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PROFILE of Mayor Edward Koch. The Mayor's current popularity results because he is not viewed as a liberal. His good friend Dan Wolf encourages what some feel are the Mayor's worst tendencies-impulsiveness, belligerence, an enjoyment of confrontation, hostility to govt. & the establishment. Tells about several walking tours he took last fall in Queens, E. Harlem & Brooklyn. Tells about a meeting to discuss the Queens Bypass plan, a transportation proposal. Lengthy discussion of the continuing fiscal crisis and the budget, and the pressures on the Mayor in this area. Koch's unsure grasp of finances in effect made Deputy Mayor Philip Toia and Budget Director James Brigham first deputies. (This was ironical because Koch resisted having a first deputy). Tells about the 1980 Koch budget which was approved by the state's Financial Control Bd. & the federal monitors although they may have been profoundly uneasy about it as enough cuts hadn't been made. Discussion & interviews about the Sanitation Dept. where services continue to decline. The problem of the decline of the South Bronx appears to defy solution. Lengthy account of a demonstration in Borough Park, Bklyn. by Chassidic Jews wanting greater police protection after a murder. Tells about Koch's handling of the incident and his good relations with the police. Writer tells how citizens feel cheated because they are paying more and receiving less from the police. Finally, writer tells about a cabinet meeting last fall at which the city's dilemmas were discussed, in views of the limited amount of money available.
by Ken Auletta September 17, 1979
Newyorker.com has a complete archive of The New Yorker, back to 1925. The complete archive is available to subscribers in the digital edition. If you subscribe to the magazine, register now to get access. If you don't, subscribe now.
You can also buy online access to a single issue. Individual back issues are available for sale through our customer-service department, at 1-800-825-2510.
All articles published before May, 2008, can be found in “The Complete New Yorker,” which is available for purchase on hard drive and DVD. Most New Yorker articles published since December, 2000, are available through Nexis.
To search for New Yorker cartoons and covers, visit the Cartoon Bank. | <urn:uuid:60b595db-9ace-497a-8641-47ee501f47e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1979/09/17/1979_09_17_050_TNY_CARDS_000329480?currentPage=all?currentPage=all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945123 | 478 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Midwest Storm Slows Travel as it Hovers in IowaA storm that promised to bring a white Christmas to much of the Midwest had dumped 9 inches of snow in Iowa by Friday morning and was moving east, where a rare bit of holiday snow was expected as far south as Atlanta.
By: Melanie S. Welte, Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A storm that promised to bring a white Christmas to much of the Midwest had dumped 9 inches of snow in Iowa by Friday morning and was moving east, where a rare bit of holiday snow was expected as far south as Atlanta.
The storm was expected to dip south into Tennessee and Georgia on Saturday, then perhaps move north Sunday. Winter weather advisories were in effect from Kansas east to Kentucky and from Minnesota south to Arkansas on Friday.
In Georgia, the National Weather Service said 1 to 3 inches of snow could fall across metro Atlanta on Saturday. But it said there was still uncertainty about the storm's path, and any deviation could affect the total amounts. If the forecast holds, it would be the first time since 1993 that snow fell on Christmas in Atlanta, the weather service said. The last time there was measurable snowfall on Christmas Day was in 1882, when one-third of an inch of snow blanketed the city.
The snow made traveling tough Friday in northeastern Iowa, where the bulk of the storm hovered.
Scott and Lori Whiting left Chicago for Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday evening with their nine children. By Friday morning, they had only made it to Des Moines, a trip that normally takes about four hours, Lori Whiting said.
"The cars are really sliding around up there," Lori Whiting said. "It's kind of slushy. Some parts it's packed, and you don't think it's going to be slick and all of a sudden your car is fishtailing."
There were few snow plows on the road, she said, but Scott Whiting got into a fender bender with one in the parking lot of a Des Moines truck stop. He was driving a car, while his wife and children traveled in a van. Still, the family was in good spirits and the children were singing carols.
Lori Whiting said they hoped to make it to Colorado Springs in time to celebrate Christmas Eve.
"Depending on the number of potty breaks, you understand," she said.
Many people traveled Thursday in hope of beating the foul weather.
Eric and Tatiana Chodkowski, of Boston, drove with their children, ages 2 and 4, to see relatives in New York. They said forecasts for snow on Sunday made them wonder whether they'd make it back then, as planned. They deemed the roads congested but manageable Thursday, and most people found the nation's airports to be the same way.
Planes took off into windy but accommodating skies at New York's LaGuardia Airport as Steve Kent prepared to fly to Denver for a family ski trip, scoffing at the puny lines.
"I don't find it that difficult," he said. "I think Thanksgiving is harder."
Long security lines were feared over Thanksgiving, when practically everyone was on the move the same day, but with the year-end holidays spread out, such problems hadn't developed by Friday and weren't expected to over the weekend.
Travelers could see airport screeners taking a closer look at empty insulated beverage containers like thermoses because air carriers were alerted about a potential terror tactic involving them, an administration official said.
The official, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters, stressed that there is no intelligence about an active terror plot. The Homeland Security Department regularly alerts law enforcement about evolving terror tactics.
The Air Transport Association expects 44.3 million people on U.S. flights between Dec. 16 and Jan. 5 — up 3 percent over the same period a year ago but still below pre-recession travel volume. The average ticket price was $421, up by 5 percent.
The Vino Volo Wine Room at Detroit Metropolitan Airport was benefiting from more travelers, manager Mark Del Duco said Thursday.
"The Christmas mood is more there this year than last," he said, estimating that sales were up 10 percent this season compared with last year.
The AAA predicted overall travel to rise about 3 percent this year, with more than 92 million people planning to go more than 50 miles sometime between now and Jan. 2. More than 90 percent said they would be driving.
Maria Romero, a cashier at the Chevron Food Mart just off Interstate 15 in Barstow, Calif., said she has seen an increase in travelers there, especially families and people from out of state.
"It's wonderful. We need it," she said. "The busier, the better."
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Karen Hawkins in Chicago; Warren Levinson and Verena Dobnik in New York City; David Goodman in Detroit; Eileen Sullivan and Samantha Bomkamp in Washington; Michelle Price in Phoenix; and Mark Pratt in Boston. | <urn:uuid:5ecbff8c-89a8-4cd2-9191-181fe29c269b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/5371/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976447 | 1,050 | 1.601563 | 2 |
DutseArticle Free Pass
Dutse, market town, capital of Jigawa state, northern Nigeria. It lies north of the road between Kano city and Birnin Kudu. The undulating relief of the area is covered by Sudan savanna. Dutse became the capital of Jigawa state in 1991 when Jigawa was split off from Kano state. Livestock herding is economically important.
What made you want to look up "Dutse"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:ff2243f7-d805-4918-9205-7b3bf9534827> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/174680/Dutse | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941239 | 109 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Local UA student one of 20 nationwide at ag conference
Miguel Aceves, an agriculture student at the University of Arizona-Yuma, was selected to attend the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent 2013 Agricultural Outlook Forum in Arlington, Va.
Aceves was one of 20 university juniors and seniors nationwide who were chosen based on their essays, “Agriculture as a Career,” and on a recommendations from their deans.
In his essay, Aceves wrote, “I'm studying agriculture because I believe it to be America's backbone ... It is a very secure industry which only continues to grow every year. After graduation I plan on working as a crop consultant. I want to be able to walk into a field, assess any deficiencies or issues, make an exact diagnosis of the problems, and offer the producer sustainable solutions for improvement. The need for agriculture improvements continues to grow every passing day and I want to help contribute with feeding the world.”
As a senior at UA-Yuma pursuing a bachelor's degree in sustainable plant systems with an agronomy option, Aceves said the agricultural conference was very much up his alley.
“It was an honor to go to the forum. I got to see a lot of the policy making that goes into agricultural laws and learn about the agriculture economic profits of 2012 and what's predicted for 2013.”
He said that he especially enjoyed Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and chief economist Joseph Glauber's presentations.
“They both kind of talked about issues surrounding crop production and feeding the growing populations ... The outlook looks good, it's just going to be a challenge with technology growing and advancing where we're able to do more with less.”
Aceves said it was great to hear from agricultural experts at a national level at the forum versus just at the local level, which he is more accustomed to.
The forum titled “Managing Risk in the 21st Century” was held Feb. 21-22.
USDA stated that the finalists for the essay competition include students from land-grant, Hispanic-serving institutions and American Association of State Colleges of Agriculture and Renewable Resources institutions who are the recipients of corporate and USDA sponsorships that promote the education of aspiring agriculturalists.
Visit www.usda.gov/oce/forum for more information about the event. | <urn:uuid:3f3133e5-b8c1-4d4c-9005-8122b4620b37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yumasun.com/articles/agriculture-85939-forum-aceves.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967481 | 492 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Warwick Castle in Warwickshire is a majestic looking medieval castle which was built by William the Conqueror in 1068.
With a warren of haunted area such as the Dungeon Room, Witches’ Room, Old Gaol and the very haunted Guys Tower this is one location not to miss.
Ghostly moans have been heard by many visitors here and full bodied apparitions seen on various occasions; not to mention shadows and silhouettes seen moving around through the windows in the dimly lit rooms of the Castle; this really is one location that has much to offer any paranormal enthusiast.
A ghost hunt at Warwick Castle is certainly not for the faint hearted dare you join us for a night to remember!
Should you be interested in a ghost hunt at Warwick Castle that has sold out please call us on 0115 9224881. We may have a last minute cancellation and may be able to accommodate you.
Warwick Castle Warwickshire | <urn:uuid:7dfabe3a-6539-4aec-bf3d-ddedd98a23f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dusktilldawnevents.co.uk/ghost-hunts-by-location-warwick-castle-warwickshire-c-74_220.html | 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 | 0.966317 | 197 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Did you ever see a local morning news broadcast in L.A. when rain is falling or predicted? It's like the world is going to come to an end before the next commercial. This is similar to some of the "winter survival" warnings that occur in Detroit, where it is known to snow. Yet it is announced as though this is something completely unexpected and a huge challenge, despite the fact that things like snow happen with predictability and while the conditions are challenging, they are not necessarily insurmountable, the "weather teams" reporting from hither and yon notwithstanding.
This same sort of franticness seems to be associated with the 2007 Toyota Tundra pickup truck, at least in Detroit. Batten down the hatches. Toyota is taking a serious run at the full-size truck market!
Let's review: It rains. It snows. Toyota is building a full-sized pickup.
Some things just happen.
Yes, it is true. The '07 Tundra is a big truck. The sort of "Detroit iron" that one associates with, well, Detroit. This probably explains why, in part, the upper body was developed and engineered by Toyota Technical Center. . .in Ann Arbor, due west of Detroit. That's right, a bunch of folks who live, eat, and breathe the same way/things as their brethren who work at the companies renown for their full-size pickups. They were also responsible for central control of the development there in southeastern Michigan.
And, yes, there was styling done by Calty Design Research-in Newport Beach, California, and Ann Arbor-by people who have spent years and years and years looking at and driving trucks. Per usual for Toyota vehicle development programs, there were styling proposals sought from three sources. In this case, Calty, Toyota Motor Corp.-Design (Japan) and Hino Motor. What is unusual is that for the first time ever in the history of Toyota, a decision about the styling was not made in Japan. Rather, the models were displayed at Calty and the decision regarding the design direction was made based on that.
The chief engineer for the Tundra is Yuichiro Obu. He is not a native of Michigan, nor of California. Yet he has a thorough-going familiarity with things American. The Tundra is his third North American development project. The first was for the original Camry Solara, introduced in 1998 as a '99 model. This was followed by the present generation-the seventh-Tacoma pickup, introduced in '05. He observes: "I am certain that staging the viewing at Calty influenced the decision greatly."
But there was something more to the design of the Tundra besides just the styling of a big vehicle. While cross-functional development is thought to be a matter of course at Toyota, Obu explains that for the development of the Tundra, "For the first time ever, manufacturing teams from both Texas and Indiana were required to work with designers at Calty studios prior to design sign-off to ensure that what was drawn could be manufactured."
The first generation Tundra, which was introduced in June 1999 (it succeeded the T-100 pickup), was produced at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana (TMMI), a plant that was built for the production of the Tundra. TMMI was modeled on the award-winning Toyota Tahara Plant. In subsequent years the Sequoia SUV and Sienna minivan were added to the TMMI lineup.
But to gain more capacity for full-size pickup production, a decision was made to build a new factory. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas (TMMTX) was established. Ground breaking at a site near San Antonio-2,000 acres, a former cattle ranch-occurred in October, 2003. They built not only an $850-million 2.2-million ft2 facility to stamp, weld, paint, mold, and assemble trucks, but also 1.8-million ft2 of additional facilities for on-site suppliers.
Senior creative designer, Craig Kember, Calty: "We saw this as a big opportunity to design a truly 'bad-ass' truck with capability to match for the American full-size truck buyer."
Pretty much sums it up.
So there were the production people and the designers. The production people talked about reducing the panel gap size. Fit and finish are key differentiators, so tight gaps are perceived to be better, they figured. The designers had a slightly different point of view. They figured that because they were developing a big truck, the bigness required slightly wider gaps, not narrower gaps. The conclusion? Bigger gaps-repeatably produced.
Although decried for, in effect, "not understanding trucks," if the midsize truck market is taken into account then the fact that the Toyota Tacoma has a dominant position there (total 2006 sales: 178,351), up against the likes of the Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon (2006 sales: 93,876/23,979), Ford Ranger (2006 sales:92,420), and Dodge Dakota (2006 sales: 76,098), so clearly they've learned a little something about the product. And on the subject of trucks and truck development, Hino Motor Ltd., which has been producing heavy- and medium-duty trucks commercially since 1946, and which happens to be a Toyota affiliate (Toyota owns 50.1% of Hino Motor), assisted in the development of the '07 Tundra. It also participated in chassis development for the Land Cruiser and Sequoia.
The biggest knock on Toyota trucks heretofore was that they weren't big enough. That is addressed. There are three cab sizes. Three bed sizes. All of them are bigger than the products they replace, as in being longer (up to 10-in. longer, taller, and 4-in. wider). There is the two-door B-cab with a 78.7-in. standard bed or a 97.6-in. long bed. (All beds are 66.4 in. wall-to-wall wide.) There is the double-cab C-cab model with forward hinged rear doors that is available with the same bed sizes. Then there is the D-cab, the four-door CrewMax, with a 66.7-in. bed. (What the CrewMax gives up in terms of bed size, it makes up for on the inside, with seating for six people, and a rear seat that has 10 in. of fore and aft travel and 44.5 in. of rear leg room and a seat back that can recline a total of 32°.) The overall length of the vehicles range from 209.8 in. for the B-cab with a regular bed to 247.6 in. for a C-cab with the long bed.
There are powertrain choices, too. There is a 236-hp 4.0-liter V6 that provides 266 lb-ft of torque. There is a 271-hp 4.7-liter V8 that provides 313 lb-ft. of torque. And last but certainly not least, an engine that has the first truck block Toyota has cast in the U.S. (at its Bodine Aluminum plant in Troy, MO, with a low-pressure process) and which is assembled at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama in Huntsville, a 381-hp, 5.7-liter V8 that produces 401 lb-ft. of torque at 3,600 rpm.
Here's the metric: When the 5.7-liter, mated to an all-new six-speed automatic, is under the hood of a B-cab, and a trailer is hooked up to the one-piece hydroformed receiver structure (it is attached to the frame with 12 bolts; it is assembled in place prior to the installation of the bed), there is a towing capacity of 10,800 lb.
According to Obu, the word "special" has "important weight" within Toyota product development. Absent carryover powertrains, there are "virtually no" carryover parts from the previous generation Tundra or the current Tacoma. "That's a big commitment to resources," he says. Realize that one of the things that Toyota is well known for doing is developing vehicles with carryover parts. "Second, and most importantly," Obu says, "with the 'special' designation came the mandate that the Tundra project would need to be North American self-reliant." So it was to places like Ann Arbor and San Antonio, rather than Toyota City.
As is widely known, one of the fundamentals of the Toyota Production System is just-in-time delivery of parts and/or assemblies. The right thing at the right place at the right time. In one regard, the TMMTX facility is a center of excellence when it comes to JIT. There are 21 on-site parts and components suppliers. And one of those suppliers-Avanzar Interior Technologies Ltd.-is literally on-site, as in within the walls of the factory.
Avanzar is a joint venture between Johnson Controls and SAT Auto Technologies. The company supplies seats and interior trim parts for the Tundra. The seat manufacturing operations of the firm are intimately integrated within the assembly plant such that if someone happened to be walking along the line within the 2.2-million ft2 facility and made a slight turn in, he'd be within Avanzar space-a 6,600-ft2 area-without even knowing it.
Avanzar has one facility where seat frames are manufactured. It's about a mile away from the main TMMTX plant. The frames are shipped to the other Avanzar facility, which is within the truck plant.
Electronically, a build order for a specific set of seats for a specific truck is sent to the Avanzar facility within the plant. They have not more than 85 minutes of lead time to build the seat to order and to ship it via an overhead system straight to the assembly line. It should be noted that while Johnson Controls has extensive experience working with Toyota directly or with other joint ventures (e.g., Trim Masters Inc. is a joint venture company that includes Johnson Controls, Toyota Boshoku and Toyota Tsusho), generally, it has a lead time of approximately four hours for seats to line side. But in Texas that's greatly reduced. It should be noted that there are more than 300 component part numbers for a front seat and that for those seats Avanzar works with 35 suppliers. For its external suppliers it keeps 1.5 days worth of inventory on hand. For the internal suppliers, it maintains just two hours of inventory.
The fact that there are medical personnel on site at TMMTX is not unusual. Let's face it, any operation that has several hundred people working with or around assembly equipment is likely to have medical help ready to spring into action in the case of an accident or injury.
But they're taking things even further there. They've established the Toyota Family Health Care Center, a 19,000-ft2 facility. That's "family" as in spouses and children of TMMTX team members, as well as the operation's suppliers. This operation offers primary and preventative health care, including family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, dental, optometry, rehab and physical therapy, radiology, lab services, occupational health services, and an on-site pharmacy.
Just imagine how lean principles can cut the waiting time in a doctor's office.
Yes, there are robots in the facility. More than 300 in the weld shop, alone. Then add more for the paint shop, and the number gets to almost 400. There are more robots at TMMTX than there are at the Toyota plant in Princeton, Indiana, which is, in effect, the "mother plant" for San Antonio, as it is where the previous generation Tundra was built. Overall, in weld and paint the operations are approximately 90% automated. (In the painting operations in order to minimize paint waste (the plant uses water-borne primer and color coats), the paint is contained in cartridges so that colors can be changed as needed without the need to purge lines.) The andon boards in the plant are giant plasma screens. Yes, there is a lot of impressive technology on site. But there is a greater focus on people than on machinery. People build trucks. Robots and andon boards help. So there is a real emphasis on the 2,000 people working two shifts at the plant. As Don Jackson, senior vice president, Quality and Production, TMMTX, points out, while cost is certainly a consideration in the manufacture of the vehicle, "It's not cost first. It's safety, environment and building in quality." Then you get to the cost. In addition to which, he observes, that the "two big pillars of the Toyota Way" are "continuous improvement" and "respect for people." There's no mention of robots or plasma screens.
How do you keep the line side as open as possible? How do you make sure that even though you're building to order-not batch-and there are as many build variants as there are that you put the right pieces on the truck? This second question could be answered by having an abundance of parts at line side from which to choose. This might not lead, however, to the right parts being selected.
Of course, by having that many parts-and realize that as a full-size pickup, there are plenty of sizeable components-this would mean that the first question about an open line side would remain unanswered.
So what they've done at TMMTX is implemented a kitting program. Parts are pre-picked and packed (some containers look like oversized versions of canvas shoe organizers). These mobile parts carrriers travel along the line with the particular vehicles.
Another benefit: it minimizes the use of forklifts and other material handling devices on the factory floor.
How do you ease the assembly of a full-size pickup? There are things like the implementation of electric wrenches instead of pneumatic nut runners. But that only gets you so far. A bigger way: assemble the frames upside down. By doing it this way it is easier to put in wiring, suspension, and other components. Then when it is time to attach the body, flip the truck and continue. | <urn:uuid:1f921de5-335b-4d87-ad61-485532b2a4c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autofieldguide.com/articles/2007-toyoda-tundra-big | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968044 | 2,986 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Posted on by admin in Blog, Fashion Photography Courses, Fashion Photography Tips, Fashion Photography Tutorial, How To Become A Photographer, Photography Articles, Portrait Photography, Wedding Photography Tips
Thanks Bruce again for these little gems of fashion photography tips, with this third post revealing this collection of awesome fashion photography pointers to get you shooting some really great fashion photography shots too.
Fashion Photography Tutorials Little Gems 3 taking a look at;-
1) Shooting a bridal wear collection on location in an old theater.
2) Step by Step guide for post production on the image.
3) Dealing with all of the problems when shooting on location with only the lighting available in a theater.
4) Lots of challenges re lighting each shot and color temperature of theater lighting but a great days shoot all the same…
The shot to the right above, is one of twelve wedding gowns that I had to shoot in an old theater for one of my many couture bridal wear clients.
The story line for the collection was theatrical drama, like show girls on stage and back stage in the theater. So I chose my models very carefully to suit the story, casting the right models to fit the story of the shoot is very important. Get this part of the project wrong and your story will not be believable.
I chose Chloe Jasmine Whitchello who already is a very theatric person, so her just being her self would definitely make this story work. As an opposite character to Chloe in some ways but very statuesque and a striking classical looking Simona as my second model. These two very distinctive looks would mean getting great variety of drama into the shoot that I wanted.
I wanted to light the pictures with the stage lighting to give the pictures a realistic theatrical feel to them.
As I am not familiar with how to operate the very complex lighting rigs in theaters, so well before the shoot date I made sure that the theater lighting engineer would be there working with us all day .
With all of the spotlights and flood lights being controlled from a massive, very complicated control board, it was so essential to have the lighting controlled by the lighting engineer. He and I coordinated together switching lights on and off and positioning each light until I thought it was sort of right for the first area that I would be working in.
When my model was on set I could alter her position and ask the lighting guy to shift a spot light a little or a lot so the lighting was just perfect.
Article Author: www.BruceSmithPhotographer.com
Complete Article Source: Fashion Photography Tutorials | <urn:uuid:c672a1e1-ca7c-4843-ae8c-26c14ab9dab2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://learndigitalphotographynow.com/fashion-photography-tutorials-little-gems-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953418 | 528 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The recent snow and rain may help area producers save money on irrigation, but there is another natural source of income they could cash in on.
The Caprock Plains Wind Energy Association will host its first Wind Energy Expo to educate the public on the long-term benefits of wind energy in the South Plains.
The main benefactors of investing in wind energy in the region, but may not realize it, are landowners, said Justin Jaworski, executive director of the Floydada Economic Development Corporation.
“It’s a good way (for producers) to have supplemental income,” he said. “A way for them to be able to farm their land as they always have and make smart decisions about leasing out land to developers.”
Landowners, who lease their land to developers for wind turbines or transmission lines, will not use the energy generated on their land. Instead, they will generate money from the metropolitan areas that the energy is exported to and bring more money and business to West Texas, Jaworski said.
He said many people have already agreed to lease some of their land for wind energy development, and the expo will serve to further educate and prepare those individuals for future decisions.
Kelly Ayers, executive director for CPWEA, said this was the non-profit organization’s first big event that will bring wind energy developers and experts together with South Plains landowners.
Attendees will be able to meet energy developers, consultants, manufacturers and educators from Oklahoma, Amarillo, Big Spring, Sweetwater and Plainview.
While the majority of the CPWEA members live in Hale, Floyd and Motley counties, Ayers said the event is free and open to anyone interested in learning about or investing in wind energy.
By having the expo, Jaworski said members of the public can speak directly with the companies and get all of their questions answered.
“The more people, the more networking and connections, the faster things will happen,” he said.
Read more in Wednesday's Avalanche-Journal.
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal ©2013. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:b4821f6a-b3cc-442c-b711-b8fe636f6caa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lubbockonline.com/stories/030110/upd_569390548.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948346 | 439 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Theodore L. DeVinne was the city's best and most noble printer of the
late 19th century. Built only with a modest budget,
DeVinne and his architects created a printing press/factory building which
attains a very high esthetic standard.
One of the most impressive industrial facilities to rise in New York, the
design is bold but simple and appropriate for its function. An outstanding
example of the industrial building type from the late 19th century, this
building is still admired by architects and New Yorkers alike. | <urn:uuid:46402bcc-0aaf-4286-bb7d-a243fee4a91d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nyu.edu/classes/finearts/nyc/eastvil/vinne.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9487 | 114 | 1.664063 | 2 |
kjv@John:19:38@ And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
kjv@John:19:39@ And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
kjv@John:19:40@ Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
kjv@John:19:41@ Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
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And then there is Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee -
Guess he forgot (conveniently) that is was George W. Bush who started the war in Afghanistan.Well, if he's (referring to President Obama) such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan."
RNC's Steele backtracks after Afghan war remarks
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 2, 2010; 5:58 PM
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele is trying to quell controversy over his comments that the war in Afghanistan was of "Obama's choosing" and his suggestion that it may not be winnable, remarks that put him at odds with much of his party.
On Friday, after a video surfaced of Steele's remarks at a Connecticut fundraiser the night before, some conservatives fumed and Democrats pounced.
A spokesman for Steele quickly issued a statement clarifying that the chairman supports the troops, and Steele himself soon followed up by saying that "for the sake of the security of the free world, our country must give our troops the support necessary to win this war."
Steele's tenure at the helm of the RNC has been marked by controversies, including over his criticism of -- and subsequent apology to -- Rush Limbaugh and the committee's spending money at a bondage-themed nightclub in California to entertain donors.
But his war remarks were a rare instance in which Steele articulated views on a key policy issue that differed from the party line. Most Republican members of Congress strongly supported President George W. Bush's decision to start the war in Afghanistan in 2001 and have backed funding and troop increases there, even as many Democrats have cast doubt on the war policy.
On the video, Steele is seen saying of Obama: "It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, while saying the battle really should be in Afghanistan. Well, if he's such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan."
In a piece on his magazine's Web site, William Kristol, editor of the conservative magazine the Weekly Standard, wrote: "There are, of course, those who think we should pull out of Afghanistan, and they're certainly entitled to make their case. But one of them shouldn't be the chairman of the Republican party."
"The war in Afghanistan was not 'a war of Obama's choosing,' " he added. "It has been prosecuted by the United States under Presidents Bush and Obama. Republicans have consistently supported the effort."
Democrats gleefully circulated both video of Steele's remarks and the criticism from Kristol.
"Michael Steele would do well to remember that we are not in Afghanistan by our own choosing, that we were attacked and his words have consequences," said Brad Woodhouse, the Democratic National Committee spokesman.
Erick Erickson, who runs the influential conservative blog Red State said: "Michael Steele must resign. He has lost all moral authority to lead the GOP."
Former South Carolina GOP chair Katon Dawson, who finished second to Steele in the race for the chairman's post early last year, said Steele should now be ousted, CNN reported. Dawson is a frequent critic of Steele but has not until now called for him to resign.
"The RNC should do the responsible thing and show Steele the door," Dawson told CNN. "Enough is enough."
No prominent conservative lawmaker or member of the RNC has called for Steele's resignation. The former Maryland lieutenant governor is one of the most prominent African- Americans in the GOP, and Republicans have seen major electoral success since he became chairman.
IF the Democrats want Steele gone, and the RNC want Steele gone, I want him to stay. If the DNC and RNC agree on anything it cant be good for anybody who believes in the United States of America our Founders believed in. Steele staying in charge until Jan. will drive Constitutionalists away from the RNC in the coming elections, possibly bleeding out the politicians that are all about politics as usual and getting new blood and new life into our political system.
That type of new blood and new life into our political system scares the bejebus out of progressives, D and R, who want politics to continue "as usual".
Last edited by blue; 07-03-2010 at 12:55 AM. Reason: Waiting for the Progressive Spin on this post. Grace, Liz, and She who must not be named, Im waiting.
There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan's
Do you think if I make some cookies & Lemonade & offered it to the Afghanistan's that would be a start.
Found this interesting article that has a quiz to judge if you are
progressive or conservative in your thinking.
Jul 01, 2010
Defining ‘progressive’ in politics
The word "progressive" is thrown around a lot in Washington, sometimes as a less politically charged replacement for "liberal." But a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds that a majority of Americans are not sure what, exactly, the term means and whether or not it applies to them.
Asked whether the term progressive "describes your own political views," 12% said "yes," 31% said "no," and 54% said they are unsure. Six in 10 Democrats and 57% of people who described themselves as liberal said they are unsure if the "progressive" label is right for them.
Also interesting, many respondents who describe themselves as progressive oppose some of the same measures that, say, the Congressional Progressive Caucus – which is made up of Democrats – supports. For instance, 24% of those who call themselves progressive say they would oppose more government regulation of major financial institutions. More than one in three say that, "the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses."
Webster's New World College Dictionary includes about a dozen definitions for the word "progressive," including "moving forward or onward" and "continuing by successive steps." That leaves plenty of room for people to define themselves as "progressive conservatives," which, by the way, is the name of a political party in Canada.
The upper-case "Progressive" is defined as "a member of a Progressive Party," which this dictionary says is synonymous with "liberal."
The Washington-based Center for American Progress, which describes itself as being "dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action," takes one stab at a definition through this 40-question online quiz that purports to define participants as "progressive" or "conservative."
The poll was conducted June 11-15 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Take the quiz......http://www.americanprogress.org/issu...sive_quiz.html..
I've Been Boo'd
I've been Frosted
Send Brock Lesner to Afghanistan.
Copyright © 2001-2013 Pet of the Day.com | <urn:uuid:92825ad3-d443-48f7-8b07-490597ff75f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?140459-Politics-and-religion&p=2277773 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970983 | 1,536 | 1.601563 | 2 |
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Found 102 records | Page 6 of 11
Kate Stone Lombardi's experience raising a son in a culture that views a close mother-son relationship as somehow troubling and wrong has written a new book to fight this perception and shatter The Mama's Boy Myth.
Published: 04/18/2012 by Susan Flynn in Family Relationships
Mary Lou Andre, owner of Needham-based Organization by Design, talks with the Boston Parents Paper about how moms can always look their best, whether in the boardroom or at the bus stop.
Published: 03/20/2012 by Susan Flynn in Behavior
Fast-paced lives, too many clothes, toys and gadgets, over-scheduled days – Kim John Payne, the founder of the Simplicity Parenting movement, says all of these have contributed to kids under too much pressure. Here's a look at his recipe for change.
Published: 03/20/2012 by Robert Moskowitz in Child Care
When it comes to "green" living, nothing poses a bigger dilemma for environmentally-conscious parents than what type of diaper to use on your baby. Here's a dispassionate look at the diaper, in all its forms, and which type is better for the Earth.
Published: 03/20/2012 by Irene Middleman Thomas in Work & Family
Rebecca Lobo made her name as a star player in women's basketball. These days she's a mom of three and a sportscaster for ESPN. Here's what she has to say about work, motherhood and sports.
About 100 people, including children, die of allergic reactions in the U.S. each year, and epinephrine is amazingly effective in preventing this. The EpiPen is easy to use – learn how so that you too can prevent food allergy deaths.
Published: 01/21/2012 by Penny Schwartz in Education
Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day debuted 50 years ago and changed children's literature forever. It was the first time an African American child was depicted in a children's picture book. Here's a closer look at this classic. | <urn:uuid:b4bdb861-e7ee-4fd2-9861-45559a4e2f75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boston.parenthood.com/article/search/Gifted+and+Talented/page/6 | 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 | 0.962913 | 436 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Egypt votes in final round of controversial draft constitution
By Ben Brumfield and Amir Ahmed, CNN
(CNN) — Across the river from Cairo, in its twin city of Giza, voters stood in line for blocks Saturday in the second round of balloting on the country’s controversial draft constitution.
At one women-only polling station, lines snaked for about a kilometer.
Victory appears likely for Egypt’s controversial document once the referendum is complete.
The first round of polling last week included more liberal provinces — Cairo for example — and produced an unofficial result of 56.6% in favor of the national charter, according to the ruling Freedom and Justice Party.
Giza residents are considered more conservative than their compatriots across the Nile, and they are not alone.
They are expected to return an even higher number of ballots in favor of the proposed national charter, which was formulated by Islamists supporting embattled President Mohamed Morsy.
More than 6,700 polling stations in 17 provinces opened their doors in the morning to nearly 26 million potential voters. Polls are expected to close them at 7 p.m. local time, according to Egyptian state-run media.
Many of the provinces voting in the second round include popular tourist destinations such as Luxor, the Red Sea and, of course, Giza.
Deep friction in Egypt’s society and institutions has accompanied the draft constitution since its inception and continues.
For a second week, clashes broke out Friday in the coastal Mediterranean city of Alexandria when Muslim Brotherhood protesters in support of a local imam and Morsy were met by opposition demonstrators.
Stones hurtled in the air, leaving 77 injured, according to official news agency Egynews. Riot police got between the marauding groups and fired tear gas, according to state-run Nile TV.
Last week’s confrontation was triggered by the imam’s call urging demonstrators to back the draft constitution.
The big turnout in Alexandria — Egypt’s second most populous city and a stronghold of conservative Muslims — appears to have made a big difference in tilting the preliminary results toward a ‘yes’ vote, Freedom and Justice Party members said.
Voting has been tainted by allegations of widespread abuses leveled by a coalition of 123 local rights groups that monitored last week’s voting. The nation’s electoral commission has said it will investigate the complaints of voter intimidation, bribery and other violations.
Turnout has burgeoned both weeks and led to the extension of polling by four hours in the first round. Security has been tight, and polling has proceeded peacefully.
Each station will count its votes after closing and hand in its official tally immediately to the Supreme Electoral Commission, according to state news agency MENA.
Once the sum of votes is taken, the commission will publicize the total results from both rounds in a news conference at a yet unannounced time.
Critics of the draft constitution feel it was passed too quickly. Liberals, Christians and other minority opposition groups feel like they were excluded from the Constituent Assembly and that the wording does not include their voices. They want a new assembly.
Opposition members are suspicious the charter uses vague language and will not guarantee the rights of the people that Egyptians fought for during a revolution that unseated President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Supporters of the draft constitution herald what they say is its protection of personal rights, especially its provisions on handling of detainees in the judicial system, which made capricious use of its powers under the former government.
International rights group Human Rights Watch has said the draft constitution “protects some rights but undermines others.” It “fails to end military trials of civilians or to protect freedom of expression and religion.”
The rocky road to the referendum began when judges threatened to shut down the assembly tasked with drafting the constitution. Morsy then issued an edict in late November declaring all of his past and present decisions immune from judicial review until the holding of the constitutional referendum.
He also sacked the head of the judiciary. The judicial system has many in its ranks who are loyal to Mubarak.
The Islamist president’s opposition saw the exceptional moves as a grab for dictatorial powers and poured into the streets, converting Tahrir Square in central Cairo back into the center of public discontent it had been during the uprising that brought down Mubarak.
The president dropped his decree, but the situation remained tense. Violence raged, producing incidents that have raised the ire of international human rights groups, though these have not been systematic, as was the case under the former government.
The outcome of the election is important to the stability of volatile North Africa and the Middle East — where Egypt is a key player. | <urn:uuid:d6bf90f2-2bcf-468f-ad8c-4fdf38f911c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wtvr.com/2012/12/22/egypt-votes-in-final-round-of-controversial-draft-constitution/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961536 | 976 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Biotechnology stocks were up about 12% over the past 12 months through February 2011, underperforming the Nasdaq, which was up 29%. The NYSE Arca Biotech ETF did better, up 23%. Since the recent market bottom in August, the Nasdaq composite outperformed biotech by more than 12%.
Biotech stocks can catch up in 2011 as many new products are expected to launch. Moreover, the clinical pipeline is robust with more than 2,000 products in Phase II or later and almost 5,000 in Phase I and later. In addition, M&A activity should continue as larger cap companies with strong balance sheets acquire technology and pipeline. One major issue is whether new technologies can address therapeutic needs in a cost-effective manner and obtain HHS and CMS reimbursement.
Over the past 20 years, breakthrough technologies in the life sciences have resulted in over $50 billion in new product sales. Monoclonal antibody technology still accounts for most of the multibillion dollar biological products such as Avastin for cancer and Remicade and Humira for rheumatoid arthritis. Data provided by Kalorama Information for 2009 shows that revenue for the top biotechnology products was $51.3 billion (Table).
Of these top biotechnology products, most are indicated for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Over 60 late-stage biotech products have revenue potential of $13 billion in 2015. Recombinant engineered (rDNA) cell lines offer a vast portfolio of products for new vaccines, gene therapy, and monoclonal antibodies with 25 major products expected in the 2011 launch cycle such as Human Genome Sciences’ belimumab for lupus and Amgen’s denosumab for oncology.
Scientific themes and clinical milestones drive investors’ interest in addition to top-line revenue growth. Many emerging technologies are coming on the market in 2011 and will have a major market impact in the intermediate term.
Two very promising technologies that have excited both Wall Street and scientists are antisense and RNA interference (RNAi). After more than ten years and billions of dollars in development, these technologies have had a number of clinical and business setbacks but are still being aggressively funded at about $250 million per year. Two companies that are highly focused in these areas are Isis Pharmaceuticals for antisense and Alnylam for RNAi.
A major breakthrough in the treatment of prostate cancer was FDA approval of Dendreon’s Provenge after more than 10 years of R&D and $1 billion in funding. The product is on the market with forecasts in the $375 million range for 2011, with potential peak revenues at $4 billion.
Provenge is an active cellular immunotherapy utilizing the patient’s own cells to elicit an immune response to destroy cancer cells. Additional products are in the Phase I pipeline to treat breast, ovarian, and colon cancers targeting the Her2/neu receptor.
The company recently completed $500 million in funding through a convertible debt offering and is expanding its manufacturing in the U.S and Europe. The cost for Provenge treatment in the U.S. is $93,000/year but reimbursement in Europe may be lower. EU approval is expected in early 2012.
One big cost advantage of Provenge over other cancer treatments such as chemotherapy is that it requires less supportive care to treat side effects. As the drug gains acceptance the focus will shift to cost effectiveness and life extension now pegged as much as 10 months longer than patients not treated.
A September 2010 Kalorama Information report estimates the cancer vaccine market for 2011 at $2.2 billion, it is forecasted to grow to $7.7 billion in 2015 driven by the approval of Provenge.
The major indications for cancer vaccines will be prostate and cervical cancer, with Dendreon expected to dominate the prostate market with 93% share or $5.9 billion in 2015. Cervical cancer vaccines to prevent HPV infection currently on the market—Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline) and Gardasil (Merck)—are preventive not therapeutic, and are forecasted at $1.8 billion in 2015. This forecast may be low as a higher incidence of HPV is now being reported in males.
OncoThyreon’s Stimuvax therapeutic vaccine utilizes a cancer-associated marker called MUC-1 in a liposomal formulation (BLP25) to create an immune response. Two Phase III trials are under way initially for non-small-cell lung cancer. The product is being funded and developed by Merck KGaA under a license from OncoThyreon.
Geron is in a Phase II trial with an autologous dendritic cell vaccine targeting telomerase in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia.
Vaccinogen has four fast-tracked products in clinical trials using its OncoVAX platform for indications in colon cancer, melanoma, and renal carcinoma. A Phase IIIa trial in the Netherlands demonstrated efficacy with stage 2 colon cancer patients. OncoVAX utilizes the patients own tumor cells patient to create an immune T-cell response capable of destroying cancer cells.
Oxford BioMedica has technologies in gene delivery and immunotherapy. The 5T4 tumor antigen, a unique protein found in many cancers, is utilized in the company’s TroVax therapeutic vaccine currently in a Phase II trial for prostate cancer. An antibody program is also under development. | <urn:uuid:1fb95a1f-a94f-4ec8-9435-bd4db9166e8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genengnews.com/gen-articles/innovations-continue-to-drive-market-gains/3615/?kwrd=HCV | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938807 | 1,115 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Chuck, the type you mention is pretty old, just past the ones you heat in boiling water and bite into. The next stage, which comes before the one described in this article, is what I've got. I bite into some truly disgusting gloppy pink stuff in a form and almost choke on it for a minute or two while it's hardening--but that's only the mold. Then I wait two weeks while a lab does I don't know what--twiddle their thumbs?--and then I get the clear plastic, looking just like the one in the photo to this story. The one described here would be a lot better than what I've got for the speed alone, and much better than the earlier-stage ones (I've used them, too).
I'm waiting with bated breath for this to come to dentists for mouth-guards. Two weeks, the standard time for making them from molds, is much too long if you're having trouble sleeping due to snoring or teeth grinding.
3D scanning is a critical part of this whole effort. With it, companies like Fight-Bite no longer have to go through the time consuming and messy mold making process required by mouth guards and other products. The customization angle is huge--that's why this has traditionally been a manual, one-off development process.
In a world that's going green, industrial operations have a problem: Their processes involve materials that are potentially toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive. If improperly managed, this can precipitate dangerous health and environmental consequences.
Government regulations, coupled with growing consumer sensitivity about data and identity theft, require that data storage organizations demonstrate proper protection and due diligence in protecting sensitive information stored inside datacenter enclosures.
When a crane doesn't have a monitoring system, crane owners schedule service every six months and simply scrap the parts they replace, even if a part has had little use and doesn't need replacing. This can cost thousands.
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is | <urn:uuid:727de671-171f-4014-9764-a8a918898ca7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1365&f_src=designnews_sitedefault&doc_id=251787&image_number=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951865 | 537 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Posted October 20, 2003 Atlanta
Communications and Marketing
Contact David Terraso
When Georgia Tech needed one million square feet of new space, President G. Wayne Clough looked across the Interstate that had divided the university from Midtown Atlanta 50 years earlier and saw an opportunity to reconnect the city to his alma mater. With the Midtown business district experiencing a comeback and Tech needing new space for its management school, research centers and business incubators, the Fifth Street corridor was the perfect location to realize Clough's vision of a new kind of campus. It's a vision that erases the traditional boundaries between town and gown by blending academic and research space into a mixed-use office, residential and retail neighborhood. Now that the project is nearing completion, Georgia Tech's $256 million investment in Technology Square is beginning to transform the once empty section of Midtown into an energetic and vibrant community.
Occupying one-and-a-half million square feet on 13.3 acres along Fifth Street in Midtown, Georgia Tech's Technology Square is the new home of the DuPree College of Management, the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center, the Economic Development Building and the Global Learning Center, a professional education and technology communications center. Also included is 17,676 square feet of ground-level retail, plus a 55,000 square feet Barnes and Noble at Georgia Tech. The construction of the complex was overseen by development manager Jones Lang LaSalle, which provided initial market feasibility studies, highest and best-use analyses, design consultation, budgets and schedules for the entire Technology Square project.
The privately owned Centergy at Technology Square occupies the north side of Fifth Street. Developed in coordination with Georgia Tech's buildings, Centergy is host to Georgia Tech's Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) along with three other Georgia Tech research centers and a host of retail and office tenants. With two upscale apartment and condominium complexes only a block away, Technology Square provides residents in the neighborhood with a wide range of entertainment and retail options.
"Technology Square reintegrates Georgia Tech into the physical and intellectual life of the city, making it a place where students, business people and faculty all meet on the streets. We're familiar with the saying that innovation occurs at the water cooler. This is a model where innovation occurs at the sidewalk," said Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the architecture program at Tech's College of Architecture.
There was a time when blurring the line between campus and city would have been unheard of. Fueled by fears of crime and urban decay during the 1960s and 1970s, new universities were choosing to locate in the suburbs, while urban universities like Georgia Tech, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania actively sought to insulate their campuses from the city. But now, as downtowns across America are experiencing a rebirth, universities like Tech are opening themselves up to become an active part of the communities they once feared.
In the 1980s, universities started to get more involved in controlling their environments, said Dunham-Jones. Princeton bought the adjacent Palmer Square and made it into an even more upscale retail area. Stanford created Silicon Valley as a business incubator in an office park setting. And, in the late 1990s, Penn turned a barren and crime-ridden section in the center of campus into a lively street with retail. Now, Georgia Tech is blending those approaches by creating a brand new neighborhood, moving its research centers and incubators from the office parks and weaving them into the community with ground-level retail, restaurants and academic space.
"Every single university started looking at what Stanford did with incubators in Silicon Valley. Now, more people want to be in the city. Start-up businesses that want to attract the new knowledge workers have to be in the city to attract young employees like new Georgia Tech grads," said Dunham-Jones.
The benefits Tech Square brings to the university are many, said Clough. "First, it reclaims an area adjacent to our campus that was deteriorating in such a way to pose a threat to us. It links us to Midtown and bridges the gap created by the construction of the freeway. It provides much-needed new facilities for our academic programs and visitors to our campus. The retail outlets represent an important step in creating a 'college-town' feel to our campus. And, finally, it creates a highly visible signature development stating that the heart of the technology community is here," he said.
Tech's move into Midtown gives the DuPree College of Management neighbors that include BellSouth, Bank of America, the Federal Reserve and a host of businesses in the renovated Biltmore Hotel. The school hopes to use its geographical connection to boost relationships with those companies through educational partnerships and internships. Employees at area businesses will be able to use the resources at Tech Square, from the executive education classes at the College of Management and the guest suites and meeting space at the hotel to the distance learning technology at the Global Learning Center.
"We're delighted that Technology Square is in place. Georgia Tech's integration into Midtown will provide the impetus for growth and development that leads to jobs and new economic development initiatives that will benefit not just the city, but the region and the state," said Kim King, president of Kim King Associates, developer of Centergy at Technology Square.
A Public Space
In 1997, Midtown Atlanta was undergoing tremendous change. Once a busy business district, the neighborhood fell on hard times in the 1960s. Fueled by the efforts of the Midtown Alliance and the Midtown Improvement District, parts of Midtown were experiencing a resurgence, but the section that was to become Tech Square was on the fringes of this redevelopment. A collection of parking lots and warehouses with a few isolated businesses here and there, the area was ripe for improvement. "Live, work and play" was becoming the mantra of developers intent on increasing their projects' profitability by creating pedestrian-friendly mixed-use developments that combined residential space with office and retail. Clough and the Georgia Tech Foundation realized the university could meet its demand for new space while taking advantage of this new environmental trend in order to reunite Georgia Tech with its neighbors.
"We pride ourselves on having one of the world's most advanced curricula and research programs in sustainable technology. It is only right that we walk the walk as well as talk the talk," explained Clough.
At the same time, private developers like Jim Borders and Kim King, both Tech alumni, were eyeing space in Midtown. The relatively inexpensive land and a commitment from a major university to develop the south side of Fifth Street made their decisions easier.
"Georgia Tech's decision to cross the interstate definitely had an influence on my decision to buy the Biltmore," said Borders. "What it has done for us is that the Biltmore is no longer on the fringe. It's now in the middle of all that is happening in Midtown."
"The vision that a number of us had was to utilize a significant portion of land to try to create a new environment that could tap into the energy that exists in Midtown. It was really Wayne Clough's vision to jump the divide of the Interstate," said King.
King agreed to develop the north side of Fifth Street, while Tech developed the south side. Coordinating the architecture and streetscape design of both projects would go a long way toward achieving the neighborhood feel both wanted. Wide, tree-lined sidewalks with benches and bike racks along with bike lanes, ground-level retail and proximity to MARTA would make the area a draw for the public. A new alternative-fueled trolley would help ferry students from the main campus and provide free transportation to the public to the Midtown MARTA station.
"The attention to streetscapes, walkable tree-lined streets, all of that is extremely important to the value of the neighborhood, especially in a city like Atlanta, where that is rare," said the College of Architecture's Dunham-Jones. "It conveys a very important sense of this development as a community. This is a model that's about getting people out into the public space."
Providing the opportunity for students, business executives, researchers and the public to mingle is part of what made the partnership so attractive, said King. "In the modern era, human contact is very limited. People go from the car to their house, and they don't see their neighbors. This was an opportunity to allow people to do something they enjoy, which is to interact with others. It was crucial for us to capture that," he said.
Key to this plan is the DuPree College of Management building, which features a large, glass-fronted courtyard that is open to the public. The building design provides pedestrians a view inside the college. From the interior, views of the surrounding streets connect students and faculty with the outside world. Because the building's entrance is set back from West Peachtree, the streetscape is open to natural light, preventing the street from feeling like an alley. Similar features that emphasize pedestrian activities are incorporated into the other buildings in the development. A planned park on top of the Interstate will help complete the area's transformation from urban blight to bustling and attractive mixed-use neighborhood.
Borders predicts Technology Square will help spur development up and down the Spring and West Peachtree corridor for years to come. "Georgia Tech has shown this is a great corridor," he said. "Instead of walking east when you leave the Biltmore, now you want to walk west. In my mind, it's the best view in Midtown Atlanta," he said. | <urn:uuid:5ca30e58-6690-4811-8975-26ed6046236c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=83121 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967834 | 1,961 | 1.578125 | 2 |
I don’t know if I’m mistaken, but I see OWLS everywhere I go, including the internet. Is there an OWLmania or something? Everything is owl-inspired. The fashion industry started years ago to work with animal prints on clothes and I guess it was a success. I’m not talking about out-of-fashion leopard and zebra designs… I’m talking about the last 6 months, during which I’ve realized that OWLS have become very trendy.
So last week I got a pair of owl earrings and I really like them!
Owls were a huge trend in the 1970s, and some people have the theory that the Marc Jacobs Fall collection is the reason that owl motifs have re-appeared. Since then, they have been popping up everywhere. I bought my first shirt with 4 owls wearing glasses sitting on a tree at H&M eight months ago and I really like it… makes me look kinda intellectual. And in one of LA’s leading home decor shops I found a wide range of owl items. An owl as a home accessory? Why not?
I use Hootsuite to organize my social media tools and schedule my tweets and facebook posts – and they have an Owl as their mascot/logo. They recognized the upcoming trend
Owls are known as very wise and smart animals, but I don’t actually know why they have this reputation. I have never seen an owl doing anything smart, besides sitting on a branch and observing their food. To me, an owl looks like an aged, bored and angry woman with a bewitching stare. Cute, also a little evil… but what makes them so amazing?
