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Truly wired companies are made, not born. Here are the key ingredients
People often assume that virtual companies -- companies that use communications and information-technology tools to amplify their impact on the market -- are born that way. Certainly, VeriFone, the credit card-verification company I helped found in 1982, was a virtual company from the beginning. But as we've grown the company from 5 employees to more than 2,500, we've faced the same basic problem that existing businesses face when they try to introduce innovations: the difficulty of changing deeply entrenched workplace habits.
Almost none of the more than 4,000 people we've hired at VeriFone in the past 13 years have come to us with a clear understanding of what it means to work in a virtual company, nor have they come with the tools required to get the job done virtually. Moreover, the tools have changed over time. So, yes, maybe we did get an early start. But there's absolutely no reason why a decidedly nonvirtual business can't do exactly what we've done: introduce the necessary tools, and give people the motivation and guidance they need to make the best possible use of them.
Here are eight steps you can take to create a virtual company:* * *
Use E-mail. Have all people in your company use E-mail, almost all the time, wherever they are. Enough said.
Automate tasks that waste people's time. At VeriFone we use more than 60 different computer-based applications. All aspects of corporate life -- from placing a customer's order to requesting a travel voucher to buying pencils -- mean interaction with an on-line system. We didn't start with all systems on-line. We started by automating those processes that seemed most time-consuming or prone to error. For example, one of our first on-line systems was our travel system. We place a premium on meeting with customers face to face, and we had noticed that many of our employees were spending hours each day working out itineraries with travel agents. We added other systems as we needed them. You don't have to have a complete corporate system on day one. It is important, though, to be sure that the software "hooks" are in place so that you can add systems later.
Create a companywide electronic filing cabinet. When a company's reports and forms, as well as its E-mail correspondence, are filed on-line, the on-line system becomes a global electronic filing cabinet. All that you need to access contracts, approvals, and old correspondence is a computer and a telephone line. An electronic filing cabinet turns almost any space into a productive office, any time of day. That means that you don't have to wait until someone gets into an office in a different time zone to get the information you want. If I'm in a motel room in one part of the world and it's two in the morning at my corporate headquarters, I can still pull up a contract and make changes so that the people at headquarters have the revision when they get to work the next morning. It's astounding how much time is wasted at most companies simply because employees can't put their hands on the right document when they need it.* * *
Be fanatic about monitoring and reporting performance. In the late 1980s VeriFone was growing very rapidly, but at any given time we had no clear picture of where we were in relation to our revenues and our profit goals. We spent lots of time preparing ad-hoc reports of bookings, shipments, and projected gross margins. When numbers from one group didn't jibe with those from another -- a common occurrence -- we would dig through invoices and orders to try to reconcile the differences. None of that management time was truly productive because it distracted us from the primary job, meeting our customers' needs.
To solve the problem, we prototyped a very simple computer program that went through our computerized order-entry and accounting database, allocating each line item of every order to a particular sales and product group, and then establishing a roll-up hierarchy for reporting purposes. Our first menu had only a handful of key reports, but as time passed, we added new reports to meet the needs of different staffers. We set security levels appropriate for each person and assigned different reports to those security levels. We ended up with an integrated information system -- not an executive information system -- used by all levels of staff, from assembly-line supervisors to the CEO. Without this sort of real-time feedback, employees simply don't know where to focus their efforts.* * *
Build an infrastructure for creating teams on an as-needed basis. Because of our communications flexibility, we can assemble -- and disband -- informal teams as easily as we can set up or abolish E-mail group aliases. We recently formed a task team, for example, to reduce the time required to fill customers' orders. The group was made up of people -- at many locations and different staff levels -- from sales to manufacturing to distribution. E-mail, along with audioconferencing and videoconferencing, facilitated the work of the cross-functional task team and enabled it to have a major impact on the speed with which we serve our customers. As soon as the team turned in its recommendations, it was dissolved, freeing up members to join other teams that needed their particular skills. In this way every project gets a team that is precisely tuned to its unique demands, and everyone is constantly contributing a specific expertise.
Motivate people to go on-line. You can't just make the technology available and wait for your company to convert itself into a virtual one. You've got to give everyone a reason to use the tools. You can begin by abolishing written memos, especially those that are positive (news about promotions and bonuses, for example), and insisting that those messages be sent on-line. (There's nothing like knowing that there's good news on-line to motivate people to learn how to get there.) Put news items that are relevant to your business and your customers on-line. If your employees know they can get information that will help them meet their objectives, they'll go on-line to find it. Eventually, you have to create a "use the net or die" environment. The best way to do that is to take away all the alternatives -- ban secretaries and paper memos, for example, as we've done at VeriFone. The vast majority of our business is on-line. To succeed in our company, you have to connect.* * *
Make all systems easy to use. Many very smart people become almost paralyzed when they're faced with computer screens full of nonintuitive commands. The more information and processes you put on-line, the more careful you have to be about making them accessible and nonthreatening. One of the ways VeriFone has simplified the task of navigating its information systems is by making every report or information template accessible from a single command: MENU. With that one word, new employees can navigate through simple hierarchical option lists to get where they want to go. More experienced managers can use advanced commands to go straight to the information they need.* * *
Help people understand when they shouldn't use the tools. You can't just throw powerful communications tools at people and expect them to use those tools wisely. If a company doesn't train its people in responsible communication, that communication can do more harm than good. Responsible communication means considering how a recipient is likely to react to a message and what the implications are for the recipient's workload. Confrontation is a lot easier via E-mail than face to face, but the resentment it is likely to create can wreak tremendous damage on the fabric of a company.* * *
Of course, building a virtual company isn't just a matter of following a series of steps. Every company has to take a different path, based on its industry, competition, corporate culture, and style of management. But there's no reason that any company can't add virtuality to its repertoire. Like any bad habit, business traditions can be overcome.* * *
William R. Pape (firstname.lastname@example.org) is senior vice-president and chief information officer of VeriFone Inc., which has its headquarters in Redwood City, Calif.
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma's attorney general is warning people to be on the lookout for charity scams following a mass shooting at a Connecticut school last week that killed 26 students and teachers.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office issued the alert after officials in Connecticut received complaints about criminals setting up fake charities in the names of some of the dead children.
Pruitt's office says Oklahomans should donate to organizations with proven track records, watch out for impersonators with similar sounding names of well-known organizations and never give personal or financial information over the phone or via email to groups asking for contributions.
He says people who want to make donations to help those affected by the shootings should visit www.ct.gov and click on, "How to Help Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting Victims."
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (3/19/13) – U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, (KY-01), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power, today delivered opening remarks during a Subcommittee hearing on “American Energy Security and Innovation: The Role of Regulators and Grid Operators in Meeting Natural Gas and Electric Coordination Challenges.”
In his opening remarks, Whitfield stressed the importance of utilizing natural gas as an additional component of an “all-of-the-above” domestic energy portfolio that continues to focus on coal.
“I intend to work with others to ensure that natural gas serves as a complement to coal and not as a replacement to it,” stated Whitfield. “Coal has a number of advantages that have not been fully appreciated by this administration. Coal remains one of the lowest cost options for electricity generation and is the fastest growing energy source worldwide, yet we have allowed EPA to engage in regulations on coal-fired power plants without thinking through all of the consequences. I hope that maintaining a future role for coal, including new, advanced coal-fired power plants, is also a part of today’s discussion.”
The hearing examined the role of federal and state regulators and electric grid operators in meeting the challenges resulting from the increased use of natural gas to generate electricity and the convergence of the natural gas and electric industries.
The following issues were examined at the hearing:
• Challenges arising from increased interdependence of the natural gas and electricity sectors;
• Potential impacts on reliability and electricity prices resulting from the operational differences between the natural gas and electricity sectors;
• The role of Federal and State regulators in ensuring greater coordination between the natural gas and electric industries to ensure reliable and affordable energy; and
• The role of electric grid operators in meeting reliability challenges arising from natural gas-electric convergence.
Information provided by Chris Pack
Photo provided by SurfKY Graphics
Copyright © 2012 SurfKY News Group, Inc. all rights reserved. SurfKY.com is an eNewspaper providing local news FREE to Kentucky 24/7. Read Statewide Kentucky News, Sports, Obituaries and more from the following Kentucky Counties: Calloway, Christian, Daviess, Fayette (Lexington), Henderson, Hopkins, Logan, McCracken, Muhlenberg, Warren, and Webster Counties as well as the Kentucky Lakes Area.
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“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
ell, not every Magic player is going to have the charisma of a JFK, but that doesn't mean you can't get every one of your creatures a chance to really sacrifice themselves to the Greater Good. This week we're going to take a chance to look at one of those quality enchantments that I've come to love, even though I never managed to get it into a big tournament win.
Magic is a game of give and take. The costing system in Magic is designed so that hugely powerful effects generally cost some huge amount - except cards like Time Spiral, which are free, but everyone kind of acknowledges that was kind of a mistake. The cost “sacrifice” is a little bit sneaky. Take Diabolic Intent, for example. It might initially seem like a very cheap “fixed” Demonic Tutor; after all, it costs the same mana. The cost we sometimes forget about is the mana we spent to actually cast the card we're going to sacrifice. When it comes to sacrificing something, we'd better get a decent effect out of it.
The basics package, without the frills
So what is that effect? With a Greater Good
out, you can sacrifice a creature at any time and potentially improve your hand. Now, obviously sacking a small creature isn't going to get you nearly as far as sacrificing a big creature, but either way, as long as it isn't a Birds of Paradise
or other zero-power creature, you're going to be seeing more cards. In order to break even on the drawing and discarding, the sacrificed creature has to be three power, so finding (or making) bigger creatures than that is a pretty good idea, but in a pinch, you can sacrifice something smaller if you really need to dig.
One thing to remember is that you can sacrifice your creature at any time. Damage on the stack? Okay, now sack! Will a Lightning Bolt, Wrath of God, or Terror kill your guy? Even with their last breath, these guys can still spit at the opponent, if only for hate's sake. Being able to sacrifice a creature doesn't mean that you'll want to do so at every turn – sometimes it's nice to attack with your Huge/Huge creature. When it comes time, though, you can rest assured your creatures will act for the Greater Good.
Big guys on a budget
Big creatures are best, of course, but big creatures on a budget… that's the ticket! Some of the best creatures in the world to use with Greater Good are cheap, large creatures. Somehow or other, though, Wizards decided that these cheap creatures needed to have “drawbacks” to “balance” them. Well, we'll see about that!
The reigning supreme champion of all of these Big Guys has got to be Phyrexian Negator. Negator is one of those cards that is very dangerous, but very fast. I can't count the times that I've dropped a really fast Phyrexian Negator and prayed that I wasn't playing against Red burn spells. A 5/5 Trampler for only three mana generally makes pretty short work of an opponent, but losing a permanent for every point of damage that it receives is incredibly punishing. When a red player has out three mana and casts Volcanic Hammer on your Negator, it can be a hard decision – keep the Negator around and hope that you can lay enough permanents that it will go all the way, or lose it and two other permanents you have laying around. You still have to make the same kind of decision with Greater Good on the table, but you are no longer ever on that excruciating “risk everything” decision. If things begin to go bad, drawing 5 cards and discarding 3 is a pretty good deal, especially if your opponent had to lose a card to make that happen.
