have the first nickel you ever
A – I’m not so sure. (Laughs).
Q – Hey-----I just read these things. I don’t
know what to make of them either. Is it true you used to bang your head against
the dressing room wall to toughen up?
A – Yeah. I used to do that to show off. I’d find a particularly
soft spot and bounce it off the wall, showing off. I knew how to take it. Sometimes
I cheated with my face and they thought I hit my head. It got me in the fighting
spirit. It works you up for the act.
Q – Is it true you performed for 80 million people and
gave 12,000 performances?
A – Yes.
Q – When you landed in New York back in the late 1930’s,
you immediately flew to L.A. to give an ice-show performance. Was that for
the Ice Follies?
A – No Ice Follies. The Ice Follies existed, but, that was a separate
show called Westwood where UCLA now is. An outdoor rink. It was called the
St. Moritz Express. It had some very good skaters. But, it was unfortunate
it was open air, and rain, wind, earthquakes and storms interfere. In the daytime
you could skate on that ice and practice. Betty Gradle always came, then married
to Jackie Coogan. We had a lot of fun. Then I went up to the west coast and
played Oakland, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver and came back to Portland.
We had no more costumes. The sheriff attached the baggage cars. Locked them.
Because they couldn’t pay the bills. So, the show went on without costumes.
Within 3 weeks before it performed with costumes and on the return it had no
costumes. We rolled up the parts and the girls put on some kind of ballet skirt.
It had enough substance to go over. So, the skating is the meat, not always
Q – Do you still get recognized?
A – Yeah, sometimes. I wonder why. “Frick and Frack” was
not only the personnal appearances in those 30 cities the Follies played. It
was the 2 motion pictures, although they were B pictures, they played and played.
They were made in ’43 and ’44. So, that spread the Frick and Frack
image in every corner ‘cause you couldn’t cover it with the ice
shows. It was a cheap picture but, it played the whole world. It was a very
good picture in skating contents.
© Gary James All Rights Reserved | <urn:uuid:53ef1596-d3af-4ce5-8ba2-74f7c06c3901> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.famousinterview.ca/interviews/mr_frick.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9625 | 1,993 | 1.585938 | 2 |
A program of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Miami-Dade Art in Public Places was recognized as commissioning some of the most innovative and exciting examples of public art in America.
Developed by the Americans for the Arts’ Public Art Network, the Public Art 2012 Year in Review presents the most exemplary public art projects completed between April 2011 and April 2012 in the United States. Adjudicated and curated by Jean Greer, Public Art Collaborative, Chapel Hill, NC; Daniel Mihalyo, Lead Pencil Studio, Seattle, WA, and Celia Munoz, artist, Arlington, TX, the projects were selected out of a field of 429 entries, with only the top 50 projects in the nation being showcased. Miami-Dade County received recognition for the highest number of public art projects of any single community in the nation.
“We are proud to receive this prestigious acknowledgment of the quality and creativity of the artists’ projects being commissioned by our program,” said Cindi Nash, chair of the Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places Trust. “It is an important affirmation that Miami-Dade County’s public art program continues be a leader in the nation in making public buildings great through collaborations with outstanding local and national artists.”
Miami-Dade projects featured in the Public Art 2012 Year in Review were Ivan Toth Depeña’s Reflect, a cutting edge, new media project in the main lobby of the Stephen P. Clark Government Center; Christopher Janney’s Harmonic Convergence, an interactive sound environment with diagonal patterns of colored glass that are integrated into the Mover Station Terminal Connector of Miami International Airport, and Ripple Gardens, a series of exterior sculptural gardens designed for Jackson South Community Hospital by artist Mikyoung Kim.
The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council develop cultural excellence, diversity and participation throughout Miami- Dade County by strategically creating and promoting opportunities for artists and cultural organizations, and our residents and visitors who are their audiences.
The department directs the Art in Public Places program and serves its board, the Art in Public Places Trust, commissioning, curating, maintaining and promoting the County’s art collection. The department also manages, programs and operates the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, a campus of state-ofthe- art cultural facilities in Cutler Bay, as well as Miami-Dade County Auditorium, Joseph Caleb Auditorium and the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, all dedicated to presenting and supporting excellence in the arts for the entire community.
Short URL: http://www.communitynewspapers.com/?p=43750
Comments are closed | <urn:uuid:b326aea1-8ac9-43ff-8224-d9388984bc5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.communitynewspapers.com/biscayne-bay/countys-art-in-public-places-receives-national-recognition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936951 | 558 | 1.609375 | 2 |
On Thursday President Obama is set to mark a milestone for women’s rights as he signs the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act into law.
Republicans blocked the legislation for nearly a year, with only a minority of House Republicans eventually relenting and joining with Democrats to pass it into law. Most opponents took issue with the bill’s expanded protections for groups including Native Americans and the LGBT community.
As the president signs the bill into law tomorrow, he’ll be surrounded by many of the advocates who kept the pressure on throughout the political battle. “It’s a testament to what happens when you don’t give up and keep pushing,” White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett said on Wednesday’s PoliticsNation.
Jarrett found the opposition puzzling, pointing out that 1 in 5 women will be assaulted or raped at some point in their lives. “With that kind of statistic, how on earth could we not move forward?”
The Violence Against Women Act is the first of many bills the president hopes to sign in his second term in office, including some big issues like immigration reform and the minimum wage. With the unparalleled obstructionism of Republicans in the 112th Congress, the president may need a new approach to win over his colleagues in the coming months and years. Wednesday night, that will include a small dinner with a handful of Republicans–including some of his sharpest critics like Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain–but none of the leadership. Some believe the president is planning to appeal on an individual level, rather than bartering with top brass who aren’t always able to deliver enough votes to get bills passed to begin with.
When asked about that rumored new strategy, Jarrett said of the president, “He’ll do whatever it takes.”
“We’ll talk to whoever wants to come to the table and work with us in good faith,” she said “We have huge challenges… but there is nothing we can’t do with the American people behind us.”
Jarrett is hopeful that this step for women’s right is just the beginning. “We’re already seeing glimmers of light around comprehensive immigration reform,” she said. “We want to find those pathways where there is common ground and move forward.”
“The president as you know is pretty tenacious and he’s not about to give up now.”
And while the president plans to make reforms to entitlement programs, Jarrett said, “He’s not willing to balance our budget on the backs of senior citizens or children with disabilities or the poor.”
After meetings in New York with business leaders, Jarrett says they are “more than willing to pay their fair share, as long as they know that there’s also going to be to entitlement reform and that it’s going to lead to a strengthened economy.”
The president and his supporters plan to drive home that message in the coming months. “We’re just going to keep at it, we’re going to keep going, and that’s going to be what positions our country for growth… I am confident that we can still do big things in this country.” | <urn:uuid:5ced9497-5c10-4a5d-8c22-5487305f583f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/03/06/obama-is-pretty-tenacious-and-hes-not-about-to-give-up-now/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969495 | 683 | 1.804688 | 2 |
This week I am in Malaysia for the International Council on Archives 2008 Congress in Kuala Lumpur. Please forgive any typos; the jet lag is intense. I’m here because a former grad school classmate of mine, Anne Bast, has been interning with the ICA and arranged for me to come do some presentations with her about, what else, Creative Commons. It’s one of those “power of the network stories” that sounds too good to be true, but it’s not, because here I am.
Our first presentation, Beyond Copyright: Creative Commons and new approaches to intellectual property in the archive, was this afternoon. Miriam Nisbet of UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector joined us to talk about some of the copyright and cultural heritage initiatives UNESCO is promoting on an international scale. Anne and I talked about copyright issues in archives from an international perspective, with an emphasis on the role Creative Commons licenses can play in helping to open up archival materials for both access and re-use. We covered a lot of ground in 45 minutes: copyright basics, copyright challenges in archives, intro to Creative Commons, how to integrate CC into the archival process, a look at some cultural institutions that are using CC, and UNESCO’s take on supporting and promoting the public domain. It was a lot for one session, but I think all the pieces fit together well.
I learned a few things at our talk. UNESCO’s work with archives and libraries sounds incredibly valuable, and apparently it is one of the top sites in the world for downloading free and open source software. One of the focuses there is on the dearth of material online in languages other than English, and UNESCO is working to promote and foster web development projects that will contribute to a linguistically diverse web.
A subject that came up during the question period was the challenge of finding legal advisers that can tolerate a little risk. Many institutions are finding that their legal counsel objects to any project that involves possibly copyrighted work and the internet. We’re starting to see some exciting projects that involve digitizing large quantities of archival materials and sharing them online, and some of them, like the Flickr Commons partnerships, involve works with uncertain copyright status and what some attorneys might find an unacceptable amount of risk. The organizations involved, including Flickr (which is owned by Yahoo), decided that the enormous public good that would come from having these large bodies of photographic work available online outweighed the small risk that a copyright holder might come forward and object to the use of a few images. The result is a vibrant new way for the public to engage with previously hidden collections, not just viewing and downloading them, but also tagging and adding other useful metadata. If archives are to remain relevant in the digital age, archivists must be willing to stick their necks out and take a few risks with their copyright-ambiguous collections. An archivist from Hong Kong said that her solution had been to take matters into her own hands and educate herself as much as possible about the law. This way, she could make a reasoned and informed decision, even in the face of lawyers who only say “No.”
Anne and I are doing another presentation on Creative Commons on Thursday. This one will be a workshop focused on the nitty gritty of Creative Commons: what it is, how to use the licenses, etc. I’m looking forward to hearing more from the participants, who really did come to the Congress from all over the world, and have had a variety of experiences to do with copyright and archives. Even though archives aren’t really my field, much of what I’m learning here is relevant to libraries and universities as well. | <urn:uuid:f397b0f3-2cd8-427a-93ac-2c203e65fbe8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mollykleinman.com/2008/07/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954163 | 758 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The Health Insurance Industry’s Vendetta Against Michael Moore November 25, 2010Posted by rogerhollander in Health.
Tags: ahip, amy goodman, apco, denis moynihan, health care, health care america, health insurance, health insurance industry, health reform, healthcare, healthcare reform, insurance industry, michael moore, roger hollander, sicko, wendell potter
1 comment so far
Michael Moore, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, makes great movies but they are not generally considered “cliff-hangers.” All that might change since a whistle-blower on the “Democracy Now!” news hour revealed that health insurance executives thought they may have to implement a plan “to push Moore off a cliff.” The whistle-blower: Wendell Potter, the former chief spokesman for health insurance giant Cigna. He was quoting from an industry strategy session on how to respond to Moore’s 2007 documentary “Sicko,” a film critical of the U.S. health insurance industry. Potter told me that he is not sure how serious the threat was but he added, ominously, “These companies play to win.”
Moore won an Oscar in 2002 for his film about gun violence, “Bowling for Columbine.” He followed that with “Fahrenheit 9/11,” a documentary on the presidency of George W. Bush that became the top-grossing documentary film in U.S. history. So when Moore told a reporter that his next film would be about the U.S. health care system, the insurance industry took notice.
AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans), the major lobbying group of the for-profit health insurance corporations, secretly sent someone to the world premiere of “Sicko” at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Its agent rushed from the screening to a conference call with industry executives, including Potter. “We were very scared,” Potter said, “and we knew that we would have to develop a very sophisticated and expensive campaign to turn people away from the idea of universal care. … We were told by our pollsters [that] a majority of people were in favor of much greater government involvement in our health care system.”
AHIP hired a public-relations firm, APCO Worldwide, founded by the powerful law firm Arnold & Porter, to coordinate the response. APCO formed the fake grass-roots consumer group “Health Care America” to counter the expected popularity of Moore’s “Sicko” and to promote fear of “government run health care.”
Potter writes in his new book, “Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans,” that he “found the film very moving and very effective in its condemnation of the practices of private health insurance companies. There were many times when I had to fight to hold back tears. Moore had gotten it right.”
The insurance industry declared its campaign against “Sicko” a resounding success. Potter wrote, “AHIP and APCO Worldwide had succeeded in getting their talking points into most of the stories about the movie, and not a single reporter had done enough investigative work to find out that insurers had provided the lion’s share of funding to set up Health Care America.” Indeed, everyone from CNN to USA Today cited Health Care America as if it were a legitimate group.
Moore concedes, “Their smear campaign was effective and did create the dent they were hoping for-single payer and the public option never even made it into the real discussion on the floor of Congress.”
Moore has called Potter the “Daniel Ellsberg of corporate America,” invoking the famous Pentagon whistle-blower whose revelations helped end the Vietnam War. Potter’s courageous stand made an impact on the debate, but the insurance industry, the hospitals and the American Medical Association prevailed in blunting the elements of the plan that threatened their profits.
A recent Harvard Medical School study found that nearly 45,000 Americans die each year-one every 12 minutes-largely because they lack health insurance. But for the insurance lobby, the only tragedy is the prospect of true health care reform. In 2009, the nation’s largest health insurance corporations funneled more than $86 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to oppose health care reform. This year, the nation’s five largest insurers contributed three times as much money to Republican candidates as to Democrats, in an effort to further roll back insurance industry reform. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., an advocate of single payer health care, declared in Congress that “the Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.” Potter agrees, saying the Republican Party has “been almost bought and paid for.”
The health insurance industry is getting its money’s worth. Moore said that the industry was willing to attack his film because it was afraid it “could trigger a populist uprising against a sick system that will allow companies to profit off of us when we fall ill.” Now that is truly sick.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
© 2010 Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 800 stations in North America. She was awarded the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the “Alternative Nobel” prize, and received the award in the Swedish Parliament in December.
Yet More “Plus ça change …” You Can Believe In December 16, 2009Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Health.
Tags: aetna, blue cross, blue dogs, congress, glenn greenwald, health, health care, health care reform, health insurance, health insurance industry, health legislation, health reform, healthcare, healthcare reform, insurance industry, Joe Lieberman, medicare, medicare expansion, Obama, Obama presidency, pharma, pharmaceutical indurstry, plus ca change, public option, Rahm Emanuel, roger hollander, russ feingold, single payer
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White House as Helpless Victim on Health Care
by Glenn Greenwald
Of all the posts I wrote this year, the one that produced the most vociferious email backlash — easily — was this one from August, which examined substantial evidence showing that, contrary to Obama’s occasional public statements in support of a public option, the White House clearly intended from the start that the final health care reform bill would contain no such provision and was actively and privately participating in efforts to shape a final bill without it. From the start, assuaging the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries was a central preoccupation of the White House — hence the deal negotiated in strict secrecy with Pharma to ban bulk price negotiations and drug reimportation, a blatant violation of both Obama’s campaign positions on those issues and his promise to conduct all negotiations out in the open (on C-SPAN). Indeed, Democrats led the way yesterday in killing drug re-importation, which they endlessly claimed to support back when they couldn’t pass it. The administration wants not only to prevent industry money from funding an anti-health-care-reform campaign, but also wants to ensure that the Democratic Party — rather than the GOP – will continue to be the prime recipient of industry largesse.
As was painfully predictable all along, the final bill will not have any form of public option, nor will it include the wildly popular expansion of Medicare coverage. Obama supporters are eager to depict the White House as nothing more than a helpless victim in all of this — the President so deeply wanted a more progressive bill but was sadly thwarted in his noble efforts by those inhumane, corrupt Congressional “centrists.” Right. The evidence was overwhelming from the start that the White House was not only indifferent, but opposed, to the provisions most important to progressives. The administration is getting the bill which they, more or less, wanted from the start — the one that is a huge boon to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry. And kudos to Russ Feingold for saying so:
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), among the most vocal supporters of the public option, said it would be unfair to blame Lieberman for its apparent demise. Feingold said that responsibility ultimately rests with President Barack Obama and he could have insisted on a higher standard for the legislation.
“This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place, so I don’t think focusing it on Lieberman really hits the truth,” said Feingold. “I think they could have been higher. I certainly think a stronger bill would have been better in every respect.”
Let’s repeat that: ”This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place.” Indeed it does. There are rational, practical reasons why that might be so. If you’re interested in preserving and expanding political power, then, all other things being equal, it’s better to have the pharmaceutical and health insurance industry on your side than opposed to you. Or perhaps they calculated from the start that this was the best bill they could get. The wisdom of that rationale can be debated, but depicting Obama as the impotent progressive victim here of recalcitrant, corrupt centrists is really too much to bear.
Yet numerous Obama defenders — such as Matt Yglesias, Ezra Klein and Steve Benen — have been insisting that there is just nothing the White House could have done and all of this shows that our political system is tragically “ungovernable.” After all, Congress is a separate branch of government, Obama doesn’t have a vote, and 60 votes are needed to do anything. How is it his fault if centrist Senators won’t support what he wants to do? Apparently, this is the type of conversation we’re to believe takes place in the Oval Office:
The President: I really want a public option and Medicare buy-in. What can we do to get it?
Rahm Emanuel: Unfortunately, nothing. We can just sit by and hope, but you’re not in Congress any more and you don’t have a vote. They’re a separate branch of government and we have to respect that.
The President: So we have no role to play in what the Democratic Congress does?
Emanuel: No. Members of Congress make up their own minds and there’s just nothing we can do to influence or pressure them.
The President: Gosh, that’s too bad. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed and see what happens then.
In an ideal world, Congress would be — and should be — an autonomous branch of government, exercising judgment independent of the White House’s influence, but that’s not the world we live in. Does anyone actually believe that Rahm Emanuel (who built his career on industry support for the Party and jamming “centrist” bills through Congress with the support of Blue Dogs) and Barack Obama (who attached himself to Joe Lieberman when arriving in the Senate, repeatedly proved himself receptive to “centrist” compromises, had a campaign funded by corporate interests, and is now the leader of a vast funding and political infrastructure) were the helpless victims of those same forces? Engineering these sorts of “centrist,” industry-serving compromises has been the modus operandi of both Obama and, especially, Emanuel.
Indeed, we’ve seen before what the White House can do — and does do — when they actually care about pressuring members of Congress to support something they genuinely want passed. When FDL and other liberal blogs led an effort to defeat Obama’s war funding bill back in June, the White House became desperate for votes, and here is what they apparently did (though they deny it):
The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote against the supplemental war spending bill, threatening freshmen who oppose it that they won’t get help with reelection and will be cut off from the White House, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said Friday. “We’re not going to help you. You’ll never hear from us again,” Woolsey said the White House is telling freshmen.