Let’s see what Wikipedia says, then check in on some of the owl designs and prints I have seen in the past few weeks.
Wikipedia: Owls have large forward-facing eyes and ear-holes; a hawk-like beak; a flat face; and usually a conspicuous circle of feathers, a facial disc, around each eye. The feathers making up this disc can be adjusted in order to sharply focus sounds that come from varying distances onto the owls’ asymmetrically placed ear cavities. Owls can rotate their heads and necks as much as 270 degrees in either direction. As owls are farsighted, they are unable to see clearly anything within a few centimeters of their eyes. Caught prey can be felt by owls with the use of filoplumes — like feathers on the beak and feet that act as “feelers”. Their far vision, particularly in low light, is exceptionally good.
Clockwise from top left: White Owl Book Ends by Z-Gallerie, Girls T-Shirt by Forever21.com, Hootsuite.com Logo Owl, My new Owl Earrings, Owl bag by Mary Frances at shoes-handbags.hsn.com, Children’s Vinyl Wall Nursery with Owls at Etsy.com and the Owl Plush for Kids at Pottery Barn for Kids. | <urn:uuid:505dd0d4-9ce9-4fc8-9474-d7ed71bf09ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.packpeople.com/owls-everywhere-whats-happening/ | 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 | 0.969654 | 643 | 1.53125 | 2 |
TERRE HAUTE — Efforts to create a business incubator and accelerator in Vigo County for rural health care and life science companies took a step forward Wednesday with a grant from Duke Energy, combined with funding from various organizations and the State of Indiana.
In addition, Duke Energy also provided a grant to reimburse the Vigo County Redevelopment Commission for a land survey to subdivide property that once housed Pfizer’s Exubera plant, south of Terre Haute. That land is being called the Vigo County Industrial Park II.
The grants totaled $30,000.
Duke Energy provided $10,000 to the Rural Health Innovation Collaborative (RHIC), formed in 2008 to address the shortage of health care providers in rural areas.
The $26,300 study, which started last week and is expected to be completed by the end of June, is also being funded with $13,150 from the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
The remaining $3,150 is funded through Union Hospital, the Terre Haute Economic Development Corp. and the Indiana State University Foundation. ISU’s Center for Business Support and Economic Innovation will act as lead agent for the study with center director Christopher Pfaff as its coordinator.
Pfaff said the feasibility study will look at four sections, the first being the number of potential business startups that could be tenants of an incubator/accelerator. “Then, look at best practices from other business incubators and accelerators. Then also look at potential sites, whether greenfield sites or exiting businesses for reuse,” Pfaff said.
“Then finally, the study will take a look at potential funding sources,” he said.
Pfaff said some former Pfizer workers who have formed a testing company could be an example of companies that a business accelerator could help, including potentially locating on former Pfizer property.
“One of our client companies is Midwest Compliance Laboratories, or MC Labs, which is a group of former Pfizer employees that came together to start their own testing laboratory,” Pfaff said, adding that the company has six full-time employees.
“I think we will look at both emerging companies and companies that are already started up, but really are at that crossroads where they need to make the next level expansion. I think in this market we will not just look at pure startups, but those emerging companies that have already organized like MC Labs…” Pfaff said.
Richard “Biff” Williams, dean of Indiana State University’s College of Nursing, Health and Human Services and chairman of the RHIC facilities committee, said “one of the purposes of RHIC is to increase the economy and bring in new businesses. By doing that, we want to create new businesses in rural health,” Williams said.
“Right now, there is an extreme shortage in physicians, nurses and health care professionals in rural communities,” he added.
“I think this incubator can address what new businesses are needed in the rural area that can provide better health care. Telemedicine is one thing we are looking at, and also looking at information technology,” Williams said.
“Everybody is going to electronic medical records, but if you look at these [rural family medical practices], they can’t afford that,” he said.
“It could also be training of staff, where they create a software so that nurses can train themselves. They will need to be trained if they are sending X-rays to, say, Union Hospital from Sullivan County. A family practice physician may not want to spring $100,000 on a staff member to use that technology, so maybe there is a business that provides that,” Williams said.
Duke Energy provided $20,000 to the Vigo County Redevelopment Commission, reimbursing the commission for a land survey.
Steve Witt, president of the Terre Haute Economic Development Corp., said the former PSI Energy, which later became part of Duke Energy, provided funding in 1988 for the first feasibility study for the current Vigo County Industrial Park.
The property survey to subdivide the former Pfizer property is the first step in developing a new industrial park Witt called the Vigo County Industrial Park II.
Witt said the Corradino Group, the county’s consulting engineer, has already done the survey and new plats were approved last month by the Vigo County Plan Commission. “The survey is the basis for everything we go forward with when we go to sell property and make infrastructure work,” Witt said.
Mike Heaton, regional economic development manager at Duke, called it “one of the premiere properties in the state of Indiana,” citing a recent site selection trip he made to Dallas, Texas. Heaton said one consultant already knew of the location “and was impressed with the building and the property associated with it.”
“We are interested in entrepreneurship for the state of Indiana and feel like new business startup is really the future. It is a long-term strategy in economic development,” Heaton said.
“Healthy communities translate to a healthy utility company, so whenever there is viable business in Terre Haute or other communities in Indiana, it translates into a healthy utility company, so that is why we are interested in business startups in this region,” he said.
Heaton added that in general, 85 percent of business startups remain within a community where they started.
Duke Energy’s Indiana operations provide about 6,800 megawatts of electrical capacity to about 780,000 customers, making it the state’s largest electricity supplier.
Duke Energy is one of the five largest electric power holding companies in the United States. Its regulated utility operations serve about 4 million customers in five states – North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky – representing a population of about 11 million people.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:6b4fa7b4-8acd-4915-a851-b3b900265663> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tribstar.com/local/x1897233294/Rural-health-business-incubator-efforts-for-Vigo-County-get-financial-boost/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957914 | 1,274 | 1.609375 | 2 |
A search showed that all names listed appeared in County Kerry. Believe Mary Quinlan born abt 1830 in Ireland died 1903 Mobile Alabama, Came to USA with sister Honora Keefe and her Husband John. Father was Patrick Quinlan,Mother Mary Fenton. Believe Patrick's father was William. Mary Fenton's mother was Honora Buckley. William Quinlan's wife might have been a Tierney or O'Connor. Trying to confirm this information. | <urn:uuid:dd5265b8-d472-4746-8dfa-e0a645d25262> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.britisles.ireland.ker.general/751/mb.ashx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967509 | 92 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Health Protection Agency has confirmed a middle-aged man is being treated at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester with a potentially fatal sars-like virus.
The UK resident returned from Saudi Arabia at the end of last month before falling ill on January 31st.
He was transferred to Wythenshawe at some point in the last few days after being infected with a new type of coronavirus.
The latest case of the condition is only the second confirmed in the UK, and the tenth worldwide. All those that have contracted the disease had recently visited the Middle East.
The HPA says there the man's family is showing no symptoms of the virus, and confirmed there is so far no evidence to suggest it can be passed from person-to-person.
Five of the ten people that have being diagnosed with coronavirus have died. | <urn:uuid:0c37977b-9981-4ed3-b826-ff7b91c4fbef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itv.com/news/granada/topic/coronavirus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972283 | 174 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Using Lexipedia you can visually map out words and concepts in a clean and friendly interface. No more thumbing through a dictionary, or fumbling through a single-word search; with Lexipedia you can see related words, synonyms, antonyms and fuzzynyms. And best of all, it's absolutely free!
affording satisfaction or pleasure; "the company was enjoyable"; "found her praise gratifying"; "full of happiness and pleasurable excitement"; "good printing makes a book more pleasurable to read"
conforming to your own liking or feelings or nature; "Is the plan agreeable to you?"; "he's an agreeable fellow"; "My idea of an agreeable person...is a person who agrees with me"- Disraeli; "an agreeable manner" | <urn:uuid:7b02b69b-3256-40bd-835f-89b3bcd808c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lexipedia.com/english/appreciated | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937817 | 162 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Filed under: Preparation & Readiness, Traveling Tips, Uncategorized
Economical Travel With Pets
By Karen Brucoli Anesi
As families plan summer vacations part of those plans often include pets, and their accommodation for the trip, and weighing the costs, benefits and alternatives. If you are reading this blog, chances are good that you are a pet owner. And most pet owners have experience with deciding whether to leave the dog at home with a dog sitter, kennel the dog in a boarding facility or take the pet with them.
Camping with your pet is often (but not always) the most economical choice. While cost should not drive the decision whether your dog travels with you, for many families, the additional cost of pet care can be the vacation deal breaker.
So what are the real costs?
First of all, the campground may charge a pet fee or impose certain restrictions on breeds and sizes of dogs. The time to find out is before you make your reservation. Make no assumptions and ask questions about pet policies and management expectations.
Visit the Vet
Before traveling with any pet—especially when leaving your home base—a trip to the vet may be in order. Wherever dogs gather, “kennel cough” is a possibility. A bordetella inoculation is a good idea. Dogs that have not been tested for heartworm may need to be tested and then placed on proper preventative medication. If you are living in the far northern parts of the United States, heartworm may not be a problem. But where mosquitoes are plentiful, heartworm is epidemic. If your dog contracts heartworm, the prolonged care and cost of treatment can be quite expensive. Better to be safe than sorry.Proof of rabies inoculation is required at most campgrounds. If you have not kept good records, costs can be incurred reproducing and assembling records.
A Test Run
Most families who travel with pets would have it no other way. Leaving them would not seem like a vacation. But just as no two dogs are alike, no prescription for canine campground happiness holds true for all dogs. It’s probably a good idea to take your dog on a brief camping trip closer to home to learn how he reacts to kids, other pets, or strange surroundings, before embarking on a cross-country adventure. Some dogs who may not be bothered by thunder and lightning, will be fearful of inclement weather when their home is the family RV. If you have to camp with an unhappy pet, the whole family could end up unhappy.
The bottom line is to treat your pet like a family member. Crating a dog for many hours, leaving him alone in an RV while the family is off sightseeing or stressing the pet in any fashion, means stress for all. Most campers say dogs add fun and appreciation to camping trips because of their natural love for the outdoors and that the costs are small, compared to the benefits.
About the Author:
Karen Brucoli Anesi, along with her husband, Frank, own Lock 30 Woodlands, Ohio’s only Best Park in America and the highest-rated campground in the tri state area of Ohio, PA and W. VA. She is a member of the Board of Regents and an instructor for The National School of RV Parks and Campground Management. Karen has a home in Durango, Colorado, where she’s a contributor, former columnist and special assignment reporter for the Durango Herald.
Last 5 posts by Guest Blogger
- Sight Seeing in the Texas Hill Country - December 3rd, 2012
- Gator Park Airboat Tours - November 1st, 2012
- If You Love Golf, Then You Will Love It Here! - October 5th, 2012
- Resort to a New Lifestyle at Bay Bayou RV Resort - Tampa, FL - October 3rd, 2012
- Spectacular Fall Views at Riveredge RV Park in Pigeon Forge - September 7th, 2012 | <urn:uuid:a16c3414-4a6d-4842-8f02-27ac8e60ed2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.woodalls.com/2011/05/economical-travel-with-pets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94211 | 826 | 1.84375 | 2 |
This page explains who can claim asylum in the UK, the requirements you must meet, and how you should make your application.
The UK has a proud tradition of providing a place of safety for genuine refugees. However, we are determined to refuse protection to those who do not need it, and we will take steps to remove those who have no valid grounds to stay here.
The requirements that you must meet if you want to be recognised as a refugee.
Information explaining how and where you should claim asylum.
If you do not qualify for refugee status, we may give you temporary permission to stay for humanitarian or other reasons. | <urn:uuid:18f4a37f-04ab-4891-b6b8-4d1cb4f5e791> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/asylum/claimingasylum/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938919 | 127 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Police action will target aggressive driving
Several Luzerne County police agencies will conduct aggressive-driving enforcement activities starting today as part of a regional coordinated effort.
Police in Wilkes-Barre, Dallas Township, Kingston Township, Laflin, Plains Township and Hazleton, as well as state police, will participate.
Enforcement agencies reminded motorists that holidays are a peak time for traffic crashes and advised of some commonsense rules to stay safe on the roads. First, buckle up and make sure everyone else does, too. Follow the speed limit and avoid other aggressive driving behaviors. Never drive impaired and avoid all distractions including cell phones.
The enforcement wave will run through Dec. 31 with 330 municipal and state police agencies participating. More than 380 roadways statewide will be targeted in this effort to reduce aggressive driving related crashes, injuries and deaths. Agencies will target motorists exhibiting aggressive-driving behaviors such as speeding and driving too fast for conditions. Enforcement details will also be looking for distracted drivers.
The aggressive-driving enforcement is a part of the Pennsylvania Aggressive Driving Enforcement and Education Project and is funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's statewide investment of $2.3 million in federal funds from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. | <urn:uuid:aa79573d-3d44-4729-9391-ec854d4a655b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citizensvoice.com/news/police-action-will-target-aggressive-driving-1.1412991 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941115 | 248 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Lora Lucero In Gaza: Drones and Bombing
A guest blog from Lora Lucero who has been living in Gaza for several weeks now. Lora has her own blog of her journey in Gaza, you can follow her here.
A sleepless night last night as we sat together at home in the center of Gaza City. Earlier in the afternoon, Israel had assassinated the #1 military chief of Hamas, a targeted killing as they had promised they would do. But everyone expected more, and we got it.
Explosions every 5-10 minutes throughout the night. Some were far away and some were a couple of blocks from our house. Those shook the building and broke the glass. Today there is plenty of glass everywhere.
Living in Gaza for 7 weeks now, I have learned the sound of drones and F-16s. Last night I heard plenty of those, in addition to the bombs.
I have been blogging, posting on Facebook and just learning how to Tweet. When we have electricity (as we do now because someone has turned on the building's generator) I try to send updates.
A number of people have asked me "why are the Palestinians sending rockets into southern Israel. Aren't they asking for a response? Doesn't Israel have a right to defend itself?"
I urge Americans to put this in context. Col. Ann Wright described the recent chronology of events, which I included here. http://loralucero.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/put-israels-assault-in-gaza-in-context/
I don't want to justify violence from either side, but the equities in this situation should be understood.
Israel is an occupying power with the best weapons in the world thanks to American tax dollars ($3 billion per year).
Palestinians in Gaza have some home-made rockets. The Palestinian children who were killed playing football (soccer) had no weapons, and one was shot in the stomach - like target practice.
Israelis living in southern Israel near the hostilities have a choice. They can evacuate to a safer location.
Gazans have nowhere to go. This is one of the most dense locations in the world, with families squeezed in very tight quarters. They have no choice but to sit tight and hope the bombs don't fall on them.
I am very disappointed in Obama's canned response --- that Israel has a right to defend itself.
Of course, both sides have a right to live in peace and security, but Obama's response is not helpful to anyone in the region. The Arab League, Egypt, Russia, France, Turkey, and many other countries have expressed concern and outrage for Israel's deliberate carnage in Gaza. I hope Americans realize that the community of nations understands the dynamics in the Middle East, and our willful ignorance in the U.S. is disgraceful.
Please call or write our new U.S. Senator Heinrich and help educate him.
Thank you from Gaza.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Hate Speech or a Courageous Warning?
By contributing writer, Lora Lucero.
Hate speech or a courageous warning? Depending on who you speak with, that’s what we heard at the University of New Mexico on Thursday, Feb. 23. Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian-American who founded Arabs for Israel, was invited by the UNM Israel Alliance to talk about “Why the Arab Spring is Failing and How Israel is Involved.” Her speech was interrupted half-way through by several young people in the back of the auditorium who attempted to “mic check” her in protest. Yelling erupted as a number of audience members rushed to the protesters -- pushing, punching and pulling a protester’s hair.
I thought I was prepared. Having read about Islamophobia for years, and followed high profile cases such as the Park 51 controversy in lower Manhattan, Darwish’s speech should not have shocked me. As a land use lawyer, I’ve written and co-edited a book on religious intolerance and how it plays out in the local government permitting process. RLUIPA Reader: Religious Land Uses, Zoning and the Courts. Nonie Darwish’s speech, however, crossed the hate speech line for me.
What is hate speech? I’m not a constitutional scholar, but I consider words (spoken or written), pictures or any type of communication that incites violence against an individual or group because of their race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation, for example, as hate speech. Inciting violence doesn’t require an explicit call to violence. Sowing the seeds of fear, distrust and anger which can predictably lead to violence, constitutes hate speech in my book.
Nonie Darwish never said “go kill Muslims” or “burn down the Mosque.” She prefaced her remarks by saying that she was “not here to talk about people, not to criticize a religion, but an ideology.” She said “if a religion expands itself so much that it becomes the state – a religious state which has a religious legal system (Sharia law), and the religious state has a military institution called jihad” – then it is fair game to expose it and offer criticism. At that point, I wondered if the audience would listen respectfully to a presentation about Israel, a religious state with a military institution (the Israel Defense Forces) that wages war against civilians in the Occupied Territories.
The Arab Spring is destined to fail, Darwish asserts, because of what she calls the inherent conflict between the Islamic political system and Sharia law. Although not introduced as a legal or religious scholar, Darwish frequently cited to page numbers of various texts as she proclaimed that Sharia law authorizes a violent overthrow of leaders, and a whole host of other really nasty things.
I came home after the presentation still shaking and started to post some of her more inflammatory comments on Facebook. As soon as I typed the words, I erased them, concerned that I might unintentionally be the conduit for violence. I didn’t want to offend my Muslim friends, and I didn’t want to be tainted with that hateful speech which made me feel dirty after typing them.
Who is this woman? Nonie Darwish was born in Egypt in 1949. Her father was a high-ranking Egyptian military officer stationed with his family in Gaza and killed by Israel when Nonie was only eight. She immigrated to the United States in 1978 with her husband, became an Evangelical Christian and conservative Republican, and gained notoriety after she wrote “Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror.” She regularly speaks on university campuses.
She says she wants to warn Westerners about the “dangers of Islam” and “expose Sharia law.” She is very familiar with how her controversial remarks are received by some people, disclosing that there is a fatwa on her life for speaking against Islam, but her speaking tour is a way of “thanking America” for taking her in after she “escaped Egypt.”
A rational, thoughtful adult, even someone who has never been exposed to Islam, would hear her words and question “what’s the other side of the story?” Most people in the audience, however, appeared to be unquestioningly in support of Darwish’s worldview, giving her several standing ovations.
Every mainstream religion has its extremists, its radical fundamentalists who will resort to violence in the name of religion. Google “Christian terrorism” or consider the Jewish settlers in Hebron in the West Bank or recall the Muslim hijackers who flew into the World Trade Center. Each must be condemned, but Nonie Darwish goes far beyond that.
Darwish has painted all Muslims and the entire Islamic faith (at last count there are more than 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide) as extremists who want to make “war on the West.” “A true Muslim must be an enemy of the West,” she declares. “Jihad means a permanent war against Jews, Christians and non-Muslims. Jihad challenges the sovereignty of all non-Muslim countries. Jihad against non-Muslims is required.”
“Lying to a non-Muslim is obligatory,” Darwish claims, “if the purpose [for lying] is obligatory [under Sharia law].” She continues: “The Muslim religion hates the Jewish people. There are pure commandments in the Qur’an to kill Jews.” She also says there is “not one Muslim or Arab organization that teaches tolerance.”
Muslims are burning down churches in the Middle East, consummating marriage with young girls who are 8 years old, enjoying “pleasure marriages for a few hours” which is allowed under Sharia law. After sharing her interpretation of Sharia law as a fait accompli, she noted that “Islam has made Sharia law everything” and “all Muslims who live in the United States want to live under Sharia law.” I found her wild claims were outrageous, but her opinions appeared to carry water with most everyone in this audience at UNM.
Darwish believes that the West is being deceived by its own intellectuals and politicians. She says that “Palestine never existed” (I can guess who she is supporting in the Republican primary). In response to a question from the audience about the two-state solution, she advises that Gaza should be part of Egypt, and the West Bank should be part of Jordan. “If I was in Israel now,” she says, “I would build a fence higher and higher. It is a miracle that Israel can survive.” A great applause from the audience followed this remark.
During the Q & A that followed her presentation (and Darwish said she appreciates challenging questions), one person asked her “if the problem is Sharia law, what is the solution?” She said “first accept there is a problem” but gave no other “solutions.”
An audience member thanked her for “doing God’s work” and said she would go out and purchase all of her books. Another admirer remarked that universities “are not being taken over by the leftists, but by communists.” A third audience member referred back to President Obama’s speech in Cairo when he spoke about “extremism not being the way – but did you see his face when he said it?” This person thought Obama’s face became contorted and that he was tacitly giving his approval of extremism. “His policies are so anti-Israel.”
Professor Richard Wood, a recent past president of the faculty senate, stood to read a statement from Rabbi Flicker withdrawing the B’nai Israel Sisterhood’s support from this event, and rejecting all forms of hate speech. The audience booed him down and even took the microphone away from him.
A young man stood and shared some gruesome details about how his family had been killed, and then revealed they were killed in Lebanon by Israeli soldiers. He called Darwish a bigot and was booed down.
A recent UNM graduate stood and said she traveled to Israel and the West Bank last summer. She saw the “Security Fence” that Israel has built in the West Bank and was sympathetic to the Palestinians living under occupation. The audience booed her down.
Another audience member asked Darwish about her opinion of Israel attacking Iran. She believes the West should be “acting powerfully” in response to the threat that Iran poses. The audience enthusiastically clapped.
Hoping to dispel at least one statement Darwish made, I went to the microphone and shared that I had visited Egypt last summer, and was pleased to see both a Christian church and a Jewish synagogue, neither of which were burning. In her forceful style, she laughed and dismissed my comment as an indication of my naivety. I wish I had had the courage displayed by those young people who attempted the mic check. I should have told Darwish that her Islamophobia is unacceptable at UNM.
I wonder if UNM has a hate speech code. Gerald Uelmen, the former Dean of my law school in California, shared the that “[t]here were approximately 75 hate speech codes in place at U.S. colleges and universities in 1990; by 1991, the number grew to over 300. … [R]eports of campus harassment increased 400 percent between 1985 and 1990. Moreover, 80 percent of campus harassment incidents go unreported.” I suspect the statistics have skyrocketed since 2001.
Thankfully, the U.S. Attorney General’s Office is taking hate speech seriously. In 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder established an Arab-American and Muslim Engagement Advisory Group.
As a witness, I’m going to make a report with the UNM Campus Police on Monday, and I’m going to write to the Department of Justice and file a grievance. Hate speech and Islamophobia must not go unchallenged. The sponsors of Nonie Darwish’s presentation, including the UNM Israel Alliance, the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and Congregation Albert Brotherhood, should renounce this fear-mongering.
Her remarks crossed the line between free speech and hate speech when she smeared an entire religious group (all Muslims worldwide) as fanatics and extremists. She meant to sow fear and distrust of all Muslims. She encouraged the “us versus them” dynamics in her audience, where several members were willing to use physical violence to eject protesters from the auditorium, and grab the microphone away from speakers.
I can’t help but wonder what my Jewish friends and family would think if a speaker was up on stage denouncing Judaism in the way that Darwish denounced Islam. First, they would rightly shout “Anti-Semite!” and then, if they had their wits about them, leave the auditorium and go protest at the University President’s house. I hope those same friends and family will denounce Nonie Darwish as a fear-monger and Islamophobe.
On Sunday, the UNM Students for Justice in Palestine issued the following statement. That same group is conducting a number of educational events this week on campus.
Free Screening of “BUDRUS”
Monday, February 27th @ 7:00PM
UNM Student Union Building Theater (Lower Level)
Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. Struggling side by side, father and daughter unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary chronicling this movement from its infancy, Budrus shines a light on people who choose nonviolence to confront a threat. The movie is directed by award-winning filmmaker Julia Bacha (co-writer and editor of Control Room and co-director Encounter Point), and produced by Bacha, Palestinian journalist Rula Salameh, and filmmaker and human rights advocate Ronit Avni (formerly of WITNESS, Director of Encounter Point). Read more information about the crew and cast.
Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hqYR7OkqL4&feature=player_embedded
Palestinian Field School Panel
Wednesday, February 29th @ 12:00PM
UNM Student Union Building, 3rd floor, Lobo A&B Room
A panel of UNM Students who recently had the chance to visit Palestine this summer as part of an American Studies & Anthropology class on Post-Settler Colonialism will present pictures and testimonies of what they have witnessed during the 14 days that they were there.
Normalization Workshop w/ BEKAH WOLF:
Wednesday, February 29th @ 6:30PM
UNM Student Union Building, 3rd floor, Acoma A&B Room
Palestine Solidarity activist, Bekah Wolf, will present a workshop on the dangers of Normalization. Wolf is a Jewish-American originally from Santa Fe, NM who was an active member of her local synagogue growing up and first visited Palestine as part of a Zionist youth trip in 1998. She became active around Arab, Muslim, and South Asian immigrant rights in New York City particularly in the direct aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. As part of a delegation of Jews Against the Occupation, Bekah returned to Palestine as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement in 2003-2004. In the summer of 2006 she and her now-husband, former political prisoner Mousa Abu Maria, began the Palestine Solidarity Project.
STOP HATRED, STOP ISLAMAPHOBIA PANEL
Friday, March 2nd @ 12:00PM
UNM Student Union Building Atrium (Lower Level)
A panel will speak about the growing rhetoric of Islamaphobia in American Society. The speakers will include Graduate student of Sociology & SJP Member Becky Erickson, Founder of Muslim New Media Mustafa Dill, and the third panelist will be finalized shortly.
WHAT IS BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, AND SANCTIONS?
Friday, March 2nd @ 1:30 PM
UNM Student Union Building Atrium (Lower Level)
Heard about the growing movement called Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions? Not sure what it is? Well come listen and learn about what BDS is and how we’re bringing it to UNM Campus!
For more information please visit: unmsjp.org/iaw or e-mail us at email@example.com
Friday, December 02, 2011
12/8: Chamber Concert Fundraiser for Olive Trees for Palestine & Humanitarian Trip
The information below was provided by organizers for the Palestine Solidarity Trip and the Olive Trees for Palestine Concert Fundraiser:
WHAT: OLIVE TREES for PALESTINE, a chamber music concert to benefit the Palestinian Solidarity Project
WHO: Santa Fe classical musicians, Elena Sopoci and Kerri Lay, violins, Gail Robertson, viola and Dana Winograd, cello, partner with local activists volunteering with Palestine Solidarity Project. The event is also supported by Another Jewish Voice of Santa Fe.
WHEN: Thursday, December 8, 7:00 PM
WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Church of Santa Fe, 107 W. Barcelona Road.
The suggested donation is $20 for adults and $5 for students/youth.
A group of young activists from Santa Fe consisting of educators and students will head to the West Bank this December to volunteer with the Palestine Solidarity Project and participate in the development of a community library and land restoration efforts in Beit Ommar. Beit Ommar is a village in the Southern West Bank that is a consistent target of Israeli military aggression and violent right-wing settlers. The land of Beit Ommar has been seized for the development of illegal Israeli settlements since 1968. It is surrounded on three sides by settlements, including the notoriously violent Bat Ayin settlement.
The purpose of the group’s trip is to bring resources to help replant orchards that have been destroyed by Israeli settlers, as well as to witness the realities of Israeli occupation for the Palestinian people. "We are all engaged in global justice work here in our own community, and we believe it is important to connect our efforts with people’s liberation movements and struggles for democracy and self governance around the world. We plan to document what we learn and integrate it into our teaching and activism here in Santa Fe," says youth organizer Bianca Sopoci-Belknap, who initiated the trip’s planning last spring.
The trip has inspired others in the community to contribute their gifts to raise funds for the people of the West Bank. Four local musicians have decided to offer a benefit concert of interesting and seldom performed chamber music to help raise funds for the replanting of olive groves and library project. "I could either help by writing a relatively small check, or stage an event that could make it possible to raise considerably more money," said Elena Sopoci, violinist and event organizer. Sopoci and fellow musicians Kerri Lay, violinist, Gail Robertson, violist, and Dana Winograd, cellist, are members of local ensembles such as the Santa Fe Symphony, Pro Musica, New Mexico Philharmonic, SF Concert Association Orchestra, Serenata of Santa Fe, and Taos Chamber Music Group.
The concert on Thursday, Dec. 8, at 7:00 PM will be presented at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Santa Fe, 107 W. Barcelona Road. On the program will be Western and Middle-Eastern inspired chamber music for strings. Also, between musical selections, there will be readings of Palestinian/Arabic poetry. Bekah Wolf, a Santa Fe native, now living in Beit Ommar, who is coordinating the upcoming Palestine trip, will give a brief presentation to elaborate on the work of the Palestinian Solidarity Project, which she co-founded with her Palestinian husband in 2006. Another Jewish Voice Santa Fe is also assisting in presenting the event. The suggested donation is $20 for adults and $5 for students/youth.
Palestine Solidarity Project was founded by Palestinians and internationals in the summer of 2006 to build a unified strategy in our communities in order to resist the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian land and lives, and build a network of supporters internationally who are committed to seeing a just, peaceful solution in Palestine.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
12/5: Norman Finkelstein to Speak on the Palestinian Occupation at UNM on Monday
Author and Political Scientist Norman Finkelstein to Speak at UNM, Student Union Building (SUB) Ballroom A and B. Monday, December 5, 2011: from 5:45-7:00 pm. Doors open at 5:15 pm.
This event is FREE but donations will be accepted and will go toward supporting future SJP-UNM educational events regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The Students for Justice in Palestine-UNM (SJP-UNM) is pleased to announce that Norman Finkelstein, political scientist, activist and author will be speaking on the University of New Mexico campus, Finkelstein will speak about the occupation of Palestine and other developments regarding Palestine’s prospects for statehood and peace.
Norman Finkelstein received his doctorate in 1988 from the Department of Politics at Princeton University. For many years he taught political theory and has written and spoken publicly on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Finkelstein is the author of six books that have been translated into more than 40 foreign editions: This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion; Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History; The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering; Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict; A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth (with Ruth Bettina Birn); and The Rise and Fall of Palestine: A Personal Account of the Intifada Years.
Finkelstein has also published several pamphlets, most recently, Goldstone Recants. He is currently working on a new book entitled Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Love Affair with Israel is Coming to an End. Finkelstein currently writes and lectures. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
This event is sponsored by the Students for Justice in Palestine-UNM (SJP-UNM) and made possible by Lannan Foundation. Other campus and community organizations collaborating in this presentation include: the Muslim Students Association-UNM (MSA-UNM); the UNM Peace Studies Program; BDS-NM; the Coalition to Stop $30 billion to Israel; and the Friends of Sabeel Albuquerque (FOSA).
For more information, please email firstname.lastname@example.org or call 505-246-2231.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Lora Lucero Guest Blog: Gaza is the Largest Open-Air Prison in the World
This is a guest blog by Lora Lucero, a long-time resident of Albuquerque, NM and an adjunct professor of law at UNM. She first visited Gaza in 2004 and this year was invited by the Islamic University of Gaza to present a lecture on the subject of climate change, which is the focus of her research and writing.
I'm sitting in Cairo, Egypt trying to break into the largest open-air prison in the world -- Gaza, Palestine. I don't exaggerate. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, John Dugard, and former World Bank President, James Woffensohm, and others have called Gaza an open-air prison.
Nearly 1.6 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, which is 7 miles wide and 35 miles long. It has one of the highest population densities in the world. More than 80,000 people live in the Beach Refugee camp, which is smaller than one square mile. Compare this to only 25,000 people in a square mile of Manhattan, NY.
80% of Gazans are below the age of 50; 50% are below 15. All of the statistics are bad and growing worse -- unemployment, poverty, dependent on food aid -- the U.N. says 80%.
Gaza has only two border crossings for people to enter and exit: the Erez crossing on the north with Israel and the Rafah crossing on the south with Egypt. Up until former President Mubarak was ousted in February this year, Israel effectively held the key to both crossings. Mubarak did Israel's bidding; and in exchange, Israel offered Mubarak asylum, which he refused. During this transition period in Egypt, many are trying to learn what new rules Egypt might enforce at Rafah. Will Egypt continue to be the ruthless jail keeper or provide some hope for the thousands of Palestinians who want a normal life?
Many have been turned away from the border crossings -- both foreigners and Palestinians -- for what seem to be very arbitrary reasons. Rumors spread like wildfire. An aid convoy of trucks from Scotland has been parked at the side of the road for weeks now, waiting to get permission to enter Gaza.
I was turned away on my first attempt to cross Rafah, and so I returned to Cairo to see how the US Embassy might help. Although my Congressman sent a request to his contacts in the State Department about my travel plans, the US Embassy in Cairo told me that no one has any influence or authority at the Rafah crossing but Egypt.
The US Embassy refused to call or send any request to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on my behalf, but they did issue a notarized affidavit warning me that I should not travel to Gaza and if I did, I was on my own. The US Embassy made itself perfectly clear -- it would not help me in Gaza. For that souvenir, I paid $50 US.
So I headed over to the Egyptian Ministry on my own to meet with Mr. Sharef, who I was told is in charge of Palestinian Affairs. Without an appointment, I was out of luck. One week and nineteen calls later, I struck gold (I think). I was invited to meet with Dina working in the office of Palestinian Affairs.
She informed me that Mr. Sharef had just moved on to another position. She asked me why I want to visit Gaza. "I've been invited by the Islamic University of Gaza," I said, and showed her my letter of invitation. She said the US Embassy must send over a written request, but I explained that I had tried and was not getting any help from the US Embassy.
Dina made a photocopy of my passport, my letter from the university, and my affidavit from the US Embassy, and said she would transmit it all to the Egyptian Intelligence Office for approval. Typically it takes one week, but the clock is ticking before I must return to the US. She said she would try to help.
Whenever I feel frustrated and irritable about this situation, I think about my friends in Gaza who have lived their entire lives without the freedom to move, losing scholarship opportunities to study abroad because Israel refuses to let them leave; or the Gazans with medical emergencies who have died at the border because the guards would not let them through, or the dreams of the young people crushed because the jailer will not allow them to leave.
Israel controls the air space over Gaza, the land routes into Gaza, and the Mediterranean waters next to Gaza. Israeli naval attacks on the Palestinian fishermen intensified shortly after the British Gas Group discovered sizeable natural gas fields in Gaza's territorial waters. A coincidence?
Israel supports its tight grip on Gaza on the basis of security needs, but this is a travesty in which the US is shamefully complicit. I am convinced that Israel and the US are only increasing tensions and insecurities in the Middle East with this horrific occupation.
As Mazin B. Qumsiyeh wrote in the book Sharing the Land of Canaan,
One has to realize that the majority of Germans did not engage in the creation and running of the concentration camps but acquiesced to them. The majority of the Israeli Jews did not participate in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from 1947-1949 but acquiesced to them. The majority of Israelis do not participate in occupying or oppressing Palestinians but acquiesce to it. The majority of Americans did not participate in starving the Iraqi people but acquiesced to it. The majority of Palestinians do not engage in terrorism but acquiesce to it.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I receive permission to enter Gaza soon.
This is a guest blog by Lora Lucero. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of the page.
Saturday, November 06, 2010
11/7: CPJME Presents Ali Abunimah, Co-Founder of The Electronic Intifada, at UNM
The UNM Coalition for Peace and Justice in the Middle East (CPJME) and UNM Students Organizing Actions For Peace (SOAP), with the UNM American Studies and Peace Studies Departments, presents Ali Abunimah, "From New Mexico to Palestine: The Global Struggle for Human Rights and Equality." Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country, A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.
The event takes place on Sunday, November 7, 2010, at the UNM SUB Ballroom B, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The suggested donation is $12 (Student Discount with Student ID $6). Refreshments will be provided. For ticket information, email email@example.com.
There has been some pressure on the groups to cancel this speech. In response, Danya Mustafa of the UNM Freshman and Coalition for Peace and Justice in the Middle East co-President wrote this op-ed that appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. Margaret Leicester, UNM graduate student and Coalition for Peace and Justice in the Middle East co-founder, and Richard Forer, Albuquerque community activist, cosigned the column.
This event is co-sponsored by Amnesty International at UNM; Coalition for Immigration, Race and Social Justice (CIRSJ); UNM Fair Trade Initiative; UNM Muslim Student Association (MSA); A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition New Mexico; Another Jewish Voice-Albuquerque; BDS-NM; CAMBIO; The Gray Panthers of a Greater Albuquerque; The Coalition to stop $30 billion to Israel. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Monday, July 26, 2010
7/27: Col. Ann Wright to Discuss Experience with Gaza Flotilla in Albuquerque
From Veterans for Peace:
Col. Ann Wright will be discussing her experiences as part of the Gaza flotilla on Tuesday, July 27, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at the First Congregational Church located at 2801 Lomas. Blvd. NE (NW corner, at Girard) in Albuquerque. Please click for flyer (pdf).
A Veterans For Peace member and 29-year veteran, Col. Ann Wright is a retired Army colonel. She was also a diplomat for 15 years, in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the Department of State on March 19, 2003, in opposition to the Iraq war. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.” Col. Wright was on the International Gaza Aid Flotilla and was cuffed and taken into custody during the attack where nine were killed. She has also been on the forefront in bringing attention to the finding that 1 out of 3 women in the U.S. military is sexually assaulted.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
3/27: Barbara Lubin, Ziad Abbas to Speak in ABQ on Current Situation in Israel and Palestine
From the Middle East Peace and Justice Alliance:
Barbara Lubin, Founder and Executive Director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) and Ziad Abbas, co-founder of the Ibdaa Cultural Center, will speak in Albuquerque on March 27, 2010 on the situation in Israel and Palestine today, the experience of occupation, the role of U.S. policy, strategies for peace and the MECA water project.
This event, sponsored by the Middle East Peace and Justice Alliance, and Another Jewish Voice in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, is a benefit for the Middle East Children's Alliance Gaza Water Project. A reception will be held at 6:30 PM followed by the presentation at 7:30 PM at the Mennonite Church at 1300 Girard SE in Albuquerque. There is a suggested $20 donation. Click for flyer
Since 1988, MECA has delivered millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to children's clinics, hospitals, schools and women's organizations in the Occupied Territory and Iraq. Their talk and slide presentation will highlight the relationship between Israeli apartheid policies and the deprivation of life essential to human rights and how we, the international community, can respond
Barbara Lubin is a life-long peace and justice activist. She has led nearly twenty delegations to the Middle East. Her tireless work is an inspiration to many. She has lectured on the issue of Middle East politics and the plight of the children in the region to dozens of schools, universities, conferences, religious institutions and community groups. Barbara is also the former President of the Berkeley Board of Education.
Lubin says, “It has always amazed me that one people is asked to recognize, and the Israelis are never asked or forced to recognize the rights of Palestinians.”
Mr. Abbas was born and raised in Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, where he is the co-director of the Ibdaa Cultural and Community Center and a journalist. When he told his uncle he was going to the U.S., “I told him I was going to America and I said I was taking one of our family keys with me to the US ... that I would show it to the Americans to explain how we owned homes, how we had villages, how we still have keys despite the fact that our houses were destroyed sixty years ago, and how we still have rights to the land.”
The health and well being of virtually every Palestinian child and adult is threatened by the shortage of clean, safe water due to the ongoing, U.S backed Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian Occupied Territory and the siege of Gaza.
For more information, contact Dr. Lori Rudolph 505-550-9553 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Today: Peace Groups Solidarity Vigil for Gaza Freedom March in Albuquerque
From the Middle East Peace and Justice Alliance:
A dozen New Mexico peace groups are holding a vigil today in Albuquerque in solidarity with the Global Gaza Freedom March taking place in Egypt/Gaza from December 27-31, 2009. The purpose of the vigil is to mourn the loss of life and destruction of civic infrastructure as a result of the 2008/9 Israeli invasion, which resulted in the deaths of 348 Palestinian children, destroyed over 14,000 buildings including schools and mosques, and left 71,675 people homeless.
The Gaza Luminaria Vigil will take place on Tuesday, December 29, 2009, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM, in front of the federal court house on Lomas, between 3rd and 4th streets in downtown Albuquerque. Vigil sponsors include: Another Jewish Voice, Albuquerque; Another Jewish Voice, Santa Fe; Center for Action and Contemplation; the Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel; CODE PINK; the Middle East Peace & Justice Alliance; Pax Christi; Stop the War Machine; United Nations Association; UNM Coalition for Peace & Justice in the Middle East; and Veterans for Peace.
The names of the children killed will be read at the vigil by Jewish and Palestinian American children.
Another purpose is to protest the continued Israeli blockade of Gaza that began in June of 2007. According to Rita Erickson, one of the vigil organizers, “Israel’s siege has prevented the reconstruction of Gaza, preventing the importation of building supplies, humanitarian aid, food, medical supplies, school books, and fuel.” Another organizer, Janice Hart of Another Jewish Voice, notes that “This kind of collective punishment is illegal under international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel continues to control all access to the Gaza Strip via the Mediterranean as well as overland via Israel and via Egypt through agreements with the Egyptian government.”
This vigil is one of scores being held throughout the world in solidarity with the Global Gaza Freedom March being held in Egypt/Gaza on December 27-31. Over 1400 people are attempting to cross into Gaza for the march, but according to Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, a march organizer, “the Egyptian authorities have blocked our participants’ freedom of movement and interfered with a peaceful commemoration of the dead,” Benjamin added that the Gaza Freedom March participants are continuing to urge the Egyptian government to allow them to proceed to Gaza.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
KUNM's Social Justice Fair with David Barsamian Set for 6.8.09
From KUNM: David Barsamian, the award-winning founder and director of Alternative Radio, will be speaking at KUNM’s first-ever Social Justice Fair on Monday, June 8th. We invite you to come to the UNM Continuing Education Conference Center at 1634 University Boulevard NE in Albuquerque at 6:30 PM to check out what local organizations are doing for social justice, and then stay for David Barsamian’s speech at 7 PM. He is a witty and engaging speaker, and we will be giving out quite a few really great door prizes (CDs, restaurant gift certificates, etc.) to people in random numbered seats.
Barsamian has been working in radio since 1978. Over the years he has interviewed the likes of Angela Davis, Ralph Nader, Vandana Shiva, and Carlos Fuentes. In addition to his radio work he is an author and lecturer. His interviews and articles appear regularly in The Progressive, The Nation, and Z Magazine. He is the author of numerous books with Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Eqbal Ahmad, Tariq Ali and Edward Said. His series of books with Chomsky, America's leading dissident, have sold in the hundreds of thousands and have been translated into many languages. His latest books are What We Say Goes with Noam Chomsky and Targeting Iran. Barsamian also lectures on U.S. foreign policy, corporate control, the media, and propaganda.
Tickets for the event are $5, but if you are a current KUNM member and reserve your tickets ahead of time, you will pay for only 1 but get 2. It’s a benefit of membership.
To reserve your 2 tickets for the price of 1, call Cris Nichols at 505-277-3968 or Carol Boss at 505-277-0768 before 5 PM on Thursday, June 4th. The 2-for-1 membership special will NOT be available at the door because we need to verify that your membership is current and we do not want to tie up a line at the event by checking against a roster of thousands of current members.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Check Out Events During Taos Peace Week May 26-31
The Taos Peace House and Town of Taos is hosting the First Annual World Peace Week, May 26-31, 2009. Grassroots organizations and individuals interested in world peace will gather for a five-day experience of celebrating, creating, and strategizing for peace in their communities, lives and world. Peace Week is driven by the general inquiry, "What Does Peace Enable Me To Do?" Click to read the Town of Taos resolution about Peace Week.
The weeklong conference takes place at Taos Convention Center, KTAO Solar Center, Kit Carson Park, and other local venues. Peace Week is organized around programs and presenters with themes of non-violent conflict resolution and social change, war veterans insights on war and peace, healing scars of war and PTSD, industrial hemp and medical marijuna, Fair Trade and sustainable living, meditation and massage, sacred activism, social evolution of humanity, and Israeli and Palestinian peace-making.
Plenaries to strategize for peace, orientation, and classes are based upon C.T. Butler's Formal Consensus model for facilitating meetings and making democratic decisions. Open Space Technology will allow for spontaneous meetings, discussions and strategizing for peace. People will enjoy the health and wellness tent with massage demostration, exhibit and vendor hall, "A Piece for Peace" art show, and food by DragonFly Cafe, as well as music and entertainment.*
For Vets: On Friday, a powerful program with varied aspects will feature and offer resources and support for current and past veterans -- especially those interested in furthering peace efforts in a personal and conscious way. The Joan Duffy Chapter (Santa Fe) of Veterans for Peace is encouraging and facilitating ride sharing to enable more people to attend. Chapter President Bob Gaines will coordinate those who offer and those who need rides. Contact him at email@example.com.
For detailed information, a schedule of events and a registration form, visit the Taos World Peace Week 2009 website at www.worldpeaceconference2009.org/.
Friday, March 20, 2009
This Weekend: ABQ Protests of Wars of Occupation, Rally to Bring Troops Home
From the Y6C: The New Mexico Year 6 Coalition (Y6C) will hold an “Occupation is a Crime” rally on Saturday, March 21, 2009 from 11 AM to 1 PM at the corner of Second and Copper NW, Albuquerque, at the Galleria Plaza, next to the Convention Center, downtown. The New Mexico Iraq Veterans Against the War will be joining the demonstration.
This local rally is in solidarity with the massive national March on the Pentagon being organized by ANSWER in Washington, DC on the 6th anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. The rally is calling for an end to the expansion by the administration and Congress of the wars of occupation taking place in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, and the impending invasion or Iran.
The Y6 rally is addressing in specific the vote of the new 1st Congressional District representative, Martin Heinrich, who voted on his first day in office for HR 34. This resolution was the political green light for Israel to continue the massacre in Gaza in January which was only made possible due to their large supply of U.S. weapons. About 1,500 people died, many of them women and children. Many new experimental weapons such as the DIME were tested on the civilian population, which is also a war crime.
Politically many people are calling for a democratic one-state solution, not a two-state apartheid arrangement.
The Y6 Coalition is calling on Rep. Heinrich to work with the national S30 movement to stop the next $30 billion installment of U.S. weapons to Israel. A representative for the Congressman’s office will also address the rally.
Participants are being encouraged to bring signs, bring banners, shout loud. There will be political speakers and music.
PLUS: Early Friday morning, in support of the Saturday rally, the local chapter of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) will set up a Tower Watch at the rally site. They will stay all day and night through Saturday. The Tower Watch is a national campaign by Iraq war veterans to demand an end to the colonial occupation of Iraq. They are asking supporters to come join them Friday and Saturday.
The Y6C is composed of the following organizations:
- Albuquerque Another Jewish Voice
- Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice
- Albuquerque Chapter Veterans for Peace
- Albuquerque Raging Grannies
- Columbia Solidarity Committee of New Mexico
- Grassroots Press, www.grass-roots-press.com
- Gray Panthers of Greater Albuquerque
- Green Party of Bernalillo County
- Iraq Veterans Against War - Albuquerque
- Los Alamos Study Group
- Middle East Peace and Justice Alliance
- Nob Hill Tutoring
- Nukes Out of Duke City
- The Mission Committee of the Albuquerque Mennonite Church
- Pax Christi Holy Rosary
- School of the Americas Watch Albuquerque
- Social Justice Council of the First Unitarian Church
- Stop the War Machine
- Stop $30 Billion Coalition
- Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Social Concerns Committee | <urn:uuid:96fe482e-fd48-447f-bc6d-57deaf557b57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.democracyfornewmexico.com/democracy_for_new_mexico/middle_east/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958383 | 9,671 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Few authors can boast that Pope Benedict helped sell their books, but the pontiff’s shock resignation has boosted interest in all things Catholic just as veteran Vatican journalist John Thavis is about to publish.
“The Vatican Diaries,” a behind-the-scenes look at the faith’s fabled nerve centre, goes on sale on February 21, just one week before the pope takes the nearly unprecedented step of quitting as the head of the world’s largest church.
Thavis, who covered the Vatican for 30 years until retiring from his post as bureau chief for the U.S.-based Catholic News Service last year, had long known Benedict believed a pope could resign and worried he might do it before the book came out.
But he says he was as shocked as anyone else when the pope announced his decision on Monday. The book is not an analysis of the soon-to-end pontificate, but the stories it tells amount to what Thavis calls “a mosaic history of Benedict’s papacy.” | <urn:uuid:d224b08d-7da6-4dd6-aa2e-143944ca6426> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/tag/vatican-catholic-church-pope-benedict-journalist-media-john-paul/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977641 | 216 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Policy, Planning & Management
The Policy management unit provides overall direction and management of the Ministry Headquarters and supervisory oversight of the departments in the Ministry of Finance. Undertakes strategic economic planning, manages the Ministry's public relations and organizes the co-ordination, review and development of economic and financial policy.
Economic & Financial Intelligence
This unit provides research and analysis of economic and financial conditions to facilitate sound decisions on public policy and fiscal management. Responsibilities include economic forecasts, economic modeling, projections of GDP and the development of key economic indicator. Analysis and commentary on economic and financial statistics are provided, and an annual and mid-year review and outlook are produced. The unit also manages the relationship with credit agencies and government lenders.
Fiscal Planning & Control
The Fiscal Planning and Control unit is primarily responsible for the management, collection and collation of Consolidated Fund budget data, the monitoring and control of overall government expenditures (i.e. both Capital and Current Account) and the achievement of government revenues. The unit is also tasked with the responsibility of the review and development of the government's annual Capital Expenditure Plan together with the overview and control of public debt. In addition, the unit is also responsible for the roll out of the Zero Based Budgeting initiative throughout government.
General Nature of Activities
The Regulatory Unit assists the Financial Secretary and the Minister of Finance by providing policy advice, governance, and administrative services on all financial services regulatory policy matters of the Government and involves a close working relationship with a wide range of stakeholders.