Even more risky than the Negator is the nearly unplayable Desecration Elemental. 8/8 for four mana is an incredible deal at the incredible cost of losing a creature every time a player casts a spell. Greater Good keeps a card like this useful if you run out of tokens or your gamble of emptying their hand doesn't work out.
One of my favorite creatures to go with Greater Good is Argothian Wurm. The Argothian Wurm is a scary 6/6, but when it comes into play it could be put back on top of your library if your opponent is willing to sacrifice a land. In some cases this can be great, giving you the equivalent of a continuous Lay Waste against an opponent that needs their mana. In some cases this can be awful, giving you the equivalent of a continuous Lay Waste against an opponent who doesn't need any of their land. Since the sacrifice of a land creates a trigger to put the Wurm back on top of your library, you can respond to it and sack the Wurm to fill up your hand.
Phyrexian Negator, Desecration Elemental, and Argothian Wurm have a lot in common. They are big, they are cheap, and sometimes you just don't want to see them anymore. Essentially what you're looking to do is get some kind of use out of something that can be difficult, dangerous, or annoying to keep around. It could be a Goblin Goon that can no longer do anything because he's outnumbered, a Grinning Demon that is going to kill you before it kills your opponent, or a Cosmic Larva that has outlived its usefulness.
Live fast, die young (and leave a good looking corpse)
“The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy.” – Tyrell, Blade Runner
There is another whole class of creatures that tend to work well with Greater Good. The creatures that weren't meant to last. Ball Lightning and Blistering Firecat are some of the glaringly obvious creatures here. Generally these creatures have short lifespans specifically because they have such a high power. At other times, these creatures are merely expensive to upkeep, or, like the Blastoderm, Fade out over time. Here are a couple of other nice cards to consider:
We're going to pump you up
Making your creatures go large in some fashion can be another way to exploit Greater Good. A risky play with a pair of Psychatogs, for example, can increase their reach by a little bit if just a single Greater Good is in play. A Dragon Whelp can hop in for one last dying attack and turn into a whole hand full of cards.
Equipment and creature enchantments are the way to go to really pump your guys up. A Cranial Plating is great to pump things up with, but there are certainly others as well. One of my favorites is Grafted Wargear, but another is the newly printed Ronin Warclub. With some of those hasty attackers already creating huge problems for your opponent, having a Warclub hop onto a Ball Lightning before the attack seems pretty nifty, especially if you get to follow up with your Wargear. If a whopping 11 trampling power doesn't kill them, maybe seeing 11 new cards will.
Rancor is one of the classic old creature enchantments that also makes a lot of sense with Greater Good. Rancor in a lot of ways is like pseudo-equipment in that you get to keep your Rancor around even if the creature it is on ends up dead for the cause somehow. Sometimes these enchantments will make the creature so good that you'll want to keep them on the table to punish your opponent for as long as possible.
“Echo is for chumps”, and other miscellany
There are a bunch of little ways that Greater Good can help you out. In a similar class to the temporary creatures I just mentioned are the cards with Echo. “Echo is for chumps” is one of those phrases you'll hear anywhere that Kurt Hahn and the other old-school Milwaukee-area Magic players have been. It's not exactly a constant truism, but sometimes you've gotten the effect you want (say, from a Crater Hellion) and you have something better to do than spend another six mana. Even if you don't have something better to do at the time, I wouldn't be surprised if you do have something better to do after drawing six cards.
Of course, there are plenty of times you are simply in a really difficult situation, and you need to find the exact right card. You might start out sacrificing a really good target like that Crater Hellion
, but still not find the Hurricane
or Diabolic Edict
you need to survive that Akroma floating over in the air. So maybe your River Boa
will go next. And then maybe your Llanowar Elves
or Sakura-Tribe Elder
. The thing that is really great about Greater Good
is that you can use it to dig into your library without spending any mana to do so. Of course, if you keep sacrificing all small creatures, you run the risk of emptying out your hand.
Even if you're just filling up your graveyard, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. We've spent a lot of time in previous articles looking at all of the cards that go great with the graveyard, and they pop up here as well. Cards like Ichorid are a great example. An Ichorid might not gain you any card advantage when you sacrifice it, but you don't lose any either. At the same time, you're quite likely to be handing the Ichorid fresh meat to eat and revisit play. Roar of the Wurm is another great card that might find its way into the graveyard; once it's in play, it's a pretty hefty creature to have around for the Greater Good, if need be.
Finally, some guys work best dead. False Prophet, Saprazzan Bailiff, Academy Rector, or pretty much anything with a Pattern of Rebirth on it – these things want to be sacked. Even if you lose cards on the deal for some of these creatures, it can still be worth it.
I'm going to leave you with an Extended deck intended for casual play. The deck has a lot of really big guys to mop an opponent off, using Greater Good to held refill the deck as it goes. Too speed it up, it also includes Birds of Paradise and a fun trick with City of Traitors and one of the Lairs from Planeshift.
Trigger Happy Black/Green
I know I should cut a card, but I really like the numbers anyway. The Warclub is really cool in this deck, making even the Birds something worthwhile to lose to Greater Good and since its triggered ability doesn't target, it manages to even attach to a Blastoderm! The other trigger that is pretty cool is Caldera/City of Traitors. You can stack the two triggered ability to return the City of Traitors before it would destroy itself. Mindslicer is another nice card, allowing you to clear out your opponent's hand when you sacrifice it to Greater Good, but still allowing you to keep the best however many of the top cards as you see fit. There are a lot of Moxes in the deck, but this deck can really get rolling in cards, so having more ways to create mana is a good thing.
In any event, I hope you enjoyed this week's deck and this week's card. Have a great rest of your week!
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Copyright ©2010. The Associated Press. Produced by NewsOK.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New book highlights Devon's history, new headquarters and role in downtown Oklahoma City's transformation
When Jack Money and Steve Lackmeyer heard rumors several years ago that Devon Energy Corp. was looking to build a new headquarters for its workforce, which now numbers about 1,700, they knew they needed to tell the oil company's story.
As the authors noted, throughout Oklahoma City's history dating to statehood, a new building in the business district “would generate an incredible amount of excitement among the community,” Money said.
In the months that followed Devon's 2008 announcement it planned to build a 50-story tower and related energy center, Lackmeyer and Money got to work on research for their new Oklahoma City history project, recently released as a book, “Operation Scissortail: Building a New Home for Devon Energy, Building a New Heart for OKC.”
The pair interviewed Devon executives and key players, members of the architect and design teams overseeing the energy center's construction and Oklahoma City officials who had an interest in how the project would turn out, whether their focus was on managing traffic in the area or in the Myriad Gardens across the street.
Money's and Lackmeyer's narrative about Devon progressed as construction on the tower did, and their book, released the same year the tower opened, is a 241-page coffee-table book that reads like a novel. It is filled with photos, documents and even artists' renderings of potential buildings at sites Devon considered before deciding on a spot north of the Myriad Gardens.
Throughout the book, the authors focused on the personal stories of the people involved in making it all happen as well as the developing project.
The book is available locally at bookseller Full Circle Bookstore and in the Aravalli Coffee Shop Devon inside the Devon building.
“Operation Scissortail” is the third book from writers Lackmeyer and Money, and they consider it somewhat of a sequel to “OKC: Second Time Around” and “Skirvin.”
The book touches on the start of Devon in a single office in Liberty Tower in 1970 and takes readers through surviving the oil bust and failure of Penn Square Bank, the code name for the new headquarters project years before it was announced — “Scissortail” — and the construction and transformation of that area of downtown Oklahoma City.
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The ESPO pipeline will initially carry 30 million tonnes of crude a year, half of which will go to China, the world's fastest growing oil consumer. Russia plans to eventually increase the pipeline's capacity to 50 million tonnes a year.
“This is an important project for us as we diversify sales of our energy resources. Today our main deliveries are to European partners, who get around 120-130 million tonnes of our oil,” Putin said in televised remarks, adding that the ESPO pipeline created “noticeable competition to the European route.”
China is still to complete the 930 km of the pipeline on its territory to link up the Russian section of the pipeline with refineries in its north-eastern city of Daqing, but Mr. Putin said he was “absolutely sure that Russian oil will run to China this year.”
Beijing had heavily lobbied Moscow to build the East Siberian pipeline to China only, but Russia decided to extend it to its Pacific ports in the Far East in order to have a choice of customers.
Under a deal signed last year China gave Russia a $25-billion loan, including $10 billion for the construction of the East Siberia pipeline, and Russia agreed to pump 300 million tonnes of crude to China through 2030.
Russia will also get access to the Chinese retail market, setting up oil refineries and opening about 500 petrol stations in the neighbouring country, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechi
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Making A Connection
In the nine years that I've been a treatment parent, I have learned that it works a lot better for the family
and for the child when we use brief, short-term consequences for a child's behavior. We would like to avoid any misunderstandings about the intention or application of any of the parenting techniques used at The Attachment
Center at Evergreen. The goal of everything we do is to create a connection between parent
and child. We need to be constantly re-evaluating ourselves and what we're doing, to see if we are meeting that goal in the best way.
Sitting time, for example, for me is given as a choice - 5 minutes of good sitting (Mom's way), or 15 minutes . If the child does 5 minutes of good sitting, it's over and we are up doing something else. After 15 minutes of sitting, I will check with the child, give him another direction (sweeping the floor, etc.). If he's willing to do anything for me, my way, then we go for 5 minutes of good sitting and back to whatever he was supposed to be doing in the first place. Always with lots of positive pizazz (smiles, eye contact, hugs, words of encouragement - never degrading or humiliating) and regard for what is going on with the child emotionally. You might have to do this many times throughout the day at the beginning.
I never give a chore or any consequence that lasts more than one hour at a time. That doesn't mean that they finish it in one hour or that they don't have to redo it. I will give the child the option of doing it quickly or taking as long as they want to do it, always making sure they have bathroom breaks, time to sit and think about it, or let me know if it's going to take him until tomorrow to get it done right. But at the end of an hour, I have the child do something else, with me or for me, for two hours or the rest of the day (whatever you chose). And then they go back to the original chore.
I feel that long-term consequences that drag on for hours or days at a time (or owing large amounts of time or push-ups,etc.) only cause the child to become more depressed
or hopeless, or more "locked-in" to the behavior or power struggle. Breaking it up (on my terms), bringing the child in close at least every hour, checking in with them on what's going on and why, creates a connection. They end up completing the task my way. And we have connected, instead of pushing the child away.
CONNECTING IS THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM AND WORKING OUT A SOLUTION WHERE EVERYONE WINS.
Isolation closes down communication and processing. Behind every negative behavior there are feelings. You connect with those feelings, and the problem is solved. Always in a loving way. The goal is to get the child to want that connection with you, and to change their own behaviors to be able to have that. They need reality checks and positive feedback to be able to change behaviors.
If a child needs to be away from you for more than 15-20 minutes, there's a problem. Even when a child needs to be excluded from family fun because of their behavior, they should still be close to the family. Maybe sitting next to Mom with her arm around him, discussing the fun everyone else is having, and checking in as to whether they'll make a better choice next time. Always in a loving way - not shaming. "Nothing makes moms and dads happier than to have everyone together having fun."
I never miss an opportunity for me or my family to have fun. Even if I have a child that is really acting out, I'll say, "Honey, this is your lucky day. We have an invitation to go out to dinner, and we sure would like you to go with us, but that chore still needs to be done and you'll have to change your clothes. Do you want to go with us? All right, hop up and sweep the floor, change your clothes and we have exactly 15 minutes to get going." Lots of pizazz and fun in your voice. So you go back to the same behavior that got him in trouble in the first place, he complies, you're all going to have fun, and he is included. Don't get stuck in the negative. You need to come up with some creative ways to change that around in a positive way- to make it a win-win situation. "Honey, one good thing about being an adult is that I can change my mind."