That’s what the White House can do when they actually care about pressuring someone to vote the way they want. Why didn’t they do any of that to the “centrists” who were supposedly obstructing what they wanted on health care? Why didn’t they tell Blanche Lincoln — in a desperate fight for her political life — that she would “never hear from them again,” and would lose DNC and other Democratic institutional support, if she filibustered the public option? Why haven’t they threatened to remove Joe Lieberman’s cherished Homeland Security Chairmanship if he’s been sabotaging the President’s agenda? Why hasn’t the President been rhetorically pressuring Senators to support the public option and Medicare buy-in, or taking any of the other steps outlined here by Adam Green? There’s no guarantee that it would have worked – Obama is not omnipotent and he can’t always control Congressional outcomes — but the lack of any such efforts is extremely telling about what the White House really wanted here.
Independent of the reasonable debate over whether this bill is a marginal improvement over the status quo, there are truly horrible elements to it. Two of the most popular provisions (both of which, not coincidentally, were highly adverse to industry interests) — the public option and Medicare expansion — are stripped out (a new Washington Post/ABC poll out today shows that the public favors expansion of Medicare to age 55 by a 30-point margin). What remains is a politically distastrous and highly coercive “mandate” gift to the health insurance industry, described perfectly by Digby:
Obama can say that you’re getting a lot, but also saying that it “covers everyone,” as if there’s a big new benefit is a big stretch. Nothing will have changed on that count except changing the law to force people to buy private insurance if they don’t get it from their employer. I guess you can call that progressive, but that doesn’t make it so. In fact, mandating that all people pay money to a private interest isn’t even conservative, free market or otherwise. It’s some kind of weird corporatism that’s very hard to square with the common good philosophy that Democrats supposedly espouse.
Nobody’s “getting covered” here. After all, people are already “free” to buy private insurance and one must assume they have reasons for not doing it already. Whether those reasons are good or bad won’t make a difference when they are suddenly forced to write big checks to Aetna or Blue Cross that they previously had decided they couldn’t or didn’t want to write. Indeed, it actually looks like the worst caricature of liberals: taking people’s money against their will, saying it’s for their own good — and doing it without even the cover that FDR wisely insisted upon with social security, by having it withdrawn from paychecks. People don’t miss the money as much when they never see it.
In essence, this re-inforces all of the worst dynamics of Washington. The insurance industry gets the biggest bonanza imaginable in the form of tens of millions of coerced new customers without any competition or other price controls. Progressive opinion-makers, as always, signaled that they can and should be ignored (don’t worry about us — we’re announcing in advance that we’ll support whatever you feed us no matter how little it contains of what we want and will never exercise raw political power to get what we want; make sure those other people are happy but ignore us). Most of this was negotiated and effectuated in complete secrecy, in the sleazy sewers populated by lobbyists, industry insiders, and their wholly-owned pawns in the Congress. And highly unpopular, industry-serving legislation is passed off as ”centrist,” the noblest Beltway value.
Looked at from the narrow lens of health care policy, there is a reasonable debate to be had among reform advocates over whether this bill is a net benefit or a net harm. But the idea that the White House did what it could to ensure the inclusion of progressive provisions — or that they were powerless to do anything about it — is absurd on its face. Whatever else is true, the overwhelming evidence points to exactly what Sen. Feingold said yesterday: ”This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place.”
Copyright ©2009 Salon Media Group, Inc.
Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times Bestselling book “How Would a Patriot Act?,” a critique of the Bush administration’s use of executive power, released in May 2006. His second book, “A Tragic Legacy“, examines the Bush legacy.
Tags: bruce dixon, california nurses, co-payments, corporate media, Dennis Kucinich, health, health care, health care reform, health costs, health insurance, health insurance industry, healthcare, healthcare reform, kucinich amendment, lyndon johnson medicare, massachusetts health care, Medicaid, medical costs, medicare, national health, obama health plan, obama plan, private insurance, public option, roger hollander, single payer, uninsured
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The health care debate inside and outside the matrix
by Bruce Dixon
Like just about everything else, your take on the national health care debate depends on whether you’re inside or outside the matrix.
Within the bubble of fake reality blown by corporate media and bipartisan political establishment, the health care news is that theObama Plan is at last making its way through Congress. It’s being fought by greedy private insurance companies, by chambers of commerce, by Republican and some Democratic lawmakers.
Under the Obama plan, we’re told, employers will have to insure their employees or pay into a fund that does it for them. Individuals will be required under penalty of law to buy private insurance policies and for those that can’t afford it or prefer not to use a private insurer there will be something called a “public option.” This “public option, the story goes, is bitterly fought by the bad guys because it will make private insurers accountable by competing with them, forcing them to lower their costs. Both the president’s backers and opponents agree that the whole thing will be fantastically expensive, and the president proposes to fund it with cuts in existing programs like Medicaid which pay for the care of the poorest Americans and a tax on those making more than $300,000, later raised to $1 million a year.
The “public option” has that magic word “public” in it, and that’s reassuring to progressives and to most of the American people. Taxing the rich is a popular idea too. So if you rely on corporate media, the administration, or some of the so-called progressive blogs to identify the players and keep the score, it seems a pretty clear case of President Obama on the side of the angels, battling the greedy insurance companies, Republicans and blue dog Democrats to bring us universal, affordable health care.
That whole picture has about as much reality as the ones the same corporate media and most of the same politicians drew for us about Iraq, 9-11, weapons of mass destruction and some people over there who wanted us to free them. Iraq and the White House were and remain actual places, and there really is a problem called health care. But the places, problems and solutions are very different from the bubble of fake reality blown around them.
What sustains this fake reality is the diligent suppression from public space of any viewpoints, observations or proposals to Obama’s left. As long as the illusion that nobody has a better idea, that the only choice we have is Obama’s way or the Republicans’ way can be maintained, the crooked game can go on.
But bubbles are delicate things. Keeping this one intact requires so many vital topics to be avoided, so many inquiring eyes to be averted, so many fruitful conversations to be squelched that it’s hard to see how the president, the bipartisan establishment and the corporate media can pull it all off.
The real Obama Plan: doesn’t cover the uninsured till 2013, if then.
The first clue that something is deeply wrong with the Obama health care proposal is its timeline. According to a copyrighted July 21 AP story by Ricardo Alfonso-Zaldivar,
“President Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare law on July 30, 1965, and 11 months later seniors were receiving coverage. But if President Barack Obama gets to sign a health care overhaul this fall, the uninsured won’t be covered until 2013 – after the next presidential election.
“In fact, a timeline of the 1,000-page health care bill crafted by House Democrats shows it would take the better part of a decade – from 2010-2018 – to get all the components of the far-reaching proposal up and running.”
According to a peer reviewed 2009 study in the American Journal of Medicine, 62% of the nation’s 727,167 non-business bankruptcies were triggered by unpayable medical bills in 2007. Most of these had health insurance when they fell ill or were injured, but with loopholes, exclusions, high deductibles and co-payments, or were simply dropped when they got sick. In 2008 that figure was 66% of 934,000 personal bankruptcies and in 2009 it could approach 70% of 1.1 million bankruptcies. And 18,000 Americans die each year because medical care is unaffordable or unavailable. Waiting till 2013 means millions of families will be financially ruined and tens of thousands will die unnecessarily.
If the Johnson administration with no computers back in the sixties could implement Medicare for 45 million seniors in under a year, why does it take three and a half years in the 21st century to cover some, but not all, of America’s fifty million uninsured? And why does the Obama Plan make us wait till after the next presidential election? Politicians usually do popular things and run for election on the resulting wave of approval. Delaying what ought to be the good news of universal and affordable health care for all Americans till two elections down the road is a strong indication that they know the good news really ain’t all that good. And it’s not.
Inside the matrix of TV, the corporate media and on much of the internet, discussion of the Obama plan’s timeline, the human cost of another three years delay, and the comparison with Medicare’s 11 month rollout back in the days before computers are almost impossible to find. We can only wonder why.
The Obama plan is about health insurance, not health care.
As BAR has been reporting since January 2007, the Obama plan is not a health care plan at all, it is a health insurance plan. Based largely upon the failed model in place in Massachusetts since 2006, the Obama plan will require employers to provide coverage or pay a special tax. Everybody not covered by an employer will be required to purchase insurance under penalty of law, in much the same manner as you’re currently required to buy car insurance.
“In my state,” testified Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of the Harvard Medical School last month before Congress, “beating your wife, communicating a terrorist threat and being uninsured all carry $1,000 fines.”
As in Massachusetts, the health insurance plans people are forced to buy will cost a lot and won’t cover much. In a July 20 National Journal article Dr. David Himmelstein says,
“Nearly every day that he is in the clinic, Himmelstein says, he sees a patient who has problems paying for care “despite this reform.’ Some of them had free care before the 2006 law took effect but are now expected to handle co-payments. If you’re not poor enough to get a subsidy, say you’re making $30,000 a year, you’re required to buy a policy that costs about $5,000 a year for the premium and has a $2,000 deductible before it pays for anything. For substantial numbers of people, it’s effectively not coverage,’ Himmelstein said. The policy he described is about the cheapest Massachusetts plan available, according to the Physicians for a National Health Program report, which Himmelstein co-wrote.”
A family of four making under $24,000 a year in Massachusetts gets its insurance premium free, but is still expected to cough up deductibles and co-payments and live with loopholes and exclusions that often deny care to those who need it. And in both the Massachusetts and Obama plans, funds to pay those premiums come out of the budgets of programs like Medicaid that already pay for care for the poorest Ameicans.
The Obama plan’s “public option” is a bait-and-switch scam
A July 21 pnhp.org article titled “Bait and Switch: How the Public Option Was Sold” outlines how the public option is neither public, nor an option.
“Public option” refers to a proposal… that Congress create an enormous “Medicare-like” program that would sell health insurance to the non-elderly in competition with the 1,000 to 1,500 health insurance companies that sell insurance today…
“Hacker (its author) claimed the program, which he called “Medicare Plus” in 2001 and “Health Care for America Plan” in 2007, would enjoy the advantages that make Medicare so efficient – large size, low provider payment rates and low overhead…
“Hacker predicted that his proposed public program would so closely resemble Medicare that it would be able to set its premiums far below those of other insurance companies and enroll at least half the non-elderly population.”
The White House is committed to twisting arms in the both houses of Congress and reconciling the two versions of Democratic bills to emerge from the House and Senate. What emerges will be the Obama plan. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Senate version of the Democrats’ pending health care legislation leaves 33 million uninsured and omits the public option altogether. The House version includes a “public option” estimated to cover only 10-12 million people, a number far too small for it to create price pressure on private insurance companies, while leaving 16 or 17 million uninsured. Instead of setting prices for health care, it will be forced to pay whatever tthe private insurers already pay, and perhaps more.
As private insurers use their marketing muscle to recruit younger, healthier people who’ll pay for but not use their benefits, the public option will be a dumping ground for the customers they don’t want… the middle-aged, the poor, those with pre-existing conditions. And of course the Obama plan’s “public option’ will be managed by contractors from the private insurance industry.
Private insurers spend a third of every health care dollar on non-health related things like bonuses, denial machinery, advertising, lobbying and bad investments. Medicare spends 2 or 3% on administrative overhead. Bush’s “enhanced Medicare” administered by private insurance contractors, spends about 11% on overhead. That’s about what we should expect from the Obama public option. So much for change.
So far, discipline is holding. Nobody in corporate media, the administration, or among Democrats in Washington has gotten round to telling us that the public option has been eviscerated. But its powerful appeal and the awesome power of the word “public” are offered by Obama supporters as the central reasons to shut up, clap harder, and get behind the president on this.
Taxing the rich, paying for health care. How the Obama Plan stacks up against single payer.
Along with being funded by cuts in Medicaid, the Obama plan is supposed to be funded by taxing those who make $300,000 or more per year. That’s not a bad thing. The wealthy don’t pay nearly enough taxes. But the US already spends more on health care than anyplace else on the planet while leaving a greater portion of its population uninsured than anybody.
The Obama plan will not contain costs. It will subsidize the insurance vampires well into the next decade. On the other hand, single payer would eliminate the private insurance industry altogether. In many advanced industrial countries, most of the practices private insurers follow here, such as cherry picking healthy patients while dumping and denying sick ones, are illegal. Why can we do that?
Single payer, according to a study by the California Nurses Association would eliminate 550,000 jobs in private insurance while creating 3.2 million new ones in actual health care. It would be responsible for $100 billion in wages annually and a source of immense tax revenues for local governments.
So is the Obama plan really better than nothing?
The Obama plan seems calculated to buy time for private insurers, to end the health care discussion for a decade or more without solving the health care problem, do so in a way that discredits the very idea of everybody in- nobody out health care. It will leave tens of millions uninsured, a hundred million or more underinsured, and the same parasitic private interests in charge of the American health care system that run it now.
The Obama plan as it now stands requires us to let another 18,000 die for each of the next three years and allow more than a million additional families to be bankrupted by medical expenses before we can judge whether or not the plan is working. It’s easy to imagine Obama partisans telling us in mid 2013 that it’s still too early to be sure.
The Kucinich amendment, which allows the few states wealthy enough to try it the liberty to fashion their own single payer regimes is intended to attract progressives and single payer votes in Congress without breaking the bubble. By itself, it should not be a reason to support this bill.. The wealthiest state in the union is probably California, and it’s handing out IOUs instead of salaries this month. It’s hard to see what would be lost if this health care bill went down in flames, and we started over again next year.
Can he get away with it?
Maybe. Maybe not. If the corporate media and the president can keep discussion of the devilish details to a minimum, if they can silence, co-opt and intimidate the forces to Obama’s left — if they can keep most of the public inside their bubble of fake reality, Barack Obama may achieve his goal of thwarting the reform that most of the American people want — an everybody in, nobody out single payer health care system on the model of Canada or Australia, or Medicare for All. It won’t be close, it won’t be easy, and with nothing to be gained, progressives shouldn’t make it any easier.
Since the president’s success depends mostly on keeping people silent and in the dark, he will probably be unable to mobilize the 13 million phone numbers and email addresses collected during the recent presidential campaign, and now held by OFA, his campaign arm. If an organizing call went out to them, too many would try to read the bill and discuss the options, and such a discussion could easily get out of hand. When OFA called house meetings on health care last December, the most frequently advanced question was why we couldn’t or shouldn’t get a single payer health care system.
Single payer isn’t dead yet. It’s very much alive among Barack Obama’s own supporters. To succeed, he has to bury it alive, to keep them in the bubble, in the dark and quiet, or clapping so loudly they cannot hear themselves or each other think. It’s not over.
© 2009 Black Agenda Report
Obama’s Failure as a Leader July 22, 2009Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, War, Foreign Policy, About Barack Obama.
Tags: roger hollander, Barack Obama, health care, single payer, health, healthcare, power, president obama, healthcare reform, health care reform, politics, health insurance industry, leadership, candidate obama, presidency
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www.rogerhollander.com, July 22, 2009
To quote John Lennon, “Imagine!” Imagine Barack Obama giving a nationally televised speech on health care reform. In it he outlines the advantages of a single-payer plan. He gives the statistical evidence to demonstrate the enormous savings by eliminating private health insurance. He discusses the German, French, British and Canadian systems. He acknowledges some drawbacks, but shows clearly how they achieve the fundamental objectives of universal accessibility, choice, and cost savings. He directly challenges the medical, health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and exposes their high priced media propaganda for what it is: distortion and lies. With most American already having a predisposition towards universal coverage, and with the myths dispelled and replaced with hard undeniable facts, the pressure from the public on Congress to achieve a single-payer option would be irresistible.
Barack Obama wouldn’t be President of the United States today if he hadn’t been the pragmatic, hard-ball, Chicago-bred politician that he is. His failure, or his inability, or his lack of will – call it what you like – to withdraw from the country’s imperialist (criminal and destructive) war adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan or to hold the Bush administration accountable for its high crimes and misdemeanors is eminently predictable and in entirely in character. That many expected more, a hell of a lot more, is due entirely to his campaign rhetoric, which was calculated and for the most part fraudulent.
But this is no reason to not render critical judgments about the Obama presidency despite the fact that we are still quite early into his tenure. There is no doubt that we can expect more of the same. There is a principle to the effect that the practical should be judged by the ideal, and not vice versa. Following this principle is the keystone of leadership. President Obama violates this principle on a daily basis.
Obama knows what leadership is. Candidate Obama demonstrated the epitome of leadership as he led the nation to an electoral victory over a McCain/Palin ticket that had the potential to give the country a government even more disastrous than that of Bush/Cheney – virtually inconceivable but true.
He gave the country its first Afro-American president. However, once elected, he cast off the leadership role as a snake sheds its skin.
President Obama is fond of saying something to the effect of not letting the perfect get in the way of achieving the possible. Politics is the art of the possible, as common wisdom has it. In other words, judge the ideal by the practical, which is to my mind a cynical and nihilistic form of non-leadership.
In a sense, a leader’s role is to remain to a large degree above the fray. A leader reflects the needs, hopes and aspirations of the people. A genuine leader is not a power broker.
In the U.S. system of government, the Congress makes laws which, once agreed upon by both houses, are presented to the President to sign into law or veto. Apart from skewing factors such as massive corporate lobbying and the infamous Bush “signing statements” that allowed the President to ignore laws passed by Congress, the system as it has evolved does generate legislation, for better or worse.
A president’s role can vary between staying out of the process until a piece of legislation reaches his or her desk, and active participation in creating legislation and stick-handling it through Congress. In modern times presidents have leaned more towards the latter role, thereby sacrificing their capacity to lead rather than to broker.
I would suggest that the proper role for Obama or any other president is to communicate to the general public and to the members of Congress his vision on any given issue that is in the best interests of the nation. In the case of health care reform, for example, that would be for a single-payer option, which is what Canada and European industrial democracies have had in place for decades or longer (and which, despite being virtually ignored by the mainstream media and subjected to massive campaigns based upon outright falsehoods, most Americans believe in). But since that is the “perfect” solution in Obama’s frame of thinking, it is “off the table” presumably so as not to hinder a less than perfect but “realizable” option. This is the way of the defeatism, it is not leadership.