Scope of Activities
The scope of the Regulatory Unit's activities is as follows:
Providing policy advice to the Financial Secretary and the Minister of Finance on European Union financial services regulatory policy initiatives.
- Support for the Financial Secretary and the Minister of Finance in coordinating the financial services regulatory policy initiatives of the Government.
- Overseeing the Ministry of Finance component of the legislative program for the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
- Providing policy advice to the Financial Secretary and the Minister of Finance on anti-money laundering policy initiatives.
The Treaty Management unit is responsible for negotiating and administering agreements related to Tax Information Exchange with member countries of the European Union, G20, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and white listed jurisdictions and other key countries, as well as relationship management regarding tax matters.
The departments that fall under the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance Headquarters are:
The Minister of Finance also has responsibility for the National Pensions Commission and the Bermuda Monetary Authority. | <urn:uuid:ed9aa35e-b388-433a-87c6-6639345c624d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.customs.gov.bm/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=935&PageID=233626&mode=2&in_hi_userid=2&cached=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932582 | 504 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Article by Stephen Hull, from The Metro, London
GONE are the days when girls begged their parents for a pony. Today's youngsters are more likely to ask for some plastic surgery. One in ten girls in their early teens has argued with their parents over wanting cosmetic surgery, new research claims.
Others fall out over wanting to look like ultra-thin celebrities - a trend dubbed 'thinspiration' because of skinny role models such as Posh Spice and Lindsay Lohan.
The Dove survey - of 1,000 girls aged from 12 to 14 and 1,000 mothers of girls that age - revealed young teens are already worried about their body shape.
And many feel unable to discuss these issues with their parents, with nearly two-thirds claiming to hide their views on appearance from their mothers.
When they do talk about it, the conversation soon turns into an argument, with ten percent of girls claiming to have rowed with their mothers about wanting plastic surgery. A further ten percent say they have fallen out with mum over wanting to look like a celebrity.
More than a quarter have disagreed about dieting issues. Although 98 percent of mothers believe it is important to talk openly about health and body issues, many say they find it easier to discuss boyfriends, drugs and sex.
Experts recognise dieting is a difficult topic. Parents do not want their children to eat too much junk food and risk obesity, yet neither do they want to risk provoking the development of an eating disorder because of pressure to stay thin.
Leading psychotherapist Dr Susie Orbach said: 'In today's image-obsessed society, girls have a very different attitude to their body than their mothers did when they were growing up.'
'It's hard for mums to understand the enormity of the cultural shift that has taken place where girls grow up under inordinate pressure to be "perfect".' | <urn:uuid:ada1d404-48de-4ee8-8205-b329bc444bee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://anybody.squarespace.com/anybody_vent/2006/8/13/mum-please-can-i-have-some-botox.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97078 | 384 | 1.734375 | 2 |
08-Jun-2012 -- This is my first visit to a confluence. I have heard from this site years ago and once in a while thought about it, but never actually took the time to take some pictures. Since I'm a helicopter pilot in Canada I'm constantly flying in regions no man has ever set foot on and paying a visit to a confluence is just a matter of landing there and taking a few pictures when in the area anyway.
A day earlier I tried 123°W 63°N which is in a beautiful mountain range, but was unfortunately on the side of a steep slope in a narrow valley where landing wasn't possible and hiking there would have taken too long. Besides it wouldn't have yielded nice pictures with mountain slopes all around. A near summit would have given spectacular pics.
133°W 68°N was practically on my way from Norman Wells to Inuvik and I saw it was close to a lake which promised the possibility of a close landing, since the shores of lakes often have some muskeg with no trees. The surrounding country is all trees or lakes.
I landed in an open spot on muskeg and ran over to the point, which unfortunately is all in trees, so the photos aren't very interesting. To the southeast you can see Caribou Lake through the trees. It is a larger lake and had still lots of ice on it. At this time the sun doesn't set any more and it is day around the clock. It was also very sunny and warm, 24°C.
The point isn't even that remote since it is only about 20 km east of the Dempster Highway and you could go there by snowmobile in winter. | <urn:uuid:9407101e-e5b6-48dc-a701-a938ff53f7f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?lat=68&lon=-133 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986753 | 346 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Gold, like most assets, experiences secular bull and secular bear markets. Of course, during these long term trends gold experiences a lot of volatility. Emotional investors, often referred to as 'weak longs' tend to second guess their decision to own gold at the first sign of a decline. Yesterday's 5% decline has many investors wondering if the great gold bull market that began in the early 2000s is over.
Investors with conviction may maintain their belief in the gold bull market. After all, money printing continues, budget deficits are bloated, economies are in massive debt, banks are walking zombies, consumers are defeated and catastrophic systemic risks remain. While these risks are somewhat measurable the measurements are highly subjective and require many assumptions. You can find very smart people to take both the bull and bear sides of the debate for all these issues.
In my quest to find an objective determinate to help me identify the end of the secular bull market, I created the chart below. The shaded areas represent bull markets in gold. The line represents the real interest rate, as measured by one-year US Treasury yields minus one-year change in food prices.
(Why food instead of CPI? CPI, the mainstream method for measuring inflation, is flawed. First of all, the methodology used to calculate CPI has been manipulated over time. Second, the CPI basket weights assumes all consumers make the same purchases in the same proportions. Food, on the other hand, is a less manipulated proxy for inflation that affects us all. There may be better alternatives, but this is what I went with. Besides, although the numbers will be different, the general pattern of real interest rates over time should remain fairly similar regardless of whether one uses CPI, food, energy prices or various other measures.)
When looking at the chart you'll notice that gold bull markets are paired with volatile and low-to-negative real interest rates. Gold bear markets, on the other hand, occur when real interest rates are relatively stable and consistently positive. In fact, the end of the last secular bold bull market was triggered when real interest rates rose so high as to break the backs of the gold bulls.
Why does gold perform well when real interest rates are low/negative and volatile? Simply put, real interest rates represent the post-inflation returns bond investors receive on their holdings. Low real rates mean lower after-inflation returns on bonds, resulting in less of an opportunity cost for switching into other asset classes. Moreover, volatile real rates imply that market/economic forces are causing uncertainty in the Treasury market. During these periods, investors who want to preserve capital but aren't willing to accept low/negative real returns are more likely to invest in gold.
Looking at the graph below (click to enlarge image), if real interest rates truly are a measure of a gold market's strength, it doesn't look like the current secular bull market has met its end.
Disclosure: I am long gold bullion. | <urn:uuid:80d0da26-45ff-4ddc-9ca5-d420cc1549bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/289717-identifying-the-end-of-the-gold-bull | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953535 | 602 | 1.578125 | 2 |
A broad court rule permitting the reopening of criminal cases at any time based on new DNA and other scientific evidence will take effect across Maryland in January.
The Court of Appeals rule goes beyond legislation enacted this year, which wiped out a one-year time limit for felons convicted of murder, manslaughter and violent sex crimes to seek post-conviction DNA testing and reopen a case based on results. This rule erases the time limit for all inmates and covers scientific evidence beyond DNA, making it one of the broadest provisions of its type, advocates say.
Nationwide, there has been concern that prisons hold some wrongly convicted inmates. More than 70 felons, several of them on death row, have been freed largely on the strength of newer, more precise DNA testing.
J. Theodore Wieseman, counsel to the Office of the Public Defender, said the court rule gives his agency what it had been seeking from the General Assembly.
"It's very significant," Wieseman told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, which was being briefed on the implementation of the law it approved this year. "It's one of the most far-reaching [rules] in the country, I would think," he said yesterday.
The legislation, which took effect Oct. 1, did not go as far as defense lawyers wanted. But it offers felons -- except death row inmates, who can approach the court with new evidence at any time -- the opportunity to have evidence preserved, get testing and have cases reopened if the results suggest they are innocent.
The new rule, adopted by the state's highest court this month, is scheduled to be signed Nov. 1. How many people the less restrictive measure is likely to affect is unclear, lawyers said in interviews.
"We are dealing with this window in time where you have a case where DNA was not available at the time. Had DNA been available at the time, it might have produced a better result for the defendant," said Byron L. Warnken, a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law who handles post-conviction cases.
Most of those cases, he said, are likely to be murders and sex crimes.
Michele Nethercott, head of the forensic unit of the state public defender's office, said her office finds that in many cases, evidence that is 5 to 15 years old has been destroyed. She said, "The technology has evolved to the point that DNA is appearing in more and more cases where you never would have expected it, like burglaries."
The Maryland State's Attorneys Association backed the bill that passed and also supports this rule, said Leonard C. Collins Jr., Charles County state's attorney and president of the association.
Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat, turned to the judiciary's Rules Committee, which advises the Court of Appeals, after withdrawing a bill similar to the rule this year.
"It is making a statement that our objective in the criminal justice system should be uniformly guilt or innocence. Your ability to proffer DNA evidence should not be limited to certain cases," he said.
The Rules Committee wanted to ensure that a person charged with a serious crime but convicted of a lesser one would have the same opportunity, said Joseph H. Murphy Jr., chief judge of the Court of Special Appeals and committee head.
At yesterday's session, Ronald Weich, counsel to the Washington-based Justice Project, urged senators to consider expanding the law. But he said it would be appropriate to wait a year or two to see what happens. | <urn:uuid:3f7623f5-ba77-4f47-8f02-4b7b8b09ec52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2001-10-24/news/0110240065_1_dna-scientific-evidence-court-rule | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971929 | 720 | 1.6875 | 2 |
EXTRA police patrols will be out in force today to deter arsonists as the region swelters through temperatures tipped to reach 38 degrees.
A total fire ban will be enforced across the south-west as Country Fire Authority (CFA) brigades beef up volunteer numbers during the most hazardous hours of the day.
Both police and the CFA are issuing a warning to property owners to be on the lookout and to contact police at the first sight of suspicious behaviour.
Following statewide figures released earlier this week revealing that 29 arsonists had been arrested so far this summer, Warrnambool police’s Inspector Chris Bence said his officers would be visible across the region today.
“We do put additional police patrols on these days as risk mitigation,” Inspector Bence said. “We had a number of fires lit last year, which we believe were suspicious but it’s been a lot better this season.”
There have been no arrests in the south-west for arson this summer.
“I think that has a lot to do with people being more vigilant,” he said.
Inspector Bence urged residents to record number plates and details of persons they believe are acting suspiciously in their area.
Warrnambool CFA operations officer Henry Barton said an incident control centre was established in Warrnambool to co-ordinate any outbreaks.
Fire spotters and water bombers will also spend the day on standby in Hamilton ready to douse the first sparks.
“The local brigades and groups are working together,” Mr Barton said.
“Everyone will be on standby today.”
Mr Barton said anyone with plans to mow lawns or slash vegetation should wait until the cooler hours of the day.
Meanwhile, large sections of the Lower Glenelg National Park have reopened to the public after a massive fire burning between Kentbruck and Drik Drik was contained last Friday.
River spots and landings popular with fishermen and kayakers along the Glenelg River have now reopened.
The Princess Margaret Rose Cave has also remained open for business. | <urn:uuid:d6333eb4-e6c2-4fed-b8df-94dbfb2f0282> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.standard.net.au/story/1240224/police-boost-patrols-for-total-fire-ban-scorcher/?src=rss | 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 | 0.968228 | 440 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Mobile-first, or web-first? Neither alone is a real strategy for success.
For Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., learning that has proved to be an expensive experience as the media giant has decided to abandon its iPad-only publication, The Daily, after less than two years.
In explaining his decision to shutter The Daily, Murdoch stated, "From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation. Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term."
That, of course, should have been evident from the get-go. Many, myself included, were skeptical about The Daily when it launched in early 2011. Having looked at The Daily's purported investment in the publication, I wrote:
Working with these numbers, the company would need some 750,000 annual subscribers just to recoup its initial investment. And to cover The Daily's $2m in monthly overheads, News Corp. would further need over half a million monthly subscribers paying 99 cents a week.
Unfortunately for News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch, the market is limited. Through September 2010, Apple had sold 7.5m iPads. Impressive for a new device in a new space, but hardly a massive market for publishers compared to the internet at large.
Even if we assume that number has jumped to, say, 15m, today, News Corp. would need just over 3% of the entire iPad owner base to purchase a subscription to The Daily to break even on a monthly basis pre-Apple commission. That figure is even higher if we limit the math to iPad owners in the United States.
By September 2011, it was quite clear that News Corp.'s "bold experiment" was failing, with subscriber counts well below the company's optimistic estimates, and far away from generating the type of revenue required to make The Daily a self-sustaining publication.
A silver lining
When Murdoch launched The Daily, he stated, "The Daily will be the model for how stories are told and consumed in this digital age." That certainly isn't going to be the case, but that doesn't mean that the endeavor was a total loss: according to Murdoch, "we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties."
This, of course, makes complete sense.
The reality is that news publications exist to fill a need in the market -- the need for information and insight. Web browsers, mobile devices and tablets are just channels for distributing that information and insight. The Daily failed not because there is no room to deliver news to consumers using tablet devices through better, more compelling experiences (there is) but rather because News Corp. made the mistake of believing that the medium was the message.
Hopefully, with The Daily buried, others will know better than to make the same mistake. | <urn:uuid:4ac1c4c8-0738-42b2-a22f-1eaab71ad864> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econsultancy.com/mt/blog/11252-the-daily-learns-that-tablet-only-isn-t-a-publishing-strategy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970385 | 600 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Farmers say getting a head start is so important. Although we're still in the winter season, that doesn't mean farmers are just sitting around waiting for the spring.
They've already started working on their fields and they say they're hoping last year's mild weather will carry over to this year.
"Doing like we've been doing, we're pretty lucky last couple of years. It was probably one of the best years we have ever had. So hopefully it will pay off, if we do the same thing again," says farmer George Bliss.
And although the farming season hasn't even started yet, many farmers say they're expecting another successful year.
"Right now we're expecting a great year, because we are starting the season with a lot of moisture. And anytime you start with moisture you always start on a good foot and we fully expect to have a good year this year," says farmer Mickey Fourakers
Farmers say last year's revenues were approximately $48 million and they say this year shouldn't be much different.
Farmers in Lowndes County say they expect to start planting their crops early next month. | <urn:uuid:3954e5fc-593b-4132-9391-c4aff8146c8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/631821.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983515 | 233 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly was created by statute to preserve and protect the health, safety and welfare of seniors residing in long-term health care facilities in New Jersey.
The Volunteer Advocate Program was launched as a pilot project in March 1993, adding a new dimension to the Ombudsman’s mandate and establishing a visible presence within the long-term care facility structure to represent the needs and concerns of residents 60 years of age or older.
Advocates complement the investigative function of the Ombudsman’s Office by attempting to resolve quality of care and quality of life issues as close to the bedside as possible, referring complaints of abuse, neglect and exploitation for investigation.
Under the Older Americans’ Act, the Ombudsman’s Office receives a federally funded grant to administer the Volunteer Advocate Program statewide.
The state Program Coordinator manages the Volunteer Advocate Program at the state level. Five Regional Coordinators coordinate the program by region as below:
Region I – Essex, Hudson, Morris & Union Counties
Region II – Bergen, Passaic, Sussex & Warren Counties
Region III – Middlesex, Mercer, Somerset, Hunterdon, Monmouth and Northern Ocean Counties
Region IV – Burlington, Cumberland, Camden, Gloucester & Salem Counties
Region V – Atlantic, Cape May & Southern Ocean Counties
Volunteers must complete a 32 hour training program to become a certified Ombudsman Advocate. The training curriculum was developed by UMDNJ-School of Medicine and Rutgers School of Social Work and is modeled after the National Ombudsman Resource Center curriculum.
Intensive classroom instruction and additional on-site orientation is conducted by the Regional Volunteer Coordinator.
Volunteer Advocates are trained to observe the quality of services provided by the nursing home staff, such as how well residents are groomed and if their personal needs are being met.
Over the past year, volunteer advocates have donated more than 29,000 hours in nursing homes, visiting elderly residents and advocating for residents’ rights. More than 9,000 visits have been made and approximately 5,000 concerns resolved to the satisfaction of the residents and their families.
In addition to some issues involving activities of daily living that have been resolved by advocates, here are some examples of how Volunteer Advocates have helped improve the quality of life for long-term care residents:
One volunteer who visits two facilities weekly came up with the idea to start a program to help female dementia residents who are alone and have few or no visitors. She purchases old dolls at yard sales and consignment shops and refurbishes them to look like real babies for the residents to care for. This program has helped many dementia residents by giving them a reason to thrive. Because of the popularity of this initiative, advocates assigned to other facilities have requested dolls for their residents, expanding the program throughout the region.
- One volunteer who visits two facilities weekly came up with the idea to start a program to help female dementia residents who are alone and have few or no visitors. She purchases old dolls at yard sales and consignment shops and refurbishes them to look like real babies for the residents to care for. This program has helped many dementia residents by giving them a reason to thrive. Because of the popularity of this initiative, advocates assigned to other facilities have requested dolls for their residents, expanding the program throughout the region.
- One diligent volunteer, who has been with the program for more than 10 years, was able to assist in preserving residents’ rights concerning choice of physician services. When he was asked what has kept him involved so long, he replied, “As a volunteer, the rewards may be small but very meaningful. The friendships and thank you’s I receive make it all worthwhile.”
- Another volunteer sponsored a fishing trip for more than 30 residents in his facility, funding the all-day event, including transportation and lunch.
- One woman, a retired school librarian, set up a library and reading room in her facility. As part of an outreach program, she holds a monthly book discussion group for residents, with an average of 35 to 40 people in attendance. When asked what makes being a Volunteer Advocate rewarding, she said, “It’s the little victories I have for the residents, and the interaction with them that is wonderful.”
- Recently a Volunteer Advocate received an old but functioning computer, including the monitor, tower, keyboard, and cables. All of the individual’s data was removed, free games were downloaded and the nursing staff of facility set it up for the Advocate. It has been successful beyond anyone’s expectations! Residents who never came out of their rooms are out playing games on the computer. Other residents who never used a computer are playing games.
The success of the Volunteer Advocate Program is predicated on the dedication and devotion of citizens in New Jersey who willingly give back to their communities, and their ability to effectively resolve issues on behalf of the population we serve.
While we currently have more than 200 volunteers, additional volunteers are needed to fill the gaps left through attrition. We need more volunteers to care for the frail elderly, keeping them independent, healthy and able to live their lives out with dignity. | <urn:uuid:6d8065c0-e079-42ff-8912-1a3e5805b32f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nj.gov/ooie/home/volunteeerprogramdescript.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969465 | 1,068 | 1.75 | 2 |
Showing 51 - 75 of 203 comments found
This was Carmike’s first theater built in North Carolina following their 2000 bankruptcy filing.
Eastgate Cinema was twinned sometime after the Berkeley Cinema 1 & 2 opened in 1976. I remember seeing “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” listed on the Eastgate’s marquee in 1978; no other title was on the marquee. Berkeley Cinema added a third screen about this time, and the Center and Paramount theaters downtown were still showing movies as well. I believe it was a twin by the end of 1979.
Cinema 6 in Wilmington was Carmike’s last discount theater east of Raleigh; it replaced the Independence Mall 3 as Wilmington’s second-run house.
The Carmike 16 replaced the Carmike 7, Cinema 6 and Brynn Marr 3 theatres when it opened. It is currently Jacksonville’s only movie theater open to civilians.
The Iwo Jima Theater’s design was also used by the Wilrik Theatre in Sanford; both were Stewart & Everett Theatres.
The alternate name “Show Stop Theatre” is incorrect. The correct name was “Show Shop Theatre” which was adopted in the 1930s. The Show Shop Theatre was a B-movie theater, newer releases played at the Masonic Theatre at 532 Hancock Street (that theater is still standing, as it is part of a Masonic lodge). The facade of the Athens/Show Shop Theatre was modernized approximately 1940 and may have been renamed Kehoe at that point. Stewart & Everett took over in 1958 or 1959; they renamed the theater Tryon to capitalize on the Tryon Palace reconstruction which opened in 1959. After the Neuse Village Cinema opened in 1971 the Tryon operated as a grindhouse until closing in 1979 (the last couple of years they ran porn exclusively).
According to FOX Eastern Carolina (WFXI-8 and WYDO-14) News at 10 on September 12, 2012, the former owner of the Southgate/Bear Town Cinema 6 (Southeast Cinemas) is building a new stadium multiplex in the Craven Thirty development on the western edge of New Bern. Scheduled to open in 2013 at the US 70/NC 43 interchange, this new theater may wipe out both Bear Town 6 and Neuse Boulevard 3 Cinemas. It will be the first completely new theater built in New Bern since the original Southgate Cinema 1 & 2 opened about 1974.
K-Mart (Crossroads) Plaza and the Cardinal Theatres 3 were on the opposite side of Wesleyan Boulevard (US 301) from Tarrytown Mall (now Sam’s Club). Stone Rose Drive led into Tarrytown Mall’s parking lot, making it possible to go from the mall to the Cardinal without getting onto Sunset.
In my opinion the Capri was the best looking theater Stewart & Everett ever built; S&E apparently never used the Capri’s design for any other location – this was obviously S&E’s flagship until they opened the Town Cinema 6 in the 1980s (The Town Cinema was cloned several times, unlike the Capri). Under Carmike the Capri and Village theaters were run as dollar houses; the Village closed first (about 1989) and the Capri closed after Carmike took over Cineplex Odeon’s NC theaters (Park Terrace and Matthews Festival 10 in the Charlotte area) in 1990. The Capri Theater closed long before 1996; AKA Capri 1 & 2, Capri 1-2-3, and finally Capri Triple.
Carmike ran this theater as a 99-cent second-run house from the buyout of S&E in 1986 until its closing (by then the Capri was also a 99-cent house). AKA Village 1 & 2, Village Twin.
The Galaxy Cinemas in Cary is independently owned, not part of a chain. It has been in the news recently as it was in danger of losing its lease; the owners of the property want to demolish the theater and replace it with a Harris-Teeter supermarket.
I’m amazed that of Jacksonville’s drive-in theaters, only the South 17 Twin and the Cinema Drive-In are listed; apparently all the others are long forgotten. I vaguely remember the XXX drive-in theater near the South 17 Twin mentioned in my last post on this page; it may have been called the Moonlite Drive-in and was north of the South 17 Twin.
This theater was located next to Rose Brothers Furniture on Onslow Drive. AKA Northwoods 1 & 2 Theatre, Northwoods Twin Theatre.
Last comment should be: Ambassador’s largest current theater is Six Forks Station 6 in Raleigh – (not Mission Valley 5).
I uploaded yesterday a 2002 photo of the Village Plaza 5 at night (the car in the foreground was mine). Raysson: your comments regarding the multiplex shenanigans in Chapel Hill are interesting. If Ambassador builds the new theater, it will most likely be eight screens or less – Ambassador’s largest current theater is the Mission Valley 5 in Raleigh. Carmike would likely put a 14-screen or 16-screen multiplex there, although it may cut into the Wynnsong 15’s business up the road in Durham. Still, I like the idea of Carmike re-entering Chapel Hill – it would be a thorn in the side of all those who pressured Regal not to build there. To the best of my knowledge it would be only the third Carmike built in North Carolina since they emerged from bankruptcy (Jacksonville’s 16-plex and Wilson’s 10-screen are the others).
I passed by this theater in July 1986 on a trip to Charlotte. The Terrace looked like it had already closed at that point – no movies listed on the marquee, part of the Terrace sign was missing, empty parking lot. This must have been the time the auditorium was split into two theaters. After July 1990 the Terrace would not have been under Cineplex Odeon as that chain withdrew from North Carolina that month, selling most of its NC locations to Carmike (the Cardinal in Raleigh and Carolina in Chapel Hill were closed).
3670 Bastion Lane was the address for Tower Merchants 6 Cinemas, not the Tower Twin.
Both the Englewood and Oakwood Cinemas were demolished and replaced by banks (Wachovia-now Wells Fargo-replaced the Englewood and Southern Bank replaced the Oakwood).
Town Cinema 6 was originally a Stewart & Everett Theatre. S&E built several theaters based on its design: (Carmike)Cinema 4 in Aberdeen, Havelock Cinema 4/6 (Carmike Cinema 6) in Havelock, Cinema 6 in Wilmington and Cinema 6 in Jacksonville, and possibly others. Only the Havelock Cinema remains in operation; Carmike abandoned Aberdeen (and Charlotte!) and replaced the Wilmington and Jacksonville Cinemas 6 with megaplexes.
Regal acquired this theater from Eastern Federal in 2005.
Carmike closed the Carolina East 4 in 2001. During the last few months of operation Carmike reduced admission prices (but still higher than the old second-run houses) and booked mostly films catering to an African-American audience (shades of the Roxy Theatre and Jim Crow days!).
The site of the Colony Theatre is now a parking lot. Status should be Demolished.
The Turnage Theater was owned by Stewart & Everett Theatres during the 1970s. S&E built the Washington Square Mall Cinema 1 & 2 (later Cinema Triple, now Cinema 7) as the replacement for the Turnage Theater in 1976. The Turnage may have stayed open until a third screen was added to the Washington Square Mall Cinema.
Berkeley Cinema added a third screen in 1978 (Berkeley Cinema 1-2-3) and a fourth screen about 1981 (after the Plitt Quad opened in Greenville but before the Litchfield 4 opened a few blocks away).
As far as I can remember the Parkhill Cinema was always an independent – I don’t know of any S&E theater having a video store in its lobby. I remember this theater being announced in the final ads for the Colonial Theater downtown, leading me to believe the Colonial’s then-owners were the Parkhill’s owners. Also, S&E had just pulled out of Williamston the previous year – why build a new three-screen in a similarly-sized town? The Parkhill Cinema was probably the last cinema in Eastern NC built with fewer than four screens (the only later theaters with less than four screens I can think of are the Cameo in Fayetteville, the Marbles IMAX Theater and possibly the Studio I & II – both in Raleigh, and the Chelsea in Chapel Hill. All of these are west of I-95). | <urn:uuid:6c5e1aae-516f-459a-ae0a-8677f6933b53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cinematreasures.org/comments?page=3&user_id=nighthawk1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9648 | 1,845 | 1.507813 | 2 |
"I don't think we should have done it," he said, adding it was an example of federal overreach.
This is the same interview where Bolger championed, enthusiatically and at length, the turnaround in Michigan's economy.
Anybody see the irony there?
To be sure, Bolger isn't the only Republican bad-mouthing the auto industry bailout, which also has been criticized by Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.
It's revisionist history of the worst sort, revealing either a breathtaking ignorance of events or brazen refusal to face facts that challenge GOP orthodoxy on free markets.
Let's go back to the grim winter of 2008-09 and talk about what really happened.
Between internal mismanagement, the collapse of new-vehicle sales and the implosion of the nation's financial sector, which completely dried up lines of credit, General Motors and Chrysler were on the ropes.
It was clear they were headed toward bankruptcy. The only question was whether it would be a "managed" bankruptcy that would allow them to restructure or one that would simply put them out of business.
Obviously, the former was the preferred option, but it required a major cash infusion so that GM and Chrysler could continue operations while the restructuring occurred.
But no private lenders were willing to loan the money; the nation's financial institutions were struggling for their own survival, and had no desire, absolutely none whatsoever, to get involved in the automakers' problems. In short, there was no money to be had in the private sector.
The idea of a federal bailout of the auto industry was viewed with considerable reluctance by members of both parties. They Wall Street bailout was politically unpopular, and there was the very real fear with the auto industry of throwing good money after bad.
But U.S. Fred Upton and others in Michigan's Congressional delegation argued that there was no other option, that allowing the automakers to go under would have unleashed an economic catastrophe, especially in Michigan.
In a December 2008 interview with the Kalamazoo Gazette, Upton worried aloud that without a federal bailout, GM and Chrysler wouldn't be able to pay their supplies, forcing many of businesses — which employ more than 10,000 workers in Southwest Michigan — into bankruptcy. That could also unhinge Ford Motor Co. and foreign carmakers by disrupting supply networks.
Upton said the fear was the auto industry would be pushed out of the United States, plunging the national economy into a 1929-style Depression and devastating Michigan's economy in a way that would take decades to recover.
In the end, the federal bailout was approved with bipartisan support. And the domestic auto industry has not only recovered, it's rebounded far fastest and far stronger than anybody would have anticipated three years ago.
Say what you will about federal bailouts of the private sector. The facts are clear that this particular bailout pulled Michigan from the brink of economic disaster.
Bolger is right to celebrate Michigan's economic recovery; after some very dark, dark times, there's finally some patches of sunshine. Of course, Bolger would like to have us think that turnaround is a result of economic policies implemented in recent months by Lansing Republicans. But those policies have just gone into effect; there hasn't been enough time to determine their success of failure.
The truth of the matter is that Michigan's economic recovery is tied directly to the rebound of the auto industry — a turn of fortunes made possible by the bailout.
If people want to continue to oppose the bailout on ideological grounds, well, they are certainly entitled their opinion.
But people aren't entitled to make up their own facts. To suggest, as do Bolger and others, that private funding was available for a bailout, that the bailout was motivated mainly by a desire to help the unions, that the bailout actually "made the pain last longer" — a direct quote from Bolger — is, frankly, an insult to those such as Upton who did what had to be done.
Three years ago, ideology bumped smack into reality. Lucky for Michigan, the pragmatists won that fight.
But it does make you wonder about people on the other side of the battle: There truly is no willingness to give credit where credit is due? No lessons learned? Is that what we want in our politicians? At what point does ideological purity become ideological blindness?
This opinion column was written by Julie Mack. She can be reached at 269-350-0277 or at email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/kzjuliemack or follow her posts here on mlive.com. | <urn:uuid:484b2e2b-9047-4b6e-83bd-bebef9765167> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mlive.com/opinion/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/02/some_republicans_peddling_revi.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977103 | 945 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The World Heritage Committee,
1. Having examined Document WHC-09/33.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 32 COM 7B.5, adopted at its 32nd session (Quebec City, 2008),
3. Takes note of the report of the State Party, including the noted progress and the assessment of the significant challenges facing the property, notably in relation to protection and effective management of its values, governance and the relationship with private landowners, and wider threats from illegal development and water pollution;
4. Regrets that extensive illegal developments have taken place and have had a negative impact on the Outstanding Universal Value of the property;
5. Urges the State Party to establish effective legal protection of the World Heritage property, as a matter or urgency, including protection of key vulnerable geological localities within the property and of their landscape setting, proclamation of the status of the property and to provide adequate resources to implement this legislation effectively;
6. Also takes note of the wish of the State Party to invite a joint World Heritage Centre / IUCN monitoring mission to the property to assess the extent of the impact of developments on the values of the property and how this may be remedied, and invites the mission team to also advise, jointly with the stakeholders, on the development of an action plan to ensure that the property's effective protection and management can be rapidly put in place, as well as to advise on defining clearly the legal boundaries for the three satellite component sites of the serial property;
7. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2011, a report on the state of conservation of the property and on the steps taken to implement the recommendations of the 2008 World Heritage Centre/IUCN monitoring mission and the further concerns raised above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 35th session in 2011, with a view to considering, in the absence of substantial progress, the inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger. | <urn:uuid:28be7771-1eb5-440a-953c-80925062d0ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/1797 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931042 | 408 | 1.820313 | 2 |
NEPAL: The ALRC and Advocacy Forum call for international action concerning the rise of torture and ongoing impunity
February 23, 2012
Language(s): English only
HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Nineteenth session, Agenda Item 3, Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on torture
A written statement submitted by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a non-governmental organisation with general consultative status
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and Nepalese human rights organisation Advocacy Forum wish to bring to the Council's attention the continuing and significant increase in reports of torture in Nepal over the last two years, as well as ongoing delays by the state in implementing the policing and judicial reforms required to eliminate torture and ill-treatment in Nepal.
Advocacy Forum's visits to places of detention in 20 districts in Nepal have shown that the percentage of detainees reporting having been subjected to torture or ill-treatment increased from 20.1% in 2009 and 19.3% in 2010 to 24.8% in 2011 among the 12,360 detainees that Advocacy Forum interviewed in those three years. This worrying trend highlights the government's ineptness in curbing this grave human rights violation.
The persistent widespread torture of juveniles is of grave concern as juveniles have consistently reported being tortured more frequently than adults. In the first half of 2010, 20.9% of juvenile detainees reported torture or ill-treatment; a percentage which had increased to 36.1% during the second half of 2011.
We are concerned that torture has not been acknowledged as a major human rights issue by the government and institutional human rights actors, such as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Torture has not been prioritized in the government's National Human Rights Action Plan. In the ongoing capacity-building process of the NHRC, plans to establish "national special rapporteurs" concerning different issues have failed to include the issue of torture and violence by the security agencies.
Individual cases documented this year have continued to show that victims of torture have limited access to legal remedies as criminal prosecutions are impossible, enabling perpetrators of torture to enjoy impunity, while remaining in duty and even being promoted to higher positions.
In spite of repeated commitments to criminalize torture, Nepal is still lacking the legislative framework to enable redress for acts of torture. Nepal is revising its Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code, as part of which torture should be criminalized, but no timeframe has been set for their adoption. The draft codes contain much-welcomed elements, such as the introduction of specific sanctions attached to the crime of torture, as well as the criminalization of enforced disappearances and secret detention, both of which contribute to enabling torture.
However, under their present form, the draft codes fall short of international standards, by not including a definition of torture in line with the Convention against Torture and by not setting a mandatory prison sentence for the crime of torture. Of significant concern is the fact that under the draft criminal code the written approval of the government of Nepal is required prior to the prosecution of any government employee, which effectively provides the government with veto powers concerning the decision to prosecute perpetrators of torture. The international community should closely follow-up on these issues, urging Nepal to minimize the delays in the process of criminalization of torture and to amend the current legal provisions that undermine victims' rights to legal redress.The government reports that it is drafting a separate legislation on torture but its draft is yet to be made public.
Developing an effective legislative framework allowing redress for acts of torture is an important component of the measures required in order to effectively tackle torture in Nepal. However, it is only through an overhaul of the country's policing system and the strengthening of its justice system that torture will be eradicated in the country.
Numerous individual cases documented this year have shown that torture will continue to be widespread until the policing system is reformed in depth, introducing accountability and bringing it under the framework of the rule of law. The police force is plagued with nepotism and corruption, hampering any progress towards greater accountability and transparency. The adoption of a Police Service Commission, responsible for transfers and appointments, suggested during Nepal's Universal Periodic Review (UPR), would mark a first credible attempt to introduce accountability and professionalism into the functioning of the police, but as underlined in the 2011 OHCHR's annual report "to date there has been no progress on that front".
No independent mechanisms exist to investigate complaints brought against police officers, resulting in police officers having the responsibility to investigate complaints against their colleagues in a direct conflict of interest. Nevertheless, during the UPR, Nepal claimed that its complaint mechanisms into allegations of torture were already independent, a stance contradicted by the OHCHR's report: "internal investigation and disciplinary measures by the security forces could not replace independent and credible investigations under the regular criminal justice system nor satisfy the right of victims to an effective remedy, as required by international law".
In July 2010, Dharmendra Barai, a fifteen-year-old boy, died in police custody, allegedly as the result of torture; this allegation is supported by substantial evidence and eyewitness accounts. Both the District Administration Office and the District Police Office refused to register the family's complaint. A local investigation reportedly failed to show diligence in the interrogation of witnesses or to take into account strong forensic evidence, and concluded that it could not establish that the death was due to torture. The Home Ministry had conducted a separate investigation in the case but has still not made its report public. The only action taken so far in that case has been the transfer of one police officer to another police office. The police officers allegedly involved in this case have repeatedly refused to visit the local office of the NHRC in spite of being summoned there, although the Interim Constitution granted the NHRC "the same powers as the court has in requiring any person to appear before the Commission". In January 2011, the Butwal Appellate Court issued a writ of mandamus against the Butwal DPO ordering it to initiate a "fully independent, impartial, effective and prompt investigation into the case as per law. Such an investigation is yet to take place, again in clear violation of the Interim Constitution which states that court orders are to be binding to all.
This case not only illustrates the absence of fair and effective investigations conducted by the police into allegations of torture, but also speaks at length to the lack of accountability of police officers to the judicial authorities. Existing legal provisions protecting persons in detention, such as the 24-hour limit to present a person before the court, are disregarded. Torture mostly takes place at the time of arrest and during the first 24 hours of detention. It has been found that the police delay providing detainees with a detention letter in order to postpone the time at which they are to be presented before the court and to have more time to interrogate them without external scrutiny. It is also more difficult for victims to prove that their injuries were due to torture while in police custody when torture takes place in illegal detention. When courts order medical examination, police officers often remain present, preventing detainees from reporting acts of torture.
The ALRC and Advocacy Forum urge the Council to intervene with the government of Nepal concerning the ongoing difficulties faced by human rights defenders to access places of detention and talk to detainees. Since the second semester of 2011, the police have also restricted human rights defenders' access to detainees by reducing the time allocated to them and by remaining present during interviews with the detainees.1
The judiciary is still to play an effective role in the fight against torture. Not only are its orders to provide medical treatment or compensation to victims, to initiate an investigation into allegations of torture or to take departmental action against the perpetrators, typically being ignored in the absence of a mechanism allowing the court to follow-up on the implementation of its orders, but it is often found that the judiciary is restricting itself to a passive role. In some instances, court registrars have arbitrarily rejected torture compensation applications. It has been observed that courts rarely order departmental sanctions against individual perpetrators, even when it finds that torture has taken place and when evidence allows the identification of the perpetrators, although the Torture Compensation Act, 1996, enables it to order departmental sanctions. In the case of Mahima Kusule, concerning which the Special Rapporteur on torture expressed concern in a letter dated 08/09/10, the court acknowledged that torture had been committed, as defined in the Torture Compensation Act, but did not order the punishment of the perpetrators despite their being strong evidence to warrant such action.
This case also points to the utter negligence with which the government of Nepal deals with cases of torture. Without conducting investigations into the allegations of torture, it responded to the Special Rapporteur's letter that the allegations were "completely baseless, fabricated and hypothetical." The government's position runs contrary to the findings of the court, which has acknowledged the veracity of the torture allegations, and is therefore illustrative of the government's lack of good faith concerning its cooperation with the Human Rights Council and its Special Procedures.
The Asian Legal Resource Centre and Advocacy Forum urge:
a. The Special Rapporteur on torture to continue to monitor the situation of torture in Nepal, to follow-up on cases communicated to the government, and to express concern at the increase in allegations of the use of torture. The Special Rapporteur is urged to request a follow-up visit to Nepal in order to assess this situation and the implementation of the mandate's previous recommendations.
b. The Human Rights Council to intervene with the government of Nepal to ensure effective cooperation with the OHCHR, Special Procedures and Treaty Bodies, and ensure the prompt and effective implementation, in particular, of recommendations made by the Committee Against Torture, by the Special Rapporteur on torture, as well as those made during Nepal's Universal Periodic Review in January 2011. The government of Nepal must be urged to include addressing torture as a priority within planned wider reforms to the criminal justice system.
c. In particular, the Human Rights Council and the Special Rapporteur on torture are called upon to:
Urge the government to adopt without delays a legislation specifically criminalizing the issue of torture and to immediately make its draft public. Closely monitor the compliance of such legislation with the Convention against Torture.
Monitor the compliance of the draft criminal code and criminal procedure code with the CAT. In particular, the provision for prior written approval for any prosecution against alleged torturers should be removed;
Ensure that measures to eradicate torture involve the required larger reforms of the justice system, including the strengthening of the independence and the authority of the judiciary, and compliance by the security forces with court orders;
Urge the government to institute broader reforms to enable accountability within the policing system, and encourage the creation of a Police Service Commission to this end;
Express concern with regard to the current state of the complaints and investigation systems concerning allegations of torture, and urge the government to ensure the development of independent complaints and investigation mechanisms, including the adoption of comprehensive and effective victim and witness protection measures, and the immediate suspension of officials indicted in relation to allegations of torture;
Press the government to ratify the Optional Protocol to CAT and assist it in developing a comprehensive mechanism for the systematic monitoring of places of detention in order to enable more effective prevention of torture;
- And, urge the government to make illegal detention and incommunicado detention without presentation before a judicial authority within 24 hours punishable by law.
The ALRC and Advocacy Forum further urge the governments of Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Japan, New Zealand, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, who have all expressed concern or made recommendations aiming at bringing torture to an end during Nepal's UPR, to intervene with the government of Nepal to ensure that it is fulfilling its commitments.
1 One example is quoted in the latest Advocacy Forum torture briefing : http://www.advocacyforum.org/downloads/pdf/publications/torture/torture-briefing-july-to-dec-2011.pdf | <urn:uuid:ca52207f-f541-44c9-8e49-c9c9de827a41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humanrights.asia/opinions/interviews/AHRC-ETC-003-2010/news/alrc-news/human-rights-council/hrc19/ALRC-CWS-19-07-2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953187 | 2,473 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Op-Ed: 'Higher Education' Is A Waste Of Money
TONY COX, host:
Now the Opinion Page.
It's August, and in a few weeks, millions of teenagers will trek across town or across the country to their new college home for the next four years or more. A college degree can now cost more than a good-sized family home, by some estimates as much as a quarter million dollars.
Andrew Hacker argues, in a new book, that too often, college is not worth the cost. Our system of higher education, he says, is broken. Andrew Hacker is the author of - the coauthor, make that - of "Higher Education? How Colleges are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids and What We Can Do About It."
If you are a recent college grad or an educator, we want to hear from you. Tell us what you think about higher education and how to fix it. Our number here in Washington is 800-989-8255 - 800-989-8255. Our email address is firstname.lastname@example.org. And to join the conversation, go to our website, npr.org and click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Professor Andrew Hacker joins me now from our New York bureau. Professor, nice to have you on TALK OF THE NATION again.
Professor ANDREW HACKER (Author, "Higher Education? How Colleges are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids and What We Can Do About It"): It's very good to be here, Tony.
COX: You know, your book was quite interesting. And at the risk of opening up a real can of worms in terms of the time that we have to talk about it, what's wrong with higher education?
Prof. HACKER: As you know, the title of our book has a question mark in it, you know? And we're really asking, how much of what goes under this term is higher and how much is education? And we came to the conclusion that a lot of what goes on in our college campuses isn't education at all. And much of it, I'm afraid, can't be called higher either.
COX: Now as you talk about - in the book, you hearken back to a time when there was more of what I guess would be called a liberal arts education, where we studied languages and philosophy and things of that sort, as opposed to what you also describe as the more current kinds of curricula that are geared, as you describe it, toward getting people out of college and into a job.
Prof. HACKER: Yes, of the three million freshmen who are going to arrive on campuses in September, over half of them are - have already chosen vocational majors, like fashion merchandising or sports management. We think this is a real misuse of what could be four precious, rewarding years. We would - if we had our way, everybody would take a liberal arts degree.
COX: Now, we have a - some emails are already starting to come in. I want to read the first one to you. This is from a listener in Kansas who says, I am professor at a large state university where I teach the introductory course on psychology to classes of 1,000 students. In that course, I lecture on topics such as the scientific method, that is critical thinking; brain and behavior, learning, memory, intelligence, emotions and health, social interactions and abnormal behaviors. What is relevant here is that years later, students often write to me, commenting on something on which I had lectured years earlier that had become relevant in their lives, and they ask for more information. A college education can be job training, but it can also be education for life. Is my class irrelevant? I don't think so, and apparently my students dont think so either. What do you say to him?
Prof. HACKER: Well, I give four stars to that professor. In education, there is - higher education, there is a place for lectures, place for small seminars, a place for intimate classes, a place, even, for chatting with the professor in the cafeteria. And if this particular professor in Kansas can turn on a thousand students in a room, I say let's clone him.
COX: Genevieve(ph) writes from Des Moines, Iowa. Class size is a problem at all levels of education. Reduce size to be competitive. If we do anything, America must invest in education for all. We must make math, science, language, reading and foreign language the top five priorities at all levels of education. Is she right?
Prof. HACKER: I think shes absolutely right. In our view, we are, shall we say, unreconstructed Jeffersonians. Its our view that everybody, every young person, has a mind, has an intellect, has curiosity. If theres a student now who, say, basically majoring in beer at a huge state university, that very same student could be presenting a seminar paper on Moliere. It can be done if the teachers rise to the occasion.
COX: Now, one of the things you talk about in the book is the system of how our professors in college are the I guess you would call it the strata of being a professor from part-time, an adjunct, and then assistant associate and then full professor and so forth, and that along with tenure it has actually, in your view, been bad for higher education. Why do you say so?
Prof. HACKER: Well, what is tenure? Tenure is lifetime employment security, in fact, into the grave. Three hundred thousand professors have that status. Theyre all over, not just at the big Ivy League universities, at small colleges at well as well. Weve added it all up, and we just come to conclusion that, regretfully, that tenure is more of a liability than an asset. For one thing, it works havoc on young people who, for their 14 years, lets say, at graduate schools as young assistant professors, have to be very, very cautious if they hope to get that gold ring.
COX: We also have another couple of emails. Theyre really coming in. People are very interested in this topic. This comes from Keith(ph) in Boston, Massachusetts. Keith writes: Higher ed is not broken, but it is in trouble because it attempts to follow a for-profit business model. It has become unaffordable, because starting with the Reagan administration the federal government has not supported education. Is Keith right or wrong?
Prof. HACKER: Hes right and wrong. Currently, as you indicated at the outset, Tony, at a private college, its going to cost you really up toward $50,000 a year. Imagine that, $50,000 a year. Thats over what the typical American worker makes. Now, why is that? Its because colleges know they can keep raising their prices as theyve been doing, well ahead of inflation, and the students will come and take out loans. In other words, our colleges are being really built on the indebtedness that young people, starting at the age of 18, are signing papers that they are going to live with until they're 38. We regard this as totally immoral.
COX: Heres a caller coming in from Rockford, Illinois. Its Mike(ph), Mike, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.
MIKE (Caller): Hi. Thanks for having me on.
COX: Your question?
MIKE: Yeah. I have just a kind of a brief comment, I guess, and Ill ask how the author feels about this. I just finished getting my masters degree in philosophy, which is kind of (unintelligible) of the field by many of my friends who went to college. And Im trying to get into a PhD program, and Im finding that a lot of the people that Im talking to are saying that the publish or perish mentality. Universities have kind of ruined teaching in a lot of fields, and I guess philosophy in particular, and it stopped teachers from wanting to teach the one-on-one classes and kind of get students acclimated to getting a lauded education because theyre just trying to get published. And it seems like that thats causing a lot of pressure in higher education and taking a lot of professors out of the classroom, at least mentally. I was wondering what the author thought about that.
COX: Thank you very much, Mike. What do you think about that, and...
Prof. HACKER: I agree with Mike three times over. In our view, there is too much publication. More stuff is being published than is ever needed, and wed even say too much research. I know that could be controversial. You ask, hey, what about a cure for cancer? But when 3,000 people are writing articles on William Faulkner, thats not exactly curing cancer.
Now, nowadays, in order to get the proper credentials, professors take time off from teaching and frequently with sabbaticals that your tuition dollars pay for. At Harvard, which is not exactly a typical place, but Harvard has a good history department. In the current coming academic year, 40 percent, 4-0 percent, of Harvards history professors will be off on leave. Is that a college?
COX: Interesting question that you raise. Thank you for the call. So that people dont get the idea that we are here simply bashing higher education, I know that your book talks about some solutions and some ideas. Before we get to what those specifics are, Professor Hacker, let me ask you this question. In your research, whats right about college and higher education now?
Prof. HACKER: Whats right are the colleges which make undergraduates the center of their attention. If you go to a big state university, Tony, youll find more adults walking around than you will undergraduates. These are people who work in huge centers, research institutes, even a huge hospital. And you begin to wonder, is this, you know, college education?
Now, there are good colleges. There are liberal arts colleges like, for example, Hendrix in Arkansas, Pomona in California, Carleton in Minnesota, which give an excellent education because freshmen through seniors are the center of their attention, as I said. There are also regional state colleges which are not they really know theyre not going to get into the major league, so they, too, emphasize teaching. We went to Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon, a one-traffic-light town. And we were delighted what we saw: The students were enthusiastic, and the faculty were as dedicated as any weve ever seen. There are plenty of such places.
COX: Well, maybe there is one in Eugene, Oregon, where Zach(ph) is standing by to talk to us. Zach, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.
ZACH (Caller): Hi, guys, nice to talk to you today. I wanted to make a comment/question regarding lower ed. And it's - really, what we're seeing is a systemic issue with lower ed transferring into upper ed, and then those people graduating and making decisions that reflect the school.
And it seems like in lower ed, we're more focused on (unintelligible) baking type where we learn facts instead of the critical thinking skills that allow us to evolve our society into a profitable way. And I'm wondering if it's - part of this is part of the elite trying to deconstruct the lower class to help maybe perpetuate the differences between rich and poor and subjugate the masses.
COX: Zach, thank you very much for that call. By the way, you're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
So Professor Hacker, is he on to something?
Prof. HACKER: Well, Zach has an interesting point here. Currently, about 30 percent of our population has or will have bachelor's degrees. And it's moving up to about 35 percent. It's really - we're turning out a million and a half BAs every year. So we're not talking 30, 35 percent. That's a pretty large group. Now, I do agree with Zach that most of them have been in large lectures filled with PowerPoints, taught by overworked adjuncts and teaching assistants. They're not getting much of an education. They're not getting a chance to use their minds. And we would like to see everybody have, let's say, for example, small seminar.
The University of Tennessee, for example, does this. For every incoming freshman, there is a small seminar at the beginning with a professor who really wants to teach that. That's a good start.
COX: Let's take a call, and let's also read an email. But first, we'll go to the caller. This is Shannon(ph), from Charlotte, North Carolina. Shannon, welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.
SHANNON (Caller): Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. My comment was just to go back to the discussion of vocational degrees versus liberal arts. I recently - I've been in college for about 10 years. I'm 28, almost 29 years old, and I recently switched to nursing, recently graduated. I think one of the problems is, especially for people who are in the middle class or lower middle class arena, it's just too expensive to go get a liberal arts degree, get a bachelor's degree, go out and try to work to pay off that $40,000, $50,000 of debt and then try to make their way back to a master's program.