When mom wins, the child wins. The issue is not sitting or doing chores. The issue is getting the child to want to change his behavior because he wants to be close to you.
Credits: Lorain Huntley, Therapeutic Foster Parent
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Every Monday I receive by e-mail the magazine Time's newsletter "Top 10 Weekly Europe Edition", which contains a survey of the 10 most popular stories of the week.
The newsletter I received today contained two articles about the Pahlavi dynasty. The first is titled "Why Royal Family Still Haunts Iranians" and was published on 6 January 2011. The journalist, Azadeh Moaveni, referring to the recent death of the late Shah's youngest son Prince Ali Reza, asks why the former Royal (should be Imperial) Family still fascinates the Iranians.
Well, the activities of the former Imperial Family of Iran certainly are of interest to non-Iranians as well. The Pahlavi pretender to the Iranian throne, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi (titular Shah(ansah) of Iran), who resides in the United States, makes one alternative to the present Iranian dictatorship.
The second article, titled "Iran Reacts to Suicide of the Shah's Son", was published on 5 January 2011, and is also written by Azadeh Moaveni. The journalists writes that the Iranian leadership has tried to eliminate the former Imperial family from public discussion, but has not succeeded.
Following the death of Prince Ali Reza, it is a bit unclear who the current pretender's heir or if there is an heir after all. If the succession law is agnatic, the heir would be Reza Pahlavi's cousin Prince Patrick Ali Pahlavi [Prince Ali Islami], b. 1947. I hope to get more details on the Iranian monarchical constitution and succession law soon. For more information on the Pahlavi Dynasty, you are recommended to visit The Royal Ark.
Reza Pahlavi's other siblings are Princess Shahnaz Pahlavi, b. 1940, and Princess Farahnaz Pahlavi, b. 1963. His youngest sister Princess Leila Pahlavi, b. 1970, died in 2001 and is buried at the Cimetière de Passy in Paris, France.
Reza Pahlavi's mother Empress Farah Diba resides in Paris, France, but also owns a house in the United States.
Updated on Wednesday 19 January 2011 at 20.25 (see comments below).
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Rock in Rio is a series of rock festivals held in Brazil and later in Portugal and Spain. Future festivals are planned in Pozna? (Poland).
Three incarnations of the festival were in Rio de Janeiro, in 1985, 1991 and 2001, four in Lisbon, in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010, and two in Madrid in 2008 and 2010. The shows were organized by entrepreneur Roberto Medina. In 2011, 2013, 2015 Rock in Rio may take place in Pozna? on a reconstructed racing track.
Rock in Rio has been the largest rock festival in the world (1.5 million people in the first edition, 700 thousand in the second, about 1.2 million in the third, and about 350 thousand people in each of the 3 Lisbon editions.
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Oh, Snap! 10 Camera Concepts Focused on Innovation
Despite having been around for a very long time, photography seems to be constantly evolving. Along with digital photography came a whole new generation of incredibly inventive gadgets and concepts, all designed to help us capture the memorable moments in life. Whether your interest is sharing those memories or just hanging onto them forever to look at once in a while, these 10 brilliant cameras are all perfect for capturing memorable moments.
Candid shots can be a mixed bag. Some are adorable and fun, but some are so unflattering as to be truly horrifying. This concept camera designed by Xi Zhu would put final editing power in the hands of the people in the snapshots. There are two pieces to the camera: a lens which stays with the photographer and a preview screen that is handed off to those being photographed. As soon as a picture is taken it pops up on the screen and the subjects in the photo have to choose between deleting or saving it. Terrible pictures never see the light of day, and no one is embarrassed by the shots from last night’s party.
Would you be likely to smile or grimace if you saw a slingshot being aimed at your face? That surprised look is just what the designer behind the Sling Shot Camera was looking for. The silly camera looks a lot like the weapon/toy, but instead of loading it up with a rock and causing trouble you twing the string to activate the shutter. That tiny lens takes a picture of your friends ducking, running for cover or simply looking amazed that you would aim a toy weapon at their faces.
Taking panoramic pictures is not an easy task unless you have specialized equipment. And a full spherical panorama? That’s like the elusive white whale of photography. The Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera could put an end to the difficult nature of panoramas and let everyone join the fun. The camera is shaped like a ball and contains 36 cameras all around its surface. To capture a stunning panorama, you just throw the ball into the air. Special software stitches all of the images together to create one truly stunning photo.
Film cameras have a certain charm, but digital is so much more convenient. This concept, appropriately named Digital Film, would let photographers use old film cameras as digital ones. The device fits onto the back of the camera, just where the film and hinged cover would go. It acts as a USB storage device for the pictures until the photographer is ready to unload the photos. Although it is just a concept, the brilliant little gadget would no doubt find a home with plenty of shutterbugs who dig the old way of taking pictures.
Maybe the most creative camera is the one that isn’t there at all. Air Clicker is a concept camera which uses gestures and tiny finger-mounted devices to take pictures or videos. Making an “L” shape with the fingers and then twitching the forefinger as if clicking a shutter button activates the unusual camera. The pictures are transmitted via Bluetooth to a synced mobile phone, making for a seamless way to photograph memorable moments without always holding a camera or a phone in front of your face.
Vacation photos are always fun, but beach shots seem to be the ones we go back to again and again – especially when the weather turns nasty and we need a sunny reminder of warm days. The UnderAbove concept camera takes photos underwater and above water at the same moment, giving a dual glimpse of your fun beach time. Looking like a fishing bobber, the UnderAbove floats with one camera on the bottom and one on the top. A manual shutter button takes pictures on command, or a timer lets you take group shots with everyone in them. The concept even includes a waterproof screen for instant review of your pics.
Since digital cameras eliminated the processing cost of photos, plenty of people seem to have cameras or phone permanently attached to their faces, snapping away. The Meme camera takes the idea of nonstop documentation to its natural next step with a small, constantly-shooting camera worn around the neck. It has an autocapture mode to constantly take pictures documenting everything you do. A syncronized smartphone receives all of the photos which can later be edited and shared.
We all have at least one of those friends or relatives who, after taking tons of pictures at a gathering, promises to email copies of the photos to everyone…and then never does. The smart little UCIM Camera would let three people share the very same snapshots with no keeping of promises required. The camera holds three USB sticks; whenever a photo is taken it is recorded on all three memory devices. One for you and one for two other people – it’s the perfect way to share!
Although it is hard to imagine a scenario in which anyone would want to stalk photography subjects with a gun-shaped camera instead of a regular one, the inventors of the Kill Shot believe that hunters could be its big market. The camera was invented when two brothers spotted a handsome deer after the end of hunting season. Not wanting to break the law, they put an iPhone up to their gun’s scope to zoom in on the magnificent creature and snap a picture of it. From there the idea grew into a Kickstarter project.
Would all of the hipsters in the house please raise your hands? iPhone photography has been elevated to the heights of an entirely new art form, primarily thanks to apps like Instagram that make even off-the-cuff photos look good. But people who miss the tactile sensation of pushing a button to take photos might love the Gizmon iCa. It is more or less an iPhone case that makes your phone look and function like a cool vintage camera. And unlike the other fine ideas listed here, this one is actually available to buy.
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Members of the Canton Garden Club spent several hours designing floral arrangements on Friday. The group gathered at the Canton Public Library for the floral prep for Saturday's For The Birds! Gala benefiting the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
Although the Canton Garden Club and the Massachusetts Audubon Society are not officially linked, the two nonprofit groups have similar priorities close to their hearts. Many people know that the Mass Audubon Society ranks conservation as a high priority. Folks may be surprised to know that conservation and nature-education are also main goals of the Canton Garden Club.
For many of the Garden Club members, volunteering to arrange the floral centerpieces for the gala is a great way to volunteer for an organization that promotes habitat preservation and conservation that many wild plant and animal species require.
“It’s a win-win situation,” Roxy Gray of Canton said.
Many of the Garden Club members are also members of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, which is holding their annual gala at the Reebok Center in Canton tonight (April 2) at 7:00 p.m. All of the proceeds from the event will support the children’s programming at the Visual Arts Center in Canton.
“It is so important to have the Audubon Society here in Canton," Gray said. “It is a great place for kids to go and have lessons and experience nature.”
The dozen women who arranged the floral centerpieces on Friday afternoon appeared to be in great spirits, as they designed beautiful arrangements with a variety of local flora, including decorative ivy snipped right from one member's garden. Dogwood twigs were freshly cut to serve as perches for little bird figurines that were nestled into each centerpiece. White hydrangeas, bear grass and yellow alstroemeria gave color and depth to the stunning arrangements.
“This is what we are all about,” Lorraine Hatch said.
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If you’re in central Arkansas this weekend, don’t be surprised to see a bright burst of color in the sky. More than two dozen hot air balloons from all across the United States are participating in the Great War Memorial Balloon Race in Little Rock this weekend.
Early this morning, a group of pilots demonstrated their craft along Maumelle Boulevard. Our own Tim Schultz went along for the ride.
Tim and other journalists met the pilots near the Kroger in town. They were driven down to the police station, where the balloons were being prepared for flight. The lightweight fabric of the balloons was carefully rolled out and spread, the baskets prepared and the fires lit. Then off they went.
The sight of four hot air balloons taking off from a field and coasting along Maumelle Boulevard likely caused a little havok with traffic. Tim says there were people who stopped their cars and watched the majestic balloons ride over the thoroughfare.
He rode in a balloon marked EXPERIMENTAL. His pilot informed Tim that he’d made the balloon and kit himself, and was required to share that information.
Tim also says riding in a balloon is sort of like riding in a boat — if one person shifts, the other person or people in the balloon are going to feel that shift. The pilot told him that the direction of the balloon is determined by the distance the balloon is away from the ground — that is, there are shifting wind currents, and the wind blows different ways at different elevations. So if you’ve ever wondered how someone can go up in a balloon and determine where they’re going to land — now you know!
Tim also mentioned that when you come down, the balloon is still traveling laterally (moving in one direction over the ground) so that when you touch down the basket turns too. You combat that by leaning back in the opposite direction.
I have to admit, I am afraid of man-made heights… and I’m not sure I’d be able to get up the gumption to get up in one of those contraptions. But they are gorgeous and delightful, and I sure want to see more of them.
That’s why this is such a great weekend. The Great War Memorial Balloon Race begins this afternoon at four at, you guessed it, War Memorial. There will be a “glow” tonight, where the lit balloons will rise into the sunset… and another one tomorrow night, too. Saturday and Sunday morning there are flights and races, and there will be food and activities on the ground. If you’d like to have the experience of leaving the Earth behind as you soar in a hot air balloon, bring some money — it’s $20 a person for a flight, but oh what a memory. Check out the website for more information. And if you’d like to see video of the flight, you’ll find it on KARK’s Arkansas Matters website.
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Beginner songs to transcribe?
Hi I've just started my hand at transcribing songs and I was wondering how to go about it. I read somewhere that you should look up the chords of the song that you want to transcribe, and then fill it in with arpeggios/scales
Is this the correct way of doing it? Any good easy songs that I can start with? Appreciate any help!