In other words, if Obama were a leader rather than a manipulator, he would go over the heads of Congress and speak directly to the people, and let Congress take the consequences for its action or failure to act. This might entail short term risk (that a flawed reform or no reform at all would result), but surely is the only road to genuine reform in the long term. Leadership is about taking risks; but what is ironic, not to mention tragic, is that by taking the path of power brokering a deal, the only possible results are either a much less than adequate reform or total failure. It is also ironic that the entirely self-interested neo-con (Republican) opposition will go for the jugular on the compromised, brokered solution as if it were the ideal solution (so, why not go for broke if you are going to be viciously attacked in any case?). The pragmatist will argue that the less than adequate reform is an incremental step to genuine reform. This indeed might be the case were it not for the fact that bastardized reforms are the result of catering to special interests (in the case of health care reform the AMA, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries), who having been victorious in fending off genuine reform will only remain further entrenched and less likely to be defeated in the future.
In feudal times there was in some senses a positive relationship between kings and subjects vis-à-vis confrontation with the ruling nobility. At times a serf could go over the head of his Lord and appeal to the king for justice. I am no lover of monarchy and only offer this as an analogy. A president who was a genuine friend of the masses and an ally in their struggles with enormous economic interests and compromised legislatures would be a sight to behold.
The problem, of course, is that the President is just as compromised as the legislatures with respect to the funding required to gain a nomination and to launch a successful presidential campaign. What I find so insidious about the Obama (full disclosure: I voted for him, the alternative was too scary, but I can understand those who bit the bullet and voted for Nader) is that he promoted himself and catapulted himself to the presidency by pretending to be a leader. I have to confess that in spite of my better judgment, there was a part of me that wanted to believe him. This may have been naïve on my part, but at least I kept it to myself.
Tags: amy godman, California Nurses Association, cigna, cna, denis moynihan, for profit health, health, health care, health care reform, health insurance, health insurance industry, health insurance lobby, health premiums, healthcare, healthcare reform, hmos, insurance exectuives, max baucus, pharmaceutical industry, roger hollander, senate finance, single payer, wendell potter, whistle blower
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Wendell Potter is the health insurance industry’s worst nightmare. He’s a whistle-blower. Potter, the former chief spokesperson for insurance giant CIGNA, recently testified before Congress, “I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick—all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.”
Potter was deeply involved in CIGNA and industrywide strategies for maintaining their profitable grip on U.S. health care. He told me: “The thing they fear most is a single-payer plan. They fear even the public insurance option being proposed; they’ll pull out all the stops they can to defeat that to try to scare people into thinking that embracing a public health insurance option would lead down the slippery slope toward socialism … putting a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor. They’ve used those talking points for years, and they’ve always worked.”
In 2007, CIGNA denied a California teenager, Nataline Sarkisyan, coverage for a liver transplant. Her family went to the media. The California Nurses Association joined in. Under mounting pressure, CIGNA finally granted coverage for the procedure. But it was too late. Two hours later, Nataline died.
While visiting family in Tennessee, Potter stopped at a “medical expedition” in Wise, Va. People drove hours for free care from temporary clinics set up in animal stalls at the local fairground. Potter told me that weeks later, flying on a CIGNA corporate jet with the CEO: “I realized that someone’s premiums were helping me to travel that way … paying for my lunch on gold-trimmed china. I thought about those men and women I had seen in Wise County … not having any idea [how] insurance executives lived.” He decided he couldn’t be an industry PR hack anymore.
Insurance executives and their Wall Street investors are addicted to massive profits and double-digit annual rate increases. To squeeze more profit, Potter says, if a person makes a major claim for coverage, the insurer will often scrutinize the person’s original application, looking for any error that would allow it to cancel the policy. Likewise, if a small company’s employees make too many claims, the insurer, Potter says, “very likely will jack up the rates so much that your employer has no alternative but to leave you and your co-workers without insurance.”
This week, as the House and Senate introduce their health care bills, Potter warns, “One thing to remember is that the health insurance industry has been anticipating this debate on health care for many years … they’ve been positioning themselves to get very close to influential members of Congress in both parties.” Montana Sen. Max Baucus chairs the Senate Finance Committee, key for health care reform. Potter went on, “[T]he insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and others in health care have donated … millions of dollars to his campaigns over the past few years. But aside from money, it’s relationships that count … the insurance industry has hired scores and scores of lobbyists, many of whom have worked for members of Congress, and some who are former members of Congress.”
The insurance industry and other health care interests are lobbying hard against a government-sponsored, nonprofit, public health insurance option, and are spending, according to The Washington Post, up to $1.4 million per day to sway Congress and public opinion.
Don’t be fooled. Profit-driven insurance claim denials actually kill people, and Wendell Potter knows where the bodies are buried. His whistle-blowing may be just what’s needed to dump what’s sick in our health care system.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
© 2009 Amy Goodman
Tags: ama, canada health, dean baker, drug companies, drug patents, germany health, health care, health care industry, health care reform, health care system, health costs, health insurance, health insurance industry, healthcare, healthcare reform, medical supply industry, medicare, pharmaceutical industry, roger hollander, single payer
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This is the time when the excrement starts hitting the fan. The lobbyists are in overdrive, rounding up members of Congress just like the cowboys of the Old West would bring in the herd.
The industry groups will also have their friends in the news media working overtime hyping any possible obstacle to health care reform. And they are filling the airwaves with scary ads, warning that people will never be able to see a doctor again if meaningful health care reform passes.
Since there are trillions of dollars at stake, the effort is understandable. The basic story is simple. The insurance, pharmaceutical and medical supply industries, along with the hospitals and the American Medical Association, have rigged the deck so that they get rich at the public’s expense. They have structured our health care system so that we pay more than twice as much per person as people in other wealthy countries, even though we get worse care by many measures.
The bloat in the health care sector is projected to grow rapidly over the next decade as health care consumes an ever larger share of the economy. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that just the increase in health care spending share of the economy over the next decade will cost us $4.3 trillion. That is equal to a health care tax of $57,000 for an average family of four.
Who benefits from the taxpayers generosity? CMS projects that $1.4 trillion, or $18,500 per family will go to the hospitals. Doctors and the pharmaceutical companies are each expected to score about $550 billion, costing families $7,300. And the insurance industry’s share of GDP is projected to rise by $360 billion, or $4,800 for an average family.
These massive transfers are not the result of the wonders of the free market. These folks are getting money out of our pockets because their friends in Congress have rigged the deck so the money flows from us to them. For example, the government grants the pharmaceutical industry patent monopolies that prevent normal competition in the prescription drug market.
Unlike every other country in the world, the United States lets the drug companies use their government-granted monopolies to charge whatever they want. As a result, we pay nearly twice as much for our prescription drugs as people in countries like Canada and Germany.
Similarly, doctors are able to tightly control the supply of both US trained physicians and the number of doctors that can enter the country from abroad. If custodians had the same control over the labor market for janitors, they would all be making $80,000 a year. We pay close to twice as much for our doctors as people in other wealthy countries. The gap is especially wide for highly paid specialists like neurosurgeons and cardiologists.
Of course, the insurance industry is a total mess. They pocket more than 15 cents for every dollar they pay out to providers. By comparison, the administrative costs of Medicare are less than 2 percent of its revenue. If the insurers ever had to compete with a publicly run insurance plan on a level playing field, they would be blown out of the water.
We know that private insurers can’t compete because we already had this experiment with the Medicare program. When private insurers had to compete on a level playing field with the traditional government-run plan they were almost driven from the market. That is why they got their friends in Congress to pass Medicare Advantage. This program spreads the wealth around by giving the private insurers a subsidy of more than 11 percent per patient.
As Congress debates health care reform, we should be very clear what is going on. It is easy to devise reforms that will reduce costs without jeopardizing the quality of care.
That is not the fight. The fight is over whether Congress will leave in place structures that will siphon an ever-larger amount of money out of taxpayers’ pockets and put this money in the hands of the insurance industry, the hospitals, the drug companies and the doctors.
Getting a robust public plan, that both individuals and employers can buy into, will be the key indicator of whether Congress is still determined to redistribute income into the hands of the insurers, the drug companies and the rest. A robust Medicare-type plan will not only reduce the insurance industry’s tax on our health care, it will also be able to bargain for lower prices from the drug companies, the medical supply companies, and other health care providers.
For this reason, most of the industry is united against any sort of serious public plan. Their latest compromise is a system of small cooperative insurers that will have no bargaining power. That’s a cute joke, but it has nothing to do with health care reform.
So, keep hold of your scorecard. Unless Congress creates a serious public plan, you can expect to be hit with the largest tax increase in the history of the world – all of it going into the pockets of the health care industry.
Obama’s Health Care Waterloo June 19, 2009Posted by rogerhollander in Barack Obama, Health.
Tags: ama, corporate health, dave lindorff, H.R. 676, health care, health care costs, health care reform, health care universal, health insurance, health insurance industry, healthcare, healthcare reform, insurance industry, John Conyers, Lyndon Johnson, medicare, obama health plan, policy failures, Rahm Emanuel, roger hollander, single payer, uninsured
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www.opednews.com, June 19, 2009
The Obama administration and the Congressional Democrats are finally hitting the inevitable wall that was bound to confront them because of the president’s congenital inability to be a bold leader, and because of the party’s toxic decades-old decision to betray its working class New Deal base in favor of wholesale corporate whoredom.
The wall is health care reform, which both Barack Obama and the Democratic Party had hoped would be the ticket for them to ride to victory in the 2010 Congressional elections and the 2012 presidential election.
But you cannot achieve the twin goals of reducing health care costs and providing access to health care to 50 million uninsured people, while leaving the profit centers of the current system—doctors, hospitals and the health insurance industry—in charge and in a position to continue to reap profits.
Watching President Obama address the American Medical Association was a cringe-inducing experience as he assured the assembled doctors he was not going to expand Medicare payments “broadly” to cover all patients, or end the current “piece-work reimbursement” system that has so enriched physicians, or as he told them that savings would “not come off your backs.” It was particularly cringe-inducing when he told the AMA that he knew that making money was not why its members were in the profession, saying, “That is not why you became doctors. That is not why you put in all those hours in the Anatomy Suite or the O.R. That is not what brings you back to a patient’s bedside to check in or makes you call a loved one to say it’ll be fine. You did not enter this profession to be bean-counters and paper-pushers. You entered this profession to be healers – and that’s what our health care system should let you be. “
Oh please. I know there are plenty of wonderful doctors who are dedicated to their patients and to patient care. But I also know plenty of doctors who have told me how half their classmates in medical school were mainly in it for the money, and that study halls and cafeterias of American med schools echo with the conversations about what can be made working in particular specialties. Not to mention the corrupt and insidious profit-sharing arrangements doctors enter into with labs, CAT-Scan and MRI test centers, pharmaceutical companies and other businesses, to earn profits by sending patients for unnecessary tests and treatments.
One can only imagine what he would be saying to insurance industry executives about his “reform” plans.
Because Obama and Congressional Democrats are unwilling to cut themselves off from the lucrative campaign-funding bonanza that is the health care industry, they cannot address seriously either the cost or the access crisis that plagues health care in the US, and that makes health care in this country cost 20 percent of GDP—twice what it costs in any other modern nation on a per capita or GDP basis, and that still leaves one in six Americans without ready access to even routine health care.
The answer to this crisis is obvious: a single-payer “socialized” system, in which you still have private doctors, and private or publicly run hospitals, but where the government sets the payment rates for treatment, and provides all compensation to health care providers.
If Democrats in Congress were serious about health care reform, they would immediately order the Congressional Budget Office to conduct a cost study of instituting such a program—a study that would include an estimate of the savings to individuals and employers if health care costs were lifted entirely off their backs (because obviously it would require considerable new government revenue to fund a single-payer program, but that’s only half the equation—the other half, the savings, is simply ignored by critics and doomsayers on the right and in the health care industry). Instead, Obama and the Democratic Congress are studiously avoiding even allowing any mention of the single-payer option. (A New York Times report today on the various health care plans working their way through Congress, and coming out of the White House, completely blacked out any mention of a single-payer bill in the House authored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which the House leadership has prevented from even getting a token hearing.)
Obama’s unwillingness to lead on this issue will doom his health care plan. There is obviously no way Congress is going to shake off its corrupt leech-like attachment to corporate sponsors and their cash-spreading lobbyists, but had the new president wanted to make a historic mark and cruise to victory in 2012, he could have, like President Lyndon Johnson before him in his campaign for Medicare in 1965, put himself solidly behind a single-payer plan and made the case that it could cut America’s collective health bill in half while opening the door to every American.
Instead, he’s likely to end up with worse than nothing—that is with even more uninsured Americans come 2012, and with health care costs moving up as a share of GDP—and could well find himself out of a job. The policy that his handlers, like White House Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel, had conceived of as Obama’s ticket to re-election, health care reform, could well prove instead to be his Waterloo.
That is if his adoption of a policy of expanded war in Afghanistan—another example of a failure to lead—doesn’t prove to be this president’s bigger policy disaster.
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-area journalist. He is author of “Marketplace Medicine: The Rise of the For-Profit Hospital Chains” (Bantam Books, 1992), and most recently of “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
Health Care is a Right, Not a Privilege June 9, 2009Posted by rogerhollander in Health.
Tags: bernie sanders, cigna, doctor shortages, drug companies, health, health care, health care costs, health care reform, health care system, health costs, health insurance, health insurance industry, healthcare, healthcare reform, medicare medicare for all, private health insurance, roger hollander, single payer, united health
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Senator Bernie Sanders
www.opednews.com, June 8, 2009
Let’s be clear. Our health care system is disintegrating. Today, 46 million people have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and co-payments. At a time when 60 million people, including many with insurance, do not have access to a medical home, more than 18,000 Americans die every year from preventable illnesses because they do not get to the doctor when they should. This is six times the number who died at the tragedy of 9/11 – but this occurs every year.
In the midst of this horrendous lack of coverage, the U.S. spends far more per capita on health care than any other nation – and health care costs continue to soar. At $2.4 trillion dollars, and 18 percent of our GDP, the skyrocketing cost of health care in this country is unsustainable both from a personal and macro-economic perspective.
At the individual level, the average American spends about $7,900 per year on health care. Despite that huge outlay, a recent study found that medical problems contributed to 62 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007. From a business perspective, General Motors spends more on health care per automobile than on steel while small business owners are forced to divert hard-earned profits into health coverage for their employees – rather than new business investments. And, because of rising costs, many businesses are cutting back drastically on their level of health care coverage or are doing away with it entirely.
Further, despite the fact that we spend almost twice as much per person on health care as any other country, our health care outcomes lag behind many other nations. We get poor value for what we spend. According to the World Health Organization the United States ranks 37th in terms of health system performance and we are far behind many other countries in terms of such important indices as infant mortality, life expectancy and preventable deaths.
As the health care debate heats up in Washington, we as a nation have to answer two very fundamental questions. First, should all Americans be entitled to health care as a right and not a privilege – which is the way every other major country treats health care and the way we respond to such other basic needs as education, police and fire protection? Second, if we are to provide quality health care to all, how do we accomplish that in the most cost-effective way possible?
I think the answer to the first question is pretty clear, and one of the reasons that Barack Obama was elected president. Most Americans do believe that all of us should have health care coverage, and that nobody should be left out of the system. The real debate is how we accomplish that goal in an affordable and sustainable way. In that regard, I think the evidence is overwhelming that we must end the private insurance company domination of health care in our country and move toward a publicly-funded, single-payer Medicare for All approach.
Our current private health insurance system is the most costly, wasteful, complicated and bureaucratic in the world. Its function is not to provide quality health care for all, but to make huge profits for those who own the companies. With thousands of different health benefit programs designed to maximize profits, private health insurance companies spend an incredible (30 percent) of each health care dollar on administration and billing, exorbitant CEO compensation packages, advertising, lobbying and campaign contributions. Public programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the VA are administered for far less.
In recent years, while we have experienced an acute shortage of primary health care doctors as well as nurses and dentists, we are paying for a huge increase in health care bureaucrats and bill collectors. Over the last three decades, the number of administrative personnel has grown by 25 times the numbers of physicians. Not surprisingly, while health care costs are soaring, so are the profits of private health insurance companies. From 2003 to 2007, the combined profits of the nation’s major health insurance companies increased by 170 percent. And, while more and more Americans are losing their jobs and health insurance, the top executives in the industry are receiving lavish compensation packages. It’s not just William McGuire, the former head of United Health, who several years ago accumulated stock options worth an estimated $1.6 billion or Cigna CEO Edward Hanway who made more than $120 million in the last five years. The reality is that CEO compensation for the top seven health insurance companies now averages $14.2 million.
Moving toward a national health insurance program which provides cost-effective universal, comprehensive and quality health care for all will not be easy. The powerful special interests – the insurance companies, drug companies and medical equipment suppliers – will wage an all-out fight to make sure that we maintain the current system which enables them to make billions of dollars. In recent years they have spent hundreds of millions on lobbying, campaign contributions and advertising and, with unlimited resources, they will continue spending as much as they need.
But, at the end of the day, as difficult as it may be, the fight for a national health care program will prevail. Like the civil rights movement, the struggle for women’s rights and other grass-roots efforts, justice in this country is often delayed – but it will not be denied. We shall overcome!
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Tags: big pharma, canada helath, canadian health care, canadian healthcare, clintons, health, health care, health care costs, health care reform, health costs, health insurance, health insurance industry, healthcare, healthcare costs, healthcare reform, Medicaid, medicare, paul rogat loeb, pharmaceutical industry, private health insurance, rick scott, Robert Reich, roger hollander, singel-payer, single payer, tommy douglas
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Will serious health reform meet the fate of the scorpion and the turtle? In that fable, the scorpion pleads with the turtle to carry him across a river. The turtle resists, fearing the scorpion’s sting, but the scorpion reassures him that he’d do nothing so foolish, since both would drown if he did. Finally the turtle agrees. Halfway across, the scorpion betrays his promise with a lethal sting. As the turtle begins to drown, he asks why he took both their lives. “It’s just who I am,” the scorpion replies.
I fear we’re about to get stung again. When people look back at the failure of the Clinton-era health care initiative, they point, accurately, to an opaque process that produced a baroque Rube Goldberg mess that satisfied no one. That happened even before the insurance industry went on the attack with their Harry and Louise ads. But another missing element parallels our current challenge-appeasement of the insurance companies as the plan’s centerpiece, and the inevitability that these same interests will betray us again.
The Clintons assumed the insurance companies were too powerful to confront, so the plan had to go along with them. But once they assumed any bill had to get the companies’ approval, no plan could work, because it had to build in ways for the companies to maintain their profit margins and the immensely wasteful overhead they spend on advertising, processing claims, and turning down as many sick people as they can. Their approach also creates corollary wastes, like the third of the expenses of the average medical office that go toward dealing with insurance company paperwork.