A lot of us never make our way back to the master's but we're so in debt with the bachelor's degree that we don't find that it's worthwhile to go back to get the master's program. So when I went back to get my - when I basically changed majors, it was more to find something that I knew that I can make money and pay off the debt versus not having any idea of whether I'm going get a job and if I was going make enough money to pay off the expenses that I incurred while going to school.
COX: Shannon, thank you very much for that. I guess the economic reality is such, and that's sort of what you were talking about in the beginning, whether or not this whole higher education experience, Professor Hacker, is worth it. The alternatives, economically good ones, are what?
Prof. HACKER: Well, first of all, one of the problems with what we call vocational training, is that the decision is made, let's say, when a person is a senior in high school or a freshman in college. And a lot of them say, hey, I want to go to engineering school. Do you know, Tony, that almost half of engineering school students drop out? Why? Because they discover engineering isn't what they thought it was. And by the way, the teaching in engineering is absolutely abysmal. But those kids have wasted, you know, $20,000 maybe more in those first few years of their vocational training that didn't work out. What we'd say is take that risk, take a bachelor's degree. And then when you're 21, 22, then decide what you want to do. You know, then you'll have a greater perspective of - greater chance of working out.
COX: One of the things that occurring now, Andrew Hacker, is that with the technology, distance learning, an online learning have become larger and larger pieces of the higher educational pie, a good thing or not?
Prof. HACKER: We went down to Florida Gulf Coast University to watch, what should we say, techno-teaching at work. We observed a class with 1,400 students in the arts, the performing arts, you know, and visual arts - no teacher, no professor, no classroom, all done sitting in front of a computer screen. We added it all up and we decided we weren't too happy with it, but we want to give it a try. Because in this techno age, you can really do quite lively things, interactive things on a TV - on a video screen. And we're willing to give it a chance. We're not saying no right now.
COX: You have written a book that I'm sure would raise the hackles on some people in the academy. We're going to bring our conversation to a close with this, Professor Hacker, what kind of response have you gotten to the suggestion, and the criticisms, of higher learning from your book - really briefly, please?
Prof. HACKER: Thus far, very gratifying, Tony. I must say the reviews, in places we never thought, we got very favorable attention. But the people who have been - complain most are entrenched professors, who are in this cocoon called tenure, who think that their sabbaticals and their research are really the most important thing in the world. And we're saying, no, the students are most important.
COX: Thank you very much. Andrew Hacker is the co-author of "Higher Education: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids and What We Can Do about It." You can read more about what he says falls outside of higher educations obligations. There's an excerpt from "Higher Education" at our website, npr.org. Just click on TALK OF THE NATION. Once again, thank you, professor.
And tomorrow, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius joining us. We'll talk about the new health care law. I'm Tony Cox. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio. | <urn:uuid:98dbe72b-1dc9-4c68-8322-acc950c24173> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128933357 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972949 | 3,753 | 1.570313 | 2 |
From The New York Times. I bet not one statehooder reads this--or is capable of understanding what it means.
December 31, 2007
Looking at America
There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.
It was not the first time in recent years we’ve felt this horror, this sorrowful sense of estrangement, not nearly. This sort of lawless behavior has become standard practice since Sept. 11, 2001.
The country and much of the world was rightly and profoundly frightened by the single-minded hatred and ingenuity displayed by this new enemy. But there is no excuse for how President Bush and his advisers panicked — how they forgot that it is their responsibility to protect American lives and American ideals, that there really is no safety for Americans or their country when those ideals are sacrificed.
Out of panic and ideology, President Bush squandered America’s position of moral and political leadership, swept aside international institutions and treaties, sullied America’s global image, and trampled on the constitutional pillars that have supported our democracy through the most terrifying and challenging times. These policies have fed the world’s anger and alienation and have not made any of us safer.
In the years since 9/11, we have seen American soldiers abuse, sexually humiliate, torment and murder prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. A few have been punished, but their leaders have never been called to account. We have seen mercenaries gun down Iraqi civilians with no fear of prosecution. We have seen the president, sworn to defend the Constitution, turn his powers on his own citizens, authorizing the intelligence agencies to spy on Americans, wiretapping phones and intercepting international e-mail messages without a warrant.
We have read accounts of how the government’s top lawyers huddled in secret after the attacks in New York and Washington and plotted ways to circumvent the Geneva Conventions — and both American and international law — to hold anyone the president chose indefinitely without charges or judicial review.
Those same lawyers then twisted other laws beyond recognition to allow Mr. Bush to turn intelligence agents into torturers, to force doctors to abdicate their professional oaths and responsibilities to prepare prisoners for abuse, and then to monitor the torment to make sure it didn’t go just a bit too far and actually kill them.
The White House used the fear of terrorism and the sense of national unity to ram laws through Congress that gave law-enforcement agencies far more power than they truly needed to respond to the threat — and at the same time fulfilled the imperial fantasies of Vice President Dick Cheney and others determined to use the tragedy of 9/11 to arrogate as much power as they could.
Hundreds of men, swept up on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, were thrown into a prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, so that the White House could claim they were beyond the reach of American laws. Prisoners are held there with no hope of real justice, only the chance to face a kangaroo court where evidence and the names of their accusers are kept secret, and where they are not permitted to talk about the abuse they have suffered at the hands of American jailers.
In other foreign lands, the C.I.A. set up secret jails where “high-value detainees” were subjected to ever more barbaric acts, including simulated drowning. These crimes were videotaped, so that “experts” could watch them, and then the videotapes were destroyed, after consultation with the White House, in the hope that Americans would never know.
The C.I.A. contracted out its inhumanity to nations with no respect for life or law, sending prisoners — some of them innocents kidnapped on street corners and in airports — to be tortured into making false confessions, or until it was clear they had nothing to say and so were let go without any apology or hope of redress.
These are not the only shocking abuses of President Bush’s two terms in office, made in the name of fighting terrorism. There is much more — so much that the next president will have a full agenda simply discovering all the wrongs that have been done and then righting them.
We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America.
History is being written before the eyes of a nation once-proud to lead the world in democracy and human rights, reduced now to proto-fascism and mealy-mouthed psychopathy. Why am I so upset about this? Because history has also shown that where goeth the U.S. of part of A., so--eventually--goeth Us.
At least in 2008 the murderous moron has to leave the Oval Office. By My count, he should do so now and be taken straight to jail.
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Investor concerns about the debt crisis in Greece hurt stock markets in Europe and the United States on Tuesday.
Major European stock indexes dropped three percent or more, key U.S. indexes were off between two and three percent, while Spanish stocks fell more than five percent and Greek share prices plunged more than six percent.
The market slide came as Greek workers began a two-day strike in Athens to protest planned government budget cuts. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund are demanding severe spending cuts by Athens in exchange for a $146 billion bailout of the debt-ridden country.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told a German newspaper Tuesday that some $30 billion in German funding for the bailout would be stopped if Greece fails to comply with the austerity measures.
Thousands of civil servants and pensioners took to the streets of Athens Tuesday, lashing out at the proposed budget cuts. Some demonstrators threw rocks and bottles at police who responded with tear gas.
Greek communists hung a giant banner from the Acropolis, with the phrase "Peoples of Europe Rise Up" in both Greek and English.
Greek lawmakers are expected to vote on $40 billion in budget cuts as early as Thursday. The legislation will include pay cuts, lower pension payments and higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol.
The protests have already affected operations at Greece's two main airports, which were forced to cancel some domestic flights.
Politicians and investors are worried that economic problems could spread throughout the EU if Greece fails to make a scheduled debt repayment due May 19. Those concerns grew in the past week when a key credit rating agency, Standard and Poor's, downgraded its credit ratings for Greece, Portugal and Spain. | <urn:uuid:32946dad-4197-4b7a-a6f8-070499d7e67d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.voanews.com/content/greek-austerity-measures-spark-anger-skirmishes-92773829/116956.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97073 | 341 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Last spring my youngest niece began playing soccer in a local league. I went to a few of her games (after all, I am the sports dork in the family).
The games were for the most part conducted in a congenial atmosphere, with families watching their charges at play. Her team was, to be honest, not the most skilled of squads. This wasn’t exactly surprising, as they were all first-graders, and most of them were new to the game.
The basic plan of attack went like this: if the ball rolled in the general vicinity of a player, that player would attempt to kick it, hopefully in the right direction. There was no guarantee that significant contact with the ball would be made.
A goal-scoring opportunity would occur if a player managed to kick the ball hard enough to get it close to the other team’s net; then there would be a meeting at the ball of a number of players on each team, and if the right kick happened at the right time, and the keeper wasn’t up to the task, then a goal might be scored.
Well, maybe the squad was a little better than that. The girls did practice every week, and were instructed in the fundamentals. During the games, the team’s coach would organize his troops. ”Stay in position! Stay in position!” he would yell, somewhat mournfully. Staying in position (or perhaps just staying focused) was seemingly a hard thing for them to do.
I watched the team play three times. It won once and lost twice. One of the teams it played had much better players and won 4-0. Clearly that outfit had brought in ringers. The other two opponents were more on their level; the girls lost 2-1 to one team, and beat the other one 2-0. During the spring season, they were basically a .500 outfit.
After the summer break, the team started play again for the fall campaign. I didn’t realize there was a fall season, so I wasn’t prepared for the telephone call I got a few weeks ago from my brother. First he told me that the team had played two games already; then the conversation went something like this:
Him: ”They won 8-0 last night.”
Me: ”8-0? Did the other team have more than two players?”
Him: ”Yeah, they just…well, I can’t explain it. But…our team is real good now.”
Me: ”Did they get some ringers like that other team did?”
Him: ”No, it’s the same girls as in the spring. It’s just they got good all of a sudden.”
Me: ”What was the score in the other game they played?”
Me: ”Did she score?”
Him (and I could see him grinning, even over the telephone): ”She scored a goal in the last game.”
They later won a game in which they scored twelve goals, and apparently there is now talk that they are too good for their league and might have to move up an age level, which seems a little unfair to me, kind of like asking Oregon to play in the NFC West (although maybe that’s not such a stretch, come to think of it).
I was thinking about my niece’s team as I contemplated the rise of another soccer team, that of my alma mater, which has made an even more improbable leap. I wondered if comparing the two outfits might be instructive, but I thought better of it. Maybe someone could have seen the improvement in my niece’s team coming, but there is no way anyone was expecting the season The Citadel has had in soccer. No one, that is, except perhaps head coach Bob Winch:
[Question] Did you see this coming?
“Yeah, a little bit. Last year, we were successful defensively and we always had a chance in our games. This year, we’ve been able to score some goals and that’s helped us win some games.”
Let’s go over some stats…
Through early October of 2008, The Citadel’s women’s soccer team had an alltime record in Southern Conference play of 0-74-2. No, that’s not a typo. On October 10 of that year, the squad finally won a game in the league, beating Georgia Southern 2-1. The Bulldogs would drop their final six SoCon games that year and finish 1-10 in the conference.
That was two years ago. Last season The Citadel finished with a record of 2-7-2 in SoCon play, beating GSU again (the program’s first league road victory) and also knocking off Chattanooga. The two ties were both scoreless matches played over the same weekend in games at Appalachian State and at Western Carolina.
The team’s noticeable improvement in competitiveness garnered Winch the league’s coach of the year award. It’s not often a COY award is given to someone whose team had a winning percentage of just 27% in league play, but it’s not often a coach doubles his program’s alltime conference win total in one season, either.
This season, of course, has gone beyond that, and then some. The Citadel won 7 of its 11 conference games, including first-ever wins over Wofford, Davidson, Elon, Appalachian State, and Western Carolina. In league action, The Bulldogs were 4-2 on the road and 3-2 at WLI Field (in the regular season).
I don’t know if you can give Winch another coach of the year award for that. Coach of the century, maybe.
When I was researching the league-only SoCon stats for women’s soccer, I was struck by how The Citadel had managed to finish third in the league despite not leading, or even being that close to leading, any significant statistical category. There are twelve teams in the conference. The Bulldogs’s rank in official statistical categories is as follows:
Goals – 6th
Assists – 9th
Shots – 7th
Goals allowed – 10th
Saves – 5th
Shutouts – 10th (tie)
Fouls – 5th (tie)
Corner kicks – 6th
Offsides – 11th
Yellow Cards – 5th
You could argue, I suppose, that The Citadel being 11th in offsides calls against is a good thing, although it could also suggest a lack of aggression and/or possession. At any rate, it would appear to be a statistic that has no bearing on a team’s win-loss record, at least in the SoCon.
The Citadel is only in the top 4 in one statistical category (besides wins, of course). The Bulldogs finished in first place in the league…in red cards.
There were two red cards shown in conference play this season, and they were both given to Bulldog players. (In addition, Bob Winch, given a red card in the league tournament game against Furman on Sunday, was apparently the first and only coach to be dismissed from any SoCon game this season.)
The red card stat surprised me. It would be hard to conclude the Bulldogs are a particularly rough outfit, either statistically (a middle-of-the-pack team in fouls and yellow cards) or from watching them play.
Of course, the fact we’re just talking about two cards, and thus two situations, indicates a small sample size, and possibly a fluke. Further investigation was required.
I first viewed the videotape for the second of the two red cards, given to Shanna Couch during the Samford match, easily the team’s worst performance of the season (losing at home 7-0). At the 63-minute mark, the Bulldog keeper came out of the goal during a Samford mini-breakaway. Samford wound up with a shot on goal that would have gone in, except Crouch palmed it away on the goal line.
That was a problem, since Crouch wasn’t the keeper, and she thus got a straight red. Honesty compels me to admit it was deserved. Sorry, Shanna.
The other red card was given to defender (and erstwhile diarist) Leah Hawkins during the Chattanooga match. Hawkins had picked up a yellow card at the 60-minute mark for an overly aggressive tackle. At the 83-minute mark, with The Citadel leading 2-0, she collided with a UTC player while going for the ball, received a second yellow, and was sent off.
When the collision happened, the UTC coach immediately began yelling for the yellow card, which wasn’t the first time he had complained about various calls or non-calls during the game. (He was rather vocal.) I don’t think I would have booked Hawkins if I had been the official — it was clearly neither a “professional” foul nor a dangerous play — but maybe the referee decided to throw the Mocs coach a bone.
Tangent: in all fairness to the UTC coach, he was probably stressed out by that point with his team’s play and with an injury that occurred to one of his players in the first half. Shortly after a rather innocuous clash with a Bulldog player, a Moc midfielder dropped to the ground, right on the sideline next to the UTC bench, and began shrieking in apparent pain. She continued to cry out for several minutes while receiving attention from a Moc trainer.
I have no idea how she had been hurt, or the specifics of the injury, and I suspect I don’t really want to know. She was eventually able to leave the field of play, more or less under her own power.
While that was going on the two teams retreated to the center of the pitch, with each holding an impromptu meeting, seemingly oblivious to what was happening on the sideline. I got the impression the Moc players were talking about how nice the weather was and how lousy the bus trip back to Chattanooga was going to be, while the Bulldogs were comparing notes on an SMI and discussing how their uniforms were so much better than the football team’s duds.
My conclusion is that the two red cards do not necessarily indicate a leaguewide conspiracy. However, I am certain that fans of the Bulldogs will continue to be vigilant in ensuring that the school’s players are fairly treated.
Red cards aside, how have the Bulldogs managed an upper-echelon league finish while not placing that highly in the conference statistics? How does a team go 7-4 while being outscored 20-15? The Citadel’s goals for/goals against number of -5 is equal to that of Appalachian State and Western Carolina, two teams that didn’t even make the SoCon tournament, yet the Bulldogs won enough games to host a tourney match.
Well, it helps to limit most of your poor play to just a couple of matches. As mentioned above, The Citadel lost 7-0 to Samford. It also lost two 3-0 games, to league regular season champion UNC-Greensboro and to Furman.
In the other eight regular-season SoCon games it played, though, The Citadel allowed only seven goals. It won seven of those eight contests.
In six of those seven wins (and in a loss to the College of Charleston), The Citadel allowed one goal. The Bulldogs recorded just one shutout, the aforementioned game against Chattanooga, but won five games by a 2-1 scoreline and another 3-1.
That is the type of defense that can keep a team in the game. It’s also the kind of defense that The Citadel played last season, as Winch mentioned in that quote from the link. In fact, last year the Bulldogs only allowed 14 goals in 11 SoCon matches. The problem was that The Citadel only scored five goals in those matches.
The Bulldogs have been able to put a bulge in the auld onion bag this year on a number of occasions, though (as I channel Tommy Smyth, and if you’re still reading this I know you’re groaning). It is the main difference between last year and this year, and what has propelled the program to unprecedented heights. This season the Bulldogs have scored fifteen goals in league play, which while not an overwhelming amount has been just enough.
The Citadel scored two goals in six of its conference wins, and three in the other victory. Give up one, get two — that has been the basic formula, and it has worked.
There are just two seniors on this year’s team, Nicole Martinoli (one of five Floridians on the roster) and Dominic Snyder (one of five players hailing from outside the United States). Martinoli stated earlier this season that:
“The program has grown tremendously, and it’s not just because of this year’s team. It’s because of all the effort of the girls on past teams.”
She’s right, of course, and I am sure there are a lot of very proud former players hanging on every kick of this year’s team. Some of the best kicking going on, though, is coming from the boots of some precocious freshmen.
The core of the defense-minded players is primarily made up of upperclassmen like Hawkins, Couch, Hannah Warne, and Angela Foyt, plus the goalkeeping duo of Whitney Nave and Laura Serafino, but the offensive punch has come mostly from first-year players like Mariana Garcia, Nicole Levermann, Jillian Meyer, and Vanessa Aponte. The freshmen have combined to score 13 of The Citadel’s 15 goals in SoCon play (Martinoli, repping the old guard, has the other two) and have all but one of the assists in league games (Lexington High School alum Miranda Johnson has the other).
What do they bring to the table? Well, in the opinion of this non-expert, collectively the freshmen have a nice combination of pace and skill. All of them have good speed, and not just mighty mites like Garcia, Taylor Viana, and Ruth Leiva. The 5’10″ Levermann can pick ‘em up and put ‘em down, too, when she gets going, and when she does she’s hard to stop.
Garcia and Levermann have nine of the fifteen SoCon goals. The opener against Davidson was fairly typical. Garcia ran two Wildcat defenders ragged as she led them on a merry chase to the corner flag. She started to move away from the flag and down the sideline, and then passed the ball to Johnson at the top right corner of the 18-yard box.
Johnson quickly dinked a pass to Levermann, who slipped between two defenders six yards from goal and almost casually flicked the ball past the keeper with her left foot. She would finish the afternoon with a hat trick.
Another impressive thing about the Bulldogs is that they have accomplished all this despite losing one of their best players, junior Amy Loughran, after just ten games. Loughran had already scored five goals this season (after an eight-goal outburst last year that included game-winners against Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern) when she broke two bones in her leg against Appalachian State.
When I wrote about the soccer team last year, one of the things that concerned me was the small roster size. Last season, there were no freshmen on the team, which struck me as unusual, and not optimal. (One freshman who was supposed to be on the squad last year but was injured prior to enrolling at The Citadel, goalkeeper Cassie Palmacci, is on the team this season.)
This year the Bulldogs have eighteen players on their roster, four more than last season, which perhaps makes the loss of Loughran a little more manageable, although still not easy.
One thing I worried about was how the team would finish the season. After clinching a tourney home game with its seventh league victory, The Citadel lost its last two games, 3-0 to Furman and 1-0 at the College of Charleston. I was afraid that the outstanding campaign would end with a bit of a whimper, which wouldn’t have been the first time that happened to a team from The Citadel having an unexpectedly great year (examples include the 1989 and 2009 basketball teams, just to name two).
That made the tournament opener (the first conference tournament game in the program’s history) more important, in my view. Making the storyline even more interesting was the opponent, Furman, which had just beaten the Bulldogs at WLI the week before and which had never lost to The Citadel.
For a while, it looked like that streak might continue. The two teams traded goals in regulation, with the Bulldogs missing a great chance to go up 2-0, only to see the Paladins equalize only two minutes later. Then it went to overtime and a “golden goal” scenario, where the first team to score would immediately win the game.
The first OT was scoreless. The two teams were to play up to ten more minutes in a second overtime; if the score remained 1-1 after that, then penalty kicks would decide things. Nobody wants to see a match go to PKs, and fortunately for The Citadel, this one didn’t.
A Furman defender was called for handball, which I thought happened in the box (which would have given The Citadel a penalty kick to win the game). However, a free kick was the call, just outside the box. The Paladins set up their wall, but Aponte curled a kick around the right side of it, past the diving keeper, and into the bottom of the net for the game-winner.
I have noticed that most of the Bulldogs’ goal celebrations are a bit muted (perhaps it’s a league or NCAA rule), but this one was certainly not. It was spontaneous and wild. The good feelings lasted for quite a while after the game; at one point, long after the match’s end, Jaslene Thiara momentarily stopped hugging Levermann long enough to wag a “We’re Number 1!” finger to the camera, whooping it up in style.
That might be the team’s last chance to relish a big win this year, and if it is, that would be understandable. Progressing much further in the league tournament will be a tall order. On Friday in the SoCon semifinals, The Citadel will face Samford, which handed the Bulldogs that 7-0 shellacking at WLI referenced earlier in this post, and waiting on the other side of the bracket is UNC-Greensboro, which is currently ranked in the Top 25 and has won twelve straight games. (The Spartans beat The Citadel 3-0 in Greensboro in the regular season.)
The odds aren’t really in the Bulldogs’ favor. On the other hand, Samford needed penalty kicks to get past Davidson in the first round of the league tourney, and UNCG struggled before finally outlasting Wofford, 1-0, in its tourney opener. Now all four teams left will move to a neutral site in Cullowhee (the fourth school remaining, Elon, won at the College of Charleston on Sunday). Maybe there will be a surprise champion, preferably one with a military bent.
I hope this is the start of a long, successful run for the women’s soccer program. I think it would be fun to tell my niece that if she were good enough, maybe someday she could go to The Citadel and play soccer on the hallowed grounds of WLI Field, following the great champions of the past. If that happened, she would immediately become the most successful athlete in the history of her family, which admittedly would be faint praise (her eldest uncle in particular being one of the least athletic individuals to ever spend four years at the military college).
It has to be very difficult for a women’s team sport to compete and win at the Division I level at The Citadel. As of this September there were 142 women in the corps of cadets. Eighteen of them are playing soccer. That’s almost 13% of the total number of female cadets. The comparison between other schools is jarring. Georgia Southern has over 9,000 female students; Appalachian State, almost 8,000. Those are just a couple of schools in the Southern Conference.
Technically, though, The Citadel is also competing in Division I with schools like Ohio State, UCLA, and Texas. Think about the enormous difference in total resources, both human and otherwise, between The Citadel and those universities when competing in NCAA athletics. (That’s true for the men’s teams as well, of course; it’s just the difference when comparing the women’s sports is exponentially greater.)
Then you have the military component, which is, to say the least, of some consequence…
Another concern I have, which may or may not be material, is the support (of the non-financial variety) the program gets from the alumni. I’m not talking about people being unaware of the program or simply ignoring it; that goes with the territory of being a “non-revenue” sport at a school where most graduates are not born-and-bred sports fans anyway, and if they are their interest is often exclusively devoted to football, basketball, and/or baseball.
I wonder a little, though, about how it being a women’s sport plays in Peoria (or Pelion). I think it goes without saying that a significant percentage of alums are still uncomfortable with the idea of women attending The Citadel. Some of them are going to be less than crazy about casting their lot with a women’s team (and soccer still has a “foreign” connotation for some, although I think that notion is beginning to disappear).
My personal opinion, which is possibly a touch cynical, is that most alumni will gladly jump on any bandwagon provided by The Citadel, whenever one becomes available. If you’ve got a winner, you’ve got a lot of friends. That makes Bob Winch a popular fellow these days, other than with Southern Conference officials.
Good luck to the team on Friday.
Filed under: Soccer, The Citadel Tagged: | Amy Loughran, Angela Foyt, Appalachian State, Bob Winch, Cassie Palmacci, Chattanooga, Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, Davidson, Dominic Snyder, Elon, Furman, Georgia Southern, Hannah Warne, Jaslene Thiara, Jillian Meyer, Laura Serafino, Leah Hawkins, Mariana Garcia, Miranda Johnson, Nicole Levermann, Nicole Martinoli, Ruth Leiva, Samford, Shanna Couch, Soccer, Southern Conference, Taylor Viana, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, Vanessa Aponte, Western Carolina, Whitney Nave, WLI Field, Wofford | <urn:uuid:9f790fd7-e4ff-4f0f-9067-90a4f4ff9881> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thesportsarsenal.com/2010/11/01/the-bandwagon-makes-a-stop-at-wli-field/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977767 | 4,882 | 1.5 | 2 |
If you are considering a Minnesota adoption, there are a few things which you should know. Foremost, you need to understand the initial legal requirements behind a Petition for Adoption.
A Petition for Adoption must be filed in all Minnesota adoptions. In order to file a petition, the child to be adopted must be placed for adoption by the commissioner of human services, his agent, or a licensed child placing agency.
However, there are exceptions to this requirement, including:
- where the adoptive child or adult is over 14 years of age;
- where the person petitioning for adoption is related to the child (typically a family member);
- a child who is placed for adoption under the laws of another state and where the person requesting the adoption and the child resided in that state;
- if the court waives the requirement of placement because it is in the best interest of the child or the petitioner.
If any of the above exceptions are met, the requirement of placement by the listed agencies willed by waived.
What must be in the actual Minnesota adoption petition?
Every petition for adoption in Minnesota has certain legal requirements. The adoption petition should include:
- The full name, age, and place of residence of the petitioner (person requesting the adoption) and, if married, the date and place of marriage;
- the date the petitioner acquired physical custody of the proposed adoptive child and from what person or agency;
- the date of birth of the child, if known, and the state and county where the child was born;
- the name of the child’s parents, if known, and the guardian if one exists;
- the name of the child and any aliases of the child (if any);
- the name to be given to the child if a change of name is desired;
- the description and value of any real or personal property owned by the child;
- an statement that the petitioner desires that the relationship of parents and child be established between the petitioner and the child;
- and, finally, that the adoption is in the child’s best interest.
The information listed above must be in every adoption petition filed in Minnesota. If any of the above-listed information is not included, a court may dismiss the adoption petition in its entirety.
Consent of a parent or guardian to an adoption
In addition to the requirement behind a petition for adoption, the general rule is that no child may be adopted in Minnesota without the consent of the child’s parents and/or the child’s guardian.
The consent requirement is not easily removed. However, there are exceptions to the rule:
Consent is not required of a parent who is not entitled to notice of the adoption proceedings. The qualification of “not entitled” is statutory and you should speak with a Minnesota adoption lawyer for further questions.
Also, the consent of a parent is not required of a parent who has abandoned the child, or of a parent who has lost legal custody of the child through a judgment and decree of marital dissolution and that parent has received proper notice of the adoption hearing.
Consent is not required of a parent whose parental rights have been terminated by a juvenile court or who has lost his or her custody rights of a child through a court order or prior adoption proceeding.
Consent is also not required if there is no parent available to give consent. This could be because the parent are deceased or their whereabouts are otherwise unavailable.
Revocation of consent for a Minnesota adoption
Finally, it is important to know that if a parent gives his or her consent to the adoption of a child, that consent can be revoked if such consent was obtained through duress. If you are faced with a situation where a parent is trying to revoke consent or you wish to revoke your consent, you need to speak with a qualified adoption lawyer who can argue the duress issue.
Also, if an unmarried parent who is under the age of 18 consents to an adoption of a child, the minor’s parents must also consent to the adoption. Therefore, let’s imagine that a sixteen-year-old has a child and wants to give it up for adoption. That girls parent’s must also consent to the adoption in Minnesota.
Furthermore, the minor parent must be given the opportunity to speak with an attorney, a clergyman, or a physician before consenting to the adoption of the child. If there is an adoption agency involved, they must provide this access to the minor.
Consent for an adoption after the birth of a child
A person whose consent is required by Minnesota law cannot give his or her consent until 72 hours after the birth of a child and not later than 60 days after the child’s placement in a perspective adoptive parent’s home. Therefore, proposed adoptive parents in Minnesota need to be aware of the timing of the consent.
Those are the basics for Minnesota adoptions and consents. I’ll will keep posting on issues related to adoptions in Minnesota. For further questions about the requirements of a petitions for adoptions in Minnesota and consents of parents, feel free to contact the firm. | <urn:uuid:6f75431a-207a-4765-a38e-a9374c350f5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dakotacountyattorneyblog.com/minnesota-adoption-requirements-of-an-adoption-petition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946085 | 1,062 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The little snake-killer made a spring at him, and then skilfully whirled himself around so that the snake could not bite him. Dinky knew what he was about all the time; and though his foe struck at him several times, he dodged him and put in several bites. After considerable manoeuvring, the snake appeared to have had enough of it, and deemed it prudent to beat a retreat. He dropped on the ground, and headed for a thicket; but this was just what Dinky wanted. He sprang upon the neck of the cobra, placing his fore-paws on him, and then crushed his spine with his sharp teeth. The serpent was dead, after writhing an instant.
The fight was ended, and Khayrat caressed the victor. Louis declared that the mongoose was a friend worth having, and immediately made a bargain with the huntsman to procure him a couple of them, and send them to Calcutta. They returned to the palace; and at the breakfast-table Louis told the story of the battle, in which all the Americans were much interested. But the business of the forenoon was the great Sowari, or public procession; and the party were conveyed in carriages to the pavilion, from the veranda of which they were to see the spectacle. An abundance of easy-chairs was provided for them, and they were made very comfortable.
It required more than an hour for the procession to pass the point of observation; and when the last of it had disappeared in the distance all the Americans declared that they had never seen anything, even in Europe, which could be compared with it in variety and magnificence. It was an Oriental spectacle, and the tourists could easily believe they had witnessed a pageant that had stepped out of the pages of the “Arabian Nights.”
First came the regular soldiers of the Maharajah, who were sepoys, all under the command of English officers; and they marched like veterans who had been drilling half their lives. They were followed by a company of Arabs, who seemed to have been imported for the occasion. Sir Modava explained what the troops were as they passed. Next came a whole squadron of Mahratta cavalry, which looked as though they were serviceable soldiers of that arm, for they were good riders, well mounted, and were all lusty fellows.
After the cavalry came a troop of dromedaries with small cannons mounted on their backs, with gunners to work the pieces. The military portion of the procession was completed by several regiments of the Guicowar’s special army. Following the household troops, apparently acting as an escort, came the royal standard-bearer, a personage of decided importance in an Oriental pageant. He was mounted alone on a huge elephant, magnificently caparisoned and adorned with the royal standard, a flag of cloth-of-gold, on a long staff.
In front of the elephant marched a band of eighteen or twenty native musicians, playing upon all sorts of Indian instruments, including tom-toms, lutes, like flageolets, cymbals, and horns. Surrounding the great beast that had the honor to bear the flag of the Mahratta States were numerous horsemen, all clothed in the richest Oriental costumes, armed with spears and curved sabres, with shining shields, and steel gauntlets on their hands. All these, and all the others, wore white turbans, picturesquely folded. | <urn:uuid:96c2ebb4-3ed8-4c61-88f0-939a1064d417> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/15540/111.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990956 | 725 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Leadership Studies Minor
The South Dakota Board of Regents established the W. O. Farber Center for Civic Leadership in the fall of 1997 as a Center of Excellence. The Center is housed within the Department of Political Science and offers a minor in Civic Leadership Studies. The term "civic" was chosen to emphasize that the Center's focus is not narrowly governmental, but rather broadly inclusive of all aspects of our lives together as citizens of a community, state, nation and world.
Students may petition the director for a specific section to replace one of the required courses. The following is a sample of some courses that may qualify (some courses have prerequisites, which apply).
- BADM 369 Organizational Behavior and Theory
- BADM 365 Business and Professional Speaking (also SPCM)
- BADM 485 Small Group Behavior
- LDR 301 Public and Private Leadership
- LDR 303 Leadership in Diverse Cultures
- PSYC 430 Organizational Psychology
- SOC 400 Leadership and Organization
- SPCM 410 Organizational Communication
- SPCM 411 Advanced Organizational Communication
- SPCM 470 Intercultural Communication
- SPCM 495 Team Building and Group Decision Making
Other courses upon prior approval of the Leadership Studies Coordinator.
A Conceptual Model of Civic Leadership
A Conceptual Model of Civic Leadership informs the Center's activities. The model suggests that three key components influence the look and feel of civic leadership:
- Leadership enhancement, which focuses on both the study and teaching of leadership principles and practices.
- Management improvement, which concentrates on building and developing sound managerial practices to assist in collective action.
- Civic engagement and partnerships which emphasize the integral nature of community and individual involvement in the work of social governance.
Each of these three elements, including the idea of civic leadership itself, is a topic of educational activities, advisory services, and research. The relationship of these elements to each other in the work of public leadership is also, itself, a significant area of research and teaching. The methodology most appropriate for research, education, and advisory services is that of "action research," where theory and practice mutually inform each other through engagement with real life experience and thought. Action research, therefore, grounds the theoretical and practical aspects of the Center's work, and applied research is consistently a focus of faculty, especially through the Government Research Bureau affiliated with the Center. | <urn:uuid:eb7d57db-3518-449f-a0b9-92d4c6ea8867> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usd.edu/arts-and-sciences/political-science/farber-center-for-civic-education/undergraduate.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932726 | 488 | 1.6875 | 2 |
USED CAR FRAUD
ABOUT DON SETH
Protect Yourself from Identity Theft!
If someone has used your credit, or is using your name to establish credit, you have been the victim of Identity Theft. You should take the following steps immediately:
1. Place a "Fraud Alert" with the Credit Bureaus. Contact the Fraud Department of any one of the three major Credit Bureaus to place a "Fraud Alert" on your credit file. Whichever of the Credit Bureaus you contact is then required to place a "Fraud Alert" with the other two Bureaus for you.
Placing a "Fraud Alert" with the Credit Bureaus protects you against an identity thief continuing to open credit accounts in your name. After you place the "Fraud Alert," a bank, department store, or other credit grantor is required to call you at your home or cell phone, or send you a letter to your home address, before opening any new credit accounts in your name. It is very important that you place a "Fraud Alert" right away, to stop the identity thief from continuing to open new accounts.
more information about placing a "Fraud Alert," see:
2. Close all accounts that you know, or believe, were opened fraudulently or tampered with.
Call each company where a fraudulent account has been opened or used, and ask to speak to someone in the fraud or security department. Ask each company to close all accounts that have been fraudulently opened or used. Ask each company to send you their fraud dispute form, if the company has such a form. Complete and return any fraud dispute form that you receive - this will assist the company in investigating the fraudulent accounts.
Do not rely on a phone call alone!: Follow up your phone call with a letter closing the account, stating that you have been the victim of identity theft, and that the account was opened or used fraudulently. If you have already made your police report and FTC Identity Theft Affidavit (see numbers 3. and 4., below), send a copy of these as well. Make a photocopy of the letter before you send it, and send your letter by Certified Mail with a Return Receipt Requested. It is important that you send something in writing, so that you have proof that you closed the account and reported the fraud.
3. File a police report with your local police, or with the police in the location where the identity theft took place.
File a report with the police, stating that you have been the victim of identity theft and fraud. Bring with you to the police station the specific information about the fraudulent accounts you are reporting. Ask the police officer to list the company names and account numbers that you are reporting as fraudulent.
Sometimes the police cannot give you a copy of the report at the time you make it; it can take a week or two for the report to be ready for you to pick up. Make sure to go back and pick up a copy when the report is ready.
In order to show that the fraudulent accounts are not yours, many companies will require that you send them a copy of this police report. Without the police report, many companies will not take your fraud claim seriously.
4. Fill out the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Identity Theft Affidavit, and have it notarized.
can find the Affidavit here:
An Affidavit is a written statement that you swear is true. In order to show that the fraudulent accounts are not yours, many companies will ask you to send a notarized affidavit, stating that the accounts are not yours. The FTC Affidavit fulfills this requirement.
After the Affidavit is completed and notarized, it is a good idea to make several copies and keep them in your files, so that you have a copy ready to send to each company as you discover new fraudulent accounts.
5. Get a free copy of your credit report from each Credit Bureau, review them for fraudulent accounts, and dispute in writing each fraud account with all three of the Credit Bureaus.
Contact each Credit Bureau and request a free copy of your credit report. The contact information for each of the three major credit bureaus is above, in item number 1. Each Credit Bureau is required by law to give you a free copy of your credit report if you suspect that you have been the victim of fraud.
After you receive your credit reports, review each report carefully. Write a letter to each of the Credit Bureaus, telling them about each account that is not yours, or that has been fraudulently used. Attach a copy of the police report and FTC affidavit to each letter to the Credit Bureaus.
If fraud accounts continue to appear on your credit reports after you have written to each Credit Bureau, contact our office.
To protect yourself in the future from Identity Theft, follow these tips:
1. Dont carry your Social Security card in your wallet.
© 2006-2013 All Rights Reserved. DonSeth.com, Consumer Justice Center | <urn:uuid:ee4c5f9a-6459-4ae8-87bd-49273cdc26f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.donseth.com/IdentityTheft.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94183 | 1,052 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The night becomes too deep and intense just before the pleasant sunrise.
Same is the case with difficult times. They are simply transitioning phases of your life. They indicate that something far greater is around the corner.
The challenge, however, is, to stay positive during difficult times. Well, here are 8 tips to help you out.
Stay Focused on What You ‘DO’ Want.
You’re more likely to lose focus when hard times are on to you. You start thinking about the things you DON’T want. For example
I don’t want to fail.
I don’t want to suffer.
I don’t want to stay behind etc.
Just think, have you ever visited a restaurant where waiter comes and asks you “Yes sir, what would you like NOT to have?
Well, no such restaurant exists. The waiter is supposed to ask “Yes sir, what would you like to have?” You go through the menu card, decide what you want and place an order. Simple!
Life is also about placing orders with your thoughts and actions. When you use the right thoughts and actions, you get what you want. So, be persistent and stay focused on your dreams.
Find Time to Relax
Nowadays life has become so busy that we don’t even find time to unwind and be with ourselves. All we worry about is work, work and more work. Work is important, but so is relaxation. Go, find some time for it.
Get a massage
Though you surely can go to a spa for an expensive massage, but if that’s not in your budget, why not try your neighborhood barber?
Visiting the local hair salon in your vicinity could be a good idea to get a head and shoulders massage at a reasonable price.
Go for A Walk in a Park
The natural ambiance of a park gives you a great chance to consume tons of fresh air and spend some time alone. Try walking on the grass bare footed, it’s a pleasure you won’t find anywhere else.
Watching moon for a while may give you a sense of oneness with the universe. Moon is a symbol of peace, purity and tranquility. It’s said to have calming effect on your mind and that’s exactly what you need to battle negativity.
Watch Your Favorite Movie
Watching your favorite movies is a wonderful experience. Just get the DVD from the local library or shop, switch off your mobile phone, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy.
Apart from the ideas above, playing with kids, walking down the street with your wife (or your neighbor’s, if you are lucky) or killing enemies on play station could also help you relax.
Spend Time with Positive People
It’s better alone than in a bad company. Spend some time with positive people. It’ll help you see the world from a fresh perspective. Hanging out with a bubbly and positive girl for even 15 minutes is more empowering than spending a whole day with a negative person.
Read Inspiring Books
Reading inspiring books is a great way to increase positive vibes around you. Try to read something positive just before going to bed.
Also, reading biographies of people who survived hard times and rose above the else will boost your morale.
Do Something Out Of Your Comfort Zone
We all have our comfort zones. We do things in a certain way and rarely think of trying something new. When you do something that you’ve never done before, it makes you a little nervous but when you are through, you feel far more confident, which helps you become more positive.
Ask Successful People How ‘They’ Did It
The people who you think never had a hard time also faced challenges, handled criticism and survived difficult times. They have something which is far more valuable than anything else-EXPERIENCE.
Request successful people to share with you some insights.
Ask how they did it.
Ask what worked and what didn’t.
Ask if they have any advice for you.
I have an uncle in my family with whom I never talked much for around 20 years. One day we were sitting together and he started sharing his life experiences, how he faced challenges and survived tough times.
I was amazed at his courage and enthusiasm and felt sorry for myself for not talking to him earlier. Never assume that people will not share their success secrets, you will not know until you ask.
Watch What You Eat
We have a saying in India “Jaisa khao ann, waisa ho jaye mann” (The type of food you eat have great impact on your mind)
Eat spicy and junk food and you’ll feel anxiety and stress all day long.
Eat raw and unprocessed food and you’ll feel calmer and better.
I know it’s easy to grab a ready-to-eat burger, hotdog or pizza than preparing a nice raw salad but the time spent preparing a healthy meal is worth it. The food you eating will make a positive or negative effect on your emotional state.
Start off your meals with a plate full of raw vegetables and fruits. Eat salad first, main course later.
Also, if you drink, limit your alcohol intake and try herbal tea or a simple glass of good old milk before going to bed. It promotes good sleep and helps you rejuvenate.
Clean and Organize Your Closet
Have you ever got frustrated because you were already late for work and couldn’t find your black pair of socks in the closet?
It may be because the closet is cluttered. Do yourself a favor, clean it.
Get everything out-yes, every single thing. Take a good look at all the clothes, and sort them in three groups.
Group 1- Clothes you want to keep (Keep them)
Group 2- Clothes you want to discard (Throw them away)
Group 3- Clothes you want to give away (Give them to someone)
A clean and organized closet gives you peace of mind and clarity of thoughts. I know it sounds too simple but then who says staying positive needs to be complicated.
P.S. To stay positive during difficult or not so difficult times, I encourage you to read Amsdaily.net – Your Daily Dose of Inspiration by Alpha. | <urn:uuid:fd21de87-b26b-4733-9bad-ae10dff6c973> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.avdhessharya.com/2011/08/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954123 | 1,341 | 1.703125 | 2 |
On September 11, our nation's enemies attacked us using hijacked airliners. Next time, the vehicles of death and destruction might well be ballistic missiles armed with nuclear, chemical, or biological warheads. And let us be clear: The United States is defenseless against this mortal danger. We would today have to suffer helplessly a ballistic missile attack, just as we suffered helplessly on September 11. But the dead would number in the millions and a constitutional crisis would likely ensue, because the survivors would wonder—with good reason—if their government were capable of carrying out its primary constitutional duty: to "provide for the common defense."
The Nature of the Threat
The attack of September 11 should not be seen as a fanatical act of individuals like Osama Bin Laden, but as a deliberate act of a consortium of nations who hope to remove the U.S. from its strategic positions in the Middle East, in Asia and the Pacific, and in Europe. It is the belief of such nations that the U.S. can be made to abandon its allies, such as Israel, if the cost of standing by them becomes too high. It is not altogether unreasonable for our enemies to act on such a belief. The failure of U.S. political leadership, over a period of two decades, to respond proportionately to terrorist attacks on Americans in Lebanon, to the first World Trade Center bombing, to the attack on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, to the bombings of U.S. embassies abroad, and most recently to the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, likely emboldened them. They may also have been encouraged by observing our government's unwillingness to defend Americans against ballistic missiles. For all of the intelligence failures leading up to September 11, we know with absolute certainty that various nations are spending billions of dollars to build or acquire strategic ballistic missiles with which to attack and blackmail the United States.
Who are these enemy nations, in whose interest it is to press the U.S. into retreating from the world stage? Despite the kind words of Russian President Vladimir Putin, encouraging a "tough response" to the terrorist attack of September 11, we know that it is the Russian and Chinese governments that are supplying our enemies in Iraq, Iran, Libya, and North Korea with the ballistic missile technology to terrorize our nation. Is it possible that Russia and China don't understand the consequences of transferring this technology? Are Vladimir Putin and Jiang Zemin unaware that countries like Iran and Iraq are known sponsors of terrorism? In light of the absurdity of these questions, it is reasonable to assume that Russia and China transfer this technology as a matter of high government policy, using these rogue states as proxies to destabilize the West because they have an interest in expanding their power, and because they know that only the U.S. can stand in their way.
We should also note that ballistic missiles can be used not only to kill and destroy, but to commit geopolitical blackmail. In February of 1996, during a confrontation between mainland China and our democratic ally on Taiwan, Lt. Gen. Xiong Guang Kai, a senior Chinese official, made an implicit nuclear threat against the U.S., warning our government not to interfere because Americans "care more about Los Angeles than they do Taipei." With a minimum of 20 Chinese intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) currently aimed at the U.S., such threats must be taken seriously.
The Strategic Terror of Ballistic Missiles
China possesses the DF-5 ballistic missile with a single, four-megaton warhead. Such a warhead could destroy an area of 87.5 square miles, or roughly all of Manhattan, with its daily population of three million people. Even more devastating is the Russian SS-18, which has a range of 7,500 miles and is capable of carrying a single, 24-megaton warhead or multiple warheads ranging from 550 to 750 kilotons.
Imagine a ballistic missile attack on New York or Los Angeles, resulting in the death of three to eight million Americans. Beyond the staggering loss of human life, this would take a devastating political and economic toll. Americans' faith in their government—a government that allowed such an attack—would be shaken to its core. As for the economic shock, consider that damages from the September 11 attack, minor by comparison, are estimated by some economists to be nearly 1.3 trillion dollars, roughly one-fifth of GNP.
Missile defense critics insist that such an attack could never happen, based on the expectation that the U.S. would immediately strike back at whomever launched it with an equal fury. They point to the success of the Cold War theory of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). But even MAD is premised on the idea that the U.S. would "absorb" a nuclear strike, much like we "absorbed" the attack of September 11. Afterwards the President, or surviving political leadership, would estimate the losses and then employ our submarines, bombers, and remaining land-based ICBMs to launch a counterattack. This would fulfill the premise of MAD, but it would also almost certainly guarantee additional ballistic missile attacks from elsewhere.
Consider another scenario. What if a president, in order to avoid the complete annihilation of the nation, came to terms with our enemies? What rational leader wouldn't consider such an option, given the unprecedented horror of the alternative? Considering how Americans value human life, would a Bill Clinton or a George Bush order the unthinkable? Would any president launch a retaliatory nuclear strike against a country, even one as small as Iraq, if it meant further massive casualties to American citizens? Should we not agree that an American president ought not to have to make such a decision? President Reagan expressed this simply when he said that it would be better to prevent a nuclear attack than to suffer one and retaliate.
Then there is the blackmail scenario. What if Osama Bin Laden were to obtain a nuclear ballistic missile from Pakistan (which, after all, helped to install the Taliban regime), place it on a ship somewhere off our coast, and demand that the U.S. not intervene in the destruction of Israel? Would we trade Los Angeles or New York for Tel Aviv or Jerusalem? Looked at this way, nuclear blackmail would be as devastating politically as nuclear war would be physically.
How to Stop Ballistic Missiles
For all the bad news about the ballistic missile threat to the U.S., there is the good news that missile defense is well within our technological capabilities. As far back as 1962, a test missile fired from the Kwajaleen Atoll was intercepted (within 500 yards) by an anti-ballistic missile launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The idea at the time was to use a small nuclear warhead in the upper atmosphere to destroy incoming enemy warheads. But it was deemed politically incorrect—as it is still today—to use a nuclear explosion to destroy a nuclear warhead, even if that warhead is racing toward an American city. So U.S. research since President Reagan reintroduced the idea of missile defense in 1983 has been aimed primarily at developing the means to destroy enemy missiles through direct impact or "hit-to-kill" methods.
American missile defense research has included ground-based, sea-based and space-based interceptors, and air-based and space-based lasers. Each of these systems has undergone successful, if limited, testing. The space-based systems are especially effective since they seek to destroy enemy missiles in their first minutes of flight, known also as the boost phase. During this phase, missiles are easily detectible, have yet to deploy any so-called decoys or countermeasures, and are especially vulnerable to space-based interceptors and lasers.
The best near-term option for ballistic missile defense, recommended by former Reagan administration defense strategist Frank Gaffney, is to place a new generation of interceptors, currently in research, aboard U.S. Navy Aegis Cruisers. These ships could then provide at least some missile defense while more effective systems are built. Also under consideration is a ground-based system in the strategically important state of Alaska, at Fort Greely and Kodiak Island. This would represent another key component in a comprehensive "layered" missile defense that will include land, sea, air and space.
Arguments Against Missile Defense
Opponents of missile defense present four basic arguments. The first is that ABM systems are technologically unrealistic, since "hitting bullets with bullets" leaves no room for error. They point to recent tests of ground-based interceptors that have had mixed results. Two things are important to note about these tests: First, many of the problems stem from the fact that the tests had been conducted under ABM Treaty restrictions on the speed of interceptors, and on their interface with satellites and radar. Second, some recent test failures involve science and technology that the U.S. perfected 30 years ago, such as rocket separation. But putting all this aside, as President Reagan's former science advisor William Graham points out, the difficulty of "hitting bullets with bullets" could be simply overcome by placing small nuclear charges on "hit-to-kill" vehicles as a "fail safe" for when they miss their targets. This would result in small nuclear explosions in space, but that is surely more acceptable than the alternative of enemy warheads detonating over American cities.
The second argument against missile defense is that no enemy would dare launch a missile attack at the U.S., for fear of swift retaliation. But as the CIA pointed out three years ago—and as Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld as noted—an enemy could launch a ballistic missile from a ship off our coasts, scuttle the ship, and leave us wondering who was responsible.
The third argument is that missile defense can't work against ship-launched missiles. But over a decade ago U.S. nuclear laboratories, with the help of scientists like Greg Canavan and Lowell Wood, conducted successful tests on space-based interceptors that could stop ballistic missiles in their boost phase from whatever location they were launched.
Finally, missile defense opponents argue that building a defense will ignite an expensive arms race. But the production cost of a space-based interceptor is roughly one to two million dollars. A constellation of 5,000 such interceptors might then cost ten billion dollars, a fraction of America's defense budget. By contrast, a single Russian SS-18 costs approximately $100 million, a North Korean Taepo Dong II missile close to $10 million, and an Iraqi Scud B missile about $2 million. In other words, if we get into an arms race, our enemies will go broke. The Soviet Union found it could not compete with us in such a race in the 1980s. Nor will the Russians or the Chinese or their proxies be able to compete today.