Yes it is easier if we start with the chords. Ask Google to find you some fake chord sheet music on the song you would like to play. Use these key words: Guitar chords, "name of the song" Let's try to find some fake chord sheet music on some ole dirt simple Country songs. http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/j/ja...valley_crd.htm
OK Red River Valley is in the key of A. Key of A has these chords:
1...2....3.......4..5....6........7 Yes I'm using Nashville numbers.
A, Bm, C#m, D, E, F#m, G#m7b5
Let's just work with roots right now. One root note per lyric syllable is a good way to get started. Sing (under your breath is OK) the first two words of the song - From this - and at the lyric word "valley" sound an A note, if fact sound two A notes as val-ley is a two syllable word - sound another A for the lyric word "they" and then on the lyric word "say" change to an E note - keep going - "you" gets an E as does "are" then on the word "go-ing" move to the A root note. Twice as it's a two syllable word. Keep going.
OK it's now a couple of weeks down the road - notice on the music you have a large void between the word going and smile. Here is a good place to add some chord tones besides the root notes. Which ones? Well, the Root, the 5, and the 8 are safe 99.9% of the time. Fill in with those and see how it goes. Remember one note per lyric word - there is not a two syllable word in that lyric phrase so its an easy spot to start building your bass lines. Help yourself to roots, fives and eights, no one saying this could not be R-R-8-8, or R-5-8-5. it's your bass line do what you thinks fits best.
Couple more weeks down the road, help yourself to some of the scale notes. Which ones? The ones that sound good. LOL, I know....... Long story.
Easy songs. Country and old time Rock normally will be three chord songs, that's about as simple as you can get. Stick with chord tones or arpeggios for now, plenty of time later to move into scales. Problem with scales, which notes will sound best. Best left for later. Get chord tones flowing. Now that is not to say that you need not practice your scales. How are you going to play your box while looking at the sheet music - fake chord sheet music has a quick 1-6-5-4 progression coming up, if your fingers do not already know where that 6 is on your fretboard, well...... Yep, still have to do your scales so your fingers know where to go and your ears recognize the good notes from the bad notes.
Wow! Thanks so much for the help! :) I will start work on some country songs basis the info you have given me ASAP! Thanks a tonne
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
PT: Why I Love Poetry
You know, the number of people who love poetry is about the same as the number of people who love to wear Davy Crockett hats. So we are a rare and wonderful people!
I think I was, maybe 9 or 10 when I discovered poetry let you say things you could say no other way, and when I was 15 or so, I found that poetry offered a way of understanding things I never understood before. Poetry sparked a new way of feeling, of insights and images I had never imagined: that someone could write The force that through the green fuse drives the flower/ Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees/ Is my destroyer moved me to tears.
Edna St Vincent was my first love. Dylan Thomas was my second. After that there were suddenly too many to count, like stars on a good night, after the first one or two.
Mary Oliver writes of praying in words I think apply to poetry as well:
It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but a doorway
into thanks, and a small silence in which
another voice may speak.
Like Abbe Joseph says in The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, stretching his hands toward heaven, his fingers like ten lamps of fire, "If you will, you can become all flame." And we all understand what that is like, don't we? And we've all come through the doorway into thanks, and most of us have found the silence in which another voice may speak....
And if this isn't clear enough to be useful to you, stick around. Hopefully one day it will be, and you can become "all flame."
Just pay attention.
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Presented at RCPI Summer Scientific Meeting, May 2006.
CIDR was one of two projects chosen by the Department of Health and the Health Services Executive to be exhibited at the e-Health 2005 Conference in Tromso, Norway, from the 23-24 May 2005. A CIDR exhibition stand was set-up in the exhibition hall and a demonstration was also given on day 2 of the conference.
Presented to the Health Boards from 23rd - 26th February 2004. A series of demonstrations was held for all the Health Boards so that they could have a look at the CIDR system. At these demonstrations people were given a chance to carry out some hands on exercises so that they could get a better understanding of how the system works
Presented to Project Manager E-MIS, Statens Serum Institut, Denmark, February 2004
Presented to Healthcare Informatics Society of Ireland, 8th Annual Conference and Scientific Symposium, 12th - 15th November 2003
Presented at Conference on the Epidemiology and Control of Infectious Diseases and Environmental Hazards, Monday 4th November 2003
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DTE Energy (NYSE:DTE) will allow customers to control energy usage
June 29, 2012. — DTE Energy today lauded a report on advanced meters by the staff of the Michigan Public Service Commission.
The report, issued today, noted that the electromechanical meters now used by utilities, including DTE Energy, are obsolete and out of production. Furthermore, the MPSC staff report said that based on its review of extensive research, advanced meters represent a safe technology and that the health risk is “insignificant.”
“We’re pleased with the staff report as advanced meters are merely the next generation of utility technology,” said Steve Kurmas, president and chief operating officer of Detroit Edison, a subsidiary of DTE Energy. “We are absolutely confident in the health, safety, security and benefits provided by advanced meters.”
DTE Energy has installed more than 800,000 advanced meters in its Southeastern Michigan service area and plans to have 1.2 million meters installed by the end of 2013. Nationwide, more than 25 million advanced meters will be installed by DTE Energy Company (DTE Energy), incorporated in 1995, is a diversified energy company. The Company is engaged in utility operations consist primarily of Detroit Edison and MichCon. the end of next year.
Advanced meters allow DTE Energy to get true meter readings, essentially eliminating estimated bills. The meters also allow the company to quickly locate and reduce the length of power outages, and remotely connect and disconnect service for faster response to customers, eliminating the time that customers have to wait for a technician.
Customers also will be able to track, manage and control their energy usage as a result of timely information provided by the meters. Yet, the MPSC staff report noted there have been numerous comments against the meters.
“We know there is a small – but very vocal – minority of customers who have raised questions about advanced meters,” Kurmas said. “For those who are concerned, we’re developing an option that that will allow customers to ‘opt out’ of the advanced meter program, while allowing the vast majority of our customers to enjoy the benefits afforded by the meters.”
Kurmas added that the opt-out option should be filed with the MPSC within the next 30 days.
SOURCE DTE Energy
For further information: Scott Simons, +1-313-235-8808, firstname.lastname@example.org
Heffernan Capital Management
Business Development Director – Private Client Group,
3 Raffles Place #07-01
Bharat Building Singapore 048617
Tel: +65 6329 6408
Fax: +65 6329 9699
Best Hedge Funds 2013
Working with some of the World’s largest financial institutions HCM’s goal is to provide portfolio returns that exceed the S&P 500 Index benchmark while …
UAE Economy Seeing a Spring Boom
Driven by stable high Crude Oil prices, tourism, diversification and a liberal trade policy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) witnesses an unprecedented …
Singapore Stock Exchange Preview
Shayne Heffernan takes a look at the trading week ahead in Singapore
Short Term: Overbought
Intermediate Term: Bullish
Long Term: Bullish
An engulfing bearish line occurred (where …
The Hot List
Enviro-Serv Inc (OTCMKTS:EVSV), Medical Marijuana Inc (OTCMKTS:MJNA)
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EVSV had a stellar dy yesterday, ut it looks like it is just the begining of big things, good …
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|
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| 0.930337
| 780
| 1.570313
| 2
|
Elaine Maslin, 14th June 2012
The French government has put a stop to offshore drilling, including off French Guiana, in order to review the way permits are issued.
The move puts on hold plans by a consortium led by Shell to drill for oil in four sites 93 miles off the coast of the French territory.
It had been expecting to receive authorisation on Thursday, it was reported.
“I am re-examining all these permits … We include in the review the permit granted to the company Shell in Guiana,” energy Minister Nicole Bricq told reporters at a news conference on the United Nations’ Rio+20 environment summit.
The goal for the new government under Socialist President Francois Hollande is to revise the Napoleonic-era French mining code that governs such matters, because previous reforms of it had barely taken the environment into account, Bricq said.
“The reform of the mining code is launched. It is a subject that will be discussed in the energy debate,” she said.
Shell’s interest in French Guiana is a 45% stake in a consortium with Total, Tullow Oil and Northpet.
Tullow made a discovery in the license now operated by Shell off Guiana last year. It was thought to have the potential to open up a new oil region in the area.
Tullow said its Zaedyus well had confirmed that the geology in the area was similar to that off the coast of west Africa, where Tullow and others have made large discoveries.
It is thought the rock formations were formed before Africa and South America separated many millions of years ago.
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The Day of Infamy. I suppose you could argue that 9-11 has suceeded December 7, 1941 in our national consciousness as the "Day of Infamy"
though the consequences of 9-11 have been much less dramatic and traumatic (except for those on the front lines in the War on Terror). Of both these
"dastardly" acts the words attributed to various Frenchment on the execution of the duc d'Enghien apply:
"It was worse than a crime, it was a blunder!"
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|
The company is joining the growing list of other midstream stream companies to build a cryogenic processing plant.
The DCP plant, being called the Goliad Plant, is calling Goliad County its home.
DCP Midstream and DCP Midstream Partners purchased 381 acres in western Goliad County in 2011 and permitted the property.
The company is ready to build a 200-million-cubic-feet-per-day processing plant on the site.
According to DCP spokesperson Lisa Newkirk, “civil work is currently underway and the plant will be delivered in January 2013.”
The plant will be assembled on site and will come online during the first quarter of 2014.
At the Dec. 10 Goliad Commissioners Court meeting, the court approved the company’s request for a tax abatement.
“The term is 50/50 for a time frame of seven years, beginning in 2013 and running through 2019,” Goliad County Judge David Bowman said in a phone interview.
That means that DCP will only be required to pay half of its taxes for the next seven years, and if the company expands on the property, it will get an abatement on the expansions; but all abatements end in 2019, no matter when or if an expansion was started.
“This will be an attraction not only for them (DCP Midstream) to expand but for other companies to come,” Bowman said. “We want them to feel like we want them here.”
Additionally, DCP can apply for a 15 percent exemption on the total property value for emission or pollution control equipment under the TCEQ rules.
Newkirk said it is typical of a plant this size to need 20 to 25 full-time people to run it, so there will be job opportunities coming.
The y-grade product coming out of this plant will be transferred into the DCP Sand Hills pipeline and transferred to Mount Belvieu for further fraction.
DCP Midstream is not new to the Eagle Ford Shale, and Newkirk said this is the company’s seventh plant to build in the Eagle Ford.
The company also has a large plant in Jackson County.
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Monday, January 21, 2013
Today, in two divide, private ceremonies, President Obama and Vice President Biden were formally sworn into office, smudge the start of the second term. The establishment mandates that the President obtain the oath on January 20. Since that date falls on a Sunday this year, the community investiture observance and celebrations will take place tomorrow, January 21.
President Obama took the oath; manage by Chief Justice John Roberts, in the Blue Room of the White House, using a bible that feel right to First Lady Michelle Obama’s fatherly grandparents.
Vice President Biden was affirmed in by Justice Sonia Sotomayor in front of family and friends in a ritual at the Naval Observatory. Vice President Biden took the promise using the Biden folk’s bible.
The President and Vice President also contribute in a garland laying observance at Arlington National graveyard this morning. Later today, they will attend an initial reception.
The president’s address will set the stage for the strategy objectives he seeks to achieve in his second term, counting speeding up the economic revival, passing comprehensive migration and gun control events and ending the war in Afghanistan. Aides said Obama would keep the particulars of those schedule items for his Feb. 12 State of the Union address.