Our health care crisis is so dire that the simple single-payer approach, as in Canada, should be at least seriously debated. Compared with us, most Canadians are satisfied with their system, in contrast with a recent US poll where 49 percent said our health system needed fundamental changes and 38 percent said it should be completely rebuilt. Canadians get a full choice of doctors (unlike in the US, where households have to switch doctors when employers change their insurance or insurance companies change their preferred provider lists). Tommy Douglas, the Canadian New Democratic Party leader who pushed through national health care in the mid-60s (replacing a system like ours), was recently voted Greatest Canadian in a recent contest, beating hockey star Wayne Gretzky and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
Even if single payer isn’t politically achievable yet, there’s no reason to take it off the table from the beginning. Doing so means most Americans never get to hear the contrast in cost savings, in allocation ease, in impact on ordinary citizens and their health outcomes. They never get to hear the story that might allow them to overcome current fears about losing the health care they have, being unable to see their preferred doctor, or being condemned to the Purgatory of endless waiting. Maybe we’ve been so conditioned that we can’t quite get the support for a full-fledged switch. A recent Kaiser Foundation poll still gives single-payer a narrow 49 to 47 percent majority, vs 67 percent for including a fully competitive public option, and maybe that isn’t enough. But at least we need to tell the story, so the probably inevitable compromise works down from full public coverage, as opposed to considering options that gut even the option of serious public coverage entirely.
Instead, because we’ve accepted the premise that the private insurance companies have to be included, we’re now starting to consider including a public option only if it includes poison pills that will doom it to fail, like requiring it be triggered by a set of exceedingly unlikely circumstances deferred to the indefinite future. Or requiring it to play by rules so onerous that it can’t achieve its straightforward cost savings. Or turning it over to the states, so Big Pharma and Big Insurance interests can simply, as Robert Reich warns, “buy off legislators and officials as they’ve been doing for years.”
But why assume that the insurance companies are our friends? Why appease them at all? It’s not as if they’ve played a helpful role in our current system. Rather, they’ve gamed it in every possible way, leaving our country with the highest health care costs in the world and worst health outcomes of any advanced industrial country. While they’ve made promises to cut costs, their promises are only that (like the scorpion’s), and they’re already lobbying with everything they have to gut any seriously competitive public option. Add in examples like former HCA/Columbia CEO Rick Scott. after his company paid a $1.7 billion fine (the largest in US history) for defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and the program that serves our armed forces, he is now organizing attacks on any public program (hiring the PR firm that coordinated the “Swift Boat” attacks on John Kerry). We need to challenge the insurance companies, not appease them. There’s no evidence that suggests they’re constructive players, or are likely to do anything except defend their own parochial interest.
The insurance companies and other major financial interests are talking a good line of late. They have no choice if they don’t want to be cut out of the game. But ultimately, they are who they are, and their behavior reflects this. It makes no sense to embrace a partner who you know will ultimately betray you.
Maybe the public private mix is the best compromise we can get at the moment. But we must raise our voices now to demand a full debate on the other alternatives, like single payer, and then if necessary settle for something that gives a public option a chance, under equitable rules, to see how it plays out in efficiency, service, and cost. Trusting the insurance companies and stacking the deck to guarantee that private options will prevail merely assures we continue our dysfunctional system until its human and financial costs drown us all.
Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association. His previous books include Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. See www.paulloeb.org To receive his articles directly email email@example.com with the subject line: subscribe paulloeb-articles.
Baucus to Meet with Single-Payer Advocates June 2, 2009Posted by rogerhollander in Health.
Tags: baucus 13, bernie sanders, H.R. 676, health, health care, health care reform, health insurance, health insurance industry, healthcare, healthcare reform, John Conyers, max baucus, roger hollander, senate finance, single payer
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by John S. Adams
HELENA – Sen. Max Baucus is set to meet with five single-payer health care advocates in Washington, D.C., this week.
Baucus, as chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has made health care reform his top priority this session. However, Baucus has consistently said single-payer – a system in which the federal government acts as the nation’s sole health insurance provider – is off the table.
“For more than a year, Senator Baucus has met with thousands of people, representing hundreds of views on how to reform our health care system,” Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf stated in an e-mail. “This meeting is no different. Max hopes to talk, and listen, to these folks totry and find the best way to make sure every Montanan has access to quality, affordable health care.”
Last week, members of Baucus’ staff held 20 listening sessions across the state on health care reform. At several of those meetings, Montanans expressed anger over Baucus’ steadfast refusal to consider a single-payer option.
Last month Baucus had 13 protesters removed from Senate Finance Committee hearings after the protesters demanded that single-payer advocates be given a seat at the table during health care reform hearings.
According to the Web site SinglePayerAction.org, Baucus will meet with Dr. David Himmelstein, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP); Dr. Marcia Angell, senior lecturer, Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine; Dr. Oliver Fein, associate dean, Cornell Weill Medical School and president of PNHP; Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association; and Geri Jenkins, president of California Nurses Association.
Angell said the group plans to urge Baucus to give serious consideration to Congress’ two primary single-payer bills, S. 703, by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and H.R. 676, by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
“We will make a case that there should be full hearings on Sanders’ bill, and we’ll make the case that the (Congressional Budget Office) should cost-out the Sanders and Conyers bills,” Angell said in an interview Monday. “We’ll make the case that single-payer advocates should have a chance to meet with the president. We will argue for holding public hearings on health reform that include single payer witnesses.”
Matsdorf said the June 3 meeting was scheduled prior to last week’s well-attended health care listening sessions, but Angell said she believes the pressure Montanans put on Baucus in recent weeks helped open the door for Wednesday’s meeting.
“I think Sen. Baucus may be surprised at the amount of push-back he has gotten for just ruling (single-payer) off the table,” Angell said. “It may indicate that he’s starting to feel pressure, and that’s all for the good.”
Copyright ©2009 Great Falls Tribune | <urn:uuid:3a67d196-6645-47b1-9747-bc9a2c484910> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rogerhollander.wordpress.com/tag/health-insurance-industry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959988 | 15,114 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The power of the Internet, however, made itself felt when New Amsterdam’s offices in Brooklyn were devastated in Hurricane Sandy last October. As the story spread on Facebook and Twitter, people came to the label’s Web site and began clicking the “donate” button without any formal campaign at all. More than 400 people donated, and while the label is still figuring out exactly how much money was raised, it has enough to do the necessary repairs, and replace equipment and boxes of recordings. For although about 70 percent of New Amsterdam’s sales for most of its releases are digital downloads, a record label still makes CDs. “It’s like magazines,” Brittelle says. “There are always going to be people who want a hard copy.”
The effect on performers
For performers, new technology may have had the biggest impact of all. Todd Reynolds is a violinist and composer whose 2012 album “Outerborough” joins “a 17th-century violin and 21st-century laptop.” He has been working with digital music since the 1990s, but the advent of more sophisticated digital audio workstations — “daws” — helped him shift from improvisation to composition. Technology, he says, “allowed me to explore my own voice. . . . It’s definitely driven music forward.”
A drawback is that his audience doesn’t always know what he’s doing. In performance, onstage with his violin, he uses foot pedals to operate his computer, taking his single violin line and expanding it into broad orchestral textures, in real time. “After having improvised something from nothing but one note,” he says, “people still come up to me and say, ‘Did you play the tracks, too?’ ” — thinking, in other words, that the music was prerecorded.
But it doesn’t really matter, in the end, how much people notice.
“Technology is still a tool,” Reynolds says. He adds, “It’s really about the music: What does it sound like? What does it do? They’ll never know what goes into making those pieces. Nor should they know, nor should they care.” He compares it to an earlier technology: violin-making. The average listener doesn’t understand much about that, either, and that doesn’t matter. “It’s still about the music and the magic.”
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I was asked to draw a guide on drawing fatties, but I… had no clue how to, so I figured I’d doodle up some examples instead. I generally have no clue what I’m doing when I draw bodytypes like this, ahaha. I really adore drawing chubs though, in case that wasn’t obvious yet.
A lot of my chubby characters are a bit on the stubby side as well, and I didn’t entirely manage to break away from that default… Honestly, though, as long as you don’t forget to add some squish on the sides and make sure to have the body balanced out, they’re pretty straightforward to draw, I think.
this’ll never help me out cause i can’t even draw.
but its still interesting to point out and also antje is a really good artist and knows stuff.
how to draw me :D
and may i single out in particular one incredibly overlooked fact of obese anatomy:
THE FEET AND HANDS ARE NOT BALLOONS. LOOK CLOSELY! FAT PEOPLE HAVE NORMAL SIZED EXTREMITIES WITH ROUNDED DIGITS, NOT GIANT BLUBBERY WALRUS-FLIPPERS.
i see this one a LOT in people who learned all their anatomy from largely homogenous animu shit, and while the results are not quite as horrible as the way a lot of mangaka draw PoC as being barely human, it’s… pretty bad.
(via Parka Blogs)
this is how i learned to drawing heads from different angles i promise you it can help
IMPORTANT ART STUFF
You know, you can read about these techniques all day long, but knowing the exact whys, and being taken through it step by step helps it stick with you a lot better.
Its own post because ask was giving me trouble BC
But man I don’t know how to explain it but examples are better! I guess a tip is I usually start with eyes/nose first and once I have that then I have the rest of the face to do the mouth. Which can be pushed more than this or less!!! Experiment! Add more details to lips, teeth, tongue, wrinkles, cheeks, etc.
I do feel like the mouths I draw have gotten rounder and it just turned out to give me more flexibility!
Another tip is to think about emotion when drawing mouths. Instead of a simple smile, a small tilt down or up can make a difference.
Hope it helps!
By me, Sara D. (Heh.)
I think it’s very important for artists to vary the types of bodies they draw! Not only does it add visual interest and diversity, but different body types can enhance your characters! (Plus it’s more realistic; when was the last time you walked down the street and everyone had the same body type?) I know I have a hard time drawing different bodies, especially with men, so I’m making this tutorial to teach myself as well (I’ve heard the best way to cement learning something is to teach someone else).
So! Bodies! I’m going to use women for this tutorial because I feel they have more variety in their bodies. One of the most obvious ways bodies differ is in their amount of fat.
On average, people store fat mostly in core areas like the bust, the waist, and the hips. It is important to remember that people gain and lose weight differently, and this is true no matter how fat or skinny one gets. However, these are common places people store fat:
The face and neck can be immediate indicators as to how much fat the rest of the body has; when someone loses or gains weight, it’s initially obvious in the face. This is possibly because the eye is (usually) drawn first to the face.
In addition to differences in the amount of body fat, bodies vary vastly in their proportions. The two main ways they differ is skeletally and in fat distribution. The hip to shoulder ratio is skeletal, and someone with wider shoulders might look more powerful or masculine, and someone with wider hips might look more grounded or feminine.
The torso to legs ratio is also a skeletal ratio. Someone with long legs in comparison with their torso might look taller than someone of the same height with a long torso, and they might also look skinnier.
(I say as I finally get some visual variety all up in here.)
Because the hips are also one of the places with the most weight gain in women, large hips can also be a matter of fat distribution. The three main places where the fat ratio really matters is in the bust, the waist and the hips (making up the core of the body).
While men usually carry weight in the belly area, the fat distribution can really vary with women. Some women carry more weight in the bust, some in the belly, and some in the hips/thighs. Some women carry more weight in two areas, like the bust and the hips, the bust and the belly, or the belly and the hips. Some women show no obvious bias to any area and carry weight equally.
Taking into account skeletal ratios, fat distribution patterns, a vast human weight range, muscle tone and age, there are endless permutations of body types. It would be a shame if you used only one!
Oh, and that first image looks really interesting as a gif.
Since people often ask “Alright, well this is fantasy! Why can’t we have boob shapes in plate armor?!” I decided to make a post about it. My frustration has nothing to do with historical inaccuracy and I’m all for imagination and freedom— but I’d like to (very quickly) illustrate this for you:
I purposely over-emphasized the shape of the two spheres in the armor so you can really think about this.
Look at the shape of the blue cups and the green line, think about the form of that on some beautiful ornate plate armor. A female warrior is charging into battle. In the midst of this, she trips! Or is pushed over, or takes a blow to the chest! So long as the force is on the front of her torso it really doesn’t matter for the conclusion:
She feels a sharp pain in her chest and hears the cracking of bone! Oh no, what’s gone wrong? Well she doesn’t have time to think about that, because she is now dead.
Her sternum just fractured, take another look at that green line, that’s where all of the pressure from any front impact is going to go because of the shape of the two blue cups made for her breasts. The rest of the armor slides around your body, but because of the two cups for breasts that are often made in fantasy female armors, the pressure point is directly on the sternum. The breasts are not going to stop the force of you falling onto them, and because of that the metal is going to push in and bash you in the sternum.
What does a fractured sternum do? Why it goes right into your heart and lungs of course.
(that was the sound of all of my followers inhaling a sharp breath between closed teeth at once)
Here are three great solutions to the problem:
GREAT EXAMPLE OF FANTASY TORSO ARMOR THAT IS FEMININE BUT FUNCTIONAL:
It is usually possible to bind the breasts when fighting if they really are far too large to fit into regular looking armor (there’s padding anyway), but most women can actually fit into a similarly sized male counterpart’s armor quite easily. Even if that’s the case, the armor can be made to have a curve to it without putting all of the pressure in one area, which was actually a style of armor for quite some time as shown here:
And don’t even get me started on the dreaded “Cleavage Window”
The “Cleavage Window” defeats the purpose of having any armor on your torso because it means you’re just going to be leaving open the vital organs the rest of the armor is trying to protect.
If people are going to protect themselves and not have much torso protection, invest in some blocking lessons, because the best defense is to not get hit at all. There are also advantages to not having plate armor, and plate armor was often really expensive anyway.
Making this post for future reference
Horse Hair direction charts
To those anons that have asked me. | <urn:uuid:f8b310bb-7f51-4504-92e3-08be310bea51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chickahdee.tumblr.com/tagged/anatomy | 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 | 0.961311 | 1,806 | 1.523438 | 2 |
In 1981, Socialist candidate François Mitterrand was elected on a bold program to "Change life" ("Changer la vie"), with 110 progressive reforms to back up his aspiration, from the nationalization of banks and a 35-hour workweek to the abolition of the death penalty. The program was so audacious that in order to reassure the French electorate, he used the slogan "A peaceful force" ("La force tranquille"). This comes in strong contrast with the current campaign, where Socialist candidate François Hollande runs on the more restrained slogan of "Change, now" ("Le changement, c'est maintenant"), capitalizing on the pervasive discontent with incumbent President Sarkozy – and puts forward 60 mostly cautious proposals.
The contrast is similarly stark on the right. In 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy followed a strategy to exploit the widely-shared readiness for a "clean break" ("La rupture") from the past after 12 years under the increasingly sclerotic administration of President Jacques Chirac. Sarkozy managed to set the agenda of the campaign by making daring and sometimes iconoclastic proposals, like tax cuts on overtime, affirmative action and the creation of a "Ministry of Immigration and National Identity" (with which he captured a third of extreme-right Jean-Marie Le Pen's vote). But Sarkozy now campaigns on continuity rather than rupture and on a protective, "Strong France" ("La France forte"), often playing catch-up with ideas and issues launched by other candidates like the controversy over halal meat triggered by the National Front’s Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie.
The reason for such electoral moderation on both sides of the spectrum and for such an uninspiring campaign (most French even find it boring, according to polls) has a name: the Euro crisis. 2012 is not a time for making wild promises or shaking up the status quo. Given the budgetary constraints and the general lack of trust, there are virtually no margins for maneuver for politicians, and in any case there is little reservoir of ardor, much less illusion, in the wary electorate. This paper sets out to provide an overview of the 2012 election season in France – elections in time of crisis.
The Shape of Elections in the Land of the Semi-presidential Regime
The French will go to the polls four times this Spring. They will vote for the first round of the Presidential elections on Sunday, April 22, and, in the virtually certain case of a run-off, they will pick the winner two weeks later, on Sunday, May 6. At this point, it appears that the only two candidates who can make it to the second round are incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy and socialist candidate François Hollande. In 2002, because there were multiple "small" candidates on the left, socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin was edged out by Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round, leading to an easy victory of more than 82% for incumbent Jacques Chirac in the second round. Such a stunning surprise is always possible, but unlikely this year. In the past three months, Marine Le Pen, who was getting close to threatening the two leading candidates, has seen her popularity decline and is now trailing them by about 10 points in the polls.
Whoever is elected on May 6 will then have to win a majority in the National Assembly – or face a situation of "cohabitation" or divided government, French style. In the constitutional system of the fifth Republic, the President is preeminent, and cannot be dismissed by the legislative branch. However, he cannot pass laws in the National Assembly without a friendly majority, and the Prime Minister he appoints needs to be supported by legislators. Frequent situations of uneasy "cohabitation" between a Socialist President and a conservative Prime Minister (1986-1988, 1993-1995) or vice-versa (1997-2002) led to a bipartisan constitutional reform in 2000 that reduced the presidential mandate to 5 years instead of 7, and synchronized it with the legislative cycle. While this reduced the chances that the French would send a politician to the Elysée and then elect a National Assembly of the opposite side one month later, it by no means guaranteed it. On June 10 and 17, France will elect the 577 members of the Parliament, which includes for the first time representatives from French expatriates (one seat covers Canada and the U.S.). It is not certain that the electorate will give either Nicolas Sarkozy or François Hollande a majority. A situation of cohabitation could greatly complicate efforts to solve the Eurozone crisis, as there is no real tradition of effective coalition governance in France.
The French presidential elections have particular dynamics. For the first time, the Socialists held a nation-wide, open primary in 2011, while other parties like the Greens and the National Front held closed primaries restricted to card-carrying members. But anyone can be a candidate as long as he or she gathers 500 signatures from local elected officials (mostly mayors) before March 15. This makes it possible for well-organized but fringe candidates or even wacky ones like Jacques Cheminade, an affiliate of Lyndon Larouche, to run. It also makes it difficult for some others, most notably Marine Le Pen, to gather signatures, as they are perceived as political endorsements by the mayors and are made public (Le Pen eventually managed to reach the 500 threshold before March 15). The official list of candidates was proclaimed on March 19, and this opened a new phase of the campaign, in which all ten were allotted the exact same airtime on all TV and radio channels – a rule enforced by the CSA, a government agency which keeps the official record of broadcast times. Starting April 9, candidates will also have free time to present their program on public TV and radio channels, but negative ads are prohibited (candidates cannot buy TV time).