The Challenge Ahead
Our greatest near-term potential attackers, Iraq and North Korea, are expected to be able to produce a ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States in the next three years. This assumes that they have not acquired a ballistic missile by some other means. Only direct military intervention will prevent them from deploying this capability before the U.S. can deploy a missile defense. Our longer-term potential attackers, Russia and China, possess today the means to destroy us. We must work and hope for peaceful relations, but we must also be mindful of the possibility that they have other plans.
The Bush Administration is working now to develop a limited missile defense that will be but the first step in building a defense against the long-term threat of missile attack. There is significant opposition to such a defense from proponents of arms-control and nuclear disarmament and from activist groups who oppose any form of military spending. Such opposition ignores the post 9/11 reality that the United States has enemies who are willing to go to great ends to visit death upon our shores.
Had the September 11 attack been visited by ballistic missiles, resulting in the deaths of three to six million Americans, a massive effort would have immediately been launched to build and deploy a ballistic missile defense. America, thankfully, has a window of opportunity—however narrow—to do so now, before it is too late. | <urn:uuid:c732730c-d766-4648-ac91-0c4a414b9393> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://claremont.org/publications/pubid.768/pub_detail.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961594 | 2,496 | 1.835938 | 2 |
The fatwá is commonly known in the West as a death sentence. Among Muslims, the fatwá can be among the most powerful tools of Islamic populism. On a third front, the fatwá is simply a bureaucratic function. Which definition encompasses reality?
Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday, June 14th about two major political cases that had been brought before court:
Egypt is preparing itself for the second round of presidential elections on June 16 and 17 with two remaining candidates: Ahmad Shafīq and Muhammad Mursī. These two candidates reflect a great division one sees in Egypt, between Islamists (Mursī) and those opposed to Islamists (Shafīq).
The choice is not an easy one.
With a touch of humor throughout, Mgr. Michael Fitzgerald introduced his role as the Vatican Ambassador to Egypt to a delegation of mostly Catholic Austrian students and professors from the University of Vienna. This visit was organized by Arab-West Report and was also attended by some staff and interns from Arab-West Report.
The headlines in the West will read, ‘Mubārak sentenced to life imprisonment.’ They may also say, ‘Egyptians take to the street in protest.’ Confused?
Unless one reads more deeply the obvious connection must be that protestors wanted his head, literally. The reality is rather simple, just not within the headlines.
Mubārak and the former Minster of the Interior Habīb al-’Adlī were convicted, but the chiefs of the Ministry of the Interior were declared innocent. The statement says there was insufficient evidence to link them to the charge of killing protestors during the revolution.
On March 4 a court sentenced Coptic Orthodox priest Makarius Bulus to six months in jail for preparing a falsified building permit for a church in Mārīnāb. The sentence was widely reported in particular in Western Christian media, in part as result of Compass Direct News reporting that is seen particularly in Western Evangelical circles. This report by Compass Direct News was deliberately unfair, misleading, partisan and Islamophobe.
In the early 1960s during the tenure of late Pope Kyrillos VI, Coptic Orthodox Christians had only seven churches abroad – two in each of the United States, Canada and Australia and only in Britain (1).
MEMRI provided a clip of Muslim preacher, Shaykh Wajdī Ghunaym (Wagdy Ghoneim) speaking about the death of Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III, cursing him and wishing him to burn in hell. Read MEMRI article here | <urn:uuid:14d7f1a5-2b3b-414a-aaa3-a85d2958bf85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arabwestreport.info/?page=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969431 | 538 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Arts & Entertainment
Out of Town: New Orleans
Originally printed 9/1/2011 (Issue 1935 - Between The Lines News)
New Orleans has long ranked among the top destinations in the United States for gay travelers - it's been the case for decades, and even following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, LGBT tourists were among the first to return to the Big Easy in significant numbers. The city is especially popular with gay visitors during a handful of festivals and events throughout the year, including Southern Decadence, sometimes nicknamed "Gay Mardi Gras," which is coming up soon - it takes place over Labor Day weekend.
Other key events for gay visitors are Halloween weekend at the end of October, New Orleans Gay Pride in late June, and - of course - the city's true Mardi Gras season, which takes place at varying times in late winter (in 2012, the date of Mardi Gras "Fat" Tuesday is Feb. 21. Additionally, Christmas season - throughout December and right into New Year - is a wonderful time to visit, in part because of the mild weather but also because it's a season of very lively parties and special dinners held by numerous restaurants (called reveillon dinners).
Whenever you happen to make your way to this festive city, which has staged a remarkable renaissance since Katrina, you'll find no shortage of fascinating neighborhoods.
First, a word about navigation: the layout of New Orleans is tricky for newcomers. Locals don't use such directional cues as "east," "west," "south," and "north," so leave your compass at home. The city is sandwiched between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, which snakes around the parts of the city with the bulk of the key neighborhoods - hence the nickname, the "Crescent City." So listen instead for directional references to the lake, the river, or a particular neighborhood.
If you're interesting in finding names of the many cool gay bars, desirable restaurants and intriguing shops in New Orleans, consider such resources as the city tourism office's official LGBT visitor website http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/glbt, and commercial sites like http://www.GayNewOrleans.com andhttp://www.AmbushMag.com are also very handy.
Some of the nation's finest examples of late-18th- and 19th-century residential architecture line the streets of the French Quarter, which fringes the river. The Quarter may be the only major entertainment district in America that's frequented just about equally by gays and straights, locals and tourists. Virtually every notable restaurant in the French Quarter (a.k.a. Vieux Carre, which residents pronounce voo-cair-ay) has at least something of a gay following, and you'll find a mixed gay-straight crowd at many bars and hangouts, and the epicenter of the city's gay nightlife scene at the intersection of Bourbon and St. Ann streets (home to venerable bars like Bourbon Pub and Oz). The neighborhood also abounds with hotels and inns with a strong gay following.
Bourbon Street is the Quarter's most famous address, but Decatur Street is a better walking thoroughfare - it's less chaotic and commercial and more diverse, home to good, cheap eateries and offbeat shops. Off Decatur is the entrance to Jackson Square, the historic center of the French Quarter. Behind the gloriously landscaped square is the stunning late-18th-century St. Louis Cathedral. William Faulkner once resided at 624 Pirate's Alley, which is one of two alleys (Pere Antoine is the other) that cut beside the cathedral between Chartres (pronounced "Charters") and Royal streets. At 632 St. Peter Street is the house (now private) in which Tennessee Williams lived when he penned "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Many antiques shops and galleries are along Chartres and Royal streets, as well as in the wonderfully atmospheric French Market, where you can buy everything from local crafts to regional culinary specialties - hot sauces, bits of alligator jerky, gumbo mixes, and so on. Across from the entrance to Jackson Square are steps leading to the Mississippi River and Woldenberg Riverfront Park, which is a relaxing place to explore day or night. The park leads to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, a state-of-the-art facility where marinelife swim in dozens of exhibits.
The neighborhood just downriver from the Quarter - across tree-shaded Esplanade Avenue - is Faubourg Marigny, sometimes lovingly dubbed "Fagburg" Marigny for its sizable GLBT presence. Nearer the Quarter, from about Elysian Fields Avenue to Esplanade, more rainbow flags fly than anywhere else in the city. The next neighborhood downriver, Bywater, has been significantly gentrified in recent years by a newer wave of settlers, many of them gay, who have restored dozens of grand old homes.
The more modern side of New Orleans falls within the Central Business District (CBD), which borders the Canal Street side of the Quarter. There are some prime examples of early 20th-century commercial architecture in and around where Perdido Street intersects with Loyola Avenue, but this district looks like a typical American downtown business section. Toward the river, however, particularly along Julia Street, you'll find the increasingly interesting Warehouse District, which abounds with galleries, restaurants, and some notable museums, including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the National World War II Museum.
From Canal Street, you can take the streetcar along St. Charles Avenue for several miles clear out to Carrollton Avenue. This trip takes in the city's vibrant Uptown and Carrollton neighborhoods and reveals dozens of historic homes (some open as museums), churches, and trendy dining and shopping districts. Such attractions as Audubon Park and Zoo, Loyola and Tulane universities, and the courtly Garden District round out this part of town. To see the homes and gardens that give the Garden District its name and allure, alight at the Washington Avenue stop and walk a block down Washington to Prytania Street.
Much of the best shopping and dining Uptown is along Magazine Street, which parallels St. Charles a few blocks closer to the river and is especially known for its antiques stores and galleries. A walk along this engaging street reveals a side of city that's far less touristy than the French Quarter.
Where to Stay in New Orleans
Although the usual chain properties are well-represented all over the city, and some of these make excellent lodging options, New Orleans also has an exceptionally high number of guesthouses and inns set inside vintage mansions as well as larger historic hotels. In terms of history and atmosphere, the Hotel Monteleone http://www.hotelmonteleone.com - once a favorite overnight address of Truman Capote, Tennesee Williams, and many other literary greats - is a stand-out. More than 125 years old, the 600-room high rise is in the heart of the French Quarter, has a great spa and a fabulous bar, the Carousel Piano Lounge.
Of larger properties, other great choices are the swanky Ritz-Carlton New Orleans http://www.ritzcarlton.com, which fringes the Quarter and occupies a historic former department store; Harrah's New Orleans http://www.harrahsneworleans.com, which is centrally located, is home to several excellent restaurants, and has beautiful rooms - the casino is in a completely separate building, making it ideal whether or not you're into gaming. Also check out the New Orleans Marriott http://www.marriott.com, which draws a mix of business and leisure travelers, borders the Quarter, and offers a LGBT-oriented "Rainbow NOLA Getaway" package.
If you're more interested in a smaller property, be sure to check out the website of Bed and Breakfast Inns of New Orleans http://www.bbnola.com, which lists nearly 50 reliable properties throughout the city - you can search for them on the site by checking a number of criteria, including "gay-friendly." Some favorites include La Maison Marigny B&B http://www.lamaisonmarigny.com, which is right on Bourbon Street (the quiet end), just a few blocks from numerous bars, and has smartly furnished, eco-friendly rooms; and 1896 O'Malley House http://www.1896omalleyhouse.com, a gorgeous Colonial Revival home in the Mid-City neighborhood (an easy streetcar ride from the Quarter), with lavishly furnished rooms and spectacular breakfasts.
B&W Courtyards http://www.bandwcourtyards.com, in Faubourg Marigny just a short walk from Frenchmen Street's dining and nightlife, is another terrific inn, with intimate and elegant rooms and knowledgeable hosts who know a ton about the neighborhood. And if you're seeking a distinctive accommodation Uptown, near the Garden District, consider the Chimes B&B http://www.chimesneworleans.com, whose five guest rooms are posh but understated, some with original fireplaces, slate floor or heart-of-pine floors, and pitched ceilings. It's one of the most romantic places to stay in New Orleans.Andrew Collins covers gay travel for the New York Times-owned website http://www.gaytravel.about.com and is the author of "Fodor's Gay Guide to the USA." He can be reached care of this publication or at OutofTown@qsyndicate.com.
- Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
- Phoenix and Scottsdale
- Hawaii's Big Island
- Great Weekends in Vermont
- Eight Essentials For An Alaska Adventure
- Out of Town: Yellowstone, Cody, Bozeman and Jackson Hole
- Summer in Seattle
- Columbus ... Queer?
- Out of Town: Upstate N.Y.
- Upstate N.Y.
- Out of Town: Memphis and Nashville
- Out of Town: Key West Spring Break
- Maui, Lanai and Molokai
- Out of Town: Winter Adventures at Vail and Beaver Creek
- Out of Town: New Orleans
- Out of Town: Louisville and Lexington
- Out of Town: The French Riviera: Nice and Cannes
- Out of Town: California's Hwy. 1, Los Angeles to San Francisco
- Road-tripping across Spain
- Pride Guide
- Health and Wellness
- World AIDS Day
- Holiday Gift Guide
- Pride Source Votes | <urn:uuid:1c3f1d08-05fe-4fd0-97b9-63a15a220d37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pridesource.com/guidearticle.html?article=48886 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938487 | 2,221 | 1.65625 | 2 |
By Emily Le Coz and Julie Steenhuysen
JACKSON, Mississippi/CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) - The doctor who cured an HIV infected baby for the first time is happier talking to children than to adults and is finding all the attention since the news came out a little overwhelming.
Dr. Hannah Gay and colleagues Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts and Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported on the child's case at a medical meeting in Atlanta on Sunday.
"The breakthrough has been exciting and I'm very hopeful that that's going to lead to future research that will give us some answers," said Gay, a Mississippi pediatrician and soft-spoken mother of four adult children.
But the attention is difficult for a woman "much more comfortable talking to children than adults," said her husband, Paul Gay. "She didn't anticipate this kind of explosion of attention."
Dr. Gay, a 59-year-old native of Jackson, Mississippi, likes to spend time designing needle points, singing in her church choir and reading theology or medical literature when she's not working 12-hour days treating patients, in a state with the nation's highest poverty rate.
"She is the most unlikely person in the world to be getting this kind of international attention, really," said Jay Richardson, her former pastor at the Highland Colony Baptist Church. "You don't ever hear her talking about herself or trying to promote herself in any way. She's a quiet, humble person. Extremely intelligent. Very committed to her faith. Very involved in her church. Very committed to teaching children the bible."
Except for six years working in Ethiopia as a missionary, Dr. Gay has spent the bulk of her academic and professional career at the University of Mississippi, where she received her undergraduate and medical degrees and met her husband of 37 years. She has worked the better part of her career at the university's medical center serving the state's youngest victims of HIV.
During that time, Dr. Gay has published several articles about ways to keep mothers from passing HIV infection to their babies and participated in the federally sponsored Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group, which studied the use of the aggressive treatment of children who are at high risk of infection.
Her daughter Ruth Gay Thomas says as an AIDS specialist her mother has had to fight the battles of her patients, overcoming access to healthcare and the stigma that comes along with being infected with HIV in the United States.
"She practices compassion and huge, unimaginable amounts of patience with her patients and their families," Thomas said. "She really has to embody a whole lot more than just the smart doctor that knows the right medications to give."
To treat her own rheumatoid arthritis, Dr. Gay takes medicine that affects her immune system. "She has that in common with her patients, but it's been a problem because with her compromised immune system, she can't have as much of a hands-on touching of her patients that was always so satisfying for her," her husband said.
When a rural hospital in Mississippi delivered a premature baby girl in July 2010 from a mother who had just tested positive for HIV during labor, it was only natural that they would turn to Dr. Gay. The child's mother had not received any prenatal care, nor had she gotten any treatment for her HIV infection, putting the baby at high risk of becoming infected.
Dr. Gay chose to start the baby on the full treatment regimen of three potent drugs when she was just 30 hours old, even before the child's infection was confirmed.
It was a bold move. Most babies exposed to HIV in the womb or during labor would have been given a six-week course of one or two drugs intended to reduce the risk of acquiring infection until tests could confirm she was infected.
"The doctor made a judgment call that the risks for this baby were so high that they were going to assume the baby was infected," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a part of the National Institutes of Health or NIH.
Some critics have questioned Dr. Gay's decision, which may have exposed the child to the risk of toxic medications without confirmation of her infection.
"This was a gutsy call that turned out to be correct," said Fauci, adding that if it had turned out that the baby was not infected, they could have withdrawn the drugs. "They made the right guess."
Dr. Gay continued to treat the child until January 2012, when she was 18 months old and her mother stopped bringing the child in for appointments. Gay's team tracked her down in the fall of 2012, but the mother had not given her child any HIV medication since January.
Before restarting treatment, Gay did several tests, fully expecting that the virus had come roaring back. But none of the tests detected the virus. That's when she brought in colleagues Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts and Persaud of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who did a series of ultrasensitive tests. They were only able to find trace amounts of genetic material from the virus, but nothing capable of rekindling the infection.
The child, now 30 months old, remains off medication and continues to fare well. "We can't find any virus to treat at this point," Dr. Gay said.
She said it is not clear what the child's story will mean in the wider scheme of HIV research, but she hopes it may lead to a cure for other babies infected at birth.
"I guess the message that I want to get across to the public very strongly is, we don't know yet if we can create the same outcome in other babies." she said. "It's far too early to draw too many conclusions. There's not a cure in sight this week."
Dr. Gay said she is glad that this is happening in Mississippi and hopes it boosts the state's reputation.
"But it's a whole lot bigger than this one child, the University Medical Center or the state," she said. "It may take a long time, but I hope it will point us in the right direction to come up with a cure we can consistently apply to other babies worldwide."
Colleagues at the medical center are planning a celebration for Dr. Gay to "let her know how proud we are," said Amy Smith, a nurse practitioner who works with the doctor. "She's the type that wouldn't want a big fuss made about her, but we're going to do it anyway."
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen and Emily Le Coz; Editing by Jilian Mincer and Claudia Parsons) | <urn:uuid:b6f00e15-97c9-42dc-95a2-a96506c67fa5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wixx.com/news/articles/2013/mar/06/us-doctors-gutsy-move-led-to-babys-cure-from-hiv/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982858 | 1,370 | 1.742188 | 2 |
From the August 25, 2003 issue: The controversy over Mel Gibson's forthcoming movie on the death of Jesus Christ.
Aug 25, 2003, Vol. 8, No. 47 • By MICHAEL NOVAK
Thus, Christians hold that Christianity fulfills the hopes launched into the world by Judaism. They also hold that those Jews who reject Christianity remain vessels of God's first love. In God's mysterious plan, the continuation of Judaism in time is a grace to be respected, on the same principle on which the faith of Christians rests--the fidelity of God to his everlasting promises.
The Jewish leaders of the generation that knew him did in fact reject Jesus and his claims, and they did accuse him of blasphemy. "Nevertheless," as the Second Vatican Council said in its statement on Judaism, "the Jews still remain very dear to God, for the sake of the patriarchs, since God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he made." The Council strictly forbids Catholics to hold Jews to be "repudiated or cursed by God, as if such views followed from the Holy Scriptures." And it deplores "all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism leveled at any time and from any source against the Jews." This condemnation includes the Church's own sins. The Council stressed the two covenants' common spiritual heritage and foresaw a future in which both communities would serve God "shoulder to shoulder."
Gibson's film is wholly consistent with the Second Vatican Council's presentation of the relations of Judaism and the Christian Church. But "The Passion" will not be easy for Jews to watch. One reason is simply that its entire subject is the death of one who, for many Jews, is a figure of division, Jesus Christ. And a second reason is that it is never easy to relive a moment in which the leaders of one's community, however justified they might have been by their own lights and their own sense of responsibility, do not appear to viewers to be acting in a noble way. As a Catholic, I cringe every time I go to the theater when a pope, cardinal, archbishop, or even priest is portrayed in an unflattering light. Even when they deserve it, I do not enjoy the spectacle.
In the first part of the gospels' account of the Passion, the high priests of Jerusalem standing before Pilate are, painfully no doubt to contemporary Jews, the voice for the prosecution. During the early scenes of the movie, which I tried to watch as if I were Jewish or seated alongside a Jewish colleague, I thought: This is too painful. Having sat through many analogous moments as a Catholic, I did not like the experience.
VERY SOON, though, the action in the film belongs to the Romans. Roman soldiers inflict systematic pain on Jesus with gusto, lighthearted bantering, and the practiced sadism of those who know how to keep subdued populations subdued. The overwhelming drama consists in Christ's willing endurance of unbearable suffering, for the purpose of inaugurating an entirely new order in human life. The movie, like the gospels, is unmistakable in setting this meaning before our eyes. It is, somehow, our sins for which Jesus is dying.
The Passion of Jesus Christ is not a drama about ethnicity. It is about our humanity. The hero of this movie is Jewish, his mother is Jewish, his apostles and followers are Jewish. But one misses the whole point of the Passion of Jesus unless one sees that he submitted to his suffering for all of us. From the first, Christ's teaching in life had been, "Take up your cross and follow me." The meaning of that teaching could not have been plainly understood before his death. This movie suggests to viewers that in witnessing Christ's suffering, our own suffering has a forerunner and teacher. Suffering like Christ's may be redemptive. That depends on how we shape our heart to it.
On the cross, the Christ of Gibson's movie is offering forgiveness, reconciliation, and unity. To blame his suffering on others' sins, instead of one's own, would be to join the boisterous soldiers who inflicted on him all the pain that viewers will hardly be able to watch. If Christians blamed others, they would again make a mockery of Christ. They would again pound the crown of thorns into his skull.
Are there historical inaccuracies in this film? Yes, some minor ones (beginning with the Roman characters' Italianate Latin: Echay 'Omo, Pilate pronounces Ecce Homo, when he exhibits Christ to the crowd). Is the film unfaithful to its historical sources? One who hears the gospels often will feel at home in it, but Gibson did not set out to make an academic documentary. His film is a stream of slowly moving, vivid images, against a starkly universal backdrop. The spoken words are mostly in Aramaic (Latin when the Romans speak), which exceedingly few people understand these days. | <urn:uuid:210bfcb4-4e1b-4b87-8127-866a6a9315a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/014ziqma.asp?page=2 | 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 | 0.969006 | 1,018 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Dorothy Dehner at The Hyde: Life on the Farm and Beyond
By Anthony F. Hall
“Dorothy Dehner at The Hyde,” a new exhibition of works owned by the Glens Falls museum, affirms the many connections between the artist and the Lake George region.
No other institution has done as much to build and sustain her reputation as The Hyde, and no institution meant as much to her, despite the fact that her career as an artist truly began only after 1950, when she left Bolton Landing for New York.
The museum hosted a reception to celebrate the opening of the exhibition, as well as the larger 50th anniversary “Five Decades of Collecting” show, on January 26.
“I’m so pleased for Dorothy; she would have been very pleased to know that this work will stay here,” said Bolton resident Theta Curri.
While The Hyde has helped call the art world’s attention to Dehner, it is Curri who, almost single-handedly, has reminded residents of Bolton Landing that an abstract artist of national significance once lived in town.
Growing up in Bolton in the 1940s, Curri knew both Dehner and her more famous husband, the sculptor David Smith.
“Everyone knows all about David Smith; they knew his second wife and have come to know his two beautiful daughters; but very few know anything about Dorothy Dehner and what became of her. That became my mission: to educate Bolton about Dorothy Dehner,” said Curri.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1901, Dehner enrolled at New York’s Art Students League, where she met David Smith in 1926. They bought their Bolton farm in 1929 and became year-round residents in 1940.
“In Bolton Landing, it was like living in a giant salad bowl, all shades of green, all textures. So we both threw our hearts into country life; gardening, later on raising pigs and a few chickens, smoking hams, making sausage and preserving uncounted jars in our larder,” Dehner recalled in essay written for the catalogue for The Hyde’s 1973 show, ‘David Smith of Bolton Landing.’
The couple’s “country life” provided the material for a remarkable series of miniatures painted by Dehner in 1943, called ‘Life on the Farm.’ (One of them is included in the current exhibition.)
Those images of life in Bolton in the 1940s became the catalyst for the friendship that developed between Curri and Dehner during the last decades of the artist’s life.
“When I retired from teaching in 1986, I became the director of our local history museum,” Curri explained. “Dorothy had remained friends with Hugh Allen Wilson, the harpsichordist, and she had entrusted him with a gift for our museum. It was a collection of prints made from her series, ‘Life on the Farm,” which is all about life in Bolton and on the farm she shared with David Smith.”
Curri continued, “I was responsible for the museum when the prints arrived. I was sitting at my desk, writing a thank you note to Dorothy, when the phone rang. It was Dorothy. That was the beginning of our friendship.”
“We began telephoning one another,” Curri said. “I could call her up at 10:30 pm and I knew she’d be awake, but I learned never to call her before noon. She always asked about Bolton folks, about the people she knew.”
Through Curri, Dehner was able to re-establish a relationship, however indirectly, with the place that meant so much to her.
“She called me her Bolton connection,” said Curri.
Curri, in turn, re-connected Bolton with Dehner.
She mounted a display of the ‘Life on the Farm’ prints at the bank in the off-season, when the museum was closed, and encouraged visitors to the museum to spend time viewing the prints.
One of those visitors was Martha Nodine, who attended the reception for “Dorothy Dehner at The Hyde” with Curri.
Curri recalled, “Marty had helped to organize an exhibition of David Smith’s work in Texas, and when she and her husband came east, they made an excursion to Bolton Landing. She looked at our museum’s David Smith exhibit, and I directed her to the wall where ‘Life on the Farm’ hung. ‘Those are by Dorothy Dehner,’ I said. ‘Who’s Dorothy Dehner?’ Marty asked.”
Curri felt the two should meet, which they did, and developed a friendship of their own. Before her death in 1994, Dehner selected Nodine to be her authorized biographer.
The biography, which is nearing completion, is called “No Day Without a Line: the Life and Times of Artist and Activist Dorothy Dehner.”
“People will discover that there’s a range and depth to Dehner’s work and extraordinary experiences that might surprise them,” said Nodine. “Her life did not end with ‘Life on the Farm.’”
In fact, according to art collector Bernard Brown, a Hyde trustee, Dehner’s mature work is by far her most interesting.
“At age fifty-one, Dorothy Dehner had her first solo exhibition in New York at the Rose Fried Gallery, which is notable in part because the gallery had never shown the work of a woman artist before that date,” said Brown.
“In the early 1950s, Dehner developed new techniques in her work by combining the expression of geometric forms in pen and ink with watercolor washes and splattered paint. She applied wet sponges to the paper and painted wet-on-wet resulting in blurred images, which contrast sharply with the precisely drawn elements of the painting. After 1955, she turned to sculpture and this medium would dominate her interest for the next thirty-eight years,” Brown said.
But rather than leaving Bolton Landing behind, Dehner incorporated it even as she found her voice or vision as a mature artist.
‘Low Landscape, Sideways (1962),’ for instance, which is included in this exhibition, “suggests a panoramic view of nature,” writes Joan M. Marter, the art historian who serves as president of the Dorothy Dehner Foundation for the Visual Arts.
“One is reminded that David Smith often made sculptural landscapes,” Marter writes, while noting that Dehner had found a sculptural vocabulary of her own.
Even works that appear to have no relationship to Bolton, such as “Interior Studio” bear traces of its influence. Tellingly, an almost identical version of the work, which Dehner gave to Theta Curri, has a different, more Bolton-inflected title, “Barns.”
Of course, Dehner herself acknowledged Bolton’s lasting influence on her life and art.
“Bolton Landing remains forever vivid in my mind – because of the great beauty of the place and the joy I had in the sense that I was part of it,” she wrote in 1973.
So it comes as no surprise to learn that among her last requests was this: that her ashes be scattered above Lake George.
“Dorothy Dehner at The Hyde” will remain on view in the Hoopes Gallery through April 14. The Hyde, which is located at 161 Warren Street in downtown Glens Falls, is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and on Sunday from noon to 5 pm. For more information, call 518-792-1761. | <urn:uuid:435d2ace-9c50-4cb3-9a43-108e6398cc42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lakegeorgemirrormagazine.com/tag/arts-leisure/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980141 | 1,671 | 1.609375 | 2 |
An Illustrated Life
by Dick Johnson and Glenn Stout
Buy it from Amazon from Barnes & Noble
In his column in the World-Telegram on the morning of May 15, Dan Daniel, perhaps thinking of DiMaggio's earlier slump, made a prescient comment. "Slumps are overcome suddenly," he wrote, "and once the bellwether shows the way, a whole club will often follow him. It is possible when DiMaggio begins to hit again he will pull the other Yankees with him."
This situation was radically different. DiMaggio had been a minor league rookie in 1933. Now, he was the man the Yankees looked to for leadership. The concept of responsibility was one that DiMaggio was keenly aware of off the field as well. Dorothy was pregnant.
In 1933, with his baseball future hanging precariously in the balance, Joe had responded. Now, although his own status was secure, everyone expected DiMaggio to end not only his slump but that of the entire Yankee team. Again, Joe responded.
On May 15, the Yankees lost to the White Sox, 13-1, for their fifth straight defeat, leading Robert Cooke in the Herald Tribune to open his game story with the comment "The New York Yankees, who are currently going downhill at a great rate in the American League pennant race, continued their non-stop flight toward the second division ... the Yankees floundered before the crowd of 9,040 as though they were playing in complete privacy."
DiMaggio himself opened the gates to the White Sox win in the first inning. Chicago's Billy Knickerbocker, the same man who tried to goad DiMaggio into a fight five years before, singled, then Luke Appling followed with another single. DiMaggio charged the ball, and Knickerbocker decided to test DiMaggio's arm. DiMaggio's throw caromed off Knickerbocker's arm and he scored, Appling moving to third and eventually scoring himself on a sacrifice fly, giving the White Sox the only two runs they needed. DiMaggio was charged with an error, but the miscue may have woken him from his slump.
In the Yankee half of the first, Phil Rizzuto doubled off White Sox left-hander Edgar Smith. Then DiMaggio, hitless in his last two games, drove in Rizzuto with a solid single to center. Although the hit scored the last Yankee run for the day, DiMaggio was not finished. In two subsequent at bats he smashed the ball to third, where Dario Lodigiani, his old North Beach teammate, backhanded one behind the bag and deflected the other to Appling at short. DiMaggio was out on each play, but now he was turning on the ball and hitting it hard.
The next day McCarthy shook up his lineup again, sitting down Rizzuto and Priddy, moving Gordon back to second, and installing Crosetti at short and rookie Johnny Sturm at first. DiMaggio continued to hit the ball hard, homering into the left-field bleachers at Yankee Stadium in the first inning and tripling off the left-field fence in the ninth to key a Yankee comeback for a 6-5 win.
But the Yankees dropped two of the next three. DiMaggio managed hits in each game, even going 3 for 3 in a 12-2 win over St. Louis on May 18. But his perfect day at the plate was not without a struggle. According to the Herald Tribune, "DiMaggio was credited with three hits on drives that were manhandled by fielders," yet he received the benefit of the doubt from the scorekeeper. Had such a thing taken place later in the streak, he'd likely have faced criticism, but thus far DiMaggio's streak was only a modest four games and escaped notice.
The Yankees turned a comer on May 20 against St. Louis. New York fell behind early, rallied to take the lead, then fell behind again, trailing 8-6 after St. Louis scored three times in the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the inning, DiMaggio, hitless so far, stroked a leadoff single, then scored on Dickey's three-run homer. The Browns tied the game in the ninth, but the Yankees came back again to win 10-9 as Henrich scored all the way from second on a play at first.
The victory keyed a five-game Yankee winning streak, not including a 9-9 tie against Boston on May 23 in a game called because of darkness. The contest counted statistically, and DiMaggio's eighth-inning single stretched his hit streak to nine games. The Yankees climbed to third place. DiMaggio's streak reached ten games the next day. In the sixth inning, Dominic DiMaggio, playing center field for Boston, twisted and turned under Joe's deep fly before dropping it for an error. (Joe DiMaggio would later mistakenly credit his brother with making a catch on a similar play in game 44 of the streak, when in fact no such play ever took place.) DiMaggio singled in the seventh to keep the streak alive.
From DiMaggio: An Illustrated Life by Dick Johnson and Glenn Stout.
text Copyright © 1995 by Glenn Stout. Reprinted with permission. | <urn:uuid:b85a3d70-fbbb-4ba2-a42b-2525c13138d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baseballlibrary.com/excerpts/excerpt.php?book=dimaggio_illustrated&page=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976763 | 1,125 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Tom Konrad, Contributor
I write about peak oil and climate change as investment themes.
The unprecedented boom in natural gas supplies over the last few years as been one of the few tail-winds for the US economy over the last few years, as plummeting natural gas prices have lowered costs for both industry and consumers. Few outside the natural gas industry even understood the shear scale of the shale gas resource, although industry insiders did.
The Shale Gas Glut
In 2008, I recall a natural gas executive complaining about how he could not get policymakers to understand the sheer scale of the shale gas resource. To be honest, I did not take his comments seriously, either. That was a mistake. Shale gas has transformed our economy in many ways, and changed the economics of competing fuels, from coal and nuclear to renewables like solar, wind, and geothermal. Cheap natural gas is even doing what Pickens failed to do: get a major oil company to invest in natural gas filling stations.
While shale gas transformed our economy, it also transformed the stock market, which is why I should have paid more attention. Low natural gas prices have not only hurt renewable energy stocks, they have also helped chemical and fertilizer companies that use natural gas as a feedstock. I first came across LSB Industries (NYSE:LXU), a geothermal heat pump (GHP) and chemical company that uses a lot of natural gas a couple month’s after I heard the natural gas executive’s rant. I bought both LXU and its pure-play GHP rival Waterfurnace (TSX:WFI,OTC:WFIFF) at the time, but I sold LXU a few months later, congratulating myself on a quick double at $16, while holding Waterfurnace. Waterfurnace is down a little since I bought it (although it has been paying a nice dividend along the way, while LSB doubled again, in large part because of the tail winds from low natural gas prices.
I don’t plan to make the same mistake again, so I pay more attention to what’s going on with fossil fuels. To that end, I attended the 2012 Symposium on Oil Supply and Demand: Studying the Wildcards, where industry experts tried to predict the next fossil fuel “surprise” that should not be a surprise, if we’d only been paying attention. (The presentations and video proceedings are available at oilwildcards.com.)
NGLs: The Next Shale Gas?
If there is going to be another fossil fuel glut to follow natural gas, it will probably be Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs, not to be confused with Liquefied Natural Gas, or LNG). Natural gas liquids are the slightly larger carbon compounds such as ethane, pentane, and propane, which are co-produced with natural gas, but are usually counted with oil production in industry statistics. But, as I learned at the symposium, NGLs should not really be counted with oil or gas, or even separately. Each NGL has its own uses, and its own market, and they need to be considered separately if we are to understand the price dynamics.
Perhaps most importantly for those of us worried about the ability of oil production to keep up with demand, NGLs are not used as transportation fuel (with a tiny exception for propane in forklifts and the like.) Hence, even though NGLs are often counted as part of the oil supply, they do not ease the constraints on the supply of gas or diesel.
The reason NGLs are interesting now is because recent low natural gas prices have led natural gas producers to dramatically shift drilling away from “lean” prospects (which produce natural gas but few NGLs) to “rich” ones (which produce significant NGLs along with the natural gas.) This trend was highlighted at the Symposium by Adam Bedard, Senior Director at BENTEK Energy, an energy markets analytics company (see graph above). So far, relatively high prices for NGLs have kept many wet gas wells profitable despite low gas prices. In a sense, gas companies are drilling for NGLs, and producing natural gas a a byproduct.
The problem is that the rapid shift towards NGL-rich plays is liable to produce more NGLs than the market can handle. According to George Little, a partner at Groppe, Long & Littell, an oil and gas analysis and forecast provider speaking at the Symposium, the leading indicators of periods of NGL oversupply are the relative prices of olefins ethylene and propylene, which are made from NGLs. | <urn:uuid:73ebb1d5-dee6-461f-a5d8-ee435d033e75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomkonrad/2012/07/03/natural-gas-liquids-are-following-natural-gas-off-a-fracking-cliff/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962032 | 979 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Google has announced the +1 button yesterday, similar to Facebook Like button.
A small percentage of Google search users on Google.com in the United States searching in English will now see a +1 button next to search listings, when they are logged in. They can use the +1 button to publicly show what you like, agree with, or recommend on the web.
When a person clicks the button, he/she’s “+1′d” it. When they do a search when logged into Google, any results that they’ve +1′d — or which have been +1′d by those in their network — will be enhanced.
- Those with Google Profiles can “plus” things; everyone else cannot.
- Google account holders who are signed in will see all the +1′s and personalized “recommendations” even though they cannot add their own pluses without a Google Profile.
- Also, +1 buttons are not available on Internet Explorer 7.
More information on participating in +1 is here.
Effect of +1 for Paid Ads
According to Christian Oestlien, Google’s Group Product Manager for Ads, +1 will appear on all Google search ads by default. However advertisers will be able to opt out by submitting this form.
Advertisers will be able to see stats about which ads are getting the most +1s.
it will not impact ads quality and paid rankings.
Google's early tests showed there was a lift for ads that featured +1 annotation.
A user “plus-ing” (endorsing) an ad will not count as a click to the advertiser.
Users don’t need to specifically endorse ads for their pluses appear on ads. There’s a common infrastructure for social +1 on both the organic and paid side. So, if you +1 a particular page in organic results, then for the paid ad that uses the same URL, +1 appears.
In the future Google intends to cluster URLs so that the +1′d URL and the AdWords URL don’t have to be identical for +1′s to appear in the ad.
+1 and Organic Search
Google is working on a +1 button that you can put on your pages, making it easy for people to recommend your content on Google search. If you want to be notified when the +1 button is available for your website, you can sign up for email updates.
Google notes that they will “start to look at +1’s as one of the many signals [that they] use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking”.
At this point, we don’t know how much traction it can get from the consumer side. And, it is very likely that the feature will get abused quickly by spammers. | <urn:uuid:55eb6498-64de-4e30-8dd8-53357fd117db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dbesem.blogspot.com/2011/03/google-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931327 | 602 | 1.5 | 2 |
Promethea can produce the following units. They all appear as humanoids and they do not use mounts.
- Ulgan Stabber Class - upkeep 30 each. - HP 6, Attack 4, defense 2, Move 4, Special - Mountain Capable
The youngest Ulgan are used as the core attack force. They use their claws to tear apart the enemy and without a Warlord to direct them act like little more than large packs of wolves. But while led they fight with coordination, and are thrilled by the hunt of fleeing enemies. Ulgan have a shaky relationship with the Renders, and without a warlord to keep them all behaved this can result in some squabbles. Against a common enemy though they work together.
- Tammuz Piker Class - pops as garrison unit. Upkeep 20 each, can be promoted to normal unit for 50 Schmuckers, but upkeep raises to 30. - HP 8, Attack 3, Defense 4, Move 3, Special - Mountain Capable
The hardy Tammuz enjoy their times of peace, many never upgrading to regular Infantry because they prefer not fighting. But when the time comes they are stalwart defenders, giving their lives if they must, knowing that at least they will find peace. Their bodies appear to be made of clay, often making them confused for crap golems, but they are not golems at all, and are popped instead of being made. Referring to them as a golem often results ina chuckle on their part.
- Galateid Scout - 30 upkeep. - HP 4, Attack 1, Defense 1, Move 6,Special - Mountain Capable, Scout(8)
The youngest of the 'Muses' are used as scouts for the Promethean empire. They are beautiful beings, but their beauty is unnatural and disturbing. Their scouting movements are often slow curves or random circular patterns, often looking as if they are wandering aimlessly. They enjoy sins of the flesh and like to show themselves off in risque attire.
- Nepri (Special Unit A) - 50 upkeep, HP 9, Attack 4, Defense 3, Move 4, Special - Water Capable
The Prometheans associated mostly with water are haughty beings who consider anyone below them to be "inferior". They are capable swimmers and take advantage of sources of water to surprise the enemy. They usually carry a pair of daggers and wear simple cloth that ripples as they move through the water.
- Renders (Special Unit B) - 40 upkeep, Hp 6, Attack 6, Defense 3, Move 11(+8 from Fast), Special - Mountain Capable, Fast
Renders resemble larger, disfigured Ulgan. Each claw is as long as a short sword, with the index fingers sometimes growing to equal a longsword in length. Renders are shock trropers, charging at the enemy with amazing speed. Sometimes they are used like an aggressive scout, given an unexplored region and told to charge that way. Engagements with individual Renders, while brief, spread stories fo their ferocity.
Torch-Born (Infantry, Archer Class) - pops as garrison unit. Upkeep 30 each, can be promoted to normal unit for 50 Schmuckers, but upkeep raises to 40. HP 6, Attack 6, Defense 1, Move 3, Special - Archery, Mountian Capable (free since they're infantry)
The Torch-Born appear somewhat disfigured, like their body parts don't all match. They are the more tomrented versions of the Wretched, and favour using their strength to fire large compisite bows.
The Wretched (Special Unit C-Heavy) - 75 Upkeep. HP 10, Attack 7, Defense 4, Move 3, Special - Mountain Capable (cost 1 cause you said so), Siege
The Wretched are similar to the Torch-Born in appearance but slightly more noble. They are towering beings who prefer using they massive strength to tear down barriers. They resemble the Frankesntein monster from the real world.
Pyros Vessel (Ship B) - 100 Upkeep HP 18, Attack 7, Defense 5, Move 5, Cargo 16 Specials - Water Capable
The Pyros Vessel is manned by fearless Prometheans looking to cause some trouble. They enjoy combat on the high seas and will eagerly charge a well defended soreline to drop off troops, able to take a beating.
Ishtari (Infantry, Knight-Class) - 120 upkeep. 12 HP, Attack 4, Defense 8, Move 5, Special - Heavy, Mountian Capable (free cause they're infantry), Natural Dirtamancy (4 points, do I pick a spell they use? Wanted Yes we can), Builder (costs 2 as second ability)
The Ishtari were mockeries of the Tammuz, often tasked with guarding prisoners. They are amazing with contructing buildings and it is noted they even have a natural ability to use Dirtamancy to contruct impressive stone structures. They are powerful defenders on top fo that, able to hold fortifications they make. | <urn:uuid:2abd99bb-1b24-42a6-869c-4011229de7ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.erfworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=27171 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943298 | 1,057 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Cross-posted from Americans for Energy Leadership
The biggest news from President Obama’s Oval Office address is that cap and trade legislation is probably dead for the foreseeable future, and the administration is seeking new ideas.
Instead of using last night’s prime-time opportunity to push cap and trade in the form of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act — as many climate advocates saw as their last hope for “comprehensive” climate reform — President Obama pressed the reset button on energy and climate policy, saying he was “happy to look at other ideas and approaches from either party, as long they seriously tackle our addiction to fossil fuels.” He made no mention of setting a price on carbon or establishing an emissions cap and trade system.
As Andrew Revkin observed at New York Times Dot Earth, the president “signaled that he is leaving open a variety of paths on energy and climate policy and no longer hewing tightly to the idea of a cap and trade system for restricting heat-trapping emissions — which he never wavered from during his campaign.” David Roberts of Grist, one of the few remaining hopefuls for cap and trade reform, wrote “Final thought: Obama didn’t drive the carbon cap tonight, so there won’t be a carbon cap in the energy bill this year.”
If cap and trade is dead, then what’s next? The only serious alternative that could attract bipartisan support is a comprehensive national strategy for clean energy competitiveness and innovation — including substantial new federal investment in research, development, demonstration, deployment, and manufacturing — to accelerate America’s transition away from fossil fuels, build a strong and competitive clean energy industry, and rapidly drive down the price of low-carbon power and transportation technologies. These investments could potentially be included as part of a comprehensive energy package, building upon the proposed American Clean Energy Leadership Act.
Cap and trade has long dominated the debate, but a large number of think tanks, business leaders, and academics are rallying behind such an “energy innovation consensus,” which places these federal investments at the front and center of the energy and climate agenda. President Obama cited these experts in his speech, noting that “Others wonder why the energy industry only spends a fraction of what the high-tech industry does on research and development -– and want to rapidly boost our investments in such research and development.”
The energy innovation consensus currently includes dozens of Nobel Laureates, Breakthrough Institute, Brookings Institution, National Commission on Energy Policy, Third Way, Association of American Universities, Clean Air Task Force, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, Google, and Americans for Energy Leadership, among others. The latest group to join is the American Energy Innovation Council (AEIC), made up of several of the nation’s top business leaders: Bill Gates, Jeff Immelt, John Doerr, Chad Holliday, Norm Augustine, Ursula Burns, and Tim Solso. Last week, these leaders released a new report, “A Business Plan for America’s Energy Future,” calling for major new federal investment in clean energy technology RD&D — at least $16 billion annually, more than triple the current level (see our news roundup).
In fact, such an energy innovation strategy was originally at the center of the Obama administration’s energy and climate agenda. Throughout his campaign and the beginning of his presidency, Obama consistently promised he would increase federal investment in clean energy R&D by $15 billion per year. As one of the administrations “Guiding Principles” on energy and environment, the White House website still states that it will “Invest $150 billion over ten years in energy research and development to transition to a clean energy economy.” Time Magazine‘s Bryan Walsh wrote in response to the speech, “if Obama is really serious about changing some of the insane parts of our energy policy—like the fact that we spend less than $5 billion on energy R&D a year, a number that Bill Gates wants to triple—he could be truly revolutionary.”
Of course, cap and trade once offered an opportunity to fund an energy innovation agenda. However, as the Breakthrough Institute and Americans for Energy Leadership recently documented in our policy brief, “The Power to Compete,” the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act does not contain a comprehensive innovation strategy and would only increase federal clean energy RD&D investment by as little as $2.2 billion per year. The Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy & Security Act contained similarly low support for innovation. These proposals focused on capping carbon, not promoting clean energy technology innovation.
Without cap and trade, the federal government will need to identify an alternative revenue stream. The AEIC proposes other possibilities, such as a wires fee on electricity, reduced fossil fuel subsidies, fees on offshore oil and natural gas production, an oil import fee, or increasing the gas tax. Regardless of the revenue stream, the report notes, “The essential requirements, though, are that we make the basic investment, and that we commit these funds, steadily, over the long term.”
Some will argue that the country can’t afford these investments. But as the AEIC also states, “underfunding RD&D is an exercise in gross fiscal irresponsibility. The oil embargoes of the 1970s caused recessions that cost this nation more than a trillion dollars—yet we invest tiny sums in reducing petroleum dependence. The country sends $1 billion overseas every day to purchase oil, but publicly funded research in advanced vehicles and alternative fuels totals just $680 million annually — about 16 hours worth of oil imports… We will not save money by starving ourselves of future options.” Moreover, if the United States fails to make these investments today, the vast majority of future tax revenues, jobs, and exports associated with the growing clean energy industry will accrue to foreign nations like China, as we documented in “Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant.”
Last night President Obama declared, “Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash America’s innovation and seize control of our own destiny.” Indeed, solving the nation and world’s energy problems is most centrally an innovation challenge, one that requires a bold new policy approach. The president has signaled the need for a new agenda, and comprehensive energy innovation reform offers the best opportunity. | <urn:uuid:113baaf7-355f-4149-ba22-20856c02225e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2010/06/16/obama-signals-need-for-new-energy-agenda/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9427 | 1,331 | 1.84375 | 2 |
OTTAWA - Shimon Peres thanked Stephen Harper for his staunch support of Israel, and Canada for its 60 years of friendship as the Israeli president began a full state visit Monday.
"I sense that Canada is always positive, never indifferent, never neutral," Peres said during his official welcome by the Governor General at Rideau Hall.
The Nobel laureate has been a fixture in Israeli politics since 1959, serving in 12 cabinets and twice as prime minister. He is currently the country's head of state — a largely ceremonial role — but remains an influential figure and a perceived leavening voice to hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The president's five-day trip to Canada began as Netanyahu called an early national election amid talk of an "existential threat" to Israel from Iran's nuclear program.
Peres has expressed reservations about a pre-emptive strike against Iran, and his language on arriving in Canada was that of the diplomat who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for his work with Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin on the Oslo Accords.
"Canada offers a new beginning, building bridges and closing gaps," Peres, who turns 89 in August, said at Rideau Hall.
"Israel, which is a start-up nation, breathes your air with real thirst."
Escorted up the Rideau Hall drive in brilliant spring sunshine by four mounted RCMP officers, Peres reviewed a 100-strong honour guard under a booming 21-gun military salute.
He's to plant an Eastern White Pine — known by the Iroquois as the Tree of Peace — on the vice-regal grounds Tuesday.
On Parliament Hill, the Israeli president was greeted by the prime minister in the rotunda of the Hall of Honour, and the two then moved to Harper's office for what he called a "chat."
While the camera shutters clattered, Peres called Canada "an extraordinary friend" before praising Harper personally.
"Your remarks about Israel are outstanding. It really moved our hearts of our people," Pere said.
It was not clear specifically what Peres was referring to, but he arrives in Ottawa just days after Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird told a Jewish audience that "Israel has no greater friend in the world today than Canada."
Indeed, the Conservative government has drawn considerable criticism for dropping Canada's traditional, self-styled "honest broker" role that supported both Palestinian and Israeli ambitions in the region.
Peres drew no distinction in his public remarks about Canada's past and current positions. He harkened back to his first visit to Canada 60 years ago and "the deep friendship that has existed between our peoples from our first day of independence."
"Since then I carry in my heart the feeling that Canada is a continent of friendliness, displaying support and care," said Peres.
A readout from the Prime Minister's Office following Harper's private tete-at-tete stated he and Peres "discussed the uncertain security environment and the importance of diplomacy as the primary instrument for peace and security."
The president appears likely to get more friendly hearings during his Canadian tour.
He met interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae later Monday.
"The Liberal party remains committed to a secure and democratic Israel, a stable and democratic Palestinian state and to the ultimate goal of peace in the region," Rae said in a release.
"We believe that direct negotiations are the only way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to build peace in the region.
"President Peres and I have met several times since my first visit to Israel in 1979, and I have always found him to be a person of great experience, wisdom and candour. I look forward to continued frank and productive exchanges today and in the future."
New Democrat Thomas Mulcair, the leader of the official Opposition, meets with Peres on Tuesday.
Both Mulcair and Rae are among the most staunchly pro-Israel leaders of their respective parties — if not the most — in many years.
Peres, whose tour includes stops in Ontario and Quebec, is the second high-profile Israeli politician to visit Canada in recent weeks, following Netanyahu's brief stop in Ottawa in March.
Netanyahu came looking for support for the idea of a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear program, which is feared to be building nuclear weapons.
But Harper, despite echoing Netanyahu's concerns about Iran's intentions, expressed the desire for a peaceful solution.
Peres has repeatedly spoken of the need for an international, diplomatic solution and has openly questioned whether a pre-emptive strike would do anything more than delay Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons by a couple of years.
<em>Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili answers to a question during a press conference following talks between Iran and six world powers to discuss the Islamic republic's disputed atomic program on October 1, 2009 in Geneva. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Iran meets six world powers in Geneva and approves in principle a plan to send 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be made into special fuel for a Tehran reactor making medical materials.