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BOISE – The temperatures in the Treasure Valley continue to stay low, leaving snow and ice on our city sidewalks.
According to a Boise city ordinance, you must shovel your sidewalks clear of snow. It's your responsibilty.
“Is there a requirement that you shovel your walk after it snows, and the answer is 'yes',” that's according to Adam Park, spokesperson for the City of Boise.
The ordinance says sidewalks must be clear by 9 a.m. It’s also a homeowner’s responsibility to keep it that way if snow continues to fall throughout the day.
Park says a property owner could be cited with a misdemeanor violation if they fail to do so.
He says trying to walk on a sidewalk with snow, versus trying to walk on a sidewalk without it, can mean all the difference to someone.
“For a lot of people, they really cannot pass if there is any kind of snow -- elderly people, people that are maybe disabled,” said Park.
So far, Park says most people are complying with the ordinance this year. However if there is a problem, the city calls out Code Enforcement.
“We can write them a citation and it’s a misdemeanor violation,” said Park. “It doesn’t happen very often but it’s something within the city's capability.”
For Boise, the snow sticking around is not typically an issue.
“Obviously right now we have got a lot of snow that is sticking around,” said Park.
When it comes to the downtown city streets, Park says crews try to keep up on it.
“It’s simply impossible for the city to shovel every walk on every street in the entire city and that is why we ask property owners to do that.”
The city also asks neighbors to help other neighbors by shoveling sidewalks that maybe others can’t.
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When Stuart Feldman purchased a cooperative apartment in Whitestone, Queens, in 1997, it was to provide a home for his parents, Clara and Jerome Feldman who were in their eighties. Three years later, the family had an air conditioner installed in one room although the building had a central cooling system. After another three years, an employee of the cooperative corporation noticed the unit protruding through a brick wall on the apartment’s terrace. Management said the air conditioner was against their rules. The co-op and the Feldmans have fought this issue in and out of court, where it has now ended in a judicial determination and order. In November, the the Feldmans won their case and were awarded legal fees.
Upon learning of the existence of the air conditioner, the management of the Cryder House informed Stuart Feldman that he was in violation of the lease and the building’s rules which prohibited installation of such units. If he did not remove it within five days, he risked having his proprietary lease and ownership of his shares in the co-op terminated; that would lead to the eviction of his parents.
The boards of directors of cooperative housing, which is considered by some to be an ironic description, have enormous control over their buildings and the occupants. They have almost unfettered powers to act in what they determine to be the best interests of the corporation and the shareholders in general, under something recognized by the state’s highest court as “the business judgment rule.” But in this case the Board came up against charges more powerful.
The board was met by a lawsuit commenced by the Feldmans complaining of discrimination. It was alleged that Ms. Feldman was highly allergic and asthmatic but that air conditioning eased her breathing. The absence of purified air, the plaintiffs claimed, interfered with her ability to carry out the “activities of daily living.” The charge was discrimination based on her physical condition, a violation of federal, city and state laws including the federal Fair Housing Act, and the New York State and New York City Human Rights Laws. Her eviction based on her disability or impairment would constitute an unfair housing practice. The plaintiffs argued that even if there was a violation of the building’s rules, it was minor and was outweighed by Ms. Feldman’s medical needs and legal rights. Still, the defendant corporation continued to press for removal of the air conditioner, and, otherwise, removal of the occupants.
A judicial hearing officer appointed by Justice Martin Schulman of Queens Supreme Court agreed with the defendants that the unit was prohibited, and that the Board had never consented to its installation. However, there was no evidence that this caused substantial damages to the building or other residents, who could neither see nor hear the air conditioner, and who had never complained about it. The hearing officer found that while the building does have cooling units; those units do not provide the filtration provided by the air conditioner, and are not in use all year round. He also reported his findings that Ms. Feldman needed air conditioning to protect her from pollen, dust, mold, lint, feathers, and other allergens which caused her to suffer severe headaches, coughing, sneezing, pain, and difficulty in breathing. An expert witness, Dr. Morton Teich, an allergist and immunologist, testified that exposure to such allergens “induced a reaction including local skin reaction, nausea, burning sensation, itchy throat, dry cough and general malaise [because she is] extremely allergic, hyper-reactive and had delayed reactions [which would last for days].” The air conditioning unit, he testified, was medically necessary for Ms. Feldman’s health.
The post-hearing report led to a determination of discrimination in the defendants’ refusal to accommodate Clara Feldman’s medical needs, without which she could not enjoy the apartment in which she resided, as others do enjoy theirs. The business judgment rule may be nearly all-encompassing, but does not permit co-op boards to discriminate, in this case, against residents who have special medical needs.
While not cited by Justice Schulman, the Court of Appeals had previously ruled in a Manhattan case that a midtown co-op’s ban on the installation of washing machines and dryers could not override all circumstances. In that case, Merle Hirschmann v Constantine Hassapoyannes v 20166 Tenants Corp., Et al., an apartment buyer had cancer which necessitated the frequent laundering of his bed linens and undergarments. The State’s highest court found that the installation of the machines was a reasonable accommodation to the plaintiff’s infirmities, and the board could not discriminate by withholding consent despite their rules.
The result in Feldman v Cryder House is that plaintiffs can maintain the air-conditioning unit as long as Ms. Feldman resides in the apartment. The family will then be required to remove it and repair the wall. The co-op corporation was ordered to pay the Feldmans’ legal fees.
Emily Jane Goodman is a New York State Supreme Court Justice
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APEC leaders agree on trade deal outline
Nine APEC countries including Australia have agreed on a framework to eliminate tariffs as soon as possible.
US president Barack Obama announced that the leaders of nine Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries have reached a broad agreement on the free-trade pact - known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - in the Hawaiian capital, Honolulu.
The pact sets out to eliminate all tariffs and introduce new uniform labour and intellectual property standards across the Asia-Pacific. The leaders are aiming to finalise the deal next year.
"With nearly 500 million consumers between us, there is so much more we can do together," Mr Obama said after the meeting of TPP leaders, ahead of the official APEC summit.
"Together we can boost exports and create more goods available for our consumers, create new jobs and compete and win in future markets.
"I'm confident we can get this done."
The pact is a centrepiece of the Obama administration's project of cementing America's role in the Asia-Pacific region, which it believes could secure the country's economic future.
"The United States is a Pacific power and we are here to stay," Mr Obama said after the announcement at a meeting of regional CEOs.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard believes the agreement will benefit Australia's entire economy, particularly primary producers.
"For our farmers this is a very important development," she said.
But Ms Gillard says it is too early to say how the deal will boost Australian jobs and the nation's bottom line.
Officials will now work on the fine print and hope to sign off on the agreement next year.
"That is an important statement of ambition about getting this done," Ms Gillard said.
The nine countries involved are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.
They account for one-quarter of the world's Gross Domestic Product.
Japan has indicated it would like to join the group too but will face pressure from its own farmers who want to keep government subsidies.
However Tokyo's participation means that it could take years to complete the partnership.
Ms Gillard says Tokyo will not be allowed to delay progression of the agreement.
"We don't want that to slow down the pace of development," she said.
Trade Minister Craig Emerson has also been involved in negotiating the TPP agreement.
"We're thrilled that the president of the United States is so keen on this," he said.
Dr Emerson says the economic benefits to Australia will be better understood once the deal is finalised in 2012.
"Realistically you need to wait until the TPP takes shape," he said.
"Economists are wonderful people but they can make things up too.
"And you would be making it up if you did some economic modelling about a concept, and whatever you plugged in you'll get a result on the other side, and everyone will say wow, look at that, isn't it terrific?"
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Sage, mystic and philosopherSwami Omkarananda Saraswati,a direct disciple of the late Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh
Not yet settled in a permanent home, the soul takes temporary shelter in a body. Tirukural, Verse 340
The answers are already within each of us. Good luck matching them with the corresponding questions. Swami Beyondananda
They had no idea who I was other than some weird blond person. We just began to communicate and laugh. Despite the poverty, they're very happy people. I found myself laughing all through India. American actress and staunch Indophile Goldie Hawn on her first trip to India. She daily worships Lord Ganesha.
Yikes! 18-year-old Jyothi Palani upon hearing this complex quote from S. Radhakrishnan: "Any event has an endless past and an endless future, it is never-ending and nowhere-ending. This tantalizing endlessness which marks it as unreal invites the soul to press on to the absolute."
Some pundits in India are like dogs sitting in the grass. They do not eat grass themselves, but won't let hungry cows eat it either. Russian Swami Sadashivacharya complaining about those who don't adhere to the spiritual knowledge they have learned, but still refuse to allow those who are not of their stratum to partake of it.
The only thing I will eat with eyes is a potato. Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the US President, upon entering Stanford University. She recently became a vegetarian.
King Akbar asked Birbal, his Hindu minister, where he gained his vast wisdom. Birbal instantly replied, "From the fools. I observed the actions which rendered one a fool and gave them up. So I got wiser and wiser. There is no dearth of fools and mad men in this world to be my teachers."
Many people in the West are not aware how Hinduism has gradually slipped right into our own culture through the New Age. From a Christian guidebook on how to 'pray for Hindus.'
What do you call a sadhu who can't sew? A "mend-he-cant"
DID YOU KNOW?
According to a new york Times report, scientists recently discovered that the sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) is a heat-producing plant with the remarkable ability to hold its temperature between 85-96 degrees Fahrenheit. Forty lotus flowers generate as much heat as a 40-watt bulb, while 70 can produce as much heat as a person at rest. Scientists are still baffled as to how the lotus manages this.
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A SENIOR member of the Victorian Liberal Party has taken a swipe at the Baillieu government's stewardship of Melbourne's green wedge areas.
In a speech to be made to the Mount Eliza Business School tonight, the federal member for Flinders, Greg Hunt, says ''my father instilled in me the notion that as policymakers, if we fail to think in generational terms then we are in effect stealing the future from our grandchildren. In that context I understand community fears about proposed changes to the state's planning policy and the green wedge, which has enjoyed bipartisan support for 40 years''.
The Baillieu government has extended Melbourne's urban boundary into green wedge areas and is proposing to relax development rules there as part of wider planning changes.
In his speech, Mr Hunt says the Mount Eliza area ''carries with it an historic lesson in terms of leadership and vision''.
He said his father, former state politician Alan Hunt, battled to protect the area in the face of leadership of the party strongly supporting ''clearing away the rural buffer between Mount Eliza and Mornington to allow housing across the area''.
''On the other hand, the local community, much of the planning community and those with a general love of the region felt that this would destroy the peninsula's unique place as a sanctuary and green oasis for all of Melbourne.
''In the end, dad chose the people over the party. Ultimately he won support of then Planning Minister Dick Hamer. The battle was won but his career was deferred. The two then worked to create the green wedges policy, which was formally adopted in 1968 and legislated in 1971,'' he said.
Alan Hunt was later Planning Minister in the Hamer government and helped develop green wedge policies.
The Baillieu government's proposed changes to Victoria's planning zones, including green wedge areas is believed to have generated thousands of submissions. It is unclear if the submissions will be made public.
Planning Minister Matthew Guy said the appointment of a hand-picked advisory committee to review the submissions was part of ensuring the big planning overhaul ''delivers productivity growth and drives investment and liveability outcomes for Victorians''.
The advisory committee will report back to Mr Guy by November 30.
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Nintendo DS handheld device will let gamers play against each other online through a wireless connection.