Campaign finance laws passed from 1988 to 2003 have brought strict, although imperfect rules to electoral campaigns, through a combination of limits on donations, public financing and spending caps. No citizen can make donations of more than $10,000 a year to a party ($6,000 to a single candidate), and corporations cannot contribute at all, unlike in the U.S. after the 2010 Citizens United decision. Apart from individual donations, candidates can finance their campaign through the backing of their political party, and can also count on public financing (on top of free airtime in public media). The State reimburses 47% of the expenditures made by large candidates, but only about 5% of those of candidates not reaching 5% of the vote in the first round – which makes it a crucial threshold to reach. Whatever their source, however, campaign expenditures by each candidate are strictly capped at $22 million, and up to $30 million for those who make it to the second round. In 2007 for example, Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign for the Elysée cost $28 million, while Barack Obama's 2008 quest for the White House cost more than $650 million.
Who Will Win? An Overview of the Main Candidates
Who will win the 2012 presidential race depends on multiple factors, but the run-off type of election gives special importance to the dynamics that take place between April 22 and May 6 – dynamics that can only partially be captured by polls about voting intentions for either round. The four major candidates typically get between 15 and 30% of the votes in the first round, and the top two – generally one from the right, one from the left – square off in the second round. For this reason, it is crucial to evaluate the overall balance of power between right and left, and in the recent months, the cumulated scores of left-wing candidates has tended to be slightly higher than that of right-wing candidates. Said differently, and assuming that Hollande and Sarkozy face off in the second round on May 6, Hollande can count on picking up most of the first-round votes for extreme-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon (now reaching a high of 15%) and smaller leftist candidates on top of his own original voters. Nicolas Sarkozy can count on a plurality of the votes for extreme-right candidate Marine Le Pen on top of his.
However, there are at least four wild cards. One is the repartition between Sarkozy, Hollande and abstention of the first-round voters going for François Bayrou, the centrist candidate – it is now polled at 44/32/24, but it could change. A second factor is the horse trading going on between the two rounds, with deals, commitments and endorsements between the two remaining candidates and their former competitors, especially the extremes – deals which can in turn influence centrist voters. A third one is the level of abstention, forecasted to reach potentially 32% (the highest point ever was 28.4% in 2002) and its differentiated impact on candidates. And the last unknown is the magnitude of the favorable impression created by winning the first round, which can generate political momentum (Sarkozy enjoyed such momentum after his strong first round showing of 31% in 2007).
Among the ten candidates who obtained their 500 signatures, five are particularly interesting to follow: the two main contenders, the two more extreme candidates, and the one from the center.
- Nicolas Sarkozy, supported by the conservative and Gaullist party UMP, is conducting a paradoxical campaign, which resembles that of 2007 when he was Minister of the Interior. On the one hand, he runs on his record of reforms and accomplishments. He tries to capitalize on his image as an international "crisis President", from his role in bringing about a cease-fire in the 2008 Russia-Georgia war to his constant meetings with Angela Merkel to save the Euro. Don’t change horses in midstream, and trust me to protect France, he seems to say. But on the other hand, he is running as an anti-Establishment candidate, criticizing the small Parisian elite of journalists and intellectuals for being out of touch with the people, while he tries to offer a populist alternative to the extremes. This is especially important for his hope of capturing the extreme-right vote as he did in 2007, and according to the polls, the strategy seems to be working again. During the month of March, he closed the gap with François Hollande for the first round and is now credited with a slight, though statistically insignificant, lead (as of April 2). However, he still trails the Socialist candidate in the second round, with a 54 to 46 projection. It is important to stress that Sarkozy caught up with Hollande before the tragic terrorist attacks in Toulouse (March 19) and the shooting of the terrorist (March 22). This "October surprise" is not what has saved Sarkozy, as some have written, even if the government has kept the issue of terrorism alive in the following weeks, due to Sarkozy's lead on security issues. Among the few measures that Sarkozy has put forward, the renegotiation of the Schengen agreements (see below) and the implementation of a "social VAT" (whereby social expenditures are financed through an increase of taxation on consumption rather than payroll taxes) stand out.
- François Hollande benefitted from the Spring 2011 downfall of IMF Director, and likely winner of the Socialist primary, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Even though he has no government experience, Hollande has been preparing himself for this campaign for some time, and has shaped an image that wants to both emulate that of François Mitterrand (the only Socialist President of the fifth Republic, 1981-1995) and draw a strong contrast with that of Nicolas Sarkozy. The traits that the public tends to reject in Sarkozy – his constant agitation and sudden bursts of chaotic activism, his excessive familiarity and taste for ostentation – Hollande tries to reverse by emphasizing his restraint and cool temper, his presidential posture, and his predictability. But will this "no-drama and no-nonsense" image, compounded by the desire, on the left, to break with a string of defeats (1995, 2002, 2007), be enough to get him elected? In March, his left-wing challenger Jean-Luc Mélenchon gained on Hollande, which could force the Socialist candidate to veer towards the left either before or after the first round, thereby endangering his standing with centrists. Unlike Mélenchon's, Hollande's proposals are compatible with the imperative of reducing the deficit – his plan is to balance the budget in 2017 (Sarkozy has 2016 as his target) – which prevents wild promises. His most audacious measure to ward off Mélenchon would be a marginal tax rate at 75% for incomes above $1.33 million a year. While Sarkozy raised the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62 (and from 65 to 67 for full pension benefits), Hollande would revert to 60 only for those who accumulated 41.5 years of work.
- Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a former Socialist, has coalesced several tendencies of the left and the extreme-left under his charismatic leadership, including proposals the Communist party and the left wing of the Socialists. One of his inspirations for the Front de Gauche (the coalition party that supports him) is the German leftist party Die Linke. Mélenchon was one of the leaders of the "No" vote for the European constitution in 2005, which was rejected by voters from right and left. His proposals include raising the minimum wage and capping high salaries, while slapping a 100% marginal tax rate on incomes above $500,000 and imposing a 35-hour workweek (which in practice was never strictly applied), as well as protectionist measures. Mélenchon has seen a surge in voting intentions in late March to almost 15%, even overtaking Marine Le Pen as the "third man" (or woman) of the race in some polls, and has been credited with winning back some blue collar voters from her (factory workers have largely shifted to the National Front in the last decades).
- Marine le Pen has been trying to "normalize" the extreme-right National Front party she inherited from her father Jean-Marie in 2010 – that is, to remove the racist and anti-Semitic undertones and re-orient the party towards a more classical approach to politics, with a full political program rather than an exclusive focus on immigration and a posture of pure protest. However, that strategy has not yielded good results, as some of her proposals, like abandoning the Euro to revert to the Franc or abandoning the Schengen agreements altogether, have not been especially popular. She has seen her voting intentions decrease to around 15% - way too low to hope for a surprising second place like her father in 2002. As a result, she has reverted to a more traditional anti-immigrant, anti-Islam and populist posture (including anti-capitalist themes), but Nicolas Sarkozy seems to have made inroads in her electorate, and she has not benefitted from a "Toulouse effect".
- François Bayrou, although labeled a centrist, represents the traditional non-Gaullist moderate right in the tradition of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1974-1981). His party, called the Modem, is strongly pro-European and rejects the populist and anti-immigrant undertones of Sarkozy. In 2007, Bayrou made a sensation when he got 18.6% of the vote in the first round, but this time he is suffering from the fact that François Hollande, as a moderate Socialist, may have more realistic chances to beat Nicolas Sarkozy. Bayrou’s voting intentions have remained stuck around 12%. One strong point in his program is his willingness to tackle the debt problem (French debt has surged to 86% of GDP), a problem he had already addressed in his 2007 campaign. But economic constraints also makes his program resemble that of his two opponents – a typical situation in times of crisis when politicians have little leeway.
The remaining five candidates collectively represent less than 5% of voting intentions. Only Eva Joly, the candidate for the Greens, is worth mentioning. While she represents a coalition of various pro-environment parties, she has been unable to interject her voice in the campaign, and is stagnating at around 2.5%. Her low appeal is very much linked with the financial crisis (public opinion is less mobilized around environmental issues), but is probably also due to her shortcomings as a candidate – she doesn't have the charisma of other Green politicians like Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Noël Mamère (who garnered 5.25% of the vote in 2002) or Nicolas Hulot, who got the major candidates in 2007 to commit to a "pact for ecology" which resulted in actual reforms by Nicolas Sarkozy.
From "Merkozy" to a Franco-German Dispute? The European Conundrum
The tragic terrorist attacks in Toulouse have not changed the course of the campaign, even if they have brought a renewed focus on immigration and Islam – which Marine Le Pen and Nicolas Sarkozy had been emphasizing before. But when French voters are asked what issues are most important in their eyes, they only place immigration in 8th position (36% say that fighting illegal immigration should be a top priority). The most important issue is clearly unemployment (73%). Far behind come education (56%), health (55%), wages and purchasing power (54%), the reduction of public debt (53%), the fight against job insecurity (52%), and crime (43%). While the issue of Europe/EU is conspicuously absent from that list, it is present through the problem of debt, which is the first priority in the eyes of voters on the right (68% against 65% for unemployment), and Europe is evident in the positioning of the main candidates. Neither of Sarkozy nor Hollande is willing to make bold proposals, however, for fear of antagonizing the segment of their constituency which voted "no" to the European constitution in 2005 (the more radical wings of their party and the two extremes), but they have used Europe during the election season.
Nicolas Sarkozy started the campaign by showcasing his proximity to German Chancellor Angela Merkel (from conservative party CDU), who agreed to endorse him and shockingly refused to receive candidate François Hollande as is customary (she saw both Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal in 2007, and European foreign leaders in general find a way to receive their counterpart's rivals in a formal or informal setting). Sarkozy has highlighted the power and importance of the Franco-German couple which had in effect been in the cockpit of the Eurozone crisis for the previous two years, in order to reap the electoral benefits of his brinkmanship (and so far successful) negotiations, even touting the virtues of the German economic model and the importance of European disciplines.
However, in January and February, Sarkozy started distancing himself from that argument, probably for fear of antagonizing the extreme-right constituency. There were also concerns about appearing excessively subservient to a foreign power at a time when France was losing its AAA rating from one credit ratings agency and commentators were stressing that the Franco-German couple was becoming increasingly unequal. As a result, plans were shelved to have Angela Merkel participate in a Sarkozy electoral meeting, and the President himself started to adopt a harder line on European issues so as to court the extreme right electorate. In a large electoral meeting in Villepinte (March 11), he demanded a harder EU line on unfair trade competition and threatened to pull France out of the free-circulation Schengen zone unless Brussels clamped down on illegal immigration. This very unpractical proposal (it is legally impossible to get out of Schengen without getting out of the EU, and France would have to hire thousands of customs agents and policemen) was meant to reconcile the Euroskeptics with the pro-Europeans of his party and also with his own record of successfully building up a more integrated EU. If Europe can be shown to protect France from unfair trade and immigration, then he was certainly right to side with Angela Merkel to save the Euro.
Sarkozy's attack on Schengen had another effect: it weakened one of his main arguments against François Hollande, namely, that Hollande was acting irresponsibly by asking for a renegotiation of the Fiscal Compact. The new EU treaty was agreed upon in December 2011 and signed by 25 out of 27 member states in early March 2012, and imposes new fiscal disciplines on countries to prevent the recurrence of future debt crises (and provide Germany with a quid pro quo to increase its solidarity with countries in difficulty). Hollande, who said he would ask for the renegotiation in order to add a component on growth as early as December, was indeed putting in question the voice of France. This partly explained Angela Merkel's antagonistic reaction. However, Hollande and his advisers suggested that what he was really after was additional measures to stimulate growth, without which disciplines would be grossly insufficient to get Europe out of the financial ditch. Hollande indicated that there were many different ways to do this – for example, by negotiating an additional protocol without changing the text of the treaty. And as time passed by, his position seemed more and more in line with other Europeans like Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti, economists and business people who fear the consequences of excessive austerity (this is also, incidentally, the position of the Obama administration), but more importantly the German Social-Democratic party SPD, without which Angela Merkel cannot get the Fiscal Compact ratified in the Bundestag. In other words, Hollande's gambit is turning out to be favorable both in electoral terms and for his leverage vis-à-vis the German Chancellor, should he be elected.
So Europe is a paradoxical issue in the French campaign, both absent from the day-to-day presidential campaign, and very much present as a background issue. And the alignment of President Sarkozy's UMP with Angela Merkel's CDU on the Fiscal Compact, mirrored by François Hollande's Parti Socialiste with Sigmar Gabiel SPD, marks another step, albeit limited, in the Europeanization of national politics. In this respect, the result of May 6 will undoubtedly have a profound impact on European leaders' ability to cope with the financial crisis. | <urn:uuid:2e0b26b3-2183-46d3-aa55-44d8293d6b99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2012/04/04-france-elections-vaisse?rssid=euro+crisis&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BrookingsRSS%2Ftopics%2Feurocrisis+%28Brookings+Topics+-+The+Euro+Crisis%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967021 | 4,542 | 1.65625 | 2 |
An artist transforms a cramped Washington Park tudor into a light-filled haven.
My friend Michael Lynch told me that when he found a house in Washington Park he wanted to buy, he let friends know that it really didn’t need any work, that he could move in as is. Incredulous, I had to ask: “Did anyone actually believe that?”
“A few people were taken in,” he said, laughing. “Of course, the next thing you know I had all the kitchen cabinets out in the backyard. It’s compulsive.”
Compulsive? An understatement. Lynch has to date dismantled and reconstructed six homes, including his first purchase in 1976, a two-story Wash Park place not far from where he is now. After making that one just right, he redid a house in Morrison, then found a warehouse on Main Street in Littleton (“…A real dump when I found it,” he says. “I should have stayed there.”). After creating a showpiece out of the warehouse, he moved to the Steven’s School building near the Botanic Gardens, then it was down to Columbine Valley in Littleton and finally, full circle, he’s back in Wash Park with a 1,300-square-foot Tudor.
Buying, remodeling, and selling homes would make sense if Lynch’s profession was that of contractor or real estate agent, or, hell, even house painter. However, the kind of painting he does requires brushes not much wider than a thumb and rather small tubes of paint. Of course, it could very well be the artist in Lynch that pushes him to continually recreate his surroundings. | <urn:uuid:01825e69-d0c0-4090-89a4-a5393dfab987> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.5280.com/print/49157 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982531 | 362 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Microsoft wants to make Android more expensive, Apple wants to make it less usable
An administrative judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued an initial determination that HTC is infringing on 2 Apple patents, which -- in a worst case scenario -- could result in an import ban of iPhone-competing HTC Android smartphones. HTC's stock has taken a hit since the ruling, obviously, but it's important to remember it's an initial ruling and a lot can change between now and any final decision, including an agreement between HTC and Apple, similar to HTC's existing agreement with Microsoft.
Florian Mueller from FOSS Patents doesn't think that's likely, however.
For Apple this is not just about money. They're not going to let HTC build fully functional smartphones and tablets in exchange for $10 or $20 per device unless HTC owns patents that Apple absolutely needs to license.
It's a fallacy to assume that Apple v. HTC is just the usual patent dispute between two large players, and therefore going to have the same kind of happy end. This one is different. From a shareholder value point of view, what Apple needs to achieve -- even if it costs a lot of time and money -- is as much of a technological gap as possible between its own products and the Android-based products offered by HTC and other vendors.
In other words, as Florian discussed in our World War Patents podcast, while Microsoft seems to want to make Android more expensive, Apple wants to make it less usable.
HTC meanwhile, could be fighting back using a company called S3 as a proxy. HTC's chairwoman is a major S3 shareholder, but S3 has to do what's best for S3 and that could end up being a licensing agreement with Apple that doesn't end up providing any cover for HTC.
I could imagine a situation in which Apple might agree on a partial cross-license that would grant Apple access to all of HTC's and S3's patents while HTC would get access to only some of Apple's patents: maybe just enough so that HTC can at least continue to sell Android-based products of some kind, but those products could be limited and there might be substantial degradations of the user experience.
Google, for their part, is continuing it's terrifying silence on all things patent related, including a remarkable non-answer by Larry Page during the latest financial results conference call. This probably means they're either playing their cards very close to their ninja vests, or they're just not concerned with how this might play out, including the unlikely possibility of HTC switching to Windows Phone exclusively, just to avoid any more patent-related headaches.
Check the link below for Florian's full rundown and his excellent "battlemap" visualization of the dispute. | <urn:uuid:993bd9fd-6379-470d-87c8-2d2466a49fb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imore.com/comment/225136 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97323 | 566 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Last mission to repair the Hubble telescope Hubble space telescope discoveries have enriched our understanding of the cosmos. In this special report, you will see facts about the Hubble space telescope, discoveries it has made and what the last mission's goals are.
For their own good
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
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Clean water, dirty waste
The desal plant has been dumping too much cleaning fluid into sewer lines.
By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer
Published March 1, 2008
[Skip O'Rourke | Times (2003)]
The $158-million Tampa Bay Water desalination plant in Apollo Beach, bottom of photo, uses membranes to filter the salt out of seawater taken from Tampa Bay and turn it into drinking water. In the background is the Big Bend Power Station and Tampa Bay.
Over the past four months, Tampa Bay Water's desalination plant has been hit with three notices of violations of its wastewater dumping permit by Hillsborough County officials.
The most recent notice went out this week. Tampa Bay Water officials say they're hard at work to make sure there isn't a fourth violation.
The $158-million plant in Apollo Beach uses membranes to filter the salt out of seawater taken from Tampa Bay and turn it into drinking water.
The problem is, the membranes have to be cleaned periodically. Then the used cleaning solution, full of chloride, sodium and sulfate, is dumped into the sewer line.
To make sure the sewer plant doesn't get overwhelmed, Hillsborough County put a limit on how much of that stuff can be flushed into its sewer line, and how fast.
But in August, November and January, the plant flushed waste down the line that exceeded the gallons-per-minute limits, county officials say. The first time it happened was Aug. 24 and 25. The second was for a month, Nov. 2 through Nov. 28. And the third time was Jan. 29, 30 and 31.
One of those violations, the one for November, also included a violation for failing to promptly notify Hillsborough officials of the discharge.