<em>International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors arrive at Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran early on October 25, 2009. Four inspectors of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Tehran to check Iran's controversial second uranium enrichment plant. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br> U.N. nuclear experts inspect a newly disclosed enrichment plant being built inside a mountain bunker.
<em>Herman M.G. Nackaerts, who led the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors team to Iran, speaks to journalists upon his arrival on October 29, 2009 at Vienna airport from Iran. (SAMUEL KUBANI/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Iran tells the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it wants fresh nuclear fuel for a reactor in Tehran before it will agree to ship enriched uranium stocks to Russia and France, according to U.N. officials.
<em>A picture shows the reactor building at the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran on August 21, 2010 during a ceremony initiating the transfer of Russia-supplied fuel to the facility after more than three decades of delay. (ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Tehran says will not send enriched uranium abroad but will consider swapping it for nuclear fuel within Iran.
<em>A file satellite image taken Sunday Sept. 27, 2009, provided by DigitalGlobe, shows a suspected nuclear enrichment facility under construction inside a mountain located north of Qom, Iran. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe, File)</em><br><br>The IAEA's 35-nation governing board censures Iran for developing the Fordow plant near Qom in secret and demands Iran freeze the project. Iran rejects the demand.
<em>Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili looks on during a press conference closing nuclear talks on December 7, 2010 in Geneva. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Iran rejects key parts of the deal to send abroad for processing most of its enrichment material.
<em>NATANZ, IRAN - APRIL 9: A general view of the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, is seen on April 9, 2007, 180 miles south of Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Iran begins making higher-grade nuclear fuel, enriched to a level of 20 percent, at the Natanz plant.
<em>Delegates watch the opening of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors meeting at agency headquarters in Vienna on September 27, 2010. (SAMUEL KUBANI/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>An IAEA report suggests for the first time Iran might be actively chasing nuclear weapons capability rather than merely having done so in the past.
<em>Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Celso Amorim, gestures during a press conference at Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia, on May 18, 2010, on the nuclear agreement between Brazil, Iran and Turkey. (EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Iran, Brazil and Turkey sign a nuclear fuel swap deal. Iran says it has agreed to transfer low-enriched uranium to Turkey within a month in return for higher-enriched nuclear fuel for a medical research reactor. The deal is not implemented due to lack of U.S., French and Russian involvement.
<em>U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to make a statement regarding a United Nations Security Council vote on new sanctions for Iran in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on June 9, 2010 in Washington, DC. (Roger L. Wollenberg-Pool/Getty Images)</em><br><br>U.N. Security Council votes to expand sanctions against Iran to undermine its banking and other industries.
<em>This photo shows a branch of Iranian Bank Tejarat in Tehran on January 24, 2012. (ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>U.S. Congress approves tough new unilateral sanctions aimed at squeezing Iran's energy and banking sectors.
<em>Former Iranian president and head of Iran's Assembly of Experts, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, delivers a speech during a meeting of the top clerical body in Tehran on September 14, 2010, urging Iranian officials against dismissing the sanctions as 'jokes', saying that the Islamic republic was facing its worst ever 'assault' from the global community. (ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>The EU imposes tighter sanctions on Iran.
<em>Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi speaks to journalists after the Conference on Disarmament at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. Salehi has called for other countries to chose engagement over confrontation in resolving their differences over his nation's nuclear program. (AP Photo/Keystone, Jean-Christophe Bott)</em><br><br>Iran's nuclear energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi says Iran will use domestically produced uranium concentrates, known as yellowcake, for the first time at a nuclear facility, cutting reliance on imports of the ingredient for nuclear fuel.
<em>Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili (R) gestures next to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in the foyer of the conference center near the Swiss mission to the United Nations on December 6, 2010 in Geneva. (ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Talks begin in Geneva between Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is leading the discussions on behalf of big powers.
<em>US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks about Iran during a press conference with Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa following their meeting at the US State Department in Washington, DC, February 3, 2010. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>World powers fail to prise any change from Iran in talks, with the EU and U.S. calling the discussions disappointing and saying no further meetings are planned.
<em>Demonstrators hold effigies of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) and Iran's religiuous leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a protest outside the 66th UN General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on September 22, 2011.</em><br><br>Russia and China join Western powers in telling Iran its "consistent failure" to comply with U.N. resolutions "deepened concerns" about possible military dimensions to its nuclear program.
<em>International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief inspector Herman Nackaerts arrives with his team at the Vienna airport from Iran, on February 22, 2012. (DIETER NAGL/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Iran allows IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts rare access to a facility for developing advanced uranium enrichment machines during a tour of the country's main atomic sites, an Iranian envoy says.
<em>The head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoun Abbasi Davani (2nd L) and Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko (R) shake hands during a ceremony in the southern port city of Bushehr on September 12, 2011, to celebrate hooking up Iran's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr to the national grid, supplying 400 megawatts of its 1,000 megawatt capacity. (AMIR POURMAND/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant begins to provide electricity to the national grid, IRNA reports.
<em>Alireza Jafarzadeh arranges satellite images and maps allegedly showing location of an industrial site near Tehran that produces components for centrifuges used to enrich uranium, before a press conference in Washington, DC, on April 7, 2011. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>IAEA confirms Iran began refining uranium to a fissile purity of 20 percent at Fordow.
<em>Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveils a sample of the third generation centrifuge for uranium enrichment during a ceremony to mark the National Nuclear Day day in Tehran on April 9, 2010. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Iran proclaims nuclear advances, including new centrifuges able to enrich uranium much faster. The next day Iran proposes a resumption of nuclear talks with world powers.
<em>Hans Blix(R), former general director of the United Nations (UN) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Robert Kelley, former IAEA chief inspector in Iraq chat February 21, 2012 before a panel discussion on Iran's nuclear capabilities on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Senior U.N. inspectors end a second round of talks in Tehran, without success and without inspecting a military site at Parchin.
<em>International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiya Amano (C) looks on during an IAEA board of governors meeting at the UN atomic agency headquarters in Vienna on March 5, 2012. (DIETER NAGL/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Iran has tripled its monthly production of higher-grade enriched uranium and the IAEA has "serious concerns" about possible military dimensions to Tehran's activities, IAEA head Yukiya Amano says.
<em>European Union's Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton gives a press conference after a meeting on April 14, 2012 as Iran and six world powers open talks on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme in Istanbul. (BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton accepts Iran's offer of new talks, after a year's standstill. U.S. President Barack Obama says the announcement offers a diplomatic chance to defuse the crisis and quiet the "drums of war". Iran says it will let U.N. nuclear inspectors visit Parchin but diplomats note a proviso saying access to the site hinges on a broader agreement on outstanding issues.
<em>A sign shows gas prices over five dollars a gallon for all three grades at a EXXON service station on March 13, 2012 in Washington, DC. According to AAA the average price of gas has climbed three tenths of a cent nationwide as a result of high oil prices and tensions tied to Iran's nuclear program. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Iran cuts oil exports to Spain and may halt sales to Germany and Italy, state television reports, in an apparent move to strengthen its position ahead of crucial talks.
<em>Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waits for the arrival of Iraqi Shiite Vice President Khudayr al-Khuzaie prior to a meeting in Tehran on March 10, 2012. (ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Ahmadinejad says the Islamic state will not surrender its nuclear rights "even under the most difficult pressure".
<em>Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Said Jalili gives a press conference on April 14, 2012 as Iran and six world powers open talks on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme in Istanbul. (BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)</em><br><br>Talks between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain resume in Istanbul. A diplomat describes the atmosphere at the opening session as "completely different" from that of previous meetings. Iran has promised to put forward "new initiatives". | <urn:uuid:4f80aab6-ccb4-4790-bdaf-263c8a1133ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/07/shimon-peres-canada-visit-israel-president-ottawa_n_1493943.html?1336401907 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930922 | 3,588 | 1.710938 | 2 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 15, 2008
With Lake Placid's Rich Olympic History, Schumer, Gillibrand Urge US Olympic Committee to Submit Bid for Town to Host Inaugural Youth Olympics
Home to the U.S. Olympic Training Center , Lake Placid is Steeped in Olympic History; Hosted Games in 1932 and 1980 State and Feds Have Poured More than $130 Million for Infrastructure Upgrades into Lake Placid over the Past 12 Years, Making it Ideal Spot for Inaugural Youth Olympic Winter Games of 2012 Schumer, Gillibrand: With Top-Notch Venues to Support its Rich History, Lake Placid is
In anticipation of the inaugural Youth Olympic Winter Games in 2012, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Representative Kirsten Gillibrand today urged the U.S. Olympic Committee to submit an official bid to have Lake Placid , New York host this historic event. Lake Placid has hosted the Olympic Winter Games twice, in 1932 and 1980, and is home of the United States Olympic Training Center. Over the past twelve years, New York State has invested nearly $120 million and the federal government over $12 million, to upgrade the infrastructure at and around venue sites.
Today, in a personal letter to US Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth, Schumer and Gillibrand urged the Committee to choose Lake Placid as their top choice for hosting for the inaugural event.
“Given its rich history, Lake Placid will forever be synonymous with Olympic glory for people across the globe,” said Senator Schumer. “It’s the place of true athletic heroes like Heiden and Fratianne, and home to arguably the greatest sports moment in history with Team USA ’s stunning hockey victory over the Soviet Union . With the state and federal government investing so much in infrastructure upgrades over the past decade, it’s crystal clear that the village is more than ready to host this truly world-class event.”
“Lake Placid is like no other place in America – it has world-class athletic facilities, is home of the U.S. Olympics “Miracle on Ice” where the U.S. Ice Hockey team beat the Soviet Union and is surrounded by the beautiful and majestic Adirondack Park. The Youth Olympics will be an outstanding economic development opportunity for the North Country and will enhance tourism and growth of our small businesses,” said Gillibrand.
Lake Placid , home to the US Olympic Training Center, has hosted the Olympic Games twice, in 1932 and 1980. Over the past twelve years, New York State has invested nearly $120 million, and the federal government over $12 million, to upgrade the infrastructure at and around the venue sites. The village is a beautiful and welcoming place and continues to host world-class competitions. The Youth Winter Olympics would bring approximately 1000 athletes and 600 officials to the region, and would be a major shot in the arm to the local economy.
Olympic Committee President Jacque Rogge has envisioned the Youth Olympics as a showcase for Olympic values and the benefits of sport for a healthy lifestyle, with youth today facing an epidemic of childhood obesity that is already surging the number of cases of diabetes and threatens to push heart disease and cancer rates in the future. At the same time, young people are tempted by the easy path that performance enhancing drugs have paved for so many famous athletes. President Rogge’s vision for the Youth Games provides an alternative example to both of these pressing issues.
With the deadline for the USOC to submit a bid for the 2012 Youth Winter Games quickly approaching, Schumer and Gillibrand today wrote to Chairman Ueberroth, urging him to choose Lake Placid as the United State ’s official candidate and submit an official bid on their behalf. | <urn:uuid:2d9ebc4e-13ae-4fee-a7f8-ba5b1947e48b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.schumer.senate.gov/Newsroom/record.cfm?id=293532&year=2008 | 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 | 0.93039 | 791 | 1.742188 | 2 |
MECCA, Saudi ArabiaRival Palestinian factions signed a power-sharing accord aimed at ending months of bloodshed Thursday, agreeing that the Islamic militant group Hamas would head a new coalition government that would "respect" past peace agreements with Israel.
However, the vague wording – agreed on after Hamas rejected pressure for more binding language – did not appear to go far enough to meet demands from Israel and the United States to explicitly renounce violence, recognize Israel and agree to uphold past peace accords.
accord: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, left, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh applaud after their meeting in Mecca.
SUHAIB SALEM, REUTERS
Without those three conditions, the West is unlikely to lift a crippling financial blockade, and it will be difficult to advance the peace process with Israel.
In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said "we'll see what any final agreement actually looks like and we'll have to make an evaluation from there" as to whether it meets international demands.
Shortly after Hamas won elections in January 2006, the so-called Quartet of Middle East peace mediators – the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia – said future aid to a new government led by the militant group "would be reviewed by donors against that government's commitment to renounce violence" and recognize Israel and other agreements.
"Israel expects a new Palestinian government to respect and accept all three of the international community principles," Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said after the accord was announced.
Palestinians hope the agreement will avert outright civil war. Clashes between Hamas and Fatah gunmen have killed 130 people since May, and cease-fires have repeatedly broken down.
The latest truce came Sunday, after four days of fighting killed 30.
Also at stake is roughly $1 billion a year in frozen aid from foreign donors in addition to approximately $500 million in withheld tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal led two days of intense talks in a palace overlooking the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine.
Abbas pressed Hamas to accept the stronger stance of "committing to" past peace accords with Israel signed by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Liberation Organization. But in the end, he settled for the promise to "respect" them. | <urn:uuid:9b827b2e-a8e9-4238-983c-a45a1b679cad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ocregister.com/business/-204478--.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949905 | 501 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Zerelda “Zee” Quintana had plenty of formal associations with organizations that help people — Mujeres Unidas de Idaho, the academic program iSucceed, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho and others.
But her friends and acquaintances knew her as a formidable, sometimes under-the-radar networking force.
“Many of us remember her by her emails,” said Humberto Fuentes, president of the Hispanic Cultural Center. He worked with Quintana decades ago at the then-Idaho Migrant Council.
Even as a very young woman, he said, Quintana was driven, working so that other people could improve their lives through good jobs and education.
That theme continued for the rest of her life.
“She made it a point to have as many email addresses of as many people as possible,” Fuentes said.
Quintana used that list to connect people inside the Latino community and beyond any time there were good things to report — a job, a scholarship, open spaces in scout camp — or any time someone was in trouble and needed help.
“I called her ‘The Brown Underground,’” said Lisa Sanchez, a civil rights investigator with the Idaho Human Rights Commission, who also did outreach for the Girl Scouts.
“I would inevitably get phone calls from people wanting to get the word out about something. I’d say, ‘Give me what you have. I’ll get it to Zee,’” Sanchez said.
“And if you got something to Zee, she got it to everyone.”
Quintana died earlier this month at the age of 59 from cancer. She had three daughters — Rosanne, Amelia and Susan.
Quintana resigned from her post as executive director of Mujeres Unidas when she became ill. Her friend and fellow Mujeres member, Graciela Fonseca, saw Quintana’s tireless work in action.
“She was a quiet Joan of Arc, leading the way,” said Fonseca, a case worker at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Quintana helped get Mujeres United incorporated as a nonprofit. She set up bilingual educational conferences for women across the state. She taught her own classes on her favorite book, “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz.
She lived by those tenets, Fonseca said: “Be impeccable with your word. Don't take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions. Always do your best.”
“Zee went beyond doing her best,” Fonseca said.
Sanchez benefitted from some of those best efforts. She was between jobs a few years ago, going through a tough time.
“One gift in difficult moments is that you get to see all the people who show up in your life,” Sanchez said.
Quintana, who hadn’t even been a close friend of hers, became one of those people.
“As soon as I put it out there that I was looking for work, Zee made it her mission to make sure I saw every notice for every job that might match my skills.” Sanchez said.
In addition to the job notices, Quintana also sent affirmations, reminding Sanchez that her setback was only temporary, and things would get better.
“Lots of people are willing to be around you when everything is going great and they can feed off that glitter,” Sanchez said.
Quintana was willing to stand by people in the dark, friend and stranger alike.
She didn’t look for praise for herself. Both Fonseca and Sanchez used the word “humble” to describe Quintana.
“But c’mon,” Sanchez said. “Her name was Zerelda. You have to be a pretty awesome person to walk around with that name. That name has presence.”
In Remembrance is a weekly profile on a Treasure Valley resident who has recently passed away. To recommend a friend or loved one for an In Remembrance, email email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:d130616c-202e-44e1-949a-2b9aa254744c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/06/24/2166519/if-you-wanted-something-to-get.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975736 | 904 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Google Launches Mobile-Friendly Gmail
Telecom analyst Jeff Kagan said that all Web companies want to extend their reach to the mobile phone as the device evolves from a communications tool to a "third screen" for customers, after the TV and PC. "Companies like Google and Yahoo are entering the wireless space because they know the future of wireless is much more than phone calls," he added.
Search leader Google has launched a mobile-friendly version of its popular Web-based e-mail service, Gmail, offering a streamlined interface meant to be more compatible with small screens.
Anyone with a Gmail account and a Web-enabled phone can access Gmail remotely. Google said the service detects the type of device being used to access the mail account and returns message listings and e-mails in an appropriate format based on the size of the screen and other factors.
The service will also automatically synchronize Gmail accounts, showing messages viewed remotely as read the next time a user logs on from a PC, and will enable mobile users to open certain attachments, including text files in Office or in PDF format.
Gmail mobile also offers a "call to reply" feature that works this way: If a user has stored the phone number of an e-mail sender in his or her contacts list, an opened message can be replied to either by a return text message or by calling that person's number.
That feature may help address some of the shortcomings of using mobile phones to access Web-based mail, including the difficulty of typing messages on phone keyboards and the airtime used up to do so.
For the Small Screen
Analysts noted that like all Web-based services, Gmail has technically always been accessible from Web-ready mobile phones. But the Web version was often difficult to read on all but high-end mobile devices, with the browser window on smaller handhelds only displaying a part of the actual Web page.
"This is mobile e-mail for the rest of us, who have normal or tiny screens," said Kelsey Group managing editor Greg Sterling.
The goal of the service is likely to boost mobile usage of Gmail, Sterling said, as a way of giving Google users more exposure to its Web services in mobile form. That in turn could eventually open up new opportunities for its search business, especially in the area of local search. Gmail and related products -- such as GoogleTalk, the IM and voice chat service -- are important because they require users to register and provide some personal information, such as their home ZIP codes.
"Gmail is now a kind of hub for Google," Sterling added. "GoogleTalk and a range of personalized services are all tied in together through Gmail registration. The more registration data collected by Google, the more relevant search results and ads can potentially be."
Google has raced its rivals, especially Yahoo, to bring their popular Web services to more mobile users. The mobile frontier is seen as a key battleground not only for the eyes of users, but also as a new, virtual landscape where their ads and paid listings can be populated.
Analysts see search companies struggling to find easy, natural ways for mobile users to delve into their search engines. Google has tried a keyword approach that enables users to essentially send a text message of their search criteria. And Yahoo and Google both have tried to retrofit their search tools for mobile use, but uptake to date has been seen as minimal.
By comparison, e-mail may be more a intuitive use of mobile devices, as is evidenced by the popularity of high-end devices such as Research In Motion's BlackBerry or the Treo.
While it's unlikely Web-based e-mail would ever replace the push e-mail available for business users on the BlackBerry and other hand-helds, it would likely be sufficient for most consumers, analysts say. And with Web-browser-enabled phones now plunging in price and Gmail a free service, the price may be right as well.
Telecom analyst Jeff Kagan told the E-Commerce Times that all Web companies want to extend their reach to the mobile phone as the device evolves from a communications tool to customers' "third screen," after the TV and PC.
"Companies like Google and Yahoo are entering the wireless space because they know the future of wireless is much more than phone calls," he added. | <urn:uuid:48e210ad-cd69-4cb8-98e8-ba2f824db609> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technewsworld.com/story/47883.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948592 | 879 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The base of the Republican Party -- their raison d'etre -- is to make rich people richer.
That's what they are about.
It doesn't matter what the consequences are.
It doesn't matter if as a consequence of making rich people richer, everyone else is poorer.
That doesn't matter.
Check the numbers. According to this article in the Christian Science Monitor,
Income disparities in the United States grew substantially from 2002 to 2003, new Internal Revenue Service statistics indicate. After adjusting for inflation, the after-tax income of the richest 1 percent of households rose by 8.5 percent, or nearly $49,000 apiece - helped by the Bush tax cuts. The bottom 75 percent of filers saw real after-tax incomes fall. The middle fifth of taxpayers, for instance, lost $300.
So just to be clear, Republican policies make the top 1 percent richer by fifty grand each while those of us making less than fifty grand all year had less income.
If you make less than 50 grand, you are poorer now because of Republican policies.
If you are the richest one percent, you are 50 grand richer.
That's what politics is all about. And when you are trying to convince someone to vote for a Democratic candidate, talk about money.
Republicans *hate* it when you do that! They want to talk about abortion or guns or what a horrible person John Kerry's wife is or oral sex.
But when you talk about money, people start nodding their heads.
Here's the latest proof that Republicans are about making the rich richer.
The President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform (pretty good website here). It's set up to give some recommendations to President Bush on how to reform the tax code.
And of course one they will conclude that we need to make rich people richer.
The way to do that is easy: cut taxes on high incomes and on wealth.
So the panel suggested that we should lower the rates that rich people pay on the income earned above $200,000 (because you know those guys are hurting) and that taxes on investments be lowered even more.
The panel wants to cut the highest marginal income tax from 35% to 33%.
That rate was 39.6% during the Clinton years. Remember, peace and prosperity?
Bush and the Republicans made sure to cut that down to 35%.
And now they want to cut it even more.
When we are broke. And college tuition is skyrocketing and financial aid is flatlining. And our infrastructure is not up to snuff (remember New Orleans?). And mass transit fares are going up because the feds don't pay for any operating costs. And they want to cut money for health insurance.
Here's a pretty good article on the panel from the New York Sun. It's all press leaks now as the panel hasn't made an official decision.
This what the Republican Party is all about.
And it is so incredibly frustrating that anyone making less than fifty grand would vote for them for any reason. | <urn:uuid:dd0ac8b7-df92-4f4f-b52a-18e7644276ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://djwinfo.blogspot.com/2005/10/how-do-we-know-republicans-are-for.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962229 | 626 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Thought some of you might like this
It's my response to the PAD prompt to write a poem about
a sestina.What's in a Name?
There once was a woman,
didn't live in a shoe,
but a council apartment,
she might live near you.
Her children were named in the hope one day
celebrity riches would come their way.
So she chose their names so they'd stand out,
didn't know what they meant
and at meal times she'd shout :
"Food's ready Sestina, Salmonella, Vagina,
Colonic, Ebola, hurry up Spirulina!
Get it while it's hot Gonnorrhea you too Escherischa,
Candida, Chlamydia and you Analfissure."
Once at the table
she gazed at her brood,
the future of TV,
all gobbling their food. | <urn:uuid:68594bdc-f977-4b8a-8fc7-754e1d5593af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.everywritersresource.com/writersmessageboards/index.php?topic=96.msg5963 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970385 | 196 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The wishes have been made; the candles have been blown out. It’s Sunday afternoon, and the birthday girl, wearing her best dress and a plastic tiara, skips into her mother’s lap.
“Who is Mommy’s prettiest girl in the world?” Yolanda Méndez, the 24-year-old mother, asks in Spanish. Aidelin, who has just turned 7, kisses her mother’s forehead to answer her. “My special girl,” Yolanda whispers.
Aidelin has no idea why her mother calls her that. She doesn’t know that she is the daughter of a man who repeatedly raped her mother during Yolanda’s childhood. He kidnapped her from Oaxaca, Mexico, and brought her to the United States to be a prisoner of his physical and sexual abuse.
Aidelin has no idea that as a baby, she gave her mother the courage to run away from her abuser, Juan Garcia, and help prosecute him, as chronicled in “Yolanda’s Crossing,” a narrative series published by The Dallas Morning News in December 2006.
The mother and daughter saved each other. “I don’t think I can tell her what happened, not now,” Yolanda says. “I still think it’s too early. I don’t think I will tell her until she is grown.”
Yolanda’s plight began at the edge of a river in a rural Mexican village. Her aunt’s husband, Juan Garcia, claimed the 11-year-old as his virgin mistress for the first time when he pushed her in the sand and raped her.
He continued to rob Yolanda of her childhood for six years after her father sold her to him and his wife. Garcia brought her to the United States illegally, making her work off their coyote debt in blueberry and tobacco fields. Eventually, he locked her in motel rooms and finally a closet in Dallas, where he raped her in the presence of newborn Aidelin.
Yolanda escaped. She found saviors at the Mexican consulate who helped prosecute Garcia, who was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison. A consulate worker adopted Yolanda into her family to help her gain legal immigration status.
“I had no one to help me at the river,” Yolanda says. “Right now, it’s totally different.”
Five years ago, Yolanda decided to make her story public, because she thought sharing the experience would help young people in similar situations. She said she wanted to update her story — and that of her children, whom she agreed to identify — to reveal the happiness she and they have found. “Back then was a good life,” she said, referring to the period when she escaped from Garcia. “Right now it is a great life. I feel like I could do more than what I did, more than what I’m doing.”
She wakes up before dawn every morning to do her hair and help Aidelin get ready for school. Yolanda’s boyfriend of five years, Napoleon Cruz, lives with them, and together, they have a son, Leo, 3. Napo works at a restaurant in Oak Cliff, where Yolanda had her first job.
Now she works as a legal assistant for John Read, the defense attorney with the Mexican consulate who brought Garcia’s case to the attention of prosecutors. She has learned English and is learning to read and write at Literacy Instruction for Texas in downtown Dallas. She plans on taking her GED classes soon.
First day of school
A few weeks after her birthday party, Aidelin prepares for the first day of school.
Aidelin dresses in her navy polo shirt. I’m growing up, she tells her mother. After all, she is starting the second grade. She stands in front of the mirror, right next to her mother. They make eye contact through the mirror.
Aidelin brushes her hair by herself as Yolanda curls her own shiny black locks. Aidelin brings her mother some blue bows. Her mother strokes the girl’s hair and fastens them onto Aidelin’s pig tails: the mother-daughter grooming ritual.
“I didn’t show her love as a baby,” Yolanda says. Aidelin was a reminder of the pain, a product of abuse. As a teenager, Yolanda used to shake her out of frustration. But today, there’s no one Yolanda could love more. Friends say the bond Aidelin and Yolanda share is deeply rooted and special.
“She’s always with me,” Yolanda says. “That baby is my love.”
Later in the morning, after Leo is dropped off at day care, Yolanda rushes to James Bowie Elementary School. The mother leads Aidelin by the hand as they swerve around parents and students saying their goodbyes outside classrooms. The two hug and kiss.
The teacher asks in Spanish, “Who will pick her up? Your husband?” Yolanda nods. She tells people Napoleon is her husband and Aidelin’s father. It’s just easier that way, she says. But eventually, Aidelin will start asking questions about her father. For now, she believes it is Napoleon. Yolanda left the space for “father” blank on Aidelin’s birth certificate.
Aidelin’s godfather, John Read, says the 7-year-old is already starting to ask questions about why her last name is different from Napo’s. “Deep inside, Aidelin knows the truth,” Read says. “I don’t know how.”
It’s impossible for Aidelin to know the truth, experts say. Still, it’s common for babies who fled from abuse with their mothers to feel a special bond. They experience trauma with their parent, and they know that they share something special, says SMU psychology professor George Holden.
Yolanda hopes to give Aidelin a childhood she never had. When Yolanda does her reading and spelling homework for her literacy classes, Aidelin watches and frequently asks, “Why are you doing this, Mommy?”
“I tell her it’s because I want to be somebody in this life,” Yolanda says. “I want to be independent. I want her to do the same thing.”
Thinking about the past
Yolanda sometimes thinks about her past but tries not to, she says. “It’s something you can’t forget.”
Though she feels free, she is sometimes still a prisoner of Garcia. Once, she thought she saw him at the grocery store. She started shaking and sweating. She rushed home to check online whether her uncle was still locked up. He was.
“It makes me very happy that he is there,” she says. “That makes me feel secure. He can feel what I was feeling for many years in my life. He never let me get out of that closet to see the light of the day. He could feel that now.”
Years ago, she said she felt sorry for him. She said she forgave him. But today, she feels anger and hopes one day Garcia will be raped and beaten in prison. That is a healthy thing to feel, says Holden, the psychology professor.
“It’s likely there are unresolved issues,” Holden says. “She was probably holding a lot in before, when she seemed like she was forgiving him.” In order to stir the feelings of “real deep forgiveness,” Holden says, a healthy part of the process is feeling anger and rage.
It’s hard not to when the man still haunts her dreams, choking her, hurting her.
Aidelin doesn’t know it, but she gives her mother some relief most nights. “She gives me eye kisses,” Yolanda says.
Aidelin kisses her mother’s eyelids before bed. And Aidelin tells her: “To keep the bad dreams away, Mommy.” | <urn:uuid:ab54ac26-91b7-4114-a323-417ad583b10f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/oak-cliff/headlines/20111029-yolanda-mendez-abused-by-her-uncle-and-brought-illegally-from-mexico-to-the-u.s.-is-on-the-path-to-recovery.ece?ssimg=362651 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976624 | 1,795 | 1.539063 | 2 |
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The Osmonds performing in Hamburg; 1970s (l-r): Alan, Merrill, Donny, Jay and Wayne
|Origin||Salt Lake City, Utah, United States|
|Genres||R&B, pop, disco, soft rock, blue eyed soul, funk, country|
|Associated acts||Donny & Marie, 1976
Donny & Marie 1998
The Osmonds are an American family music group with a long and varied career—a career that took them from singing barbershop music as children, to achieving success as teen-music idols, to producing a hit television show, and to continued success as solo and group performers. The Osmonds are devout members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and their religious values have influenced their careers.
When it began as a barbershop quartet, the group consisted of brothers Alan Osmond, Wayne Osmond, Merrill Osmond, and Jay Osmond. They were later joined by younger siblings Donny Osmond and Jimmy Osmond. Their only sister Marie Osmond, who never sang with her brothers at that time, launched a successful solo career in the 1970s, and family friend Ronnie Mund on tambourine and backing vocals. Older brothers George Virl Osmond, Jr. (Virl) and Tom Osmond were born deaf and did not originally perform, although they later made occasional appearances, most notably on the family Christmas specials from the 1970s. All of the Osmonds were born in their hometown of Ogden, Utah except the youngest, Jimmy, who was born in Canoga Park, California. The group have sold 102 million records worldwide.
The Osmonds' Story
Early years: barbershop and variety shows
The Osmond Brothers' career began in 1958 when Alan, Wayne, Merrill, and Jay began singing barbershop music for local audiences in and around their hometown of Ogden, Utah. In their made-for-TV movie "Inside the Osmonds," the Osmonds explain that they originally performed to earn money to support Virl and Tom in buying hearing aids and serving missions for their church. Despite their young ages (in 1958 Alan was 9, Wayne 7, Merrill 5, and Jay 3), within a few years, the boys' talent and stage presence were strong enough that their father, George Osmond, took them to audition for Lawrence Welk in California. Welk turned them down, but on the same trip, they visited Disneyland and were hired to perform there [unreliable source?] after joining an adult barbershop quartet for some impromptu singing.
While the Osmond Brothers were performing on a televised Disney special, Andy Williams' father saw them and was so impressed he told his son to book them for his television show. Andy did, and the Osmond Brothers were regulars on Andy Williams' show from 1962–1969, where they earned the nickname "one-take Osmonds" because of their professionalism and tireless rehearsing. Donny soon joined them on the show, making the Osmond Brothers a 5-member group. Marie and Jimmy were also introduced on the show as the years went by. During this time, the Osmonds also toured Europe, performing with Sweden's most popular singer, Lars Lönndahl, and even releasing a single where they sang a Swedish version of "Two dirty little hands" ("Fem smutsiga små fingrar").
The Osmond Brothers were regulars on the Jerry Lewis Show in 1969, and they continued to tour and perform with Andy Williams. But soon the Osmond Brothers decided they wanted to perform popular music and shed their variety-show image. They wanted to become a rock-and-roll band. This change was a difficult one for their father, who was suspicious of rock and roll. But he was persuaded, and the boys began performing as a pop band.
The Osmonds: a pop music success – 1971–1972
Record producer Mike Curb saw the Osmonds (no longer called "The Osmond Brothers") perform as a band and recognized that they combined a rare mix of polished performing style, instrumental skill, and vocal talent. He helped the Osmonds get a record contract with MGM, and arranged for them to record at Muscle Shoals with R&B producer Rick Hall. Under Hall's guidance, the Osmonds hit the top spot on the pop chart with "One Bad Apple" (Billboard No. 1) in 1971. The Osmonds soon had hits with other light, R&B-style pop numbers like "Double Lovin'" (Billboard No. 14) and "Yo-Yo" (Billboard No. 3). In each of these hits, the formula was the same; Merrill sang lead, and Donny was "co-lead" in essence, singing the "hook" or "chorus" of the song.
At this time the Osmonds also recorded several hits that were billed to Donny, the lead soloist on the songs. They included "Sweet and Innocent" (Billboard No. 7), "Go Away Little Girl" (Billboard No. 1), "Hey Girl"/"I Knew You When" (Billboard No. 9), and "Puppy Love" (Billboard No. 3). It was at this time, 1971 and 1972, that the Osmonds were at their peak of popularity.
After this early "bubblegum soul" phase, the Osmonds began writing their own music, and their sound moved towards rock and roll with hits like "Down by the Lazy River" (#4), "Hold Her Tight" (Billboard No. 14), and "Crazy Horses" (#14). The Crazy Horses album was the band's first really personal statement—the brothers have been quoted as saying that the title song refers to air pollution from cars. They wrote all the songs and played all the instruments with Alan on rhythm guitar, Wayne on lead guitar, Merrill on lead vocals and bass, Jay on drums, and Donny on keyboards. All the brothers sang back-up, with Jay and Donny sometimes singing lead parts.
Rock and roll and Osmondmania
With their clean-cut image, their talent, and their energetic pop-rock sound, the Osmonds toured to crowds of screaming fans in the U.S., and they even had a short-lived Saturday-morning cartoon series on ABC-TV during 1972–1974. By this time the Osmonds had broken through in the UK as well: all members of the Osmond family, counting group and solo recordings, charted 13 singles on the UK charts during 1973. Some observers coined a new word, "Osmondmania," to describe the phenomenon, although it was genuinely a reference born of the mania attributed to the Beatles nearly a decade earlier. Though not remotely equaling the Beatles' influence, the Osmonds' popularity was at a peak at this time, and the same type of hysteria was generated at their concerts during this period, primarily the response of teenage girls in attendance.
But changes and challenges soon arrived. The older boys were of age to go on church missions, yet they believed they could reach more people through their music. The Osmonds viewed their music as their mission. As a part of their mission, they recorded an ambitious album in 1973 called The Plan, perhaps best described as a Mormon concept album with progressive rock aspirations. One reviewer suggested that The Plan carried a too-strong religious message—Mormonism is, after all, fairly conservative and not usually associated with the themes of rock and roll. He likewise suggested that the music was too varied and experimental. The album produced only two modest hits: "Let Me In" and "Goin' Home" both peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard charts. Furthermore, the older boys may have wanted to reduce the regular touring that is a necessity in popular music but not so good for marriage and "settling down".
Solo careers take off
Donny, and to a lesser extent, Marie and Jimmy, soon began to emerge as solo artists. Jimmy had hits in Japan, and in 1972 had a No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom with "Long Haired Lover from Liverpool." Marie hit No. 1 on the U.S. country charts in 1973 with "Paper Roses"--she was only 13 at the time. And Donny achieved Superstar status. He had a string of pop hits in the early 1970s, including "Go Away Little Girl" (Billboard No. 1), "Puppy Love" (#3), and "The Twelfth of Never" (#8). From 1971 to 1976, he had 12 top-40 hits, including 5 in the top 10. Of the all-time most popular teen idols, Donny is ranked at #2, directly behind Davy Jones of the Monkees.
Donny's popularity, and his numerous solo hits, have led many to assume he was the group's lead. But Merrill was the lead singer, although Donny would usually sing the chorus of the songs, therefore being a "co-lead" in the group. Donny's emergence as a solo star, and the record-company's desire to appeal to the teen-girl audience, often thrust Donny out in front of the group.
By now the family was touring, recording, creating, and producing for 5 technically separate artists: The Osmonds, Donny Osmond, Marie Osmond, and Jimmy Osmond—plus Donny and Marie had begun recording duets and had hits with "I'm Leaving It Up to You" (Billboard No. 4) and "Morning Side of the Mountain" (#8). Through all the stress and pressures created by these many efforts, the family hung together. "Inside the Osmonds" depicts the family mottos as being "It doesn't matter who's out front, as long as it's an Osmond" and "Family, faith, and career. In that order".
The original Osmonds as a group still produced hits. In 1974, "Love Me for a Reason" reached No. 10 on the U.S. pop charts and went to No. 1 in the U.K. The Irish boy band Boyzone took the song to No. 2 on the U.K. charts in 1994.
Donny and Marie: the show and its challenges
By 1976, though, the group's record sales were softening, and the Osmonds poured themselves into a new venture: The older brothers began producing The Donny & Marie Show, which was a hit on ABC from 1976–1979. But the success came at a cost. The family built and operated, at great expense, a first-class television studio in Orem, Utah, where the show was produced. As a result, the Osmonds as a performing band became a third or fourth priority to the careers of Donny and Marie, the success of the show, and the operation of the family studio. The older brothers deferred or gave up their dreams of being a rock-and-roll band. Donny experienced stage anxiety, a type of social phobia, and Marie had a brief bout with an eating disorder after a network executive told her she looked heavy. When the show was canceled, the Osmonds were taken by surprise, as they had believed that the show would have been renewed for at least another year, and found themselves in debt and without a clear direction.
They recovered and eventually paid their debts and re-established their careers. Rather than go into bankruptcy, they resolved to honor all of their financial obligations. But the Osmond artists and enterprises began operating separately.
After The Donny and Marie show
|This section is outdated. (December 2010)|
Jimmy worked as a businessman and manager. He eventually moved to Branson, Missouri, and opened the Osmond Family Theater, where he and his brothers performed until 2002. They now[when?] appear in Branson during the Christmas season.
Marie recorded a number of successful duets with Donny and continued to sing country music; she had several top-40 country hits in the mid-1980s, the biggest of which was "Meet Me in Montana" with Dan Seals (country No. 1). She starred in the Broadway musicals The King and I (as Anna) and The Sound of Music (as Maria) in the mid-1990s. She returned to television first in the short-lived 1995 ABC sitcom Maybe This Time and then with Donny in 1998 to co-host Donny & Marie, a talk/entertainment show that lasted two seasons.
Donny returned to the pop-music scene in 1989 and had two Billboard Top-40 hits: "Soldier of Love" (#2) and "Sacred Emotion" (#13). He performed on Broadway as Gaston in the stage production of Beauty and the Beast, and also gave over 2,000 performances as Joseph in the touring production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He has hosted games shows in the US and UK (most notably the 2002-2004 revival of Pyramid and the British version of Identity), continues to appear on television, winning the ninth season (Fall 2009) of ABC's Dancing with the Stars and still tours in the US and England. He currently[when?] performs dates in Las Vegas with Marie.
Alan, Wayne, Merrill, and Jay formed a country group and returned to using the name "The Osmond Brothers." They had two Billboard Country hits in the early 1980s: "I Think About Your Lovin'" (#17) and "It's Like Fallin' in Love (Over and Over)" (#28). They had other country successes, but mostly did not tour, preferring to stay in Branson and perform. The brothers continue to perform with various line-ups and sometimes with their children in Branson. Merrill performs and records as a solo artist as well. Alan has multiple sclerosis, and does not perform as often today. All of the brothers are married, some with large families. Alan's eight sons started performing in the mid-1980s as "The Osmond Boys," now known as The Osmonds—Second Generation.
In 2007–2008 all of the Osmonds went on a tour of Europe to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their career in show business. A special televised concert in Las Vegas (the only tour stop in the US), commemorating the anniversary, aired on US PBS stations on March 10, 2008. Alan played piano with the orchestra for most of the show and Virl and Tom provided signed lyrics for two songs. The Osmonds' long-time friend and mentor Andy Williams made a surprise appearance, reminiscing about how his father had told him to put the brothers on his variety show.
In 2009, Donny and Marie Osmond will record a television special for the British channel ITV1. An Audience with Donny and Marie is the latest in ITV's long running An Audience with... series and will be based on their Las Vegas stage show.
Olive and George Osmond (aka Mother and Father Osmond)
Olive Osmond, mother of the Osmond siblings, died on May 9, 2004 at age 79. Their father, George Osmond, died on November 6, 2007 at age 90. The couple were survived by their nine children and 55 grandchildren as well as a number of great-grandchildren; Olive by 22, George by 48. Before Mr. Osmond's death, plans were being made for him and the 120+ members of the Osmond family to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show to celebrate the family's 50th anniversary in show business. He died just a few days prior to the show being taped. The family ultimately decided to go on with the show as scheduled, and on Thursday, November 9, the entire Osmond family appeared on stage with Oprah Winfrey as a tribute to their father. The show aired the following day, the same day as Mr. Osmond's funeral.
Hollywood Walk Of Fame
In 2003, the Osmond Family were honored for their achievements in the entertainment industry with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Many within the industry believed that they had earned this honor sometime previously, although it was eventually given to them, and, unlike a number of the various musical halls of fame, a specific time period was not required from the release date of their initial commercial recording in order for them to be considered.
|Year||Album details||Peak chart positions|
|1962||Songs We Sang on The Andy Williams Show
|1962||We Sing You A Merry Christmas
|1963||Preview: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
|1964||The New Sound of The Osmond Brothers Singing
More Songs They Sang on The Andy Williams Show
|1970||Hello! The Osmond Brothers
|1972||The Osmonds Live
|1974||Love Me for a Reason
|1975||The Proud One
|Around the World: Live in Concert
|The Osmonds Christmas Album
|1977||The Osmonds Greatest Hits
|1982||The Osmond Brothers
|1984||One Way Rider
|2000||The All-Time Greatest Hits of the Osmond Family (Box Set)
|2008||50th Anniversary Reunion Concert
|2012||I Can't Get There Without You
|Year||Single||Peak chart positions||Album|
|US||US AC||US Country||CAN||CAN AC||UK|
|1971||"One Bad Apple"||1||37||—||1||—||—||Osmonds|
|1972||"Down by the Lazy River"||4||—||—||1||—||40|
|"Hold Her Tight"||14||—||—||6||—||—||Crazy Horses|
|"We Can Make it Together" (w/ Steve and Eydie)||68||7||—||—||—||—||single only|
|"Crazy Horses"||14||—||—||12||—||2||Crazy Horses|
|1973||"Goin' Home"||36||—||—||30||91||4||The Plan|
|"Let Me In"||36||4||—||15||5||2|
|1974||"I Can't Stop"||—||—||—||—||—||12||single only|
|"Love Me for a Reason"||10||2||—||18||5||1||Love Me for a Reason|
|1975||"Having a Party"||—||—||—||—||—||28|
|"The Proud One"||22||1||—||25||4||5||The Proud One|
|"I'm Still Gonna Need You"||—||38||—||—||—||32|
|1976||"I Can't Live a Dream"||46||38||—||70||35||37||Brainstorm|
|"Back on the Road Again"||—||—||—||—||—||—|
|1982||"I Think About Your Lovin'"||—||—||17||—||—||—||The Osmond Brothers|
|"It's Like Falling in Love (Over and Over)"||—||—||28||—||—||—|
|"Never Ending Song of Love"||—||—||43||—||—||—|
|1983||"She's Ready for Someone to Love Her"||—||—||67||—||—||—||One Way Rider|
|1984||"Where Does an Angel Go When She Cries"||—||—||43||—||—||—|
|"One Way Rider"||—||—||—||—||—||—|
|"If Every Man Had a Woman Like You"||—||—||39||—||—||—|
|"Baby, When Your Heart Breaks Down"||—||—||56||—||—||—|
|"You Look Like the One I Love"||—||—||69||—||—||—|
|"Looking for Suzanne"||—||—||70||—||—||—|
|"—" denotes releases that did not chart.|
- "The Osmonds". MTV. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
- Biography: The Osmonds, Pure and Simple (documentary)
- "Inside the Osmonds" (DVD)
- "The Osmond Brothers at Disneyland". YouTube. 2007-07-23. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
- "History". Osmondbros.com. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
- Life is Just What You Make It: My Story So Far by Donny Osmond and Patricia Romanowski
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxwaJVgRGvk |Youtube session from 1965
- Osmondmania (official Osmond website) captured 10/20/2012
- "The Osmonds (video) Goin Home". YouTube. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
- [dead link]
- The Osmonds—Second Generation
- McMahon, Kate (2009-08-11). "Osmonds to reunite for ITV1 special | News | Broadcast". Broadcastnow.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
- Nudd, Tim (2007-11-06). "Donny and Marie Osmond's Father Dies". People Magazine. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Osmond family|
- Official website
- The Osmonds at Allmusic
- Osmond Official on Twitter
- Osmond Official Videos on YouTube
- Behind the Teeth: Know Your Osmond at Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict
- The Osmonds Biography on YouTube | <urn:uuid:fb5ee194-b0e7-42bb-ad8f-0fe251e467a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Osmonds | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945699 | 4,675 | 1.578125 | 2 |
On Sunday, 50 of us stood an hour in the snow, rain and hail for a simple peace vigil at the Los Alamos National Labs in New Mexico. There we protested the Obama Administration’s new state-of-the-art plutonium bomb factory (the CMRR) and prayed for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Our gathering was not unlike the scores of peace vigils that occur each week across the country -- on street corners, in front of Federal Buildings, and at military installations.
But this particular gathering was the culmination of the annual Pacific Life Community weekend retreat, held amid the red rocks of the Jemez mountains near Jemez Pueblo, N.M. Each year, activists of faith and conscience from across the West Coast gather to pray, study, reflect, compare notes and build community.
What makes these retreats unique is that they end, not with a private liturgy, but with a public witness at some major U.S. military site. Two years ago I attended the gathering at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California; last year friends gathered at the Trident Submarine Base in Bangor, Washington. And now Los Alamos.
Protests at Los Alamos are rare, even though, in my opinion, it is the most evil place on earth. Nuclear weapons inflict the greatest terrorism; they are the ultimate terrorist threat. It follows like an Aristotelian syllogism: Los Alamos, therefore, is the ultimate terrorist training camp.
On Sunday, going to Los Alamos felt particularly dangerous -- not just because were under hot police and FBI surveillance, but because of the ice and snow. It made for treacherous driving up the mountainous road, on the teetering edge of staggering cliffs. I confess to an excess amount of worry as my jeep made it up the incline, my knuckles white and pulse racing. But once at the summit, I found it a blessing to be among friends in prayer.
Along the way, I drove pass the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which always breaks my own heart. There, out front, she stands -- Mary in bronze holding her heart in her hand. Near the entranceway burbles a little pool for peace, worth thousands, a tribute to St. Francis. In honor of Mother Teresa nearby sits a beautiful stone bench. Etched on the side: “The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion.”
Every Sunday the parishioners pass by and eye the monuments they’ve erected and complaisantly regard themselves as pro-lifers. But come Monday, back to work they go, back to the Labs, oblivious of the deadly work they do. A staggering incongruity. The Labs are staffed by vast numbers of Christians, church-goers of all sorts, a goodly number of them Catholic, yet their work blasphemes the God who calls us to make peace.
As for our motley assortment of protesters, passersby must have dismissed us as a foolish lot. But to the extent that we acted, as best we might, in unconditional love, in creative nonviolence, in heartfelt prayer, then our effectiveness cannot be measured. It can’t be measured any more than the Mass or the sacraments can be measured. Who can gauge the transcendent? All sacramental actions are, first and foremost, life-changing, disarming and healing for those who participate. And the promise stands. Our actions will bear good fruit in God's good time.
One can’t help but wonder, though, how makers of homicidal weapons keep it up. How do they suppress inevitable nagging doubts? Turns out the Labs spend a fortune on sophisticated PR campaigns -- “to keep up the morale of the workers,” we’ve been told. The slogans and jingles -- “Where Discoveries Are Made” is the latest, hanging from banners on telephone posts throughout town -- they’re meant to persuade employees that they provide the last line of security for the nation, that they are the true peacemakers.
More, things are so tightly arranged -- tasks and knowledge -- as to create a sense of diffusion. No one feels accountable for the Bomb; the work is carefully and finely divided up, responsibility spread thin. And that’s why we come. Our modest presence, we hope, breaks the veneer, sheds a light, names the work as evil. We come to call everyone to accept responsibility for this evil work -- beginning with ourselves.
While gathered at the foot of the towering snowy mountains, I walked around and asked friends why they had made the journey. “I came because the threatened increase in nuclear weapons has to be stopped, and this is the key place to start,” said Betsy Lamb of Bend, Oregon.
“This is the heart of the nuclear threat,” said Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada of Tucson, Ariz., “and the nuclear threat is the ultimate slap in the face of God, so I’ve come to join with those who yearn for the end of the nuclear threat.”
“I came with my two children, Rozella, age 10, and Thomas, age 9, to witness for life and a new future of peace for them,” said Tensie Hernandez of Beatitude House, in Guadalupe, Calif.
“I came here because I think our country was conceived and born in violence, and continues to expand itself as an empire of violence,” said Larry Purcell of Redwood City, Calif. “The weapons produced here are the ultimate nightmare of violence. So I’m here to protest the notion that weapons which threaten the species give us security.”
“I’m here to help bring about a culture of life and to show that there are other ways to participate in our system besides casting a vote,” said Allison McGillivray, a young Catholic Worker from Southern California.
“The only future is a non-nuclear future, so I’ve come here to let my voice be heard,” said Bryce Fisher, a young Catholic Worker from Half Moon Bay, Calif.
“In this critical year for nuclear disarmament, it’s important that people in the U.S. show the world that we want to disarm the nuclear arsenal,” said Felice Cohen-Joppa of Tucson, Ariz., (director of www.nuclearresister.org). “So I’m here today to take personal responsibility for protesting and resisting my country’s nuclear weapons. We have to disarm now.”
“I’m here because it doesn’t make sense to invest four and a half billion dollars in a new nuclear weapons building [the CMRR] when we have so many other needs, such as healthcare, schools, jobs, housing and renewal energy and efficiency,” said Joni Arends, director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (see: www.nuclearactive.org)
“I think it’s about time we got serious about reducing our nuclear weapons and working for nuclear disarmament,” said Ellie Voutselas of Santa Fe. “As a member of Pax Christi, it’s part of our mission to advocate for nuclear disarmament.”