Nintendo DS' wireless strategy detailed Wednesday that includes letting gamers play against each other online by connecting their devices wirelessly.
DS players have been waiting for the DS, which had been enabled for Wi-Fi, to go wireless for some time. Previously, they could only use the device to play alone and only use games that they had loaded onto the device.
Nintendo said company's online game service 'Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection' will launch on November 14 in the U.S. and in Japan later in November.
The wireless push is part of Nintendo's attempts to secure its lead in the $4.5-billion portable game market, as Sony gains sales with the PlayStation Portable, its own hand held game device.
Using the DS, gamers will be able to challenge each other in games like Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. Offering wireless access would enable the company's portable players to play games online at home or at Nintendo-sponsored or independent hotpots.
From a gamer's home, the DS will be able to connect to an available Wi-Fi connection with a set-up procedure. For gamers that don't have a home Wi-Fi connection but have broadband access, Nintendo will sell a USB (Universal Serial Bus) plug-in device for a home PC that will act as a wireless router for multi-player gaming.
At Nintendo stores in Japan, the company will set up wireless hotspots so that players can begin playing multiplayer online games free as soon as they purchase the DS.
Nintendo will also set up "thousands of free Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection hotpots," across the U.S., and said more details would be announced in the coming weeks.
Sony saw strong sales of the PSP after it went on sale in Japan last December, and in the United States in March. Sony plans to sell 13 million PSPs by 2006.
But Nintendo hopes that wireless will give the Nintendo DS a boost.
The company said other portable devices will get wireless access in the future, as will the company's next generation console the Revolution, which is planned for release in mid-2006.
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…I have compiled 30 ideas for engaging people in your workplace. The workplace is an everyday context where many people spend the majority of their time. It is important for us to know what it looks like to bring gospel intentionality to our jobs. Hopefully this will help spark a few ideas for connecting with and blessing your coworkers.
1. Instead of eating lunch alone, intentionally eat with other co-workers and learn their story.
2. Get to work early so you can spend some time praying for your co-workers and the day ahead.
3. Make it a daily priority to speak or write encouragement when someone does good work.
4. Bring extra snacks when you make your lunch to give away to others.
5. Bring breakfast (donuts, burritos, cereal, etc.) once a month for everyone in your department.
6. Organize a running/walking group in the before or after work.
7. Have your missional community/small group bring lunch to your workplace once a month.
8. Create a regular time to invite coworkers over or out for drinks.
9. Make a list of your co-workers birthdays and find a way to bless everyone on their birthday.
10. Organize and throw office parties as appropriate to your job.
11. Make every effort to avoid gossip in the office. Be a voice of thanksgiving not complaining.
12. Find others that live near you and create a car pool.
13. Offer to throw a shower for a co-worker who is having a baby.
14. Offer to cover for a co-worker who needs off for something.
15. Start a regular lunch out with co-workers (don’t be selective on the invites).
16. Organize a weekly/monthly pot luck to make lunch a bit more exciting.
17. Ask someone who others typically ignore if you can grab them a soda/coffee while you’re out.
18. Be the first person to greet and welcome new people.
19. Make every effort to know the names of co-workers and clients along with their families.
20. Visit coworkers when they are in the hospital.
21. Bring sodas or work appropriate drinks to keep in your break room for coworkers to enjoy. Know what your co-workers like.
22. Go out of your way to talk to your janitors and cleaning people who most people overlook.
23. Find out your co-workers favorite music and make a playlist that includes as much as you can (if suitable for work).
24. Invite your co-workers in to the service projects you are already involved in.
25. Start/join a city league team with your co-workers.
26. Organize a weekly co-working group for local entrepreneurs at a local coffee shop.
27. Start a small business that will bless your community and create space for mission.
28. Work hard to reconcile co-workers who are fighting with one another.
29. Keep small candy, gum, or little snacks around to offer to others during a long day.
30. Lead the charge in organizing others to help co-workers in need.
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The Bible has no answer to this question. We do not the man's name or anything about him, other than that he was a young man.
The importance, then, is not who died, but rather who the murderer was. Lamech was a murderer, just as Cain was. Additionally, we see that Lamech appears to be unrepentant.
It is interesting to note that Cain's response to God's judgment was "My punishment is greater than I can bear". His focus was on his inability to bear up under the punishment for his crime rather than on the horror of his crime. Lamech also appears to refuse to see the evil he has done, choosing rather to wish for an exemption from capital punishment greater than that of Cain.
As an addendum, we know that Lamech did not kill his wife, with whom he was talking, or Abel, who had already been killed previously.
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As I write this (Feb. 12, 2012), genetically modified (GMO) food is making headlines - on Facebook, at least. GMO foods are reportedly being banned in one country after another, with Monsanto and Dow Chemical getting lots of bad press in the process.
The bad news: These reports almost never mention Bill Gates!
This isn’t just irritating (for me, at least); it’s just plain stupid. For those who don’t get it, let me explain.
Criticizing corporate corruption and ranting about various issues is cool, but it isn’t the end game. Criticizing corporate corruption in the abstract may not be a waste of time, but it’s terribly inefficient. How are you going to hold Mr. Corporate Corruption accountable - throw him in jail?
There can be no justice or true reform without accountability, and accountability means naming names. Of course, Bill Gates isn’t the only villain; there are literally millions of people around the world who need a dose of accountability. But some are obviously bigger players than others, and few are bigger than Gates.
In fact, Mr. Phony Philanthropist is probably the biggest spokesman for genetically modified food on the planet. That’s right, the man who thinks he’s God’s gift to education reform and who’s single-handedly vanquishing disease has been telling people that GMO food is the only solution for a hungry planet. Of course, he doesn’t even mention the consequences and tradeoffs; as far as Gates is concerned, there are none.
Bill Gates just wants to make as much money as he can before he dies. Money is the fuel that powers Gates’ megalomania. But this story is bigger than Bill Gates.
Anyone following current events may have heard about a new cold war shaping up between the U.S. and China, with Africa likely one of the major battlegrounds. In fact, the U.S. has long been at war with Africa. Bill Gates and his bastard attorney father were using Africa as one big public relations backdrop long before the U.S. government got all but two or three nations to sign on with George W. Bush’s Africom program, which was officially designed to fight the terrorism that really never existed in Africa to a significant extent.
Libya was one of the countries that never bit the Africom bait. Before he was murdered by NATO, Muammar Gaddafi was developing a vast underground aquifer, threatening to turn Libya - which already boasted one of Africa’s highest standards of living - into Africa’s breadbasket. That would have meant obvious competition for Monsanto and Bill Gates, who are hard at work sewing genetically modified seeds in one African country after another.
Could Monsanto and Bill Gates have played some kind role in the invasion of Libya? Bill Gates certainly never criticized NATO. In fact, Mr. Compassion never has anything to say about war crimes committed by NATO. Is he suffering from compassion fatigue?
And it isn’t just about GMO food. Gates’ obsession with vaccinating the unclean masses he loves to exploit needs to be scrutinized; he wouldn’t be doing it if he didn’t stand to make a lot of money. Mr. Know-It-All is also promoting nuclear energy, especially in China. And the gazillionaire who has probably never reformed a single school in his life is still jerking teachers and students around with his public relations stunts and errant experiments.
To get back to the point, even activists and armchair political junkies are ominously quiet about Bill Gates. Have they succumbed to the corporate media’s 24/7 Bill-Gates-Is-God blitz?
If you write something about GMO food, Monsanto or the de facto recolonization of Africa, do us all a favor and MENTION BILL GATES.
What would help enormously is some good Bill Gates art, like the two pictures at the top of the page. The picture on the left is a classic - and I was beginning to wonder if it might be the last of its kinds. It’s amazingly hard to find even flattering pictures of Gates that are in the public domain.
The picture on the right made my day; it’s the first political satire cartoon I’ve seen that draws a bead on Bill Gates’ vaccine dementia. It proves the maxim a picture is worth a thousand words.
We desperately need similar artwork drawing the connection between Bill Gates and GMO foods, nuclear energy and education deform. We need cartoons that put a little meat on the countless conspiracy theories swirling around Bill Gates - like an image of Bill Gates stabbing Gaddafi in the back.
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Saiva Siddhanta Church
Saiva Siddhanta Church is a progressive institution vowed to uphold its spiritual heritage, derived from the Saivite Hindu traditions of South India and northern Sri Lanka. It is under the spiritual direction of Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami (photo, below), successor to the Church's founder, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (Gurudeva, 1927-2001). We urge members and other devotees to "Know thy Self" through self-inquiry, meditation, traditional temple worship, scriptural study, guru bhakti and selfless service. We strive to bring members, devout shishyas of the guru lineage, into a pure, ethical life and guide them toward enlightenment and a direct consciousness of the Divine within, the necessary preparations for the Vedas' stated ultimate goal: moksha, freedom from rebirth, whence the soul, released from worldly desires, goes on in its evolution unencumbered by a physical body, a continuing unfoldment that finally leads to the complete and irrevocable merger of the soul in God, vishvagrasa. Jiva becomes Siva.
The name Saiva Siddhanta Church means "sacred congregation of Supreme God Siva's revealed Truth." These two Sanskrit words and one English word we consider to be our international trademark. Saiva Siddhanta Church, founded in 1949, was incorporated under the laws of the United States of America in the state of California on December 30, 1957, and received recognition of its US Internal Revenue tax exempt status as a church on February 12, 1962. Among America's oldest Hindu institutions, it established its international headquarters on Kauai, Hawaii, on February 5, 1970. From this Garden Island in the Pacific Ocean, northernmost of the Hawaiian chain that forms the world's most remote land mass, the Church broadly serves the billion-strong Hindu faith (fully one-sixth of the human family). The Church's ministry is dedicated to nurturing the membership and local missions in four continents and to serving, primarily through publications, the community of Hindus throughout the world.
While the Greek-based word church is most commonly understood as a place of worship, the full meaning encompasses the religious congregation and organization on many levels of activity. Church takes on special importance in legal and governmental discussions, where matters of church and state are frequently focused on. In more and more nations, in federal and state governments, religion is defined as church, and the separation of church and state is respected and constitutionally enforced. Such protections, grounded in the concept of church, are crucial to the rights of all religious groups. These include protection from government and from other religions which may seek to dominate faiths with less political power.
At the Church's core is the satguru's ecclesiastical authority and that of the Saiva Swami Sangam, an order of sannyasins who serve full time at Kauai Aadheenam, our international headquarters, ashrama and theological seminary. This is the site of the Kailasa Pitham, the seat of spiritual authority for this ancient guru lineage, formerly located in northern Sri Lanka. Here we protect the purity of the faith and decide matters of education, publication, innovation, theology and Church law.
Over the last half-century, our Church has created a swami order and a theological seminary to train young men from many nations and mold them into religious leaders. We have nurtured an extended family membership that upholds and sets new standards of personal dedication, inner effort, home culture and public protocol in these contemporary times when the diaspora of Hindus has brought them to nearly all countries of the world.
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If you have avoided visiting sites that others have photographed millions of times, maybe it’s time to change your thinking, writes Marc Aguilera. In this post, he shares his favorite images from his first trip to Death Valley, California.
MagCloud is an HP company that makes it very easy to publish your own magazines, brochures, catalogs, portfolios, and flyers. In this article, Wayne Cosshall describes his own experiences using MagCloud to produce a printed version to go with his Digital Imagemaker international (DIMi) website for photographers, artists, and other contemporary image makers.