The amount of cleaning fluid waste wasn't enough to harm the county's sewer plant, said London Womack of the county's water resources services department. But it was more than the desal plant's permit allowed.
Although the county has threatened to fine the plant, so far it has not done so. Tampa Bay Water operations manager Chuck Carden said the utility's plant operator, American Water Pridesa, is working to fix the problem.
The system that flushes out the cleaning solution is one of the last manually operated systems in the desal plant, which after failing a crucial test in 2003 underwent a lengthy repair process. It finally reopened in January, more than four years late and costing $40-million more than expected.
Carden said all the violations occurred during the repairs, and he blamed operator error and a faulty flow meter for both the discharge problems and the failure to notify Hillsborough County. He said plans are being formulated to switch to an automated system that will be more reliable.
During the switchover, the plant will have to pour the used cleaning solution into tanker trucks and drive its waste to the sewer plant, he said.
The cleaning solution has caused Tampa Bay Water problems before. Four years ago, prior to the repairs, the plant's filters clogged so frequently they needed cleaning more often than expected and with a stronger solution.
When Tampa Bay Water changed and increased the cleaning solution for the membranes, Hillsborough County balked at allowing large quantities of the cleaning solution to be disposed of in its sewer system. So the company that was then operating the plant, Covanta, was forced to store 2-million gallons in tank trucks that remained parked around the site until they could be emptied. | <urn:uuid:d11b65fd-0006-4b30-a869-34a353c67632> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sptimes.com/2008/03/01/Hillsborough/Clean_water__dirty_wa.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957152 | 837 | 1.84375 | 2 |
In the absence of any other controls, relying parties for identity info would like to be handed as much user data as they can get. It can’t hurt to have a little extra, right? But as we pointed out in the UMA webinar a few weeks ago, when web apps think they’ve gotten something valuable out of us, sometimes they’re just mistaken. When a site wants too much info and makes us give it to them in a self-asserted fashion (oh, those asterisked fields!), we just…lie. In fact, you can tell the site doesn’t do anything really important with that info if you can lie and get away with it.
Case in point: The crap that fills the fields of 77% of domain name registrations. (The Register’s headline: Whois in charge? ICANN’t tell. Heh.)
This is where “attribute assurance” could come in, involving a federated identity system that arranges for the data to be supplied by trusted issuers in some fashion. Attribute assurance is akin to identity assurance (as discussed previously here), except that it’s about the quality of specific types of information and their binding to the individual in question. The world hasn’t yet come up with a generic way of handling such assurance, though it’s been a topic of serious discussion. The Tao of Attributes workshop was a great start.
In the domain name registration case, one of the big reasons why people don’t like to supply their real information is that it’s published far and wide — anyone can learn what your address is if you provide your real one. Hence the lying, at least in quite a lot of the cases. This is a real-world situation where needs for level of assurance (LOA) are in a tug-o’-war with needs for level of protection (LOP).
What’s LOP? In short, it’s the reciprocal of LOA. Whereas relying parties want to ensure that the data they’re getting is good when they get it, data subjects and their identity providers want to ensure that the data will be protected and treated with respect when it gets there.
(You can read more about LOP, and some of the elements that need to be lined up to solve it in an Internet-scale way, in The Open Identity Trust Framework (OITF) Model, a white paper I was honored to co-author along with Tony Nadalin, Drummond Reed, Don Thibeau, and our illustrious managing editor Mary Rundle. The proposed model suggests some ways to organize the Pushmi-pullyu nature of federated identity partnerships to raise the quality, and possibly tamp down the quantity, of identity attributes floating around.)Tags: assurance, identity, LOA, LOP, OITF, trust framework
Leave a Reply | <urn:uuid:1d710766-f898-40fc-a822-12b4635384dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.xmlgrrl.com/blog/2010/03/20/the-pushmi-pullyu-problem-of-assurance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946175 | 606 | 1.601563 | 2 |
[erlang-questions] Erlang IDE
Sun Oct 21 22:59:33 CEST 2012
It would seem to me that there is much in erlang that would lend itself
to a very extensible IDE and yet there doesn't seem to be such a beast.
I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts on why this hasn't been done. I
understand that many folks like emacs and there is some integration with
it but it seems that something better could be done ...
erlang has attributes that remind me of Smalltalk and one of the things
I liked about Smalltalk was the integration of the development
environment with the runtime environment. Obviously erlang isn't
Smalltalk but it should lend itself well to a self encapsulated IDE.
More information about the erlang-questions | <urn:uuid:cecf57d1-df8c-46e9-affd-c30c15372cec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2012-October/069963.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968821 | 169 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
- New Northern Arapaho Business Council resolves to fix tribe’s poor financial management
- Pollutants detected in water wells in Sublette County’s gas fields
- Wyoming may have missed the Uranium boom
- New lead in the disappearance of Amy Wroe Bechtel
- Wyoming Judicial Branch says there’s nothing left to cut.
On Air Staff and WPM Interns
Tue April 17, 2012
Maxfield warns of Business identity theft
Wyoming Secretary of State Max Maxfield is joining a nationwide effort to warn business owners about what is known as business identity theft.
Maxfield says thieves have been able to take on the identity of a business by taking over businesses that are either recently dissolved or about to be dissolved. He says thieves get the company reinstated and then change key information so that they have control of the business.
“Charging huge accounts to that business and basically causing financial ruins to the owners of the businesses.”
Maxfield says business owners should regularly review their records on-line and report anything that is incorrect or suspicious. He says people can get more information through the website www.BusinessIDTheft.org.
“And this website will help you understand just exactly what identity theft is when it comes to businesses. And how to avoid being duped by the thief’s that are taking over and high jacking businesses.
Maxfield notes that recently some Wyoming business owners were tricked into paying fees for filing unnecessary documents. He says if business owners notice anything unusual with their paperwork or have other concerns, they should contact his office immediately. | <urn:uuid:94902b61-6833-4ccf-9266-4f5f05ce391c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wyomingpublicradio.net/post/maxfield-warns-business-identity-theft | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967006 | 336 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) September 26, 2012
Storypanda's first iOS app, Storypanda Books, is now out of beta and ready to help kids read, create and share their very own interactive stories. The Silicon Valley backed startup is innovating in the kids market by focussing on helping kids become content creators not just consumers. Reading interactive stories on Storypanda Books helps stimulate creativity and social play together as a family.
In its first month of beta, Storypanda Books helped over 2000 kids and parents create over 10,000 stories. With new social sharing features parents can now post their kid's creation on their social channels and to the web so even family members and friends who don't have an iPad can still enjoy the little author's creation. The top publishers are taking notice and now signing up their authors to release their titles through Storypanda for an added interactive element to classic stories we've all come to know and love. The high quality content, added creative elements and social sharing became key for publishers looking to innovative in digital. For parents, Storypanda's offering becomes a great answer to the question of how technology can help kids as they begin to read and learn about the world around themselves.
This unique approach to publishing comes from the minds of James Chutter and Pavel Bains, two interactive media veterans who saw a way to bring their experience in gaming and entertainment to help a lagging publishing industry. "When we had kids we saw that they expected all content to be interactive. They wanted to create with their stories not just sit there and be entertained," says Storypanda's CEO Bains.
"We spent our careers trying to come up with hit content when we worked for Disney, MTV and ABC, but now we focus on creating technology tools for kids to create with proven hit content from the biggest publishers in the world," adds Chutter, Storypanda's Chief Creative Officer.
Storypanda is funded by Silicon Valley’s 500 Startups and a slew of angel investors with previous digital media successes from SAY Media, Adobe, and WPP.
With new stories being added to the Storypanda Books every couple of weeks kids and parents will always have a new book to read, create and share together. Storypanda Books can be downloaded from iTunes or by going to http://get.storypanda.com.
Storypanda is a kids interactive media company that creates digital tools to turn kids from content consumers into content creators. The team comes from an extensive background in video game development and digital media; having worked for companies like Nintendo, Disney, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Activision and more. http://www.storypanda.com | <urn:uuid:e837ef19-0005-4854-807e-a20acda36fd1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prweb.com/releases/storypandabooks/september262012/prweb9935021.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946701 | 553 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Participants in a dance class stretch before Danyol Jaye puts them through… (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles…)
Janet Jackson's fast-tempo track "If" blared over speakers as a handful of sweaty dancers moved in unison, their faces focused as they strained their legs to mimic the intricate moves of their instructor. Then the music stopped.
"You feeling the flexibility? You feeling the stretching? You want to feel it here," the instructor said, standing in front of a massive mirror, motioning toward her upper thigh -- her leg extended perfectly straight in front of her.
Inside the brightly lighted theater that doubles as a studio in the arts district, these dancers are mostly teenagers. They could be out running the streets or hanging in malls, but instead they turn to dance or to another of the more than a dozen classes offered by Art Share Los Angeles.
The classes, which take place after school in downtown, don't just offer kids a creative outlet or a place to kill time -- they provide the often at-risk teens a chance to flourish in an environment they're not accustomed to.
"We have a lot of [success] stories here," said Tracy Kelly, executive director of Art Share L.A., founded in 1997. "They get into art and something plugs in. People have no idea how art can change a life. It's incredible."
Kelly came to Art Share around 1999 and eventually became its program manager and ultimately executive director. Under her watch the center became the safe haven that it is today by crafting programs that cater to teens and young adults and to their families, while pushing for community involvement, which she says is critical.
Although Art Share offers a variety of programs, its BLAST (Building Language and Art Skills Together) initiative is its foundation. Through the program, teens as young as 13 can enroll in the classes, which are offered in six-month sessions -- the next one begins in April.
Enrique Lopez Garcia, 18, started taking classes, including hip-hop, jazz and theater, two years ago after seeing a group of students perform at his high school. He said the classes provided an outlet that high school couldn't offer.
"I like the whole family feel. You feel welcomed here, even if you are a beginner," said the Boyle Heights High School student. "You can be yourself here. In high school it's so structured, and to the textbook. I have more freedom here, more creativity. I have different ways of expressing myself."
Kelly said the program is unique because it infuses language instruction with classes to help students improve their vocabulary and grammar, and at the same time it fosters self-expression and creativity, which they can utilize in the classroom.
Although the program is free for students, the operating costs weigh heavily over Kelly's head.
"It takes $162,000 to operate two six-month sessions," she said. But she forgot about the price tag or the thought of finding sponsors when one of her students walked into the gallery and embraced her.
"These are the moments I realize this is what I'm supposed to be doing," Kelly said, "no matter how hard it gets. We make it happen with what we have."
Kelly said funds come from donations from the public; fundraisers, including gallery sales and performances that typically showcase the students; and sponsors.
An extra push
Students who go through the program get an extra push from Kelly, who checks grades and homework -- she's even made classroom visits to underperforming students. She said 92% of the students who come through the program graduate. And she wants to improve that.
Kelly said she realized early on that at-risk kids are often just misguided. She told a story of one of her first students, who belonged to a gang and hated African Americans. After she continuously challenged his views, he made a short film addressing racism in which he admitted he didn't actually hate any race, he just wanted to blend into his environment.
"Kids are invisible these days. They have to be invisible to make it through the day," Kelly said. "When they come here, they're not invisible."
Abel Castillo said he noticed a vast academic improvement when he started attending Art Share classes.
The 15-year-old from Boyle Heights said he started coming sporadically with friends to take a few salsa lessons and enjoyed the experience. A year later, he continues to take classes, including graffiti, photography and poetry. Good grades aside -- Kelly had to make one of those infamous classroom trips to visit the 10th-grader -- he's found a boost of confidence.
"I've learned a lot here," Castillo said. "One thing is . . . I have talent. Before, I didn't think I was capable of anything."
Danyol Jaye's face was aglow as he walked around the 30,000-square-foot converted warehouse in the downtown arts district that Art Share calls home. In addition to the theater/studio, the two-story facility also houses gallery space, a computer lab, art studio, classrooms and residential lofts for low-income artists.
Like most of the young people who come through the door, Jaye, 24, says he arrived as a 17-year-old seeking refuge through music but chose to make his stay a little more permanent. After taking classes as a teenager, he began to volunteer, then accepted a part-time position, which became full-time. He also teaches an intermediate and advanced jazz dance class, resides in one of the lofts and performs regularly at program fundraisers.
Jaye, who doubles as the administrative assistant and event coordinator, said that above all, Art Share inspires hope that can't be found in tough neighborhoods.
"I grew up in the ghetto. But when I see kids that are 15 and 16, I'm seeing them hugging -- you don't see that in the hood," Jaye said. "The hope that gets birthed here is just amazing. It's really amazing to see, just the idea of art changing their lives. I'm thankful they have a place like this." | <urn:uuid:0e6c5250-a167-437a-b01f-193c5895f219> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/09/entertainment/la-et-art-share9-2010jan09 | 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 | 0.978996 | 1,270 | 1.835938 | 2 |
In her book "They came to Baghdad," Agatha Christie tells of senior officials who convene in Baghdad for an important international summit (only to find their deaths). Christie teases her readers but finishes with a sort of happy end. In a rare coincidence, the representatives of the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany) who came to Baghdad last week for nuclear talks with Iran also faced a string of unpleasant surprises (though their lives were not at risk). The Iranians teased their negotiation partners, but unlike the book, this was no surprise.
While the talks were underway, inspectors discovered traces of uranium enriched to 27 percent at Iran's Fordo nuclear facility (while the West was talking to Iran about halting enrichment to 20% and removing all material enriched to 20% from Iran). It also emerged that Iran had doubled its amount of enriched uranium over the course of the last three months alone (from 73.7 kg to 145 kg [162 - 319 lbs]).
The Institute for Science and International Security, which describes itself as an independent institution dedicated to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, has concluded that Iran now has enough enriched uranium for the future production of five nuclear bombs.
At this point it is unclear whether the Iranian nuclear story will have a happy ending — will the sanctions and diplomacy, the West's preferred route, prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon? In Baghdad, as in the previous round of talks in Istanbul, the Iranians adhered to a transparent tactic: driving a wedge between the other party's delegates and cementing the concept of reciprocity. In other words, for every concession they would make, the West would roll back some of the sanctions.
The representatives of the West did not back down. It now appears that Tehran is worried above all else about a possible Israeli, or perhaps American, military attack, as the November U.S. presidential elections loom. Therefore, decision makers in Iran are engaged in a heated debate over what the best course of action would be to avert a military attack: more evasive and deceptive tactics or turning up the threats, including threats of terror attacks against Israel and the U.S.'s Arab allies, such as Saudi Arabia and the oil-rich emirates.
For its part, the Obama administration has decided not to confront the dilemmas surrounding a military strike, whether it is led by Israel or the U.S. As the president's National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said, the administration believes it shares Israel's objective of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. But the question remains, according to Donilon, whether a military strike would be the most effective way to achieve this objective.
Washington appears to be sincere when it declares it will not tolerate a nuclear Iran. To underscore the fact that the U.S. stance did not differ from Jerusalem's, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dispatched her deputy, Undersecretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman (who also served as the head of the U.S. delegation to the Baghdad talks), to Israel over the weekend.
But the U.S.'s strategy has elicited increasing criticism. Jamie Fly, a former top official in the National Security Council under President George W. Bush and Matthew Kroenig, who until recently served as a special adviser to the Obama administration — both experts on foreign policy and national security — recently penned a Washington Post op-ed in which they argued, "There is little reason to believe that Iran is serious about doing anything other than using the coming weeks [during the talks] to enrich more uranium and make progress toward a nuclear weapon." They believe the U.S. must clearly lay out its demands and specify what failure to comply would entail.
That same week, Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Mark Dubowitz, an executive director of the foundation and head of its Iran Energy Project, argued that while the sanctions may have brought Iran to the negotiating table, it would be a mistake to conclude that the West should reward Tehran.
"Given how advanced Iran’s nuclear program is, the West’s approach seems wildly underwhelming," they write. "As the tactician Anthony Cordesman recently noted, 'The threat Iran’s nuclear efforts pose [is] not simply a matter of its present ability to enrich uranium to 20 percent ... [The regime] can pursue nuclear weapons development through a range of compartmented and easily concealable programs without a formal weapons program, and even if it suspends enrichment activity."
The next chapter will begin three weeks from now in Moscow. The happy ending still seems far off, especially considering Iran's increasing confidence that the gun the West is reluctantly pointing at it has no bullets. | <urn:uuid:f73afe70-0b55-4d6c-be11-8833a4f994a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=1963 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962743 | 975 | 1.734375 | 2 |
After a long hiatus, the European Commission is once again fining Microsoft. This time, a €561 million penalty was imposed on the software giant for an alleged violation of a prior agreement with the regulators, which required that Windows users be offered an explicit choice between Microsoft Internet Explorer and alternative Web browsers.
Since 2009 when the agreement was made, Explorer’s market share has fallen below 30 percent. “Had no idea they were still making a browser,” an anonymous Twitter denizen joked after this week’s decision had been taken. Some observers thus see the Commission’s decision as a strategic move in its ongoing negotiations with Google, demonstrating that EU competition regulators still have teeth.
Whatever the regulators’ motives, the decision to penalize Microsoft with a hefty fine for what the company claims is a technical glitch is disturbing on several levels. Most fundamentally, the fact that market share of Explorer has been on decline for years is illustrative of the fact that traditional approaches to competition policy do not work well in the 21st century—particularly not in the area of software and information and communication technologies. Explorer is no longer seen as a leading product by consumers, who are switching away from it—regardless of whether they are offered an explicit “choice screen” as required by the European Commission.
“Penalizing Microsoft with a hefty fine is disturbing on several levels.”
Markets for information and communication technologies, including software and online platforms, have become incredibly dynamic—more so than any other industry in human history. The innovation cycle in this area is so rapid that companies are able to sustain their technological lead for ever-shorter periods of time—making lock-in with a particular technology standard an increasingly irrelevant problem.
Furthermore, the entry into the software and online business is practically costless—certainly in comparison with industries like energy or transport, which require enormous fixed costs and which have therefore been the traditional focus of competition policy.
Software and Internet giants have come and gone. These days, very few young people have vivid recollections of Word Perfect or Netscape Navigator—once the dominant word processor and web browser, respectively—or sites like Geocities or Altavista. It follows that static measures of market power, used by European regulators, are misleading and will underrate the actual degree of competition existing in the market. Worse yet, policy interventions in this dynamic economic environment are likely to backfire.
In a paper published in 2008, during the heyday of the European Commission’s crusade against Microsoft, regulatory economists Bob Hahn and Peter Passell wrote that these cases were, “at best, a way to keep lawyers well remunerated and, more likely, a significant barrier to productive change.”