“Here at Los Alamos, they’re preparing to obliterate the planet with no conscious knowledge of what they’re doing,” said Dominican Sr. Jackie Hudson of Poulsbo, Wash. “Every aspect of the nuclear issue means death to the planet. We must find a better way. We must put our money to life-giving activities.”
As we concluded our vigil, we stood in a large circle, held hands and for some 15 minutes prayed in silence. The snow grew heavier, but our hearts kept warm. The gathering, the gesture, the hope we derived from it -- it was all blessing.
Afterwards, 17 friends walked toward the area where the new CMRR bomb factory will be built. They wanted simply to say a prayer for disarmament, but they had crossed a line and faced arrest. This time, the head of security let them pass, and they offered their illegal prayer for peace.
Each Lent, we hear Jesus call us to repentance and conversion, and we try to follow him anew on the path of Gospel nonviolence. This year, in these terrible times, may the peace vigils continue, as well as the peace prayers and the peace actions. Undoubtedly, our prayers will be answered, our hearts will be disarmed, one day our weapons will be dismantled. And the blessings of peace will fall upon us all like mountain snow.
To contribute to Catholic Relief Services’ “Fr. John Dear Haiti Fund,” go to: http://donate.crs.org/goto/fatherjohn. On March 4, John will speak in Lexington, Ky., and on March 5-6, lead a retreat, “The Road to Peace,” in Atlanta, Ga., (see: www.paxchrististjude.webs.com He will also lead “The Gospel According to John,” April 30-May 2, near Stroudsburg, PA, see www.kirkridge.org; and“Gandhi, King, Day and Merton,” at Ghost Ranch Center, Abiquiu, NM, see www.ghostranch.org. John’s latest book, Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings (Orbis), along with other recent books, A Persistent Peace and Put Down Your Sword, as well as Patricia Normile’s John Dear On Peace, are available from www.amazon.com. For further information, or to schedule a lecture, go to www.johndear.org | <urn:uuid:4d02f8f9-5802-40e3-b56d-31482e040291> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/peace-vigil-los-alamos | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936371 | 2,064 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Archive for the ‘MANDATE’ Category
Three major trade unions with combined membership of more than 100,000 have issued a strong call to vote no in Thursday’s referendum on what they are calling the austerity treaty.
The Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU), Mandate and UNITE trade unions represent workers across the private and public sector and a wide range of industries from retail to transport and finance.
UNITE Regional Secretary Jimmy Kelly said:
“The Treaty is only about austerity and does not have any provisions relating to growth.”
“It has been rushed in as a panic measure. No less than ten Euro zone countries have now slipped back into recession.”
“The problem with the treaty is that it enshrines the very policies that have caused that recession to get deeper and more damaging.”
“Ireland has a chance to say No, and to pull Europe back from the brink of economic self harm it has been engaged in to disastrous effect over the past three years.”
Mandate General Secretary, John Douglas said that the Fiscal Treaty if passed will not create one job:
“On the contrary it will legally lock down Irish economic activity at its current levels, and may even shrink domestic demand further leading to mass unemployment, decades of emigration and sow the seeds for future social conflict.
“This Treaty has nothing to do with ‘good housekeeping’ or ‘managing the household budget’; it is about copper fastening into an internationally legally binding agreement, decades of austerity, social exclusion, mass long term unemployment and emigration – and a continuation of attacks on workers’ rights and the welfare system. It is not about what is good for Irish citizens, or the citizens of Europe, it is a treaty of the Right for the Right!”
CPSU General Secretary Eoin Ronayne said:
“The Treaty amounts to writing into law the failed policies of the neo liberals who got us into the mess we are in.”
“Why on earth would lower and middle income people vote to make their lives even worse than they already are”
“What the ordinary citizens of the EU need is a sustained and comprehensive growth package putting money back into their pockets so that they can spend in their local economies generating jobs and protecting existing employment”
“Nothing in this Treaty will do that and a NO vote is the only way for people to stand up and say we’ve had enough of what got us into this crisis and that it’s time for change”
Each of the three unions has been working with activists and workplace representatives to encourage debate among members and present a balance to the government messaging that there is no choice but to say yes. Read the rest of this entry »
“Oppose the erosion of social rights…reject better treatment for banks over people” – Patrick Kinsella’s Article in the Irish Times
Writing in the May 24 2012 Irish Times Patrick Kinsella argues for rejection of the Austerity Treaty, finishing with this blunt warning for the Irish Labour Party in a coalition government with the ultra-conservative Fine Gael party:
On this issue, the Labour Party in Government has abandoned its traditional constituency, signing up to support the banks at the expense of equality, jobs and fair working conditions. It has abandoned the social pillar of the European Union in the interests of an illusory “stability”. I sense that its traditional constituency will abandon Labour at the next election
We recommend the full article, proving beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Fiscal Compact is a dangerous enemy to all shades of the left, including very moderate traditional social democracy.
A British New Statesman article entitled “The EU treaty is a disaster for the left” is just as compelling :
The author Owen Jones, whose “Chavs: the Demonization of the Working Class” is published by Verso says bluntly :
Consider this: as Paul Mason has written, “by enshrining in national and international law the need for balanced budgets and near-zero structural deficits, the eurozone has outlawed expansionary fiscal policy”.
Read that last bit carefully. Left-wing governments of all hues will, in effect, be banned by this treaty. If the French or the German left returns to power in the near future (and both are in a good position to do so), it will be illegal for them to respond to the global economic catastrophe with anything but austerity. An economic stimulus is forbidden – because the treaty has buried Keynesianism.
To date, Four Irish Trade Unions – MANDATE, UNITE, the TEEU (Electricians) and the Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU) have logically acted, understood the Treaty threat, and called for a NO in the referendum to be held on May 31.
Many activists know of people close to the Trade Union movement and Labour Party who know these arguments are 100 per cent true, but have not spoken their minds – they should broadcast now, reject the austerity policy of Tánaiste Éamon Gilmore and his government ministers, and join the NO Campaign.
They need look no further than Patrick Kinsella’s article :
Treaty is a social, political and economic threat
Thu, May 24, 2012
OPINION: Voting No is not a rejection of the EU – it is to oppose the erosion of social rights. It is to reject better treatment for banks over people, writes PATRICK KINSELLA
FOR NEARLY 40 years it has been pretty easy to find reasons to vote Yes to the succession of European treaties.
Like the rebel plotters in Monty Python’s Life of Brian asking “What has Rome ever done for us?”, we can answer that as well as better roads, we have more jobs, agricultural prosperity, quality education, cleaner water, and the promotion of equality and human rights, all benefits that might have seemed utopian back in the 1970s.
Yes, things are grim compared to a couple of years ago, and unemployment is at crisis levels. But total incomes, personal consumption and the number of people at work are all still higher than in 2003, which was not a bad year.
Free trade has been good to Ireland. But the European project is not just about free trade, and there are two compelling reasons to vote No to the latest treaty.
The first compelling reason is economic: the fiscal stability treaty does nothing to repair damage to our banking system, and nothing to reduce unemployment. The Government is locked in to an austerity policy that both theory and practice demonstrate to be wrong. It has been abandoned by the United States, by voters in Greece and France, and earlier this month by the voters of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state.
The policy problem is Angela Merkel’s obsession with reducing debt. She is wrong: running a national economy is emphatically not like running a household or a business – households and businesses do not control the money supply. Governments need to borrow to invest and central banks need a stock of government bonds as a means of managing interest rates.
Obviously, excessive borrowing will lead to inflation, but excessive saving will lead to deflation – more job losses and business closures – and that is what is happening across much of Europe now.
Voting No to the fiscal treaty will not reverse current economic policy – that’s a political issue that will be resolved only after the German federal election next year. But voting Yes would make the austerity permanent, writing into national law a requirement to cut budgets or raise taxes here for as long as general government debt is more than 60 per cent of gross domestic product.
It’s no good the Government talking about a growth agenda if it means only market liberalisation and further cuts in pay. European governments need to borrow more money and invest it in worthwhile projects if unemployment is to be brought down. And large-scale, long-term borrowing to invest would be legally banned under the fiscal treaty.
The second compelling reason to vote No is purely political. The treaty upsets the historic balance that lies at the heart of the European project – the balance between labour and capital. The EEC was founded partly to prevent another war between France and Germany. But free trade, and free movement of goods, services and money were always to be limited by the protection of social rights.
Europe built on Germany’s post-war “social market economy”, which provided stability, profits, low unemployment and a welfare state. The main trade unions and most social democrats have been enthusiastic supporters of a project that promised social justice as well as prosperity; a commitment to equality as well as the right to make profits.
The fiscal treaty, by what it says and what it does not say, ends that balance. For the countries that sign it, the needs of the banks will be permanently ahead of the needs of the people. There is no social chapter here: just cut the deficit and limit government borrowing, whatever the social cost.
What kind of Ireland, what kind of Europe do we want? Competitive and flexible? Yes, but surely not at the cost of permanently low wages, poor public services, high unemployment and social insecurity. This is not a fantasy nor scaremongering, it is already under way.
Just one example from my place of work: there’s no such thing as a “job” in a university anymore. The very best we can offer new recruits is a five-year contract. Not just in the State sector but throughout the economy, on issues of job security, employment conditions and pension provision, risk is being transferred from investors and employers to employees and the unemployed.
This turns the expectation of profit as a reward for taking risk on its head, and reverses the historic consensus on which European prosperity and social cohesion has been based – and all to protect the integrity of a banking system that failed in its primary duty of prudence in lending.
The single currency scheme was flawed from the start, because the euro member states were unwilling to surrender the sovereignty needed to sustain it. Unwilling to harmonise taxes and spending policy, unwilling to borrow money as a unit, unwilling to transfer resources from one region to another in the way the US federal government does, unwilling to tax and properly regulate the financial system.
Merely limiting states’ capacity to borrow does not address these issues, and does not provide any basis for currency stability. That’s a task to be tackled by the new French president and a new German chancellor.
The Government is rigorously following the policies required by the troika of intergovernment lenders who support our current spending deficit and our bank rescue, and voting No will not change that. But the political situation in Europe is changing radically, and it is absurd to think that our partners will leave us high and dry for future loans because we reject a legal straitjacket on future policy demanded in the dying days of the Merkel regime. And don’t think the ideological rebalancing demanded by the fiscal treaty is limited to the euro zone members: the final article says “steps will be taken” to incorporate the substance of it “into the legal framework of the European Union”.
The political context for the social market economy in the 1950s and 1960s was the spectre of communism that haunted Europe. The context now includes the indignados of Spain, riots in Greece, and right-wing parties. Those of us with no great wealth other than our education worry for our children: where will they work, how will they live?
On this issue, the Labour Party in Government has abandoned its traditional constituency, signing up to support the banks at the expense of equality, jobs and fair working conditions. It has abandoned the social pillar of the European Union in the interests of an illusory “stability”. I sense that its traditional constituency will abandon Labour at the next election.
In the meantime, those of us who think that on balance the European Union has been good for Ireland, and do not want to see that balance overturned, have compelling reasons to vote No to this treaty.
Patrick Kinsella is head of the school of communications at Dublin City University and is a member of the Tasc Economists’ Network
© 2012 The Irish Times
Watch on YouTube
Brian Cody, Sharon Shannon, Ronan O’Gara and others have been in ads in the papers calling for a Yes vote. Nice to see Damien Dempsey being in the opposite camp.
For a Bonus Watch the MANDATE Trade Union Video, courtesy of friends on the Cedar Lounge Revolution Site : | <urn:uuid:43fd33a2-c6ba-4f47-a283-b5bc43ad2e60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://campaignagainsttheausteritytreaty.wordpress.com/category/european-union/ireland/trade-unions/mandate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956744 | 2,628 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Sat September 29, 2012
The John Cage Centenary
In the 100th birthday year of the American avant-garde composer John Cage, many cultural institutions are celebrating his deeply influential life's work. But celebrating Cage is a lot more elusive than celebrating, say, Debussy. Composing with open-ended concepts that often didn't even include notes and rests, Cage threw so much responsibility onto the performers and audiences that it's hard to know what to celebrate. The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns discovers the hidden burdens in Cage's brand of anarchy.
John Cage: Song Books will be performed at the Fidget Space at 1714 Mascher Street in Philadelphia on Friday, October 5th at 8 pm.
Cage: Beyond Silence, a major festival celebrating the music of John Cage, takes place at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and venues across the city from October 26, 2012 to January 20, 2013. | <urn:uuid:4fba15a0-b8b4-4a07-989e-2944ef17a582> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wrti.org/post/john-cage-centenary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954202 | 190 | 1.734375 | 2 |
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FAX YOUR PLANS TO: 407-299-8602 | <urn:uuid:3a7a9d68-93f7-4c1e-b841-9a23d6ad0aa0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://adpsurfaces.com/stoneCare.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952761 | 477 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Concord Steam sells final MW, ready for project funding
The remaining four megawatts (MW) to be produced from a proposed 17-MW biomass power plant in Concord, N.H., will be sold to Halifax American Energy Co., clearing the way for developer Concord Steam to receive funding for the $80 million project.
Concord Steam plans to relocate its current wood-burning facility from the city’s Pleasant Street to South Main Street, following the expiration of its power purchase agreement with Public Service New Hampshire. Before funding could be secured for the new plant, the company was required to sell the electricity it anticipates generating. Both the New Hampshire Executive Council and the Concord City Council signed 10-year agreements to purchase electricity through South Jersey Energy, a partner of HAEC. The other 13 MW have been sold to other utilities.
Concord Steam provides district heating for the downtown Concord, replacing 12 million gallons of imported fossil fuels and sending more than $8 million back to the local forest industry.
“We participated because we felt we could give the best deal to the city and the state,” said August Fromuth, HAEC founder and managing director. “Because our contract for the electricity generated by the new plant involves some direct-to-grid features that will work o keep incidental costs low, both governments will realize great savings. That’s where our expertise and experience will pay off.”
Formuth added that the plant represents a new direction all of New Hampshire should be going, working with an energy generator that produces both heat and power with cost effectiveness and certainty for 10 years, and no government subsidies.
“This plant will produce both low-carbon emission steam and electricity from a renewable resource that provides additional New Hampshire jobs and saves money for the state and its capital,” he said. | <urn:uuid:6408f8b1-130e-4c4e-92b4-d9da905f57c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/5967/concord-steam-sells-final-mw-ready-for-project-funding | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943007 | 377 | 1.757813 | 2 |
For HIV-Positive Latinas in the Bay Area, Picking Up Where Systems Leave Off
Q & A With Agripina Alejandres, Latina Peer Advocate, WORLD
October 17, 2011
The state of California has the largest Latino population in the U.S., and is second only to New York in terms of the number of its AIDS cases according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent count. While San Francisco County has the second-highest HIV rate in the state, it is also home to a plethora of renowned, high-quality HIV services. Its neighbor across the Bay, Alameda County (home to the cities of Oakland and Berkeley), the state's seventh largest county, also sports the state's fourth-highest rate of AIDS cases, and yet only a handful of HIV service organizations are based there.
According to local HIV advocate Agripina Alejandres, "There are a lot of places to go for help [in San Francisco], but they've mostly been for gay men." Services for women are sorely lacking. Enter WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease), which has made its home in Oakland since 1991.
In 2000, to respond to the growing HIV rate among Latinas, WORLD expanded its staff to include a Latina peer advocate. In this role today, Alejandres assists Latinas -- many of them pregnant and/or recent immigrants -- in navigating social and medical services.
Tell us about the work you do at WORLD.
The majority of the women I work with test HIV positive when they're pregnant. Others get sick and go to the ER and that's where they find out their HIV status. Otherwise they would never have been tested. They don't have much information about HIV.
The peer advocates at WORLD have connections with social workers and clinics. I have a few days a week that I spend at different clinics, but when they have a newly diagnosed person, they may also call WORLD directly, because they know we're living in similar situations to our clients, and we can relate to them. We can say to them, one to one, "I've been there. And I'm getting along. And you can do it, too."
There's still a lot of stigma around HIV among the women that I work with. People don't really know how someone gets HIV. Over here in the U.S., everything is really expensive. A few families might be living together in one apartment to save money. If people have HIV and are on medication, they feel they have to hide it from the people they live with, and lie about it. Most people work a lot and don't have the time to pick up their meds. The pharmacy may offer to deliver the meds to the house, but they don't want that option either, because somebody else might receive the medication and find out they're HIV positive. That need to hide can lead to poor follow-up care, and to missed med doses.
This is where I come in. I talk to my clients and we figure out how they can get their medications without being found out. Sometimes I pick it up for them. The pharmacies in the area know me and the relationships I have with clients.
One Saturday a month, I do a support group just for Latinas, in Spanish. We invite people from San Francisco, and from other counties around the Bay. We figure out what women need to be able to attend a support group and get this time to themselves: We offer child care, and sometimes we help out with public transit fare. I offer fun classes in addition to talking about HIV. For instance, we make jewelry, knit, practice yoga, meditate and learn about nutrition.
Can you describe a typical day at your job?
Yesterday, I worked with a pregnant client. She's new to the area, doesn't speak English and didn't know how to get a birth certificate for her baby, so I went with her to the Office of Records and helped her with translation. After that, I had another pregnant client who hadn't been to the doctor, so I went with her, as well as her partner who needs to get an HIV test. I spent about three hours with them -- translating what the doctor said about her medications, talking to her partner about how HIV is transmitted and what they need to do to be safe, and then helping them find services like a good clinic and pharmacy.
I work with a lot of undocumented people, and I work with an agency that works around immigration. I refer my clients there; I make their appointments and go with them and help them get their papers. Another client just moved here from another county, and there's no space in this county's schools for her kids, so I helped her find an online program for her kids to study at home. I worked with her for the entire process.
It's not all directly related to HIV, but these are things that women with HIV are dealing with, and stressing themselves with. We need to find solutions so that people can get care without stress. Any of these factors can affect a woman's ability to take care of her own health.
Some clients learn fast; they get the system and are able to get along. After a little while we might only call them once or twice a month to check in. We put them on track, but still, once in awhile, they need emotional or other kinds of support. I have many women with whom I've kept up that relationship.
As peer advocates, we work with some clients more closely, on almost a daily basis. If they're newly diagnosed, you have to work with them just about every week -- sometimes two, three times a week. Some women just need much more support. I've known one woman for more than five years. Because she doesn't speak any English, I still go with her to the doctor every time. I still have to arrange for her medications.
What's been your experience working with Latinas who are undocumented immigrants? Are there services available for them?
Undocumented women may be able to get medical services and access medication, but they often have no economic support, which makes it harder to treat them. If they have the choice of missing a clinic appointment -- when rent is due and they need to buy food -- or missing work, they'll miss the appointment.
Some people come to the U.S. to work, make money and then go back home. Now, when they find out they have HIV, it's like that chance has gone away. They may never be able to go home, because they don't have papers to go for a trip and come back. It's really stressful for people living over here with the virus who have children and family back home; they have no idea if they'll see their children again.
Many of the countries where my clients come from -- such as El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico -- are so poor. There's no medication. There are no services. People don't understand HIV. So people stay here for services, but they can't go home. It breaks your heart, because there's no way that you can help. You can listen. You can give some support and hope.
I've known a few clients that have been given political asylum, but those cases are hard to prove. I know people that help women get papers because of domestic violence. I've had success in some cases. But there are so many I haven't been able to help.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Olivia Ford is the community manager for TheBody.com and TheBodyPRO.com.
Copyright © 2011 The HealthCentral Network, Inc. All rights reserved.
Using National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD) to Redouble Our Efforts to Respond to the HIV Prevention and Care Needs of Latinos
This article was provided by TheBody.com.
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The Arab Spring and the Gulf States: Time to Embrace Change
Mohamed AJ Althani
Sheikh Mohamed Ahmed Jassim Althani's new book, The Arab Spring and the Gulf States: Time to Embrace Change, begins with a reminder of quite how much has actually changed in this region in recent decades.
"In the 1960s, it was common to see people riding donkeys and camels [and] water was scarce," writes Qatar's former minister of economy and trade, before suggesting that, although life was undoubtedly hard in his home nation during his childhood, it was also honest and true, despite the region at large being blighted by high rates of infant mortality and being hamstrung by chronically low levels of literacy.
This slim volume offers a well-structured, thoughtful analysis of the Arab Spring and the challenges and opportunities it presents to the Mena region generally and the GCC nations specifically. Having also spent years working in the oil and gas sectors, the author appears well-placed to offer a view on the journey the GCC has taken in his lifetime - effectively moving from poverty to prosperity - and to put those transformations into the context of the regional ruptures sparked by Mohamed Bouazizi's act of self-immolation in December 2010.
Althani is "deeply concerned" by some of what he finds in the GCC and is troubled by the younger generations "whose main goal is just to secure whatever job they can, especially in the public sector, and do as little work as possible while enjoying the good life". Of course, the triggers for the protests in Egypt and Tunisia - steepling rates of unemployment coupled with an almost complete lack of hope for anything better - were far removed from that aforementioned good life.
Neither circumstance exists to such a chronic degree within most parts of the GCC, but still, the challenge is to create enough jobs to service a rapidly growing population as well as funding the requisite infrastructure to cope with such expansion and to keep the economy driving forward in relatively tough times. Depending on your point of view, you might easily argue that high energy prices provide the appropriate breathing space to address these challenges or that no state is completely immune from the contagion of protest that spread across the region at the beginning of 2011.
Althani remains generally upbeat about what lies ahead, asserting that this is "one of the most exciting times to be an Arab" and reminding the reader that "in one year, the Arab Spring has achieved changes unimaginable in the previous fifty". In other words, the future is full of infinite possibilities.
His ambitious concluding manifesto, which also reaches at widespread economic and political reform, argues for more transparency from government and, interestingly, calls on "citizens of the Gulf to change their perception of the role of the state". It is Althani's assertion that the self-entitlement he senses in younger generations stifles innovation and will eventually hinder future growth. | <urn:uuid:6876b231-3c00-4cc1-9f38-cbe0728e00e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/sense-of-entitlement-by-gcc-youth-addressed-in-book-by-qatari-sheikh | 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 | 0.971453 | 597 | 1.804688 | 2 |
What is it? Where does it come from? How do we obtain it?
It has been a main source of topic for me as of late. Each Mormon I talk to tries to tell me that it is from within us. That it is a work we perform with our own free will and that we should try to have more faith.
They tell me that our faith in Jesus comes into effect only after we have done good works. Then we can start thinking about faith. In the same breath, they claim that faith in Jesus is essential if you want to go to heaven.
Since there are people even in the Christian community who have some tendency towards works for salvation, me included at times, I have decided to explore this subject.
Hebrews 11:1 says ‘Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’. The Greek word for this is pis’-tis. It is the reliance upon Christ for salvation. It is the reliance upon the truthfulness of God.
The Hebrew word for faith is emuwnah. It means steady or truth.
In Habakkuk 2:4 it says ‘Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith’.
In these two verses we see that truth is a key phrase here. Therefore, we believe that God is telling us the truth in His Word. That believing in His Son will save us. Our lives actually mean something not only to Jesus, but to God as well.
So where does this faith come from?
Go back into your memory banks and think about the day you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. I remember the overwhelming feeling of humbleness and brokenness I had in my heart. I could not fathom why I had not accepted Him sooner. What was I thinking before that time? I finally took comfort in knowing I was saved, born again by God’s mercy. I knew then that I loved Him.
Then there was the period that my quote, unquote, intelligence stepped in. Okay, I’m saved, I’m going to heaven and I was just living out the remainder of my days.
The more I studied, the smarter I thought I was. I had all this knowledge just floating around in my head and I could quote scripture, but there were still these lingering doubts in my head.
Why couldn’t I have faith in Him like all of the other Christians I knew? They seemed to have an endless wealth of it. They never questioned anything; they just took it all on faith. I asked God to show me where they got this. I thought that if I worked hard enough, or studied more I would have it nailed down, not realizing that I could not force myself have faith in Him.
Then God, in His bountiful grace showed me through His Word that He was the provider of my faith.
Hebrews 12:2a says; ‘Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.’
The key words here are author and finisher. In the Greek the word for author is archegos, the transliteration being; the chief leader or captain. The Greek word for finisher is teleiotes meaning the state of completion or perfection. Now read with me in Hebrews 5:9; ‘And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.’ The word author in this verse is aitios; meaning the causer. He is the giver of all good things and the constant provider for us all!
Ephesians 2:8 says; ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God’
I am constantly using this scripture with the Mormons in telling them that it is faith, not works which saves them. So not only is salvation a gift but your faith as well. The LDS Church says in 2 Nephi 25:23; ‘For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.’
The problem that I’ve noticed over the years is that after being told all your life that you’re not going to heaven if you don’t have faith and you can’t have faith if you don’t have works, then my friend you soon believe that you’ll never be good enough! In Mormonism this is true; you’ll never be good enough for the Mormon god. You’re never told where the faith you need comes from, just that people have it and you need it as well.
The LDS Church has made it their job to sound Christian. This type of grammar to the untrained Christian or non-Christian alike is why the church claims so many converts into their fold each year. We need to be aware of what Jesus says so that we are not deceived!
Take a moment here and read between the lines of the verse from Nephi. We labor diligently; we are saved only after all we can do. In other words from the mouth of a Mormon, ‘we are worked unto death’. It completely takes away the meaning of grace. There’s no reason for grace if you need to work for everything.
Furthermore, there is no reason for God to intervene.
We have this ministry to point to the glory of God and His great mercy upon us. We want you to know that if you’re a member of the LDS faith we love you deeply and we’re fully aware of how much you love Jesus. But my friend, you’ve been deceived and want to encourage you to think upon the simple things of the Bible. The things mentioned here are great places to begin!
One other thing to think about is this; with the Bible we can go to the original Greek and Hebrew to see what the full transliteration of every single word used. Because the Book of Mormon claims the original text was written in ‘Reformed Egyptian’ and has since been lost, we have nothing to go to for the definitions to back it up. This is problematic for two reasons.
The first reason being is that the Book of Mormon keeps changing. The changes are not typographical in nature but grammatical; therefore the whole meaning of the text changes along with it. Secondly, which book are you going to place your faith into?
When the meaning of a sentence changes, the understanding of who God is must change as well.
If we can’t trust God to be the same all the time, then how do we know with certainty that we are saved, how do we know what to expect from Him and what does He expect from us collectively as well as individually?
As always I ask the Mormon to take an objective look at this. Can you go back to the original “Reformed Egyptian” to gain a deeper understanding of God’s word and to know that what is being said matches up with the rest of this work? If not then why keep trusting in this god?
We’re praying diligently for the Mormon people and hope they will come to know the truth.
With Love in Christ; | <urn:uuid:461b97fb-65e7-406c-b12d-7a6bcda74c24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifeafter.org/salvation/faith/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974777 | 1,544 | 1.742188 | 2 |
BAGHDAD — For the first time since modern Iraq was founded in the 1920s, a sitting government minister has been questioned publicly about corruption allegations, in this case about skimming millions of dollars from a national food-distribution program while ordinary Iraqis went hungry.
The parliamentary grilling of Trade Minister Abdul Falah al Sudany ran live Saturday and Sunday on state television, and everyone in Baghdad seems to have been watching.
"During Saddam's time we could only dream of seeing something like this," said Ali Hameed, 25, who was shopping at a market in Jadriyah.
By Monday afternoon, 100 legislators had signed a petition for a vote of no confidence in the trade minister, said Bassim Sharif, a member of parliament from the Shiite Muslim Fadhila Party. Only 50 are needed to call the vote, and a simple majority of the 275-seat parliament can force a resignation.
The Ministry of Trade provides Iraqi families with ration cards that entitle them to monthly supplies of sugar, wheat, rice, cooking oil and other staples. Allegations of corruption in the agency speak to people's deepest fears of living in an out-of-control kleptocracy.
Sudany, a member of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's Shiite Dawa party, spent the weekend answering questions: about two brothers of his who're alleged to have collected a $40 kickback for every ton of sugar imported into Iraq; about his guards, who reportedly fired into the air when government investigators arrived at the Trade Ministry; and about an inspector general who was transferred to Beijing after he asked about shipments of spoiled food.
"You don't know this man," Sudany said when he was asked about the inspector general, calling him a "troublemaker." Sudany went on to say that the inspector general had threatened ministry employees and demanded bribes from them.
"If you knew he was a corrupt man, why did you promote him by making him commercial adviser in a foreign mission?" shot back Integrity Committee Chair Sabah al Saaidi of the rival Fadhila party, who did all the questioning wearing a turban and a wry grin.
Saaidi has emerged as something of a celebrity since the questioning. Banners saluting him and encouraging him to interrogate more government officials now adorn many Baghdad neighborhoods.
Some Iraqis said they saw the televised questioning as the birth of a real democracy, with the powerful held accountable in front of voters.
"It was great. I hope they interrogate all the ministers," said Ali Abdul Kareem, 27, who sells cigarettes along Sadoon street. Indeed, the ministers of transportation, oil and electricity already have received invitations to appear before a newly invigorated parliament.
Others viewed it as parliamentary propaganda, convinced that the politicians found a scapegoat for the sake of appearance.
"It's just theater to calm down the Iraqis," 38-year-old taxi driver Abbas al Attabi said, "to make it look like the politicians are doing something."
Last year, Transparency International, a global nongovernmental watchdog group, ranked Iraq third from the bottom in a 180-nation survey on the perceived integrity of government ministers. Only Somalia and Myanmar scored lower.
"The Ministry of Trade is a failure," said Abdul Hafith, who runs a small corner grocery store in Baghdad's Jadriyah neighborhood. Hafith said his customers routinely went months without their rations of staples. "They are all thieves," he shouted about the ministry employees, "from the highest to the lowest!"
Trade Minister Sudany didn't return messages requesting comment.
His brothers already face criminal charges. When investigators from the Integrity Commission showed up last month, ministry guards fired into the air, giving the brothers time to escape out a back door. One is still at large; the other was stopped driving through a checkpoint in southern Iraq with a trunk full of cash and jewelry.
Sudany, looking frustrated but defiant in a well-tailored Western suit, told Parliament over the weekend that his brothers' conduct "is a matter for the courts, and I believe our courts are just."
A parliamentary vote on Sudany's political future appears likely next week.
Regardless of what happens next, Sudany has secured his place in Iraqi history. "This was the first such interrogation in the Iraqi state since it was established in the '20s," said Sharif, the Fadhila MP.
"If it succeeds and the minister is deposed, it will rejuvenate people's confidence in parliament," Sharif added. "If it fails, it will be the coup de grace for the political process in Iraq."
(Dolan reports for The Miami Herald. Issa and Hammoudi are McClatchy special correspondents)
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY: | <urn:uuid:72d7e08f-b7c7-4bf4-b369-0f2b52faf810> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/05/19/68473/corruption-probe-appalls-and-encourages.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972031 | 988 | 1.617188 | 2 |
From the AP’s Roger Alford:
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Despite gloomy economic indicators, Kentucky reported a 10 percent increase Monday in General Fund revenue, largely from the corporate income tax and the state’s sales tax.
State Budget Director Mary Lassiter said the spike in revenue came despite the pessimistic outlook from some of the state’s top economists, who warned last month that the economic forecast is a gloomy one for the next two years.
“While we may see increased volatility in the upcoming months, Kentucky’s revenue base is holding up well,” Lassiter said in a statement.
The September numbers followed a sharp decline in revenue in August.
General Fund receipts totaled $840 million in September, up from $763.7 million in September 2010. Road Fund revenue was up 5.9 percent for the month, totaling $115.3 million.
Lassiter said several nearby states also saw revenues rebound in September, including Arkansas, Indiana, North Carolina and West Virginia. She said Kentucky’s revenue base seems to be holding up well despite volatility on the national level.
In Kentucky, September revenue rose in every major category.
Property tax revenue rose by 28.1 percent, corporate income tax revenue by 27 percent, coal severance tax revenue by 12.3 percent, sales tax revenue was up 13.7 percent, cigarette tax revenue by 8.4 percent, and individual income tax revenue by 5.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the Road Fund was bolstered by a 5.3 percent increase in motor fuels tax revenue, a 5 percent increase in the motor vehicle usage tax revenue and a 28.4 percent rise in license and privilege tax revenue.
A panel of economic advisers met last month in Frankfort and the members said they fear a worsening recession could cause state tax revenues to decline.
“Things don’t look good,” Transylvania University economist Lawrence Lynch said after that meeting.
The legislature uses the group’s economic forecasts, which have been remarkably accurate in the past, to help project budget revenues.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:bfc7dee4-adcb-45fd-9022-872321f71f50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cincinnati.com/blogs/nkypolitics/2011/10/10/general-fund-revenue-up-10-percent/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937643 | 459 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Last Tuesday, April 24th, the Buetow Auditorium of Concordia University hosted the Annual Poehler Lecture Series at 7:00pm. Speakers Dr. Dale Trapp and the Rev. Dr. Thomas Trapp reflected on Faith and Learning in their lecture titled, "Head to Head! Heart to Heart!" Dr. Dale Trapp is a professor of geology, astronomy, and physics at Concordia University, St. Paul, as well as its chair of the department of Natural Sciences. The Rev. Dr. Thomas Trapp, on the other hand, is a professor of Religion and theology at Concordia University, St. Paul. Instead of focusing on the conflicting ideas of science and religion, the Trapp brothers shared their reflection on how science and religion do not conflict so much as support one another.
Just as the Poehler Lecture Series is focused on faith and learning, one of the most important pieces of the Concordia University, St. Paul Honors Program is its ability and attempt to integrate faith and learning. Again and again, discussions will come back to the centrality of the gospel and what is in the scriptures in relation to whatever subject matter is being discussed. Dr. Thomas Trapp left the faculty with advice to never be ashamed of being Christian, and not to be afraid of mentioning Christianity in their discipline, no matter what that discipline is. It was fascinating to hear Dr. Thomas Trapp explain how he views his life in the context of eternity, because most people find it hard enough to just live day to day.
At first, I did not quite understand how professors of general education courses would be able to integrate faith in learning in the classroom, especially when it is not a theology class, but then I witnessed my history professor doing his best to do so. Although it wasn't necessary to our studies, he described the Christian beliefs in detail, and was able to separate his beliefs and those objective conclusions historians reached. The gospel doesn't have to be shared explicitly necessarily, but professors can share their beliefs at Concordia and share their Christian love with students, and that is enough. I love going to a University where I don't have to be afraid to talk about Jesus Christ, the gospel, God, religion, or theology. Sure, sometimes discussing atheist or other forms of religion outside of Lutheran beliefs might be uncomfortable with certain individuals, but I love the ability that we have to integrate our faith into the classroom. | <urn:uuid:cf101198-9998-491a-9ca2-3e99236b7fc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.markschuler.com/abrigo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965085 | 497 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Posts Tagged Marble Powder Finish
What are Wall Finishes and the purpose of using them?
As the name “Wall Finishes” itself suggests that it is finish given to the wall to enhance the interior or exterior look of the structure. Wall finishes used for the interiors are quite delicate and need maintenance. The new contemporary trend has brought about great deal of increase in the usage of various types of wall finishes for the aesthetic purpose.
In this article, we are going to discuss various types of wall finishes, their preparation and application process…
Here is a list of different types of Wall finishes:
- Cement plastered Finish
- Cement Textured Finish
- Plaster of Paris Finish
- Gypsum Plaster Finish
- Glass Mosaic Finish
- Designer Mirror Finish
- Laminate Finish
- Marble Powder Finish
We will be discussing some more different types of Wall Finishes in our successive articles…
Cement plastered Finish
It is prepared in the form of mortar with cement, sand and water in proper proportions and applied on masonry manually to achieve a smooth finish or sand faced finish.
Cement Textured Finish
This is a decorative finish and its mortar is prepared in cement based material. It is applied with sand faced plaster with a trowel and after that it is coloured with paint. | <urn:uuid:a49b4daa-422b-441d-9ed4-fe57d619928e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.architecture-student.com/tag/marble-powder-finish/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940375 | 275 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Most interesting so far to me is the post from Jeremy at Daddy Dialectic, a groupblog of stay-at-home dads. I'm not sure I agree that much with Jeremy, though, who says:
Let me tell you a story. One day I was talking with another stay-at-home parent on the playground. While our kids chased each other around the slide, we got to commiserating. I told her how overwhelmed I felt by the daily routines of childcare and housework. "Well, now you know how women have felt for centuries!" she said, almost cheerful. Right. I get it. It's a good perspective. And so, to all you ladies out there in reverse role families, let me return the favor. When I read about women who "seethe" with resentment against the obligations that supporting a family forces on them, or when I hear that they live in "terror" that they'll be the breadwinner "forever," I'm afraid that there's only one response. Get ready. You can feel it coming. Here it goes: "Well, now you know how men have felt for centuries!"
Not quite. I think it's important to recognize that being a man does come with lots of baggage--that getting up and going to work every day can take its toll, for instance, and when men were doing that more often than women (at least it was perceived as though men were doing that more than women, though this reflected a lot of ignorance around race and class), men didn't necessarily have it easy. But it seems disingenuous to imagine that women who are primary 'breadwinners' experience exactly the same level of stresses that men do--because they have all of the 'regular' stresses (i.e. deadlines, the emotional burden of having to earn the money or one's entire family loses out, etc.), but in addition they face sexism at every turn.
So, while I think it's important to recognize that few people who are primary financial earners have it 'easy', that doesn't mean that now women will feel how men feel as primary earners. Most likely they'll feel all the stresses that men feel plus more.
Also, the whole idea of there being just one person who earns the money is so foreign to most families now--perhaps there are some class issues around couples who are having the sorts of problems that Jeremy is talking about? | <urn:uuid:e6708018-8fa4-4122-a25e-0f15e0d439a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://feministallies.blogspot.com/2007/03/carnival.html?showComment=1174775100000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986694 | 493 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Career (Technical) Programs
Designed to prepare students for immediate employment by providing technical skills that can be acquired in one-year Certificate, two-year Diploma or two-year Associate in Applied Science (AAS) programs. AAS programs include general education courses which provide the foundation for a long-term professional career. Students who graduate may continue their education and receive an advanced four-year degree.
Our campuses feature up-to-date equipment, as well as instructors who make it a point to know all of the latest advances in technology. Every career program combines classroom instruction with exciting, hands-on learning—often at actual business and industrial sites throughout the region.
Human Services [Chemical Dependency Specialist option]
Industrial Mechanical Technology maintenance mechanic/millwright | <urn:uuid:d5b7bf3f-dfb1-4b27-a9b4-420e0a738177> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mesabirange.edu/future-students/programs-degrees/career-programs | 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 | 0.940211 | 159 | 1.609375 | 2 |
A former Wilkes-Barre police captain is the first person to die in Pennsylvania this year as a result of complications from the mosquito-borne West Nile Virus.
Joseph Krawetz, 82, died Sunday at Kindred Hospital, Wilkes-Barre. The North End resident started with the police force in 1963 and served for more than a quarter of a century before retiring.
His wife of 51 years, Dorothy, said her husband was an avid gardener and loved walking their Bichon dog, â??Buddy,â? but engaged in few other outdoor activities. She also said they made it a point to not have standing water on the property, which state Department of Environmental Protection officials say is the best way to prevent mosquito pools from forming.
Dorothy Krawetz said her husband began complaining on Aug. 2 about a pain in the back of his neck and she noticed memory lapses, though at his age that didnâ??t seem unusual. He went to see a doctor, and by the end of the next day he was in the hospital. She later learned that West Nile causes neurological issues.
He soon entered a semi-comatose state and was hooked to a ventilator until he died Sunday.
She said she hopes people who hear about her husbandâ??s death take preventative measures to avoid mosquitoes, especially those in high-risk groups such as the elderly.
According to DEP, most people donâ??t get sick from contracting West Nile encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. Those who become infected can experience a fever, rash, headache, meningitis, encephalitis or death. Older adults and people with lower-functioning immune systems are the most susceptible to developing the disease, including those with HIV, a recent organ transplant or someone whoâ??s undergoing chemotherapy.
Krawetz was the first county resident to test positive this year, according to the DEP. He and two others tested positive on Monday, bringing the total number of humans statewide testing positive for either West Nile Fever or West Nile encephalitis to 12 this year with peak season still to come.
Last year, there were six human positives for the virus, one as late as Oct. 6, said Kait Gillis, a state Department of Health spokeswoman. But there were no deaths.
Since data was first collected on the disease in 2000, 26 people have died statewide from the virus. Nine died in both 2002 and 2003 and two died in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The local manâ??s death was the first in the state since 2006.
Individuals can take a number of precautionary measures around their homes to help eliminate mosquito-breeding areas, including:
â?˘ Dispose of cans, buckets, plastic containers, ceramic pots or similar containers that hold water.
â?˘ Properly dispose of discarded tires that can collect water. Stagnant water is where most mosquitoes breed.
â?˘ Drill holes in the bottom of outdoor recycling containers.
â?˘ Have clogged roof gutters cleaned every year, particularly if the leaves from surrounding trees have a tendency to plug drains.
â?˘ Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use.
â?˘ Turn over wheelbarrows and donâ??t let water stagnate in birdbaths.
â?˘ Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish.
â?˘ Clean and chlorinate swimming pools not in use and remove any water that may collect on pool covers. | <urn:uuid:f0d6609b-af78-4865-8c07-3999cc1afdeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://timesleader.com/stories/Local-man-dies-of-West-Nile,197589?category_id=487&list_type=most_viewed&town_id=1&sub_type=stories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969463 | 733 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The following are the baseball events of the year 1948 throughout the world.
Major League Baseball
Awards and honors
MLB statistical leaders
Major league baseball final standings
American League final standings
National League final standings
Negro League Baseball final standings
Negro National League final standings
- No standings were published.
- Baltimore won the first half, Washington won the second half.
- June 13 - The New York Yankees retire uniform number 3 of legendary Babe Ruth during a special pre-game ceremony at Yankee Stadium. This will be the final appearance of Ruth at the Stadium, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. (Ruth would die on the following August 16.)
- July 7 - The Cleveland Indians stun the baseball world by signing Satchel Paige, a veteran Negro League pitcher. At 42, Paige becomes the oldest player to debut in the majors. He would be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971.
- July 24 - Four members of the Duluth Dukes of the Northern League are killed, while 14 are injured, seven critically, in a bus-truck crash near St. Paul, Minnesota. All told, five persons are dead including the team's manager, George Treadwell; three players, and the driver of the truck. The injured list include Mel McGaha, future major league manager in the 1960s, and infielder Elmer Schoendienst, younger brother of St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Red Schoendienst. The tragedy recalls the 1946 bus crash involving the Spokane Indians baseball team which took the lives of nine players.
- August 12 - In the second game of a doubleheader, the Cleveland Indians rap out 29 hits in a 26-3 win over the St. Louis Browns. The Indians set a Major League record as 14 different players hit safety.
- October 4 - The Cleveland Indians defeat the Boston Red Sox, 8–3, in an American League one-game playoff game after finishing the season tied for first place. The Indians win the pennant and advance to the World Series. The Red Sox defeat disappointed Boston fans who had been rooting the entire season for an All-Boston World Series between the AL Red Sox and the National League Braves. It was the second time an All-Boston World Series had been thwarted as in 1890, when the NL champion Boston Beaneaters refused to meet the American Association champion Boston Reds in a proposed 1890 World Series due to inter-league squabbling over player contracts.
- November 10 - The Chicago White Sox acquire young left handed pitcher Billy Pierce from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for All-Star catcher Aaron Robinson, in a move that will give them their pitching ace for the next decade. Detroit even sweetens the deal with $10,000. Pierce will win 186 games for the White Sox over the next 13 years, but Robinson will last fewer than three seasons in Detroit.
- November 26 - National League president Ford Frick steps in and pays $350 for funeral services, including the cost of a coffin, for the unclaimed body of Hack Wilson. The former slugger, who had died probably of alcohol abuse a few days earlier in a Baltimore hospital, is identified only as a white male.
- November 30 - Cleveland Indians shortstop/manager Lou Boudreau is selected the American League MVP. Boudreau had almost been traded to the St. Louis Browns earlier in the year, but protests by Indians fans kept him in Cleveland. After the World Series victory, Indians owner Bill Veeck commented: Sometimes the best trades are the ones you never make.
- December 2 - Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals is named National League Most Valuable Player. In one of the best season ever, Musial led the NL in batting average (.376), runs (135), RBI (131), hits (230), doubles (46), triples (18) and slugging pct. (.702). His 39 home runs were one short of Johnny Mize and Ralph Kiner league's leaders.
- January 4 - Biff Schlitzer, 63, pitched from 1908 through 1914 for the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox and Buffalo Blues
- January 30 - Herb Pennock, 53, pitcher who won 240 games, third most among AL left-handers, and had two 20-win seasons with the Yankees; general manager of the Phillies since 1943
- February 14 - Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, 71, pitcher whose loss of two fingers in a childhood accident gave him remarkable movement on pitches, winning 20 games six straight years for the Cubs and posting the lowest career ERA (2.06) in NL history
- March 1 - Rebel Oakes, 64, center fielder for seven seasons, 1909–1915, including two years as player-manager for the Pittsburgh Rebels of the Federal League.
- April 3 - Candy Jim Taylor, 64, third baseman and manager of the Negro Leagues
- April 25 - Bertram Hunter, 42, Negro league baseball player
- July 27 - Joe Tinker, 68, Hall of Fame shortstop best remembered as part of famed Chicago Cubs infield which led team to 4 pennants between 1906 and 1910
- August 14 - Phil Collins, 46, pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals between 1923 and 1935
- August 16 - Babe Ruth, 53, Hall of Fame right fielder and pitcher who was the greatest star in baseball history, holding records for most home runs in a season (60) and lifetime (714), as well as most career RBI (2,213); lifetime .342 hitter also posted a 94-46 record and 2.28 ERA as a pitcher while playing for seven champions; won 1923 MVP award, at a time when AL rules prohibited winning it more than once
- August 20 - Walter Blair, 64, catcher for the New York Highlanders and later played in the Federal League. Played a total of seven seasons from 1907 to 1915.
- August 29 - Charlie Graham, 70, catcher for the 1906 Boston Red Sox, who later became manager and owner of the PCL San Francisco Seals
- September 3 - Bert Husting, 60, two-star in the 1890s University of Wisconsin teams, later pitched for the Pirates, Brewers, Americans and Athletics from 1900 to 1902
- October 8 - Al Orth, 76, pitcher who won 204 games with Phillies, Senators and Yankees while often batting .300
- October 24 - Jack Thoney, 68, well-traveled outfielder/infielder who played from 1902 through 1911 for the Cleveland Bronchos, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Senators, New York Highlanders and Boston Red Sox
- October 31 - Dick Redding, 58, star pitcher of the Negro Leagues who set numerous strikeout records and pitched several no-hitters
- November 23 - Hack Wilson, 48, center fielder who set NL record for home runs (56) and major league record for RBI (191) in spectacular 1930 season for the Cubs; won four home run titles
- November 30 - Frank Bowerman, 79, catcher and battery-mate for Christy Mathewson on the New York Giants, who also played for the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates, and later managed the 1909 Boston Doves | <urn:uuid:1e1372c9-c01b-4f07-b3bd-82abf7870625> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dictionary.sensagent.com/1948_in_baseball/en-en/ | 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 | 0.957607 | 1,478 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The middle of July I started taking Champix. A week later I developed a rash and stopped taking the Champix. The rash settled down after a week and turned into peeling skin and small blisters. The beginning of August I developed a series of small blisters on the lower palm of my right hand. Over the course of a week they turned into a large blister that covered 75% of my palm and had a weird off-white 'bubble' underneath. I went to the hospital and was told it was hand-foot-mouth disease. The blister continued to grow and developed on all the fingers on my right hand. I looked up HFM online and by what I've read I would have contracted this the end of june, I had a sore throat and was feeling sick. Is it possible that I have had HFM for the last 2 months or could this still be after effects from the Champix? The skin has been peeling and cracking and when I get it wet it falls off. I now have a huge patch of new skin that hurts.
In Hand, foot, and mouth disease painful sores usually develop in the mouth. The skin rah usually develops 1-2 days after the sore throat. This illness should not last for 2 months. It may be possible that you could be suffering from allergic reaction to Champix.Skin rash, itching are few of the side effects of this drug. A clinical examination and samples from the throat or stool to test for the virus may help in confirming whether it is hand foot mouth disease or not. The other differential diagnoses for such blisters are dyshidrotic eczema, oral herpes virus infection, chickenpox etc. It is best to have a frank discussion with your dermatologist and get yourself reevaluated.
Take care and best of luck!
The Content on this Site is presented in a summary fashion, and is intended to be used for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to be and should not be interpreted as medical advice or a diagnosis of any health or fitness problem, condition or disease; or a recommendation for a specific test, doctor, care provider, procedure, treatment plan, product, or course of action. Med Help International, Inc. is not a medical or healthcare provider and your use of this Site does not create a doctor / patient relationship. We disclaim all responsibility for the professional qualifications and licensing of, and services provided by, any physician or other health providers posting on or otherwise referred to on this Site and/or any Third Party Site. Never disregard the medical advice of your physician or health professional, or delay in seeking such advice, because of something you read on this Site. We offer this Site AS IS and without any warranties. By using this Site you agree to the following Terms and Conditions. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your physician or 911 immediately. | <urn:uuid:37f39977-0478-4413-a708-0e33ff2b605f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Dermatology/Blister-on-palm--Drug-reaction-or-infection/show/1797688 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964317 | 587 | 1.609375 | 2 |
In order to hold a teaching or administrative position in New York State, a candidate must be certified by the New York State Education Department as having met the education, examination, and experience requirements necessary to teach a particular subject at the prescribed grade level. In New York City, candidates are also required to hold a license, issued by the NYC Department of Education. Certification ensures that all teachers in New York State are being held to a high standard; that they have been adequately prepared, are competent, and have had the proper experience required for the position.