Proper backup, storage, and archiving are the best protection against losing your images, writes David Saffir. In Part 2 of this three-part series, David explains how to label your images to your images easier to find after you’ve stored them on a DVD, external hard drive, or in the cloud.
If you treat the camera in your iPhone as a toy, Wayne Cosshall reminds you that “out of play comes some great creativity.” He lists some compelling reasons to join other professional photographers in making the iPhone part of your real photographic process.
Proper backup, storage, and archiving are the best protection against losing your images, writes David Saffir. The right approach can also make it easier to find them when needed. In Part 1 of this three-part series, David explains talks about options for storing your images.
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By Abbey LeRoy
CIU Student Writer
When classes begin at Columbia International University on Aug. 21, more than a dozen new CIU students will be in prison. That’s because CIU is expanding its successful Prison Initiative to female inmates in the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
The mission of the CIU Prison Initiative is to train inmates to live in accordance with biblical principles and to equip them for the unique ministry opportunities afforded by their incarceration.
Since its inception in 2007, the CIU Prison Initiative has graduated three cohorts of 15 men each. They earn an accredited Associate of Arts degree from CIU, and are then assigned to prison facilities throughout the state as chaplain’s assistants.
A program for women has been envisioned for some time, but was not feasible until a recent financial gift provided sufficient resources to make it a reality. The initiative is entirely donor funded, as the law prohibits inmates from receiving state or federal aid.
CIU professor Dr. David Osterlund, who has led the men’s Prison Initiative since its inception, is spearheading the women’s initiative alongside Associate Warden Stanley Leaks. Classes will be held at the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution, part of the sprawling men’s and women’s prison facilities directly across the Broad River from CIU.
Osterlund says the value of the Prison Initiative is twofold as it focuses on educating inmates and preparing them for a unique ministry, “within the walls.”
“The introduction of the women’s program completes a dream for men, and now women who desire to participate in this life-changing work,” Osterlund said.
Following the same curriculum as the men’s initiative, the women will earn 69 undergraduate credits over a two-year, six-semester track, under the teaching of CIU faculty and staff. Math, English, history and psychology courses form the general education core, Bible and theology will account for nearly half of the credits, with ministry skills classes rounding out the program.
Working under the supervision of prison chaplains, graduates will lead Bible studies, coordinate worship services, and provide hospice care, as well as other ministry opportunities at the chaplain’s discretion.
For more on the CIU Prison Initiative go to: http://www.ciu.edu/prison-initiative. .
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A team of 3 students from Garden Grove High School, two of whom are Viet, won 2nd place in the annual Popsicle Stick Bridge Contest sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers – metro L.A branch, announced the GGUSD in a press release.
The team, consisting of Kalin Zaluzec, Steven Chau (second from left in photo) and Scott Nguyen (right) from the school’s Math, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Club won second overall.
There were 39 teams participating in the contest, where they’re supposed to build model bridges using Popsicle sticks. The bridge’s strength is determine by the weight of the load each bridge sustained before collapsing.
The GGHS group – calling itself “We, Team” – scored 87.32, behind first place winner North HS’s 95.20. See the results on ASCE’s web site here.
We, Team placed 1st in presentation and 2nd in technical report. Their bridge was also judged 4th in strength, but apparently it wasn’t so good looking. The judges ranked the bridge 30th place in aesthetics.
The team’s faculty adviser id their math teacher on special assignment, Sunny Costello.
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‘I Heart Marysville’ cleans up schools, fields
By KIRK BOXLEITNER
Marysville Globe Reporter
August 22, 2012 · 10:40 AM
MARYSVILLE — Less than a couple of weeks after complaints about unkempt schools were made in Marysville, close to 100 volunteers descended upon Grove Elementary and Marysville-Pilchuck High School, as well as an assortment of local parks and Little League fields, to show how much they care about their community.
“I Heart Marysville,” a campaign led by the Marysville First Assembly Church, worked volunteers for full-day shifts from Monday, Aug. 6, through Friday, Aug. 10, at Grove Elementary to clear out thistles and weeds, as well as trim back and tend overgrown landscaped plants. At M-PHS, teams repainted the building exteriors, while the Little League fields’ dugouts were re-roofed and repaired, and their scoreboards were cleared of graffiti. While the Marysville School District supplied beauty bark and trucks to collect waste, in addition to supervision from maintenance staff, the actual labor was conducted by crews of volunteers who were often young enough to be students themselves, albeit not quite young enough to be attending Grove Elementary.
“The schools can’t do it for themselves,” said Bailey Downey, 13, when asked why she sacrificed her summer vacation to sweat in the sun.
“It’s good to do work for the community,” agreed Natalie Cormier, 12, as they joined 12-year-old Emily Hoot in dumping weeds and brush clippings into the district’s truck.
Evan Westfield, 19, and Joshua Harris, 17, both believe that such works are ways of putting their religious beliefs into practice.
“We show God’s love by serving the community,” Westfield said.
“It really is, ‘What Would Jesus Do?’” Harris said.
“It’s up to us to make these kids feel welcome, in their schools and on their play fields,” said Cody Hjort, 15. “We have to show some initiative, because we’re the older kids, so we’re setting the example for them.”
Marysville First Assembly Children’s Pastor Fawnda Faucett emphasized that this week of cleanup was planned as far back as October of last year, so the timing of its start with the news stories about Grove was purely coincidental.
“Our church is part of this community,” Faucett said. “We live here, work here and send our kids to school here, so we want it to look better.”
Contact Marysville Globe Reporter Kirk Boxleitner at email@example.com or 360-659-1300 Ext. 5052.
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UN draws up new list of Syria war crimes suspects
A UN commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria says it has drawn up a new secret list of Syrians and units suspected of war crimes.
Lead investigator Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said they had gathered a "formidable and extraordinary body of evidence".
He also urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has said armed rebels are torturing detainees and carrying out summary executions.
But violations by government forces were more widespread, it added.'Alarming' Islamist presence
The Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria was set up by the UN Human Rights Council last year following an escalation of violence.
In August, the commission reported that systematic violations, including murder, torture and sexual violence, had been authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government.
End Quote Paulo Sergio Pinheiro UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria
The commission considers it improper to publicly release the names due to the lower standard of proof employed by commissions of inquiry as compared to a court of law”
Opposition forces were also guilty of war crimes, it found, but not of the same gravity or on the same frequency or scale as those blamed on government forces.
It also concluded that government forces and pro-government militiamen had been behind the massacre of 108 people at Houla in May.
On Monday, the commission told a meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva that it had drawn up a "second confidential list of individuals and units believed to be responsible for violations".
Asked why the investigators would not name the suspects, he explained: "The commission considers it improper to publicly release the names due to the lower standard of proof employed by commissions of inquiry as compared to a court of law."
Another list was submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, in February.
The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has urged the Human Rights Council to act, but it is not able to impose sanctions or order peacekeeping missions.
Mr Pinheiro also said there was an "increasing and alarming presence" of Islamist militants in Syria, some of whom were operating as part of the Free Syrian Army and others operating independently.
"Such elements tend to push anti-government fighters towards more radical positions," he added.'Summary executions'
As Mr Pinheiro spoke, Human Rights Watch reported that rebel groups had carried out extrajudicial or summary executions in the north-western provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, and Idlib.
The group said a research mission sent to Syria last month had documented 12 cases of extra-judicial and summary executions. In particular, it focused on the alleged killing by the Free Syrian Army of four members of the al-Barri family.
Two members of the Aleppo Province Revolutionary Council claimed a local judicial council had tried and sentenced the men to death, but HRW said the haste with which they were executed made a fair trial appear impossible.
When confronted with evidence of extrajudicial executions, three opposition leaders told HRW that those who killed deserved to be killed, and that only the worst criminals were being executed.
"Declarations by opposition groups that they want to respect human rights are important, but the real test is how opposition forces behave," said Nadim Houry, HRW's deputy Middle East director. "Those assisting the Syrian opposition have a particular responsibility to condemn abuses."
Meanwhile, Der Spiegel reports that the Syrian army has been testing carrier systems for poison gas grenades in the desert south-east of the city of Aleppo.
The German magazine cited witnesses as saying that five or six empty grenades intended for chemical combat agents had been fired by tanks and planes at a facility near Safira. Iranian military personnel were flown in to observe the tests, the witnesses added.
On Monday, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IGRC) for the first time publicly acknowledged that it was operating in Syria.
But Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari said that members of the IRGC's elite overseas operations arm, the Quds Force, were serving only as advisers and it did not mean Iran was not conducting military activities there.
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Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Chairman
Rep. Christopher H. Smith, Co-Chairman
August 24, 2001
HELSINKI COMMISSIONERS PLAY KEY ROLE IN UNITED STATES
DELEGATION TO THE OSCE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY
Leaders and Members of the United States Helsinki Commission played a key role as part of the U.S. delegation to the Tenth Annual Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe hosted by the French National Assembly July 6-10, 2001. The U.S. delegation successfully promoted measures to improve the conditions of human rights, security and economic development throughout Europe.
Commission Chairman Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO) and Co-Chairman Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) led eight of their Commission colleagues and five other Representatives on the delegation, the largest of any nation participating in the 2001 Assembly.
The size of the 15-Member U.S. delegation was a demonstration of the continued commitment by the United States, and the U.S. Congress, to Europe.
Commission Members from the Senate participating in the Assembly were Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH). Commission Members from the House of Representatives included Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD), Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R-PA), Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN),Rep. Louise McIntosh Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL).
Other delegates from the House of Representatives were Rep. Michael McNulty (D-NY), Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Rep. Ed Bryant (R-TN), Rep. Joseph Hoeffel (D-NY) and Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO).
The central theme of OSCE PA´s Tenth Annual Session was "European Security and Conflict Prevention: Challenges to the OSCE in the 21st Century."
This year's Assembly brought together nearly 300 parliamentarians from 52 OSCE participating States, including the first delegation from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia following Belgrade's suspension from the OSCE process in 1992. Seven countries, including the Russian Federation and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, were represented at the level of Speaker of Parliament or President of the Senate.
Following a decision made earlier in the year, the Assembly withheld recognition of the pro-Lukashenka National Assembly given serious irregularities in Belarus' 2000 parliamentary elections. In light of the expiration of the mandate of the democratically-elected 13th Supreme Soviet, no delegation from the Republic of Belarus was seated.
The inaugural ceremony included welcoming addresses by the OSCE PA President Adrian Severin, Speaker of the National Assembly Raymond Forni, and the Speaker of the Senate Christian Poncelet. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hubert Védrine also addressed delegates during the opening plenary. The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, presented remarks and responded to questions from the floor.
Other senior OSCE officials also made presentations, including the OSCE Secretary General, the High Commissioner on National Minorities, the Representative on Freedom of the Media, and the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
The 2001 OSCE PA Prize for Journalism and Democracy was presented to the widows of the murdered journalists José Luis López de Lacalle of Spain and Georgiy Gongadze of Ukraine. The Spanish and Ukrainian journalists were posthumously awarded the prize for their outstanding work in furthering OSCE values.
Members of the U.S. delegation played a leading role in debate in each of the Assembly's three General Committees - Political Affairs and Security; Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment; and Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions.