One wonders whether the most recent decision by the Commission means that European regulators are planning to ‘get tough’ again on seemingly dominant firms in the area of information and communication technologies. If so, Europeans should worry. Scholars see policy uncertainty as a major obstacle on the way to economic recovery. Note that, although European competition law is very detailed, no transparent criteria have been offered to set the actual amount of the fine. If more companies in Europe risk finding themselves in violation of competition statutes and facing unspecified penalties, they will almost certainly consider moving their business elsewhere.
Using tools of competition policy to penalize technological leaders during—or even after—the brief periods when they enjoy market leadership damages the emergence and diffusion of new technologies on the continent. Competition policy thus amplifies the effect of Europe’s privacy and hate speech laws, which are much stricter than on the other side of the Atlantic.
In 2000, European leaders promised to turn the continent into “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world.” What might have sounded once like an ambitious policy goal sounds today like a bad joke. But it does not have to be—the continent’s troubles are completely self-inflicted. But if European policymakers decide to continue in their present course, there is even less hope that a new Microsoft will be started in a garage in Munich or Lyon. | <urn:uuid:bcf57e56-61d0-46fc-b973-80e35ec01ea2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-eus-microsoft-fine-self-defeating | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949481 | 846 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Art and About in February 2013
Arts & Entertainment
by James Gaddy, 01/15/2013
- more in arts & entertainment/
- events in nyc/
What's old is cool again this month in New York City, as museums look to the past for clues to the present. But not too far back: on February 13, the New Museum debuts NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, a show that will reconstruct installations and exhibitions from that seminal year in culture—including Nari Ward's Amazing Grace, which was originally built in an abandoned Harlem fire station—alongside works from authors who were influential at the time. Other artists whose work will be constructed again include Félix González-Torres and Jason Rhoades, with those whose connections to the City find common ground in 1993 as well, such as Gabriel Orozco, Julia Scher, Elizabeth Peyton, Paul McCarthy, Larry Clark, Wolfgang Tillmans and Rudolf Stingel.
"Isla en la Isla (Island within an Island)" (1993), by Gabriel Orozco, on view in "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star." Courtesy, the artist/Marian Goodman Gallery
The Metropolitan Museum of Art goes back in time a little bit further—to the mid-1860s through the mid-1880s, in fact, with its anticipated show Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, opening on February 26. Approximately 80 figure paintings from Impressionist masters including Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Stéphane Mallarmé—and their contemporaries—will highlight how fashion and art were interwoven by the avant-garde during the rise of the department store, ready-to-wear clothing and fashion magazines in Paris.
"Lady with Fans (Portrait of Nina de Callias)" (1873), by Édouard Manet, on view in "Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity." Courtesy, Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Not to be outdone, The Frick Collection goes back more than 500 years to present seven works by Piero della Francesca, one of the founders of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th century and pioneer of linear perspective and geometric construction. The show, which opens on February 12, will include six panels from the Sant'Agostino altarpiece as well as the artist's Virgin and Child Enthroned with Attendant Angels, which has been shown in New York City only once in the past 60 years.
The Whitney's retrospective of Jay DeFeo, best known for her nearly one-ton painting The Rose, will highlight the artist's early career as part of the 1950s Beat movement in San Francisco, as well as the intense, physical process used to create more than 130 objects across collage, painting, drawing, sculpture, photographs and jewelry. It opens on February 28. Through February 23, Gering & López Gallery will show Symphony, a collection of Joan Snyder's colorful works on paper from 1968 through 1976 along with new paintings—all influenced by music in both concept and execution.
"Dove One" (1989), by Jay DeFeo. © The Jay DeFeo Trust/Artists Rights Society, New York. Photo: Ben Blackwell
Some of the brightest colors this month, however, will be on display at two shows at the Brooklyn Museum. Opening on February 8 on the fifth floor is Gravity and Grace, the first New York museum solo exhibition of Ghana-born artist El Anatsui, which will features more than 30 works in metal and wood—including 12 stunning monumental wall and floor sculptures, the wall pieces made with bottle caps from a distillery in Nsukka, Nigeria. Meanwhile, on the first floor, the second season of the institution's Raw/Cooked series of emerging Brooklyn artists includes Marela Zacarias' Supple Beat, in which large-scale pieces almost ascend the walls of the museum's first-floor lobby and Great Hall, the museum's Williamsburg Murals serving as inspiration (opening on February 1).
"Work" (1970), by Nasaka Senkichirō and Yoshihara Michio, on view in "Gutai: Splendid Playground." Installation view: Gutai Group Exhibition, Midori Pavilion, Expo ’70, Osaka
"Work in Progress, 2011" (2012), by Marela Zacarias, on view in "Raw/Cooked". Courtesy, The Brooklyn Museum
Two shows opening at the Guggenheim this month spotlight artists from Asia. On February 15, Gutai: Splendid Playground, the first-ever US museum retrospective devoted to the influential postwar Japanese artistic collective and movement, will explore the group's experiments with such media as painting, film, performance and interactive art with approximately 120 objects by 25 artists. One week later, the institution will open No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia, the first exhibition of the five-year Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, which will focus on artists and cultural traditions from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. Subsequent aspects of the program will focus on Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa.
"Counter Acts" (2004), by Poklong Anading, on view in "No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia". Courtesy, the artist/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
But elsewhere, it's not so much geography as topography that's underscored. For French artist Cyprien Gaillard's first solo exhibition in New York, The Crystal World, MoMA PS1 collected more than 80 works, including five major cinematic pieces, that turn otherwise banal images of crumbling high-rises, demolition practices and public monuments into fascinating works. Opening on February 1 at Marian Goodman Gallery, renowned British artist Tacita Dean's Fatigues—part of the Documenta (13) art exhibition last summer—consists of six blackboard panels with renderings of Afghanistan's mountainous landscape in chalk.
And starting on February 7 at Metro Pictures, Trevor Paglen—known for his photographs of so-called "black sites" and beautiful, often blurry limit-telephotography snapshots of classified military bases—will exhibit some of his newest images. The show follows his recent project The Last Pictures, in which he helped produce a disc with 100 photographs and launched it into outer space—where it's designed to last billions of years—attached to a communications satellite.
Outsider Art Fair
Through February 3
The biggest annual event in the field of outsider, self-taught and folk art (think Henry Darger or George Widener) includes some of the most diverse collection of galleries you're likely to find all year—from Oakland's Creative Growth Art Center, which focuses on creative pursuits for those with physical, mental and developmental disabilities, to Gilley's Gallery, a Louisiana space devoted to local artwork from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Diana Cooper: My Eye Travels
Through February 9
Using photographs and found materials such as corrugated plastic, felt strips and Astroturf, Cooper's works are sometimes destabilizing—empty rows of seats that stretch toward infinity, or a Jetway surrounded by construction barriers—but the underlying wry humor suggests a much more playful attitude than at first glance.
Andrea Mary Marshall: Gia Condo
Allegra LaViola Gallery
Through February 16
Drawing inspiration from the renderings of the Mona Lisa by the likes of Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol, Andrea Mary Marshall takes on the legendary piece through a series of self-portraits—including 13 paintings, six photographs, a short film and stills.
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors
Opening on February 1
The Icelandic artist's nine-channel video installation is based on a musical performance that took place in upstate New York in which Kjartansson summoned a group of close friends (who happened to be some of the most talented musicians from Reykjavik) to perform ABBA's final album, all in one take.
Erik Wysocan: Paris Spleen
Laurel Gitlen Gallery
Through February 17
For the first exhibition at Laurel Gitlen Gallery's new Lower East Side space, Erik Wysocan's black paintings make use of a material created for the aerospace industry, quite possibly the darkest man-made material produced. The works seem to absorb the light in the room. Another display includes counterfeit US dollars, euros and drachmas under infrared light, which is used to help classify phony money. | <urn:uuid:efd1794a-999c-4c55-baa5-854ad8132030> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nycgo.com/articles/february-art-calendar-2013 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934771 | 1,820 | 1.625 | 2 |
More than two years after he filed an uncontested petition for divorce, attorneys for the gay Dallas resident known as “J.B.” have appealed his case to the Texas Supreme Court.
J.B. and his husband, H.B., were married in 2006 in Massachusetts before moving to Dallas. After they filed for a divorce in Dallas County in January 2009, Democratic District Judge Tena Callahan ruled in October 2009 that she had jurisdiction to hear the case, calling Texas’ bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.
Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott promptly intervened and appealed to the 5th District court, which overturned Callahan’s decision.
On Feb. 17, attorneys at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld, which represents J.B., filed a Petition for Review of the 5th District’s ruling by the Texas Supreme Court.
“This Court should grant review because this case involves questions of great importance to Texas state law, which likely will recur with increasing frequency until this Court provides guidance,” the attorneys wrote in their Petition for Review. “Over 28% of the U.S. population lives in a jurisdiction where same-sex marriage or its equivalent is permitted. Texas is one of the nation’s fastest growing states—attracting thousands upon thousands of migrants each year, including couples from those states that permit same-sex marriage. Thus, there is an increasing likelihood that same-sex couples legally married in another state will move to Texas and eventually seek divorce in Texas. Whether Family Code section 6.204 prevents these same-sex couples who were legally married in another state from obtaining a divorce in Texas, and whether this violates the U.S. Constitution, are questions important to the state’s jurisprudence, and should be, but have not yet been, resolved by this Court.”
To read the full petition for review, go here. | <urn:uuid:b6be9f43-a327-4b91-bbed-e4214e4e6364> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dallasvoice.com/tag/akin-gump-strauss-hauer-and-feld | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968781 | 397 | 1.554688 | 2 |
By Jonny Hogg and Richard Lough
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Congo said on Sunday it would not negotiate with M23 rebels in the east until they pulled out of the city of Goma, but a rebel spokesman said Kinshasa was in no position to set conditions on peace talks.
Congolese President Joseph Kabila met with M23 for the first time on Saturday after an urgent summit in Uganda where regional leaders gave M23 two days to leave Goma, which the rebels seized six days ago after U.N.-backed government troops melted away.
Eight months into a rebellion that U.N. experts say is backed by neighboring Rwanda, the rebels have so far shown no sign of quitting the lakeside city of one million people.
The rebels say they plan to march on other cities in the east, and then strike out across the country to the capital Kinshasa, across 1,000 miles of dense jungle with few roads, a daunting feat achieved 15 years ago by Kabila's father.
Amani Kabasha, a spokesman for M23's political arm, welcomed the meeting with Kabila but questioned the government's resolve to end a crisis that risks engulfing the region.
"Why put conditions on talks? You pose conditions when you are in a position of strength. Is the government really in such a position?" Kabasha told Reuters in Goma, which sits on the north shore of Lake Kivu at Congo's eastern border with Rwanda.
Vianney Kazarama, the rebels' military spokesman, said government forces that had been reinforcing along the shores of the lake were now deploying in hills around the rebel held town of Sake and government-held Minova, both Goma's west.
A U.N. source in Minova said government soldiers had gone on a looting spree for a second straight night there. The town was calm on Sunday but gunshots rang out overnight, the source said.
"What is real is that the morale of the troops is very low. They've lost hope in the commanders," the U.N. source said.
The Congolese army has vowed to launch counter-offensives and win back lost territory. The rebels have warned the government against embarking on a "new military adventure".
So far, the unruly and poorly-led army has been little match for the rebels, despite assistance from a U.N. peacekeeping mission that deployed attack helicopters to support the government before Goma fell.
Rebel leaders share ethnic ties with the Tutsi leadership of Rwanda, a small but militarily capable neighbor that intervened often in eastern Congo in the 18 years since Hutu perpetrators of Rwanda's genocide took shelter there. Rwanda has repeatedly denied Congolese and U.N. accusations it is behind M23.
Saturday's Kampala summit called on the rebels to abandon their aim of toppling the government and proposed that government troops be redeployed inside Goma.
The rebels have not explicitly rejected or accepted the proposals. They are, however, unlikely to cede control of the city or accept government soldiers inside it.
Regional and international leaders are trying to halt the latest bout of violence in eastern Congo, where millions have died of hunger and disease in nearly two decades of fighting fuelled by local and regional politics, ethnic rifts and competition for reserves of gold, tin and coltan.
"Negotiations will start after the (M23) withdrawal from Goma," Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende said.
Kabila was still in the Ugandan capital on Sunday morning but was expected to return to Kinshasa later in the day or on Monday, two Congo government sources said. Kabila's communications chief Andre Ngwej said he did not believe official talks would start in the next few days.
While Kabila's army is on the back foot, analysts are skeptical the rebels can make good on their threat to march on Kinshasa without major support from foreign backers.
The regional leaders' plan proposed deploying a joint force at Goma airport comprising of a company of neutral African troops, a company of the Congolese army (FARDC) and a company of the M23.
In a statement, the Kinshasa government said Tanzania would take command of the neutral force and that South Africa had offered "substantial" logistical and financial contributions towards it. The Kampala plan did not say what the consequences would be if the rebels did not comply.
(Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by James Macharia and Peter Graff) | <urn:uuid:35c73c0e-ff08-48e4-bfdc-7b0eea08b666> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wtbx.com/news/articles/2012/nov/19/rwanda-accuses-congo-of-shelling-border-town/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965129 | 948 | 1.507813 | 2 |
CNN announced that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will debate on the network next week, February 21st. This does alter the likelihood that Clinton could pull out of the MSNBC debate with another debate in the offing so soon. But I still believe she won’t; that it would hurt her more than help her. Given the tightness of the race betweem the two she needs the publicity that a debate would generate.
CNN, Univision Communications Inc. and the Texas Democratic Party in conjunction with the Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation will host a Democratic presidential primary debate on Thursday, Feb. 21. Both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama have accepted invitations to the debate. The program will air live from the LBJ Auditorium at the University of Texas in Austin on CNN and on CNN International from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (ET)/7p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (CT) and will air in Spanish on the Univision Network beginning at 11:30 p.m. (ET)/10:30 p.m. (CT). It will also stream live on CNN.com and will later be available on demand on both on Univision.com and CNN.com. It will also re-air on CNN and CNN en Español.
The debate will include questions from both CNN and Univision journalists and will be moderated by a CNN anchor.
This debate is part of both CNN’s and Univision’s extensive and innovative coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign. This follows two historic, first-ever televised presidential forums focused on the issues central to Hispanic voters and broadcast in Spanish on Univision, reaching millions of viewers across the country. It is the ninth presidential primary debate sponsored by CNN this cycle. CNN’s debates in 2007 and 2008 have been among the most-watched in cable news history.
Texas, as the second most populous state in the nation, is ideally suited as the location for a CNN/Univision partnering. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly 25 percent of Texas’ eligible voters, who will go to the polls on Tuesday, March 4, are Hispanic. | <urn:uuid:2263cfc4-aaf7-4029-9854-30ca7c374878> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://insidecable.blogsome.com/2008/02/11/clinton-and-obama-to-debate-on-cnn/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957707 | 452 | 1.625 | 2 |
Alabama Income you DO NOT Report
Do not include the below amounts when deciding if you must file a return for Alabama.
- United States Retirement System benefits.
- State of Alabama Teachers’ Retirement System benefits.
- State of Alabama Employees’ Retirement System benefits.
- State of Alabama Judicial Retirement System benefits.
- Military retirement pay.
- Tennessee Valley Authority Pension System benefits.
- United States Government Retirement Fund benefits.
- Payments from a “Defined Benefit Retirement Plan” in accordance with IRC 414(j). (Contact your retirement plan administrator to determine if your plan qualifies.)
- Federal Railroad Retirement benefits.
- Federal Social Security benefits.
- State income tax refunds.
- Unemployment compensation.
- Welfare benefits.
- Disability retirement payments (and other benefits) paid by the Veteran’s Administration.
- Workman’s compensation benefits, insurance damages, etc., for injury or sickness.
- Child support.
- Gifts, money, or other property you inherit or that was willed to you.
- Dividends on veteran’s life insurance.
- Life insurance proceeds received because of a person’s death.
- Interest on obligations of the State of Alabama or any county, city, or municipality of Alabama.
- Interest on obligations of the United States or any of its possessions.
- Amounts you received from insurance because you lost the use of your home due to fire or other casualty to the extent the amounts were more than the cost of your normal expenses while living in your home. (You must report as income reimbursements for normal living expenses.)
- Military allowances paid to active duty military, National Guard, and active reserves for quarters, subsistence, uniforms, and travel.
- Subsistence allowance received by law enforcement and corrections officers of the State of Alabama.
- All retirement compensation received by an eligible fire fighter or a designated beneficiary from any Alabama firefighting agency.
- All retirement compensation received by an eligible peace officer or a designated beneficiary from any Alabama police retirement system.
- Death benefits received by a designated beneficiary of a peace officer or fireman killed in the line of duty.
- Income earned while serving as a foreign missionary after first serving 24 months as a missionary in a foreign country.
- Compensation received from the United States for active service as a member of the Armed Forces in a combat zone designated by the President of the United States.
- An amount up to $25,000 received as severance, unemployment compensation or termination pay, or as income from a supplemental income plan, or both, by an employee who, as a result of administrative downsizing, is terminated, laid-off, fired, or displaced from his or her employment, shall be exempt from state income tax. If the exempt severance pay is included in your state wages, contact your employer for a corrected W-2.
- Beginning January 1, 1998, all benefits received from Alabama Prepaid Tuition Contracts (PACT).
- Alabama 529 savings plan.
- Income received from the Department of Defense as a result of a member of the military killed in action in a designated combat zone.
- Any income earned by the spouse in the year of death of a member of the Military who has been killed in action in a designated combat zone.
For more information see Alabama 2012 Form 40 Booklet or click here. | <urn:uuid:4840ad11-526d-4856-9879-54eb39238ecc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taxslayer.com/support/719/Alabama-Income-you-DO-NOT-Report?language=1&page=1&q=unemployment%20compensation | 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 | 0.944187 | 700 | 1.5625 | 2 |
PARSIPPANY, N.J., Dec. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare today announced it is teaming up with Misty May-Treanor, three-time Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball, in a campaign to knock out the myths about cold sores. According to a new survey, the majority of Americans (63 percent) cannot correctly distinguish between cold sore myths and facts, and with cold and flu season approaching and cold sore triggers all around, it's more important than ever to know how to fight cold sores fast.