The School of Education aims to prepare candidates for a career in Education or Administration. Our programs are designed to not only lead to a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a particular area, but also to give our candidates the coursework needed to meet the certification requirements as set forth by the New York State Education Department. Candidates are encouraged to visit the Office of Teaching Initiatives website frequently to keep themselves abreast of all updates in regulations.
All School of Education programs were re-registered with NYS in 2001, and tailored to meet current NYS standards, effective 2/2/2004. Completion of a state-registered program means that candidates have met at least the minimum education requirements for a NYS certificate in that particular area. On the NYSED website Certification Requirements
page, this is referred to as the Approved Teacher Preparation Pathway. One of the requirements of the Approved Teacher Preparation Pathway is an Institutional Recommendation.
An Institutional Recommendation means that the Institution where you completed your Approved Teacher Preparation Program is verifying to the state that you have in fact completed an Education or Administration program which satisfies the State’s requirements for certification in that particular area, as agreed upon in the program registration. The recommendation comes in the form of a New York State application
for certification, to be completed via the OTI TEACH
system. Please be sure to indicate that you are requesting an institutional recommendation by selecting the Approved Teacher Preparation Program pathway. You may only request an institutional recommendation for a certificate in the subject area of the program you completed at the institution and for the certificate type for which the program is registered as leading to. | <urn:uuid:1d00e451-06aa-4b80-8481-11b1d6a09edf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://transcoder.usablenet.com/tt/http:/www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/education/certification/aboutcertification.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958738 | 456 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Don't look now, but the United States is experiencing something unusual in its recent history: a moment of bipartisan consensus on foreign policy.
Over the last month, President Obama has launched initiatives in areas that were flash points of contention only a year ago: winding down the war in Iraq, escalating the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, negotiating with Iran, renewing efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and seeking warmer relations with Russia and China.
Last year, John McCain called Obama too naive to be commander in chief. Last week, McCain expressed support for Obama's decision to send 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, saying he was "confident that it can and will work."
Equally remarkable, when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton confirmed that the new administration was dumping the Bush-era label of a "global war on terror" and sent super-envoy Richard C. Holbrooke to chat up Iran's deputy foreign minister, the response from the once-lusty right was almost imperceptible.
Some critics are still out there, of course. Former Vice President Dick Cheney charged that Obama's policies were making the nation vulnerable to terrorists, and paleoconservative scold John R. Bolton accused Clinton of "bumper sticker diplomacy." But neither Cheney nor Bolton found any echoes in the ranks of practicing politicians.
Why the sudden reticence on the part of conservatives who, only a year ago, delighted in shellacking Obama as soft on national security?
Part of it is simple distraction. The economic crisis, the federal budget and the battle over healthcare have crowded foreign policy off center stage, at least for a while. On those domestic issues, old-fashioned partisanship is alive and well.
Another factor is Republican exhaustion on foreign policy. The traumas of the Bush administration left them a legacy that needs to be refreshed and (as the political consultants say) rebranded -- but they haven't had time to do that yet. In a recession, they know they need to win voters back on home economics first.
But the biggest reason for bipartisan comity is that there isn't all that much for the Republicans to take issue with. Obama, the presidential candidate with the most liberal voting record in the Senate, has turned out to be a determined centrist when it comes to foreign policy.
"There is a rough bipartisan consensus in American foreign policy, and Barack Obama is in it," one of the original neoconservatives who promoted the idea of invading Iraq, Robert Kagan, told me.
In Iraq, Obama's first action once in office was to soften what had been the central promise of his campaign: withdrawal within 16 months. He now says he hopes to withdraw two-thirds of the troops in 18 months, but even that will depend on how things look then. In Afghanistan, Obama agreed to his generals' request for troops to launch a smaller version of the manpower-heavy counterinsurgency strategy that worked in Baghdad.
Obama's choices for top foreign policy positions reassured conservatives too. Clinton was the most hawkish Democratic presidential candidate; national security advisor James L. Jones Jr., a retired Marine general, had served as a McCain advisor; and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was, of course, a holdover from the Bush administration.
But this wasn't a postelection conversion. Obama began moving squarely into the center during the campaign, when he fended off conservative attacks by promising that his withdrawal from Iraq would be "responsible" and that he would do "everything" to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Despite his multinational upbringing, Obama's political agenda has always been primarily domestic. He didn't have developed positions on many foreign policy issues until he arrived in the Senate in 2004 -- and promptly recruited a conservative Republican apostle of bipartisanship, Sen. Richard G. Lugar, as a mentor. For a president whose central goal is an ambitious and, yes, liberal reshaping of the federal government's domestic role, disarming the opposition on foreign policy serves a useful purpose.
But that bipartisan centrism has not been universally acclaimed. A vocal challenge on foreign policy has risen from the leftmost wing of his own party, where leaders of the antiwar movement have reacted to his actions with distress. To them -- including some of Obama's staunchest supporters during the campaign -- the escalation in Afghanistan looks distressingly like the "surge" of troops into Iraq that Obama joined them in opposing only two years ago.
Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey called Obama's decision to keep some troops in Iraq longer than the promised 16 months "unacceptable," saying Iraqis would perceive the military presence as "an enduring occupation force." Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern said Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan would lead to a "war without end."
But they were minority voices. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led efforts to cut off funding for Bush's Iraq war, shows no inclination to legislate limits on her own president.
This bipartisanship moment won't last forever. Conservatives will regain their footing once they catch their breath. And once Obama's diplomacy runs into trouble, as it almost inevitably will somewhere in the world, they will have more to criticize.
Obama has already postponed a difficult decision until this fall, when his generals want him to approve an additional 10,000 troops for Afghanistan. If Iraq's fragile semi-peace collapses, he'll face another tough choice: whether to halt the U.S. withdrawal. If nuclear talks with Iran don't produce quick results, he'll have to decide whether to declare his own diplomacy a failure.
Last week, McCain warned Obama that his biggest trouble was likely to come from the left. With no apparent irony, he urged the president to consult closely with the Democratic leadership in Congress "to prevent ... a resurgence of antiwar activity."
The Arizona senator offered Obama an offhand but chilling warning from history. Obama's decision to postpone his decision on the additional 10,000 troops for Afghanistan, McCain warned, smacked of "Lyndon Johnson-style incrementalism."
Only two months in office, and Obama already faces Johnson's dilemma: a war policy that divides his own party. Maybe bipartisanship isn't all it's cracked up to be. | <urn:uuid:23d9a5ca-b195-4260-9644-724002011b60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kansascw.com/kscw/news/la-oe-mcmanus5-2009apr05,0,5241611.column | 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 | 0.965663 | 1,274 | 1.75 | 2 |
The subways in New York City, with their stainless steel shells, look rather bland from the outside. Which is fine. The beauty of a New York City subway car is on the inside, not the outside.
Subway cars do not discriminate; their doors open wide for all to enter. Once you step inside, you’ll be immediately struck by the juxtaposition of stock market traders sitting next to people living paycheck to paycheck, the different races, and the languages being spoken. Mariachi bands play loudly as people from all over the world shove their way in as they try to reach their dreams.
This is beautiful. This is diversity.
I attend a New York City public high school. Even though our textbooks are sometimes sorely outdated, at least we have diversity. The conversations in class are richer because there are so many different types of people weighing in. A hodgepodge of experiences and voices forms my school’s classrooms.
I consider my cerebral palsy to be a form of diversity because my disability has given me a distinctive perspective on life and a vision for the future.
It is, however, just one part of my identity. My city has also played a major role in shaping my identity.
The sounds and vibrant sights of New York City have rung through my ears and flashed past my eyes for 17 years. It is the only place I have ever called home.
But New York is big. It can sometimes be scary.
The rough concrete slabs of sidewalk have scraped my knees too many times to count.
And even though I love New York City, I decided long ago that I need a break from the omnipresent shoving crowds — at least for nine months of the year. This is why the majority of schools that I am thinking of applying to are in small towns or at least a smaller city.
I also want my school to feel small, even if it is not. I want to be able to have conversations with my professors and to get to know the other students.
But, I still haven’t yet mentioned one of the most important aspects of my college search: the financial aspect. My brother and sister are still going to be in college when I start, which means that financial aid and scholarships are going to play a large role in my decision.
I began my search for scholarships by looking for those that target students with disabilities, but the ones I found were too specific. They seemed to either be tied to a state that I did not live in or a disability that I did not have.
I decided I need to broaden my search. After a few clicks of my mouse, I compiled a list of national scholarships that I am going to apply for. The only problem is that these scholarships are often so competitive that I am afraid my application will slip through the cracks. But you never know until you apply.
October will be a time when I can focus on finding the school that is right for me. I want a college that is beautiful inside and out, in addition to accepting diversity.
Mr. Stromer, a student at the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, is one of eight high school seniors around the world blogging about their college searches for The Choice. To comment on what he has written here, please use the comment box below. | <urn:uuid:4f7f0fec-e1d8-407e-978a-932969bd6c0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/envelope-please-bryan-stromer-2/?ref=admissions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974046 | 681 | 1.75 | 2 |
MakerBot’s Bre Pettis Talks about The New “Digitizer” [VIDEO]
Mar 18, 2013
The Digitizer is still in the prototyping phase, but it will ultimately be able to scan any object and turn it into a model that can be 3D printed. Currently, people normally use software to design those models.
By requiring so little technical knowledge, MakerBot is helping democratize 3D printing for almost anyone to use (assuming they have the money to buy a 3D printer and Digitizer). Children could use it to channel their creativity on school projects, and university researchers could do easier prototyping. Once everyone has a 3D printer – a future that Pettis imagines – it could have huge implications on our lifestyle. If a friend loves our antique figurine, we could print a copy for them; if our favorite bowl cracks, we could make another, instead of rushing out to the store to buy one.
This announcement comes just two months after MakerBot unveiled its newest 3D printer, the Replicator 2X, at CES. And it comes four years after MakerBot announced its very first 3D printer at SXSW in 2009.
We took some time during SXSW to sit down with Pettis. His excitement is evident as he talks about the Digitizer, how it fits into the 3D printing landscape, and what the future will look like. Here’s the video.
Tech Cocktail’s SXSW video series is part of the Tech Cocktail Conversations podcast - subscribe on iTunes.
Editor’s Note: Thank you to Yappem, the title sponsor of Tech Cocktail’s special SXSW video series. And thank you to Keep America Beautiful, the supporting video sponsor. Also, thank you to The Downtown Podcast‘s Dylan Jorgensen and Jackie Jensen for conducting and filming this interview. | <urn:uuid:087d95cc-448f-41c2-a74d-765cd9369472> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tech.co/makerbot-bre-pettis-digitizer-2013-03 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933609 | 392 | 1.828125 | 2 |
He looked around the standard table set
With standard plates, and thought again of Egypt.
Nothing reminded him that Arkansas
Had once sounded like sanity and peace.
No-–He’d sacrificed for anthropology
And not complained to lose the family ties.
That had been the life! No striped tie
Constricting thought and speech; no rigid set
Of guidelines; no quaint anthropology
Professors–-glib-–describing the Egypt
They would never see. (If you see a piece
Of mummy shroud... That’s luck in Arkansas!)
Once the desert had blazed, and Arkansas
Had been his mind’s oasis; and he tied
The pictures of the hills to the piece
Of canvas that hung from the tent pole; set
His table with standard plates. No, Egypt
Did not woo him then–just anthropology.
“Ben, speak to your aunt!” “No, apologies
Not needed!” Continuing–- “Harve can saw
The winter wood; I watch him close. He gypped
Me last time, you know.” The women’s voices tied
Him to the table that he’d thought an asset
When it was harder to get black-eyed peas.
Now, sitting with the aunts, he found the dreams of peace
Difficult to reconcile with aunts’ psychology.
They gave him back his room, gave him a set
Of fresh-washed sheets that smelled of Arkansas
Rainwater. And if they thought these adequate entice-
ments to stay home... well, they’d never been to Egypt.
“If I could go back!”–-Making all the Egyptian
Dreams into the impotent importuning of a peace
That had never existed–- “If I could go, tie
My backpack to my shoulders... a shovel, an Anthropology
Today... Then I believe I could love Arkansas,
Love everything about it–stupid people, stupid college, stupid mind set.”
At night he dreamed in Egyptian of things that anthropology
Never taught him: that peace was a word that Arkansas
Could not create; and the enticements of Egypt were only yearnings for the flowered dinner set.
Read more articles by Carol Slider or search for articles on the same topic or others. | <urn:uuid:df4979ee-24ca-42b5-a8ca-998a5c36a549> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=94301 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947102 | 501 | 1.632813 | 2 |
This is a continuation of a discussion originally started here, in a piece titled, “Fear Factor 101: Is Fear a Factor?” So let’s proceed by picking up where we left off.
The fact of the matter is that the lessons are usually in the failures. Bill Gates himself said that success is a lousy teacher. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you look to fail for the sake of learning lessons. The failures will come along the way to success in business and in life so IF you want to start, build, or grow a business, just be prepared for some failures along the way.
Build for the long-term. Invest in yourself and your business. Be a student of your craft. Become an expert.
I personally think it’s hard to argue that two of the most important ingredients of business success are leadership and credit (both personal and business credit). Cash, education, and having good people around you might round out the top five. You don’t need all of these ingredients to succeed in business but I’m not sure you could find me a successful business owner that didn’t have at least some combination of these necessary ingredients. Having as many of these ingredients as possible will help you weather your storms.
Our company has some clients who are real estate investors. As of the date of writing this article, it is arguably one of the best times ever to buy real estate. Some would argue that we’re in the midst of the best time ever to buy discounted real estate. They’re not making any more land and the population continues to grow. There will certainly be peaks and valleys along the way but, bottom line, real estate over time increases in value. To that end, we all need a roof over our head. So you do the math and tell me if real estate is a good or bad long-term investment.
Again, any good thing can get messed up and done the wrong way but we’re not talking about a business that’s already seen its best days like some industries (like manufacturing and industrial businesses perhaps). I do not think it is a business for everyone but it is certainly a good business for someone who will treat it like a business and not a weekend hobby.
I say all of that to say that even in a great industry, at a great time, with a bright future, it’s easy to find reasons “not” to buy real estate right now. Watch the news, talk to a former investor who was “speculating” and lost everything, or try doing it on your own without good mentoring. All these will discourage you if you let them and fear will jump into the driver’s seat and a year later you will still be in the same place you are today.
For today’s serious real estate investor there are deals, deals, and more deals out there. So, as a good friend of mine likes to say, ”whatchu gonna do?” It’s all in the action.
Think about it like this, if you do 100 deals you’re going to have some that make money and some that don’t. But you’ll certainly have more winning deals than losing one’s unless you don’t learn from your mistakes and repeat the same mistakes that caused you to lose money. Will you get discouraged if your first deal doesn’t make you the money you wanted or planned on? Most people throw in the towel if things don’t go as planned – fear gets the best of them.
I recently heard a story from a real estate agent who took a new client into a property that was inherited by heirs of an estate. The client was a new real estate investor who was looking for a “fixer-upper.” The sellers (the heirs of the property) were in another state and had no interest in real estate and simply wanted to liquidate and have nothing to do with managing a vacant property. The house was structurally very good and was in a good neighborhood but it was outdated. The sellers were “negotiable” on the $95,000 price (which was already aggressive since the sellers just wanted to unload it). The estimate to replace the wood paneling, drop ceilings, install new kitchen cabinets, new carpet, and update the bathroom was about $25,000. The houses in that neighborhood sell in the $200,000 – $250,000 range because it is a solid area with good schools and low crime. Because of the condition of the property (mainly the bathrooms not working well) the agent said it would not qualify for FHA financing so they were targeting an investor to buy it.
When the agent took the new investor through the property he seemed concerned about what he would find after they took off the wood paneling and pulled up the old carpets. He told the agent he would “think about it” and get back to her. When he called her back 3 weeks later to go “look at the property again” the agent informed him that it was already sold. Apparently, it was put under contract for $90,000 and then went to settlement 2 weeks later with the end buyer being an investor who paid $105,000. The buyer was a seasoned real estate investor who bought the property from the person who got the contract for $90,000 (the wholesaler). The wholesaler had sold other properties to this investor and because of their good relationship, the property was purchased without the buyer doing an inspection.
Which one of these businesses are you? There’s the tire kicker who was obviously motivated by fear who wanted to “look again” after 3 weeks, the wholesaler who got the property under contract for $90k and made a quick $15k, and the final buyer who paid $105k and will easily make over $50k in profit or equity from the deal (after some good, honest hard work and labor of course).
Fear is a great crutch. You can lean on it whenever you need an excuse. The problem with the crutch is that if you lean on it forever you may never do without it. It’s like a security blanket if you don’t wean off of it. How many of your decisions are influenced by fear?
Who’s the CEO of your business?
Fear Photo via Shutterstock | <urn:uuid:6bbc9f2c-2376-4761-b4a2-e633794b579f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/04/fear-factor-201.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977111 | 1,347 | 1.765625 | 2 |
LICENCES OF RIGHT AND COMPULSORY LICENCES
—(1) At any time after the grant of a patent, its proprietor may apply to the Registrar for an entry to be made in the register to the effect that licences under the patent are to be available as of right.
(2) Where an application under subsection (1) is made, the Registrar shall give notice of the application to any person registered as having a right in or under the patent and, if satisfied that the proprietor of the patent is not precluded by contract from granting licences under the patent, the Registrar shall make that entry.
(3) Where an entry under subsection (2) is made in respect of a patent —
any person shall, at any time after the entry is made, be entitled as of right to a licence under the patent on such terms as may be settled by agreement or, in default of agreement, by the Registrar on the application of the proprietor of the patent or the person requiring the licence;
the Registrar may, on the application of the holder of any licence granted under the patent before the entry was made, order the licence to be exchanged for a licence of right on terms so settled;
if, in proceedings for infringement of the patent, the defendant undertakes to take a licence on such terms, no injunction shall be granted against him and the amount (if any) recoverable against him by way of damages shall not exceed twice the amount which would have been payable by him as licensee if such a licence on those terms had been granted before the earliest infringement; and
the renewal fee payable in respect of the patent after the date of the entry shall be half the fee which would be payable if the entry had not been made.
(4) An undertaking under subsection (3)(c) may be given at any time before final order in the proceedings, without any admission of liability.
(5) The licensee under a licence of right may (unless, in the case of a licence the terms of which are settled by agreement, the licence otherwise expressly provides) request the proprietor of the patent to take proceedings to prevent any infringement of the patent.
(6) If the proprietor refuses or neglects to take proceedings under subsection (5) within 2 months after being so requested, the licensee may institute proceedings for the infringement in his own name as if he were the proprietor, making the proprietor a defendant.
(7) A proprietor so added as defendant shall not be liable for any costs or expenses unless he enters an appearance and takes part in the proceedings.
[UK Patents 1977, s. 46]
Cancellation of entry made under section 53
—(1) At any time after an entry has been made under section 53 in respect of a patent, the proprietor of the patent may apply to the Registrar for cancellation of the entry.
(2) Where an application under subsection (1) is made and the balance paid of all renewal fees which would have been payable if the entry had not been made, the Registrar may cancel the entry if satisfied that there is no existing licence under the patent or that all licensees under the patent consent to the application.
(3) Within the prescribed period after an entry had been made under section 53 in respect of a patent, any person who claims that the proprietor of the patent is, and was at the time of the entry, precluded by a contract in which the claimant is interested from granting licences under the patent may apply to the Registrar for cancellation of the entry.
(4) Where the Registrar is satisfied, on an application under subsection (3), that the proprietor of the patent is and was so precluded, he shall cancel the entry.
(5) The proprietor shall be liable to pay, within a period specified by the Registrar, a sum equal to the balance of all renewal fees which would have been payable if the entry had not been made, and the patent shall cease to have effect at the expiration of that period if that sum is not so paid.
(6) Where an entry is cancelled under this section, the rights and liabilities of the proprietor of the patent shall after the cancellation be the same as if the entry had not been made.
(7) Where an application has been made under this section —
in the case of an application under subsection (1), any person; and
in the case of an application under subsection (3), the proprietor of the patent,
may, within the prescribed period, give notice to the Registrar of opposition to the cancellation.
(8) The Registrar shall, in considering the application made under this section, determine whether the opposition is justified.
[UK Patents 1977, s. 47]
—(1) Any interested person may apply to the court for the grant of a licence under a patent on the ground that the grant of the licence is necessary to remedy an anti-competitive practice.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the court may determine that the grant of a licence is necessary to remedy an anti-competitive practice if —
there is a market for the patented invention in Singapore;
that market —
is not being supplied; or
is not being supplied on reasonable terms; and
the court is of the view that the proprietor of the patent has no valid reason for failing to supply that market with the patented invention, whether directly or through a licensee, on reasonable terms.
(3) Subject to this section, if the court is satisfied that the ground referred to in subsection (1) is established, the court may make an order for the grant of a licence in accordance with the application upon such terms as the court thinks fit.
(4) A licence granted under this section —
is not exclusive; and
shall not be assigned otherwise than in connection with the goodwill of the business in which the patented invention is used.
(5) Any licence granted under this section may, on the application of any interested party, be terminated by the court where the court is satisfied that the ground upon which the licence was granted has ceased to exist and is unlikely to recur.
(6) Where a licence is granted under this section to any person, the person shall pay such remuneration to the patentee as may be agreed, or as may be determined by a method agreed between the person and the patentee or, in default of agreement, as is determined by the court on the application of the person or the patentee.
(7) The powers of the court on an application under this section shall be exercised with a view to securing that the inventor or other person beneficially entitled to a patent shall receive reasonable remuneration having regard to the economic value of the licence.
(8) No order shall be made in pursuance of any application under this section which would be at variance with any treaty or international convention relating to patents to which Singapore is a party. | <urn:uuid:167b84ad-b081-470e-850d-299df0392989> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/printView.w3p;ident=182bf556-487b-438a-aaa1-058f7c2c7e6c;page=0;query=Id%3A%22851e2291-807a-4487-abad-e47180fe5d26%22%20Status%3Ainforce;rec=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94467 | 1,435 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Learn about this Italian wine known as the wine of kings and the king of wines.
Near the town of Alba, in the Piedmont grows the Nebbiolo grape, a noble grape. From this grape is produced the prestigious Barolo wines. It has been called the "king of wine" and the "wine of kings." It is considered one of the world’s best red wines. It is a DOCG wine, made entirely from the Nebbiolo grape. Once you have experienced good examples of this wine, you will begin to understand its nobility.
The Barolo is a robust red--very dry and full bodied, high in tannin, acidity, and alcohol. The aroma suggests tar, violets, roses, ripe strawberries, and truffles. It is often described as a chewy wine. When Barolo is produced in the traditional rustic style it can be hard when young. When it is aged properly and given time to mellow the harsh elements begin to soften and reveal many layers of complexity. Production rules stipulate that a Barolo is not a Barolo until it has aged for three years at the winery or for five years if it is called Riserva. It benefits from additional aging and often requires ten to twenty years total aging from the year of vintage. It is best to open a Barolo an hour before serving for proper aeration. Like many Italian wines it is best with food.
Some producers have been attempting to produce Barolo in a form that can be served at a younger age. They have been highlighting the wine´s fruit and color while softening harsh tannins.
It is important to buy Barolo from a good producer. One Barolo can differ from another based upon the production method applied. Some producers are using short fermentation periods in small French oak barrels, at least for part of the maturation period. These barrels add an oaky flavor to the wine, as well as tannin. These are ready to drink sooner than traditional Barolos.
Good Producers of Barolo are:
- Bartolo Mascarello
- Crissante Alessandria
- Giacomo Conterno
- Gianfranco Alessandria
- Luciano Sandrone
- Marchesi di Barolo
- Paolo Scavino
- Pio Cesare
Looking for a special wine? Try the Wine Searcher search engine! | <urn:uuid:63e3f105-85e5-460e-98fb-2c1b915852b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art56260.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952967 | 506 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Great/Disturbing Article From the New Yorker
Posted by Anna Holmes
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/03/hunger-games-and-trayvon-martin.html#ixzz1r6ddRiFY
On Tuesday, February 28th, a twenty-nine-year-old Canadian male fan of Suzanne Collins’s dystopian young adult trilogy, “The Hunger Games,” logged onto the popular blogging platform Tumblr for the first time and created a site he called Hunger Games Tweets. The young man, whom I’ll call Adam, had been tracking a disturbing trend among Hunger Games enthusiasts: readers who could not believe—or accept—that Rue and Thresh, two of the most prominent and beloved characters in the book, were black, had been posting vulgar racial remarks.
Adam, who read and fell in love with the trilogy last year, initially encountered these sorts of sentiments in the summer of 2011, when he began visiting Web sites, forums, and message boards frequented by the series’s fans, who were abuzz with news about the film version of the book. (The movie, released a week ago today, made a staggering $152.5 million during its first three days of release.) After an argument broke out in the comments section of an Entertainment Weekly post that suggested the young black actress Willow Smith be cast as the character of Rue, he realized that racially insensitive remarks by “Hunger Games” fans were features, not bugs. He soon began poking around on Twitter, looking at tweets that incorporated hashtags—#hungergames—used by the book’s devotees. Like the conversations found on message boards, some of the opinions were vitriolic, if not blatantly racist; unlike the postings on fan forums, however, the Twitter comments were usually attached to real identities.
“Naturally Thresh would be a black man,” tweeted someone who called herself @lovelyplease.
“I was pumped about the Hunger Games. Until I learned that a black girl was playing Rue,” wrote @JohnnyKnoxIV.
“Why is Rue a little black girl?” @FrankeeFresh demanded to know. (she appended her tweet with the hashtag admonishment #sticktothebookDUDE.)
Adam was shocked—Suzanne Collins had been fairly explicit about the appearance, if not the ethnicity, of Rue and Thresh, who, along with twenty-two other kids, are thrown into the life-or-death, Lord of the Flies-esque battle that the book is named for. He began taking screen grabs of the offensive tweets and posting them to Instagram. Adam soon decided that Instagram’s functionality was too limited for his purposes—users can look at the photos of people they follow but can’t easily share them—so he played around with different social-media technologies and switched to Tumblr, which, like Twitter, allows users to reblog the posts of people they follow, thereby exponentially broadening their reach.
At the beginning, Adam, who works as a financial executive for a large multinational bank by day, had just a few dozen followers. In his first post, titled “Presenting…Hunger Games Tweets!” he explained that he’d created the site in order to “acknowledge all of the idiotic tweets that I’ve come across as they concern the Hunger Games.” He followed that post up with his first Twitter screen grab, courtesy of someone named @MAD_1113, who had tweeted, “Rue is black?!? Whaa?!” One person, perhaps Adam’s very first follower, “liked” the post.
By mid-March, Adam’s screen grabs were regularly receiving five, ten, sometimes twenty “likes.” Other Tumblr users were reblogging Hunger Games Tweets and providing their own commentary alongside Adam’s. (In response to a tweet from a young woman named Kayla, who asked, “why is Rue black?!?! #WTH #hungergamesprobs,” Adam responded, “Melanin. Rue is black because of MELANIN.” “Oh my god, Kayla, you can’t just ask people why they’re black,” added a Tumblr user named beastieeyes22.) Last week, just as the film version of “The Hunger Games” was about to hit theatres, Adam’s Tumblr posts were receiving dozens, if not hundreds, of reblogs and responses. By the time of the film’s release, the site was going viral: Adam’s follower count shot up into four figures, and it was mentioned on the home pages of such sites as CNN.com, Buzzfeed, and Jezebel, which did a story that has turned out to be the highest-trafficked in the site’s history, with almost two million page views. (Disclosure: I used to edit Jezebel.)
In retrospect, it’s easy to see why Hunger Games Tweets took off: the project is a potent mix of pop-culture criticism, social-media sharing, provocative statements, and public shaming. But more important, and no doubt more disturbing, is what Adam’s time line of ignorant tweets—what he calls “the repository of death”—says about a certain generation’s failure of imagination. (A look at the tweeters’ profile pictures suggests that most of the missives were written by people in their teens and early twenties. Jezebel reported in a postscript that most of the people quoted on Hunger Games Tweets have since taken down their accounts or made them private.)
In addition to offering object lessons in bad reading comprehension, Hunger Games Tweets—there are now more than two hundred up on the blog—illuminated long-standing racial biases and anxieties. The a-hundred-and-forty-character-long outbursts were microcosms of the ways in which the humanity of minorities is often denied and thwarted, and they underscored how infuriatingly conditional empathy can be. (“Kk call me racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn’t as sad,” wrote @JashperParas, who amended his tweet with the hashtag #ihatemyself.) They also beg the question: If the stories we tell ourselves about the future, however disturbing, don’t include black people; if readers of “The Hunger Games” are so blind as to skip over the author’s specific details and themes of appearance, race, and class, then what does it say about the stories we tell ourselves regarding the present?
Adam says that the pivotal moment in the evolution of Hunger Games Tweets came on or around March 23rd, after he posted a tweet by someone named Alana Paul, a petite brunette who went by the handle @sw4q. Alana’s tweet was not the most offensive or nakedly racist of the bunch (that award could go to Cliff Kigar, who dropped the N-bomb, or to @GagasAlexander, who complained of “some ugly little girl with nappy…hair.”) but perhaps the most telling. “Awkward moment when Rue is some black girl and not the little blonde innocent girl you picture,” she wrote. She cc’ed a friend on the tweet, @EganMcCoy.
“That tweet was very telling, in terms of a mentality that is probably very widespread,” says Adam, speaking softly from his office high above Toronto’s downtown financial district. He doesn’t sound angry, but he also isn’t amused. The phrases “some black girl” and “little blonde innocent girl” are ringing in my head as he talks, as are thoughts about how the heroes in our imaginations are white until proven otherwise, a variation on the principle of innocent until proven guilty that, for so many minorities, is routinely upended.
Adam tells me that, on the post featuring a screenshot of Alana’s tweet, he added, “Remember that word innocent? This is why Trayvon Martin is dead.” As he says it, I am thinking the same thing: of our culture’s association of whiteness with innocence, of a child described without an accompanying adjective, of a child rendered insignificant and therefore invisible because of his or her particular shade of skin. “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me,” explains the protagonist in another famous work of fiction, Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,” which was published sixty years ago this month. “Invisible” can mean unseen, but just as often it speaks to others’ inability to see beyond something, or someone. The renaming of Rue as “some black girl” is a version of this, as is the pursuit and murder of the seventeen-year-old Martin, who, by some accounts, was shot dead by the self-professed neighborhood watchman of an Orlando-area community because all George Zimmerman could see was that he was young, male, and black.
It’s unclear whether Suzanne Collins anticipated such reactions, or whether she encountered them when the book was first published, in 2008. (Attempts to get the author to comment were unsuccessful, but Lionsgate, the distributor of the film, issued a statement praising the passion of the fans who spoke out against the racist comments, saying “we applaud and support their action.”) Adam says he believes that the notoriously press-shy author overestimated her audience, and wonders whether or not writers have a responsibility to be more explicit when introducing non-white characters in their books. I believe that Collins was well aware of what she was doing: after all, in the author’s imagining, Rue is herself invisible to most of the other “Hunger Games” characters, a quick-on-her-feet, resourceful “shadow,” either unseen or unremarked upon by most everyone but the book’s protagonist and heroine, Katniss Everdeen. It’s a conceit that seems to have worked maybe a little too well.
“People very often talk about literacy with words, but there’s such a thing as visual and thematic literacy,” says Deborah Pope, the executive director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, which encourages diversity in kids’ books. “I think some of these young people just didn’t really read the book.” (Mr. Keats’s groundbreaking classic, “The Snowy Day,” which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year, revolutionized children’s literature by being the first mainstream picture book to feature a black male protagonist.) Pope tells me that data analyzed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center in 2010 found that only nine per cent of the three thousand four hundred children’s books published that year contained significant cultural or ethnic diversity. She points out that the white default—in books, as in other forms of mass media—is learned and internalized early, including by children of color. It takes vigilance—and self-awareness—to overcome. “I picked up on the [character and racial] descriptions in “The Hunger Games” immediately,” says Adam, who is of Caribbean descent. “But then again, whenever I read something, I wonder, ‘where can I find the character who represents ME?’ ”
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/03/hunger-games-and-trayvon-martin.html#ixzz1r6dNu0SI | <urn:uuid:c7bbd579-5f23-4189-8230-6e477207c6ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pleasanthillbookclub.blogspot.com/2012/04/greatdisturbing-article-from-new-yorker.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966528 | 2,532 | 1.71875 | 2 |
This year, crops will be classified as those with and without, water that is.
Yield estimates were all over the board for crop samples in South Dakota and Nebraska during the 2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour.
Just outside of Grand Island, Neb., first-time crop scout Emily Flory and her team of scouts found a perfect example of the power of water. The field on the left is non-irrigated, the one on the right is. The irrigated field yield estimate was 190.5 bu./acre, the non-irrigated was 1.7 bu./acre.
Flory describes the variability she saw in the field:
For More Information | <urn:uuid:9985aac6-22dd-41e4-b11c-f2eb15d4ede7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweb.com/farmjournal/farm_journal_corn_college/article/the_power_of_water_on_the_western_leg/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947124 | 139 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Broward County 's Beach Renourishment Project (Segment III)
Week Ending May 6, 2005
Last week saw an additional 3,500 feet of submerged line deployed, bringing the total length of pipe offshore to 5,500 feet.
On May 2, a 2,000-foot-long segment was towed offshore and sunk in the pipeline corridor. Just a few days later, on May 6, another 1,500 foot section was added.
The photo above shows 2,000 feet of pipeline being towed to the site, accompanied by the derrick barge.
2,000 feet of pipe is carefully maneuvered into the pipeline corridor.
A new section of pipe is connected to the end of the previously laid pipe.
On land, work of celebratory nature was taking place. On Friday, May 6, Broward County, along with partner cities Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and Dania Beach, marked the beginning of restoring South Broward’s eroded beach with a Beach Party celebration at The Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa on Hollywood Beach.
The event was capped off with a sand replacement ceremony. Among the invited guests were members of the Broward County Commission, state and federal officials, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and representatives from the many Beach Renourishment Project partners. Also in attendance were owners of local beach businesses and presidents of beachside homeowner and condo associations from all three cities.
City of Hollywood Mayor Mara Giulianti; Broward County Mayor Kristin Jacobs; Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger; City of Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper; and City of Dania Beach Vice-Mayor Patricia Flury are all smiles because they will soon see beaches in South Broward restored.
Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger, District 6, who represents the areas affected by this phase of the project, welcomes the crowd to the Beach Party. Joining her at the podium are Mayor Jocobs, Mayor Cooper and Vice-Mayor Flury. | <urn:uuid:5b14b83a-1146-461f-9e5f-3801b1a31d29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.broward.org/BEACHRENOURISHMENT/Pages/archive050605.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946337 | 421 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Descriptions of Registered Cultivars
Originally registered as Grevillea 'Austraflora McDonald Park'
ORIGIN: Grevillea 'McDonald Park' is said to be a hybrid between G. rosmarinifolia andG. alpina that arose at McDonald Park, Ararat, Victoria. The G. rosmarinifolia were planted and the G. alpina occur naturally in McDonald Park. This cultivar was first collected and propagated by Mr. Bill Molyneux of Austraflora Nursery in 1967 and has been in cultivation ever since.Cultivar received by the Authority on the 10th November 1978. Applicant is Molyneux Nurseries, Belfast Road, Montrose, Victoria.
DESCRIPTION: This cultivar grows to +150mm tall by +600mm across. It forms a dense, low spreading shrub. The stems are round and the new branchlets are short and covered in hairs. The leaves are densely packed on the branchlets and are ± 20mm long by +3mm wide. The leaf margins are recurved to revolute and the leaves are densely covered with silky hairs underneath and sparsely covered above. The flowers are borne in terminal racemes on the branchlets. They are red and yellow in colour and very similiar to the flowers of G. alpina. The perianth segments are almost glabrous with some sparse hairs while the style is densely covered with silky hairs.
DIAGNOSIS: The cultivar is low growing and very dense. In habit it closely resembles G. alpina, with the density and leaf size of G. rosmarinifolia. The cultivar's leaves are midway between the narrow, linear sharp pointed leaves of G.rosmarinifolia and the flattish, oblong leaves of G.alpina. The margins are recurved to revolute compared to the revolute margins of G. rosmarinifolia and the flat leaves of G.alpina. The foliage and flowers are midway between the glabrous nature of G.rosmarinifolia and the hairiness of the leaves and flowers of G.alpina. The newer growth is hairy but not as much so as G.alpinaand more so than G. rosmarinifolia.
CULTIVATION NOTES: G.'Austraflora McDonald Park' has been grown in Melbourne since 1967 and has proved reliable in that district. Older plants respond favourably to being cut back. This measure can be taken to keep the shrub rejuvenated and to produce more flowering wood.
NOTE: This cultivar has previously been catalogued and sold as G. alpina 'Mcdonell Park' and G. alpina 'Mcdonald Park'. These names are incorrcct as the plant is of hybrid origin.
COLOUR CODE: R.H.S. Colour Chart, 1966.
Perianth tube: red 42A
Perianth limb: yellow-orange 15A
Style: near-red 47A
Stigma: yellow-green 152D
COMPARATIVE SPECIMENS: Grevillea rosmarinifolia NBG 020246; Grevillea alpina NBG 036418.ACRA REFERENCES: ACC164, ACRA480, CBG9009030
ACCEPTED FOR REGISTRATION ON: 20 March 1981 | <urn:uuid:d3d56744-0eeb-473f-a26f-af49b609489d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://anbg.gov.au/acra/descriptions/acc164.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931272 | 725 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Tribune senior correspondent
November 28, 2010
We've all seen the kids in their skinny jeans and baggy plaids slouching their way to school, nearly collapsing from the weight of those insanely giant backpacks.
How many moms and dads on any given school day lift those jammed school bags and say, "What are you carrying around in there?"
Well, now I know.
Equipped with a bathroom scale and a reporter's snoopy — I mean inquisitive — attitude, I headed for Oak Park's Brooks Middle School to find out just how much poundage the students were carrying and to try and figure out if they really needed all that stuff. (See our photos of some of the kids here.)
I got there just in time to welcome the kids arriving early for band practice. Many carried separate, heavy instrument cases (not included in the weigh-in), and a few had gym bags and lunch bags (also not weighed), plus their bulging backpacks.
These are big loads, but especially for some of the younger, smaller kids. And when I learned that some of these kids walked blocks with their bulging loads to get there — phew.
Well aware of the problem, principal Tom Sindelar says students don't haul all this to class. Mini cinch sack backpacks are provided and the big packs aren't allowed in classrooms.
Here's some good news: "As far as we know, there's no link between heavy backpacks and permanent injury or damage to the spine," says Dr. Jeffrey Mjaanes, a pediatric and adult sports medicine specialist at Rush University Medical Center. However, "They do seem to cause shoulder pain and back pain."
Mjaanes says nobody has figured out how much is too much for kids to carry. But professional medical groups recommend a maximum of 10 to 20 percent of body weight. Mjaanes says he sees four or five teens for back pain every day and "carrying heavy loads" is a major factor.
More good news: Only three of 30 kids in my weigh-in had backpacks heavier than 20 percent of their body weight. | <urn:uuid:86e7b1ff-766c-4262-8331-25ea3f1c5561> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.b1029.com/b1029/lifestyle/fashion/ct-sun-1128-warren-shopping-backpacks20101128,0,3974389,print.column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968288 | 439 | 1.632813 | 2 |
William J. Hood, a retired senior officer in the Central Intelligence Agency and a writer, died at home in Amagansett early on the morning of Jan. 28. He would have turned 93 on April 19.
During World War II, having just transferred from the Army into military intelligence, Mr. Hood volunteered for the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the C.I.A. He worked for a time on Ultra, a top-secret exploitation of coded German messages that the British and Americans had cracked and that the Germans thought was invulnerable, Enigma.
“Bill Hood was one of the heroes of O.S.S. and C.I.A., a major figure and leader in the clandestine services over three decades, a member of Allen Dulles’s wartime team, and a successful and inspiring leader of operations in Central Europe and at headquarters,” wrote Tom Polgar, a former colleague.
After the war, Mr. Hood remained in Europe, working for the agency in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, often as chief of station. He was one of three deputies of James Jesus Angleton, the head of counterintelligence at the agency. Before retiring in 1975 he was chief of operations for Latin America and had also worked in New York under cover at the United Nations.
Described by Kennett Love in a review of one of his spy novels as a “looming, powerfully built, agreeably sinister-looking veteran spook,” Mr. Hood became an Amagansett fixture after marrying a former O.S.S. colleague, Mary Carr Thomas, in 1976, and could often be seen in shorts sitting on Main Street benches taking the sun.
Mr. Hood's first marriage in 1950, to Cordelia Dodson, a colleague, ended in divorce.
After he retired, while he and his second wife were dividing their time among Portland, Me., New York, and Amagansett, Mr. Hood wrote “Mole,” a nonfiction story of a Soviet Army colonel who became a double agent.
He went on to write three spy novels, “Spy Wednesday,” “The Sunday Spy,” and “Cry Spy,” all of which were well received. His last book was “A Look Over My Shoulder,” a biography of Richard Helms, whom he had worked for when Helms was the director of the agency.
“William was an urbane and sharply intelligent observer with a wry, New England sense of humor,” said a friend, Sheridan Sansegundo. “He was a man of few words, but you could depend on those words being astute, perceptive, and dead on the money.”
William J. Hood was born on April 19, 1920, in Portland, Me., the only son of Bethina Heath and Walter J. Hood. He attended Deering High School and Portland Junior College and also worked as a South Portland correspondent for The Press Herald. Newspaper work was where he thought he was headed, but once he became caught up in the work he found himself doing in Europe, the die was cast.
His hobbies included photography, marksmanship, sailing, jazz, and collecting first editions. He was a member of the Cumberland Club in Portland and the Players Club in New York.
Mr. Hood enjoyed some of the perks of his work, such as being able to own Jaguars and order suits from Anderson & Sheppard, Savile Row tailors. His youth had been quite spartan and he commented to his stepdaughter, Isabel Carmichael, one evening, “When I was in a jam and didn’t know if I would get out alive, I thought, if this jam works out and I get out alive I will indulge myself in the things I would have enjoyed more as an adolescent: any book, any photographic materials, and any piece of clothing.”
Although he did not have children, he was close to Ms. Carmichael, who lives in Springs. His stepson, Dr. David Carmichael of New York City, several nieces and a nephew, and three step-grandchildren also survive.
Mr. Hood was cremated. There will be a memorial to celebrate his life in the spring. Donations in his name can be sent to Smile Train, 41 Madison Avenue, 28th Floor, New York 10010. | <urn:uuid:f18958f8-2ced-46a7-8f53-e1cc3da541a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://easthamptonstar.com/?q=Obituaries/2013207/William-J-Hood-92-Novelist-CIA-Officer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986322 | 918 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Lizard-Brain Thoughts, Classified by Emotions
Notice how base brain plays on the emotions.
It tries to play me like a violin, using the whole spectrum of emotions:
- Let's just have one for old times' sake.
- Ah, for the good old days, when we could just kick back, and put our feet
up, and do whatever we wanted to do.
- Ah yes, for the good old days, when we were young and wild and crazy, and didn't give a damn.
- Ah yes, the good old days, back before we started this insane routine of
self-denial that they are calling recovery.
- It's time to return to normalcy, and be just like everybody else.
Translation: Go back to drinking just like everybody else.
(I shouldn't have to abstain when they don't.)
- You smoked and drank when you were young, so you can return to the glory days of
your youth by smoking and drinking again.
- I just want one more big party, like in the good old days.
- Don't you want to come home, to the good times again?
- The best times were when we were smoking and drinking. We should go back there again.
The best writing was while you were smoking.
- ANGER, HOSTILITY, RESENTMENT, FRUSTRATION, AND REBELLIOUSNESS:
- Screw those people who are trying to keep us from having fun. Who are they
to try to run our lives, anyway?
- Have a drink just to spite those A.A. assholes and show that you can do it.
- I wanna be free. I wanna get away from here and get to a place where
nobody is telling me what to do anymore. I just wanna get to a place where I
can do what I wanna to do.
- Fuck it! Just fuck it! I just want to get high!
- Now that I'm retired, I don't have to do what anybody else says.
I don't have to care what anybody else thinks. I can drink all I want.
- Okay, so I'm an alcoholic. So what? Might as well have a good time anyway.
- I shouldn't be having these cravings. I shouldn't have to suffer from
cravings like this. So let's put a stop to them, right now.
- It's just so unfair that other people can have a good time, and I can't.
So I'm going to make things fair.
- We deserve to have a good time. We've worked so hard for so long,
and put up with so much suffering and hardship, we richly deserve some
of life's little pleasures right now.
- It's all so depressing. I don't even feel like life is worth living.
Might as well just get stoned and forget the whole thing.
- Heck, your parents messed you up so bad emotionally that you'll never be
right, so there isn't much you can do except get stoned.
- The system is rigged against us. The rich write the rules so that they stay
rich and we stay poor. So all we can do is enjoy life however we can.
- Life has passed me by, so there is no point in not having a good time
now. I've got no future. I've got nothing left to lose.
- SELF-DOUBT AND DEFEATIST ATTITUDES:
- Aren't you tired of torturing yourself? Why do you persist in denying
yourself life's little pleasures? Why do you persist in putting yourself
through all of this pain and all of these cravings? You know you will relapse
sooner or later anyway, so why not make it right now, so you can feel good
- I can't really loosen up and have a good time without a little bit of
- It's been so long since I've had one, I have it under control now.
- I can do just one; it will be okay.
- We've been doing so good for so long, totally abstaining without any
cheating whatsoever, it's time to celebrate.
- We've got it under control now. I don't have any cravings any more. I don't
even think about drinking any more. That's why it's okay to have one, right now.
- Okay, we've succeeded. We've got a year of sobriety. We don't have anything
left to prove to anybody. Might as well relax and have one now.
- I can do a few now without getting readdicted. It will never again have a
hold over me like it used to.
- We can do it (party and get high for one night) because we are strong and
smart and we can handle it.
- GRANDIOSE, BOMBASTIC, HEROIC ROMANTICISM:
- Heck, we're all going to die eventually. In the end, all you'll have to
look back on is how much fun you had, or didn't have because you missed out on
all of it. So let's have some fun and go out in a blaze of glory.
- Workers of the world, unite! It's Miller Time!
- Ah, for just one grand blow-out, just for tonight...
- Ah yes, for the good old days, when we were young and wild and crazy, and
didn't give a damn.
- I know, I'll be a wandering Zen monk, a free spirit, detached from it all,
free to do anything. I'll be above and beyond the problem.
- You only live once...
- This evening is so boring, might as well have a beer.
- PLEASURE, LOVE, AND ECSTASY:
- God! Would a cigarette feel good right now!
- God! Would a tall cold one feel good right now!
- It's Friday night (or Saturday night), and look at all of those pretty
girls out on the street, looking for a party and love in all of the wrong
places (and in all of the right places too). If I went and partied with
them, I could get laid.
- I can do just a little bit, it won't hurt anything, and it will feel great.
- I just want one relaxing evening, just like in the good old days.
- I just wanna get totally righteously ripped, just one more time.
- PARANOIA, INSECURITY, AND FEAR:
- The other guys might think there is something weird about me if I don't
have one with them.
- Things aren't really as bad as the doctor was saying. I know he was
exaggerating, just trying to scare me into quitting, that's all...
- I could go across the river, over to the other side of town, where no one
knows me, and get drunk over there, and nobody over here would ever know.
- I don't want to insult this guy by not drinking with him. If I only drink
with him, then it will be okay. I can't get readdicted that way.
- I should have a drink with these people. If I refuse to drink, and tell
them that I'm an alcoholic, they will all think that I'm weird.
- I can do just a little, and no one will ever know, and it will be okay.
- PAIN AND FATIGUE:
- I'm in a lot of pain. A little to take the edge off of the pain will be okay...
- I feel so stressed out right now, I just need a little hit to get me on an even keel.
- I just want a vacation from my pain.
- I'm so tired of all of this, of fighting this battle. I just want to rest,
and relax, for a while.
- Oh I'm in so much stress right now that I can't stand it. I just need a
cigarette and a beer to calm me down.
There just doesn't seem to be a single human emotion that old base brain won't try to
use to talk me into using something...
- And then there is a non-emotional thing that I call BRAIN-DAMAGED LOGIC:
- Even if it does cause a little damage, I've been off of the stuff
for so long that I can afford a little damage now.
- Maybe if I went down to Mexico... I could vacation and drink down
there, and it wouldn't have anything to do with what happens up here...
- Heck, we're in Las Vegas. What happens here, stays here.
- We're in New Orleans. It's Mardis Gras. You don't imagine that it's appropriate to
stay sober all this week, now do you?
- Oh well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
- This occasion is special. It's okay to drink this one special time.
Pass that champagne over here, please.
- Don't think! Just grab the drink!
- But it's free! How can you resist when it's free?
- Look at those people. They seem to be able to drink and smoke all
of the time, and it isn't killing them. So I should be able to do it too...
- Slips are okay. A little slipping won't hurt. It'll be fun. If
everybody else is slipping and lapsing, then why shouldn't we?
- Just Christmas and New Years. If I only drink at Christmas and New Years,
then I can't get into trouble with that. That'll be okay.
- Oh heck, it's Friday.
- All that talk about the bad things that will happen if we
relapse is long-term stuff. It isn't relevant for the short term,
so we can indulge just for tonight and it will be okay.
- All of this obsession with "your sobriety", and your being clean and
sober, is just selfishness. You are just concerned about yourself.
If you were really selfless, you would go down to the bar and have one with
the boys to cheer them up.
- Oh heck, we deserve to relax once in a while...
- I need a little inspiration. This is a big, important job, and I need
to come up with a creative, original concept. So I need a little liquid inspiration
to help get the creative juices flowing. It's a tool, after all...
(That also smacks of "I am entitled to drink because I have so much responsibility
resting on my shoulders.")
From the web page about the Lizard-Brain Addiction Monster, | <urn:uuid:f18bc368-f020-43aa-9c96-300f1b7be11c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-lizard-emotions.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968326 | 2,306 | 1.585938 | 2 |
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