The survey, conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Abreva®, also revealed that nearly 7 in 10 (68 percent) Americans value faster healing time over lowest price when purchasing a medication. Abreva® is clinically proven to heal cold sores fast and is the number one over-the-counter cold sore treatment recommended by pharmacists.
"I've gotten cold sores for as long as I can remember and they always seem to pop up at the worst possible time. And for me, that was right in the middle of the 2012 London Games," says Misty May-Treanor, professional beach volleyball player and three-time Olympic gold medalist. "I have been using Abreva® for years, and I stick with it because it heals my cold sores fast. When I get a cold sore, I don't tough it out, I knock it out with Abreva®."
The survey revealed over half of respondents (52 percent) are unaware that cold sores go through multiple stages of development before beginning to heal, and one in two did not realize that if left untreated, cold sores can take up to two weeks to heal. Abreva® heals cold sores much like a prescription would but without the hassle. It penetrates deep to the root of a cold sore and helps block the spread of the virus to healthy cells.
"Other 'look-alike' cold sore treatments claim to heal cold sores as fast as Abreva® and may even imitate the packaging, but Abreva® is the only over-the-counter medication approved by the FDA that is proven to shorten healing time and duration of a cold sore," said Pam Marquess, Pharm.D, pharmacist, pharmacy chain owner and GSK spokesperson. "We're heading into prime cold sore season, with triggers like cold winter weather, cold/flu season and even stress of the upcoming holidays upon us. So if you're one of the 80 million Americans who suffer from cold sores, be prepared to knock out your cold sores fast with Abreva®."
Abreva® is available at retailers nationwide and comes with a risk free guarantee. If you aren't completely satisfied with Abreva® for any reason, save your receipt and remaining product, and call 1-877-709-3539 to get your money back. For more information about Abreva®, please visit www.Abreva.com.
About Cold Sores
A cold sore is a blister that forms on or around the lips and is usually caused by the Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-1). HSV-1 usually affects the lips or mouth but can spread to the eyes or genitals. Most cold sore sufferers aren't exactly sure when they first encountered the virus because HSV-1 is usually contracted early in childhood. While it's likely that 90 percent of adults have been infected by the cold sore virus, not everyone gets cold sore outbreaks. Actually, only 20 percent to 40 percent of people will experience cold sores.
Abreva is the only FDA-approved over-the-counter product to speed the healing of cold sores. Abreva contains 10 percent docosanol.
About GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare is one of the world's largest over-the-counter consumer healthcare products companies. Its well-known brands include Nicorette® and NicoDerm® CQ, the leading smoking cessation products; alli, the only FDA-OTC weight loss aid; as well as medicine cabinet staples, Aquafresh®, Sensodyne®, Tums®, and Breathe Right®, all of which are trademarks owned by and/or licensed to GlaxoSmithKline Group of Companies.
GlaxoSmithKline one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer. For company information visit: GSK.com.
Misty May-Treanor and Pam Marquess are paid spokespeople for Abreva® but their opinions are their own. | <urn:uuid:96f75656-26b5-4af2-b550-998fbbe4803f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biospace.com/news_print.aspx?NewsEntityId=281643 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942661 | 980 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Sponsored Link •
Career day wasn't as fun as it could've been.
This was it. This was the year when I was going to go to my kids' elementary school and tell them what I do for career day. My daughter had seen me futzing around in Squeak a while back and she thought it was very cool and she thought that the kids in her class could use it to connect with the idea of programming.
So, I arrive this morning and pull out my laptop. First class arrives in half an hour.. starting to set up.. connecting wires.. going through every possible combination, but my laptop and the projector just can't agree to display my screen. Aaaaghh! So, I decide to go it alone. Seasoned (or at least battle-scarred) instructor, I've worked without projectors before. Hand motions.. discussion.. no demos. A loss, but salvagable.
So I talk, we discuss.. I tell them what a programmer does.. we talk about computers, programming, etc. And then it happened: All the questions were about viruses.
"How do viruses get on my computer?" "How can I stop them?" "When I see a little stop sign in my system tray does that mean I have a virus?" "My mom says that when I type 'www' I can get viruses." "What do I do when I have a virus?" "Are viruses written by companies?" And the classic: "Are there any pop ups that tell you true things?"
I answered the questions as best I could, but it was sad. So much for the joy of computing. We had an intermission.. I did some more fiddling with the projector. Got it working and had the same class back later. Showed them Squeak and they were floored. They learned that computers can be fun, that you can tinker and learn things. But think about their first impression of computing. It was scary. It is scary.
|Michael has been active in the XP community for the past five years, balancing his time between working with, training, and coaching various teams around the world. Prior to joining Object Mentor, Michael designed a proprietary programming language and wrote a compiler for it, he also designed a large multi-platform class library and a framework for instrumentation control. When he isn't engaged with a team, he spends most of this time investigating ways of altering design over time in codebases.| | <urn:uuid:9d0476ce-f0cd-4750-8f57-751a5a38b29b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=104571 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98253 | 511 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Given the recent recession and current uncertainty, there is still a sense of gloom and doom in many of the published economic statistics, whether it’s the national debt levels, government spending, unemployment, GDP or housing starts.
So how can you create positive results in this environment? I have scripted a few ideas below to help supply chain managers look at their supply chains and ask the question, “How can I improve my company’s financial health position by squeezing more cash out of my supply chain?” Here are the steps you can take to start making a positive impact:
Understand the connection between the profit and loss (P&L) statement and the cash flow statement. Some supply chain managers do not realize what makes their stock price tick up on Wall Street and how they can contribute to it. For the share price to go up, usually the company needs to have a healthy income level (from the P&L statement) and generate enough cash flow (from the cash flow statement) to fund growth initiatives or dividends. It’s generally not enough to have one of them.
So how do we ensure we impact both of them in our daily professional lives? It’s not just enough to reduce the cost of a given product; you have to ensure that the cost reduction can be carried over to the cash flow statement to generate cash. More importantly, be cognizant of the fact that cost reductions can sometimes come at the cost of decreased cash flow.
For example, you can negotiate the price of a raw material from $1.50 per pound to $1.40 for a cost reduction, but at the same time you increase inventory and reduce the payment cycle for the supplier. This might have an adverse impact on the cash flow statement. See the simplified schematic in Illustration 1 (page 38) for explanation. You can flow each decision you make through this model.
Bottom line: unless we are able to convert net income to free cash flow, Wall Street won’t recognize our efforts. The faster you can convert the product you sell to cash (also called the cash conversion cycle, or CCC), the better financial health your company will be in.
Measure CCC. Once you understand the above, measure and improve your cash conversion cycle so you can convert your net income into free cash. You will want to measure your cash conversion cycle by each strategic business unit (SBU) as you do for net income. This will present a clearer picture of which business units actually deliver the cash and which are being subsidized. Remember:
Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) = Sales Outstanding - Payables Outstanding + Inventory
Improve your CCC. Once you understand the CCC per strategic business unit, shorten the cash conversion cycle by working on each component and aligning collection and payment cycles. You can use the following levers to improve your CCC.
Use inventory postponement and package on demand in plants and warehouses. Hold inventory at a work-in-process (WIP) level in the bill of materials (BOM) and differentiate when you get an order. This limits the SKU’s you have to hold in inventory on and hence you can hold less inventory. For example, if you are selling identical items to different retailers in different packages, hold the inventory prior to packaging it (a lower level in the bill of material) and pack it on demand.
Supplier-owned managed inventory initiative in the plants. Urge your suppliers to manage and own the inventory in your plants. Your competitors probably do this. This is quickly becoming not a differentiator but an order qualifier for many suppliers. The idea is not to shift the inventory upstream but to make your suppliers work with you to reduce it. Once they have it, they will work with you on reducing it.
Cross docking in warehouses. Use a third-party logistics (3PL) provider to synchronize the inbound and outbound movements out of your warehouses. The idea is to never take possession of inventory, but just receive it, turn around and ship it on another waiting truck. Most 3PLs have built this expertise, which was once the forte of a few pioneering companies. | <urn:uuid:c08656c5-501e-4879-9e09-50bc9bbb4436> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sdcexec.com/article/10231212/economy-up-or-down-cash-is-always-king | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937758 | 856 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the individual health-care mandate, a key provision in President Obama’s much-maligned health care law, is constitutional.
How it plays out in the upcoming election -- will bolster Republicans or help Obama? -- is an open question. Congressional Republicans have vowed to overturn the health-care law if the Supreme Court let it stand.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has scheduled a press conference at noon today, and former governors and U.S. Senatorial hopefuls Tim Kaine and George Allen issued statements shortly after the decision this morning.
Here’s a quick rundown of the coverage in The Washington Post, New York Times and a little history about the individual payer provision, which was actually adopted by Democrats in an effort to generate Republican support for universal health care in The New Yorker. | <urn:uuid:ca4e7165-3d29-42c6-995e-478daf7eb6c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/supreme-court-upholds-obamacare/Content?oid=1727921 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945276 | 174 | 1.59375 | 2 |
I woke up this morning to see a short Stars & Stripes story called ‘Impact of 10 years of war by the numbers.’
It was familiar.
The figures, compiled by Veterans for Common Sense, included the number of dead and wounded, 6,211 and 45,889, respectively.
The numbers get bigger from there and include 367,749 veterans with a mental health condition, 1,442,987 million veterans eligible for VA healthcare. Only about half, the group said, actually have been treated.
That’s the global picture. Here in San Antonio, the San Antonio Military Medical Center has treated more than 5,338 troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. SAMMC, which most of us know as BAMC, has sent 1,545 soldiers to the war zone over the past 10 years.
The burn center has cared for more than 840 service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003.
One of them was Army Staff Sgt. Dan Barnes, a soldier whose struggle for survival is as vivid in my memory as it was the day he nearly died.
I’ve seen many others like him since returning from the invasion, but no one quite as well because our paper followed him for 18 months before running the story. I knew, though, that the wounded would come to San Antonio even before President Bush declared an end to hostilities in Iraq.
That wasn’t near over when we reported from Baghdad at the end of the invasion and Bush himself, oddy, knew deep down what would happen there. He told me in 1997 that his father’s decision to stop the 1991 Gulf War was the right one, sparing America an insurgency in Baghdad.
But because war is more than numbers, our focus from the start was on soldiers and their families, and we kept going back to Iraq to tell the story.
There, we detailed a failed helicopter attack on the fifth night of the war, the beginning of the insurgency, Fort Hood troops as they tried to restore calm in Baghdad, the Texas Army National Guard in 2005, the Marines in Ramadi as the civil war exploded there, the Army in Diyala province in 2007, war weary GIs and San Antonio dustoff crews in 2008, and then to Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010. We went because those wars, if far away, were local news. So many here have been there, or know folks there.
We met Barnes in the early morning hours of September 5, 2006. They brought him into the Balad ER, missing both legs.
Still conscious, he asked, ‘How can I be a father without my legs?’
My question was how he could survive. Dan was white as a sheet when the medics brought him in. That’s how much blood he lost.
But our military medical team was good, and Dan was at BAMC a few weeks later playing wheelchair basketball, his wife watching. The surgeon, Dr. Nabil Habib, asked Dan if he would like to pray, and they did.
But we all did.
Our prayers were answered. Today, he and Gretchen Barnes have two more children. I keep up with them on Facebook.
I always smile when I read his posts, but the frown returns whenever I check casualty figures, as I do several times a week.
The number of dead and wounded keeps rising, neither war finished and, in fact, unlikely to be done anytime soon. Many of us keep praying. | <urn:uuid:0d0ce303-e9be-4e36-aec7-00f70208f5a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.mysanantonio.com/military/2011/10/war-beyond-the-numbers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980974 | 719 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The high prices we pay for Ontario's green ideology
Ontario green energy prices under review
February 06, 2012
Energy Minister Chris Bentley, right, hopes the review will be complete by the end of March.
JOHN SPEARS/TORONTO STAR
In closed rooms at Queen’s Park, bureaucrats and policy-makers are poring over submissions about how much you should pay for renewable energy.
Many of the submissions have not been publicly released.
And while the policy-makers labour in private, discussion among non-government officials has also been muted.
For example, a coalition of green energy groups assembled dozens of like-minded “thought leaders” for a discussion of Ontario’s renewable energy policy late last year. They decried the lack of public understanding of energy policy — then agreed that their own discussions should remain private.
Even the name of the closed-door process is obscure to most people; the feed-in tariff review.
But its outcome will be very real, as it will determine the prices to be paid for much of the power generated by wind, solar and biomass, and the rules governing who is eligible for the program.
The newer forms of renewable power still makes up a relatively small component of Ontario’s power grid — less than 4 per cent of the electricity generated in Ontario in 2011.
The regulated consumer price for power is in the range of 6.2 to 10.8 cents a kilowatt hour. But the two big renewable sources (other than water-generated hydro power) receive more: 13.5 cents for wind and solar from 44.3 cents up.
When the program was set up in 2009, however, the government promised to review it, including prices, in two years. That’s the process now under way.
Energy Minister Chris Bentley says the closed-door approach is appropriate.
“There may be some that have written some things that they’d rather not read about, out there, in the attempt to give us the best possible advice, and I’m respecting that. But what we say is going to be publicly available.”
Peter Tabuns, energy critic for the New Democratic Party, disagrees.
“Those who are involved in the industry, and the public, need to know what the ideas are that are on the table,” says Tabuns. “An open process serves us better than a closed one.”
Conservative energy critic Vic Fedeli thinks the whole feed-in tariff program is wrong-headed and beyond fixing.
But he, too, thinks that at least the ideas submitted should be public:
“I’d like to read what people have to say.”
What, exactly, are feed-in tariffs?
When first announced in 2009, the feed-in tariff system was designed “to provide guaranteed prices for renewable energy projects,” according to a government release.
Along with guaranteed prices, producers get guaranteed access to the power grid for all the energy they produce, plus a long-term contract.
Most FIT contracts in Ontario are for 20 years.
But the Liberal government did decree that the initial prices paid for renewable power would be reviewed after two years — the process now under way. The new prices will apply to contracts going forward, not to those already signed.
How long will the review take?
The Energy Ministry asked for public submissions, which were due in early December.
“I said I’d like it to finish in the first quarter, by the end of March,” energy minister Chris Bentley said in an interview.
“We got thousands of submissions, almost 3,000,” he said. “And they weren’t one-liners. Some of the submissions ran to dozens or hundreds of pages. So the people who’ve been working on this review have been working hard.”
The job of shaping a coherent policy has been assigned to assistant deputy minister Fareed Amin.
The review doesn’t just cover price. It looks at the whole program, including what kinds of projects are eligible for the program, and who owns them.
Some environmentalists are fearful that waste incineration plants will become eligible for FIT contracts; they regard burning waste as unhealthy.
Will the review scale back on renewables?
Not a chance, according to Bentley.
“I’m very committed to renewable energy, to green energy. I think the public would like to know what shape that’s going to take in the future.”
“I think those in the industry would like to be reassured that we have not lost our enthusiasm, and would like to know what the rules are.”
Fedeli of the Conservatives has a sharply different point of view. He blames high power prices — in part driven by the FIT program — for driving jobs out of Ontario.
“I’ve found wind and solar to be more social engineering than good energy policy,” says Fedeli. The Tories would scrap FIT.
What sort of prices are being discussed?
With many of the submissions under wraps it’s hard to know, but some groups have been public about their recommendations.
The Canadian Wind Energy Association argues that the current wind power rate of 13.5 cents a kilowatt hour is “cost competitive” for big turbines. It recommends a schedule of higher rates for smaller turbines.
But there’s a general consensus that rates for solar power will decline, as the cost of solar panels keeps dropping.
A coalition of green energy groups has made a detailed submission suggesting solar rates ranging from 38 cents to 59 cents a kilowatt hour (the current range is 44.3 cents to 71.3 cents) It suggests giving a small bonus to solar developments on reclaimed industrial sites.
They suggest leaving the overall price of wind power about the same, but introducing a new system that over time would scale back the rate for larger turbines to 8.2 cents a kilowatt hour.
The Canadian Solar Industries Association has proposed short-term reductions in solar power by 13 to 20 per cent, depending on the size of panels and whether they are placed on rooftops or on the ground. That would make the price range about 35 cents a kilowatt hour to 63 cents for large-scale installations, or 69 cents for small ones.
For the longer term, it has proposed a formula that would link prices to a regular review of solar installation costs.
Is price the only topic up for grabs?
By no means.
There is a lot of discussion about who owns renewable energy projects.
Some critics think the current scene is dominated by big corporate players. They think renewable power projects — especially wind turbines — would be more readily accepted if they were more broadly owned.
“What I hope would come out of the review would be a far greater emphasis on community and public ownership,” says Peter Tabuns, energy critic for the New Democrats.
“That’s needed to address political issues. But it’s also needed to ensure that more of the money that goes into the electricity system stays in Ontario.”
And my hope is they look at the declining cost of the technologies and have the prices reflect that — but not in any sort of punitive way.
The Liberal energy policy was also linked to creating a market for made-in-Ontario equipment. To qualify for FIT contracts, developers have to source a defined percentage of goods and services in Ontario.
Solar operators in particular argue that Ontario manufacturers can’t match the low prices of equipment being made in China, so they need to receive higher prices than solar energy producers receive in some other jurisdictions. | <urn:uuid:9b5fa1bb-6d89-46f3-bf91-ec74a267a3cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mailman.mcmaster.ca/mailman/private/cdn-nucl-l/1202/msg00001.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954702 | 1,608 | 1.640625 | 2 |
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We go to simchas; we wish each other "chag sameach"; but do we really understand the profound meaning of living in a steady state of joy? How is simchah different from - and far superior to - the more fleeting and elusive emotion of happiness? How can one have simchah even during times of sadness and even mourning? How is simchah cultivated through our holiday celebrations, through such practical mitzvos as tefillin, mezuzah, the laws of family purity, and through such significant rites of passage as bris milah, pidyon haben, and more?
In his refreshingly practical style, Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski M.D. has produced an unparalleled work on simchah, the single character trait that may be the secret to success in all aspects of observance and learning. A fast read with a heavy emphasis on "how to," this is a Dr. Twerski book you'll be recommending to friends and family for years to come. | <urn:uuid:05769186-91c2-41d7-878a-e996441964cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eichlers.com/books/books/rabbi-abraham-j-twerski-md/simchah-it-s-not-just-happiness-hardcover.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952939 | 227 | 1.742188 | 2 |
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