Resolutions sponsored by Commissioners on the U.S. delegation served as the focal point for discussion on such timely topics as "Combating Corruption and International Crime in the OSCE Region," by Chairman Campbell; "Southeastern Europe," by Senator Voinovich; "Prevention of Torture, Abuse, Extortion or Other Unlawful Acts" and "Combating Trafficking in Human Beings," by Co-Chairman Smith; "Freedom of the Media," by Mr. Hoyer; and "Developments in the North Caucasus," by Mr. Cardin.
Senator Hutchison played a particularly active role in debate over the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in the General Committee on Political Affairs and Security, chaired by Mr. Hastings, which focused on the European Security and Defense Initiative.
An amendment Chairman Campbell introduced in the General Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment on promoting social, educational and economic opportunity for indigenous peoples won overwhelming approval, making it the first ever such reference to be included in an OSCE PA declaration. Other U.S. amendments focused on property restitution laws, sponsored by Mr. Cardin, and adoption of comprehensive non-discrimination laws, sponsored by Mr. Hoyer.
Chairman Campbell sponsored a resolution calling for lawmakers to enact specific legislation designed to combat international crime and corruption. The resolution also urged the OSCE Ministerial Council, expected to meet in the Romanian capital of Bucharest this December, to consider practical means of promoting cooperation among the participating States in combating corruption and international crime.
Co-Chairman Smith sponsored the two resolutions at the Parliamentary Assembly. Smith's anti-torture resolution called on participating States to exclude in courts of law or legal proceedings evidence obtained through the use of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Smith also worked with the French delegation to promote a measure against human trafficking in the OSCE region.
Amendments by members of the U.S. delegation on the General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions focused on the plight of Roma, Mr. Smith; citizenship, Mr. Hoyer; and Nazi-era compensation and restitution, and religious liberty, Mrs. Slaughter.
The Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution sponsored by Mr. Hoyer which called on all OSCE States to ensure freedom of speech and freedom of the press in their societies. Hoyer said an open, vibrant and pluralistic media is the cornerstone of democracy. He noted that free press is under attack in some OSCE countries.
Senator Voinovich sponsored a comprehensive resolution promoting greater stability in Southeast Europe. Senator Voinovich's resolution pushed for a political solution to the violence and instability which has engrossed Southeastern Europe.
Mrs. Slaughter successfully sought measures toward protecting religious liberties and recognizing the importance of property restitution. An amendment noted that OSCE participating States have committed to respecting fundamental religious freedoms. Another amendment recognized that attempts to secure compensation and restitution for losses perpetrated by the Nazis can only deliver a measure of justice to victims and their heirs.
Mr. Cardin sponsored a resolution on the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation which denounced the excessive force used by Russian military personnel against civilians in Chechnya. The resolution condemns all forms of terrorism committed by the Russian military and Chechen fighters. One of Cardin's amendments addressed the restitution of property seized by the Nazis and Communists during and after World War II.
Mr. Hastings was elected to a three-year term as one of nine Vice Presidents of the Parliamentary Assembly. Mr. Hastings most recently served as Chairman of the Assembly's General Committee on Political Affairs and Security.
U.S. pariticpants also took part in debate on the abolition of the death penalty, an issue raised repeatedly during the Assembly and in discussions on the margins of the meeting.
The Paris Declaration of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is available on the Internet at http://www.osce.org/pa
While in Paris, members of the delegation held a series of meetings, including bilateral sessions with representatives from the Russian Federation, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom, and Kazakhstan.
Members also met with the President of the French National Assembly to discuss diverse issues in U.S.-French relations including military security, agricultural trade, human rights and the death penalty. During a meeting with Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, Members discussed the United States' proposal of a strategic defense initiative, policing in the former Yugoslavia, and international adoption policy.
Members also attended a briefing by legal experts on developments affecting religious liberties in Europe. A session with representatives of American businesses operating in France and elsewhere in Europe gave members insight into the challenges of today's global economy.
Elections for officers of the Assembly were held during the final plenary. Mr. Adrian Severin of Romania was re-elected President. Senator Jerahmiel Graftstein of Canada was elected Treasurer.
Three of the Assembly's nine Vice-Presidents were elected to three-year terms: Rep. Alcee Hastings (USA), Kimmo Kiljunen (Finland), and Ahmet Tan (Turkey). The Assembly's Standing Committee agreed that the Eleventh Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will be held next July in Berlin, Germany.
En route to Paris, the delegation traveled to Normandy for a briefing by United States Air Force General Joseph W. Ralston, Commander in Chief of the U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe. General Ralston briefed the delegation on security developments in Europe, including developments in Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
At the Normandy American Cemetery, members of the delegation participated in ceremonies honoring Americans killed in D-Day operations. Maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission, the cemetery is the final resting place for 9,386 American service men and women and honors the memory of the 1,557 missing. The delegation also visited the Pointe du Hoc Monument honoring elements of the 2nd Ranger Battalion.
The United States Helsinki Commission, an independent federal agency, by law monitors and encourages progress in implementing provisions of the Helsinki Accords. The Commission, created in 1976, is composed of nine Senators, nine Representatives and one official each from the Departments of State, Defense and Commerce. Additional information about the Commission is available on the Internet at http://www.csce.gov
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Freedom of the Media
Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion or Belief
Prevention of Torture
Trafficking in Human Beings
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While you might consider a bassinet, cradle, or bedside sleeper at first (some common alternatives for your baby's first four months or so), your child is safest in a crib. Certification by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Associate on a bassinet can offer a layer of protection that uncertified models cannot, but a JPMA label is no guarantee of safety. We don't recommend bedside sleepers (also referred to as "co-sleepers") at all because there are neither voluntary nor mandatory standards covering them. This crib guide will help you to make your buying decision.
Basic is best
The safest cribs are basic, with simple lines and no scrollwork or finials-infants can strangle if their clothing gets caught in such detail work. Heeding this advice will get you a safer crib-and save you money. New Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations for full-size and portable cribs require the elimination of drop-side models that have been related to at least 32 deaths over the past few years. The standards also include rigorous new durability testing, and require improved warnings and labeling. Consumer Reports' tests, which are based on the previous safety standards, do not address the durability issues addressed by the newer durability standards.
If possible, avoid buying or accepting a used crib. Older models might not meet current safety standards or might be in disrepair. If you must use an older crib, avoid those built before 2000, about a year after the latest voluntary standards for slat-attachment strength took effect. By law, the production date of the crib has to be displayed on the crib and on its shipping carton.
Still, be on the lookout for safety hazards. Even when you're buying new, bring a ruler with you when you shop. If the spaces between the slats--or anywhere else on the crib--are greater than 2 inches (2.375 inches) wide, they are too far apart. If you buy online, measure any openings immediately when the crib arrives at your home.
Check for sharp edges and protruding screws, nuts, corner posts, decorative knobs, and other pieces that could catch a baby's clothing at the neck. Buying new could help to protect your baby from hidden dangers such as drop sides, slats, or hardware that might have been weakened by rough use, or excessive dampness or heat during storage.
Check construction and workmanship
The simplest in-store test is to shake the crib slightly to see if the frame seems loose. But be aware that display models aren't always as tightly assembled as they could be. Without applying excessive pressure, try rotating each slat to see if it's well secured to the railings. You shouldn't find loose bars on a new crib, or any cracking if they are made of wood.
Buy the mattress at the same time
In the store, pair the mattress and crib you plan to buy to make sure that they're a good fit. (Mattresses typically are sold separately.) By law, a mattress used in a full-size crib must be at least 27 1/4 inches wide by 51 5/8 inches long and no more than 6 inches thick. Still, do a quick check. If you can place more than two fingers between the mattress and the crib frame, the fit isn't snug enough.
Arrange for assembly
Cribs are shipped unassembled, so if you're not sure that you can put a crib together correctly (typically a two-person job that requires up to an hour-from unpacking to complete assembly), ask the retailer to send a qualified assembly crew to your home. That can cost an extra $70 or more unless assembly is included in the retail price, but it can give you valuable peace of mind. Besides saving tempers and fingers, crib assembly by the store allows you to inspect the crib on the spot-and reject it if you discover flaws.
Assemble the crib or have it assembled where your baby will be sleeping initially, such as in your bedroom (recommended for your baby's first six months). Once it's put together, the crib might not fit through a small doorway, and you might need to disassemble and reassemble it in your baby's nursery six months later. Having the baby in your room might not be convenient, but you'll have the reassurance that your baby is sleeping in the safest possible place.
Adjust the mattress to the right height
Most cribs have this feature, some with only three levels and some with several levels. The higher levels make it easier to take your infant out of the crib but become dangerous when your child is able to pull herself to a standing position. Before your child reaches that stage-about 6 months-the mattress should be at its lowest setting. Bumper pads and large toys help your little escape artists to climb out, which is another reason that they don't belong in the crib.
Place your baby's crib well away from windows, window blinds, wall hangings, curtains, toys, and other furniture so that an adventurous baby can't get to anything dangerous.
For safety's sake, monitor your child's development closely and stop using a crib as soon as your toddler can climb out. At that point, consider a toddler bed with child railings or put the mattress on the floor. Don't put your child back into the crib after the first "escape," regardless of his age. A child attempting to climb out of a crib can fall and be seriously injured.
Use the proper sheets
When buying the mattress, make sure you also buy sheets that fit. If a sheet isn't the correct fit, your baby might pull it up and become entangled. Test the sheet by pulling up on each corner to make sure it doesn't pop off the mattress corner.
After you crib has been in use for awhile, make sure to check all the hardware periodically and tighten or replace anything that's missing or loose. Missing and loose parts are a leading cause of accidents and death, because they can create gaps where a baby can wedge his head and neck, and suffocate or strangle. Tighten all nuts, bolts, and screws. Check mattress supportattachments regularly to make sure none of them are bent or broken. If you move a crib, double-check that all support hangers are secure.
Let your baby sleep unencumbered. Don't wrap your bundle of joy in blankets or comforters when he's in the crib. He can quickly become entangled and might not be able to free himself. Pillows, quilts, comforters, sheepskins, stuffed animals, or dolls don't belong in the bassinet or crib. And remember that babies can quickly overheat. Put yours to sleep in lightweight clothes and set the thermostat at a comfortable 70 degrees. Infant sleepwear should fit snuggly and be made of flame-resistant fabric, with no drawstrings, ribbons, or anything else that might catch on something. Buttons and snaps should be firmly attached to avoid becoming a choking hazard.
Always put your baby to sleep on his back, not his stomach, to minimize the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and rebreathing, a sometimes fatal circumstance that can occur when a baby is sleeping on his stomach or trapped in soft bedding. As a result the child "rebreathes" his own carbon dioxide rather than breathing in oxygen-rich fresh air. The lack of oxygen can cause death.
Don't use a sleep positioner to keep your baby on his or her back. Many sleep positioner models, including some made of memory foam, can be lethal. If the infant moves down and presses his or her face against the soft surface, the air passages can be blocked, causing suffocation.
Copyright © 2006-2012 Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. No reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission.
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Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Ladybird - Leikiten - Leppäkerttu
Well, here's one true classic, covered many times all over the world. Lasse Mårtenson and Marjatta Leppänen were the first to cover this song in Finnish. They recorded "Leikiten" (Easy as a child's play) in 1968 and it was minor hit. Lasse we have met many times before but now we hear Marjatta's voice for the first time. She began her recording career already in 1961, had some hits in the 60's and 70's but she gradually turned more and more into performinmg in stage shows and doing televison work. The song was re-covered in 1989 when Anna Hanski (see previous entry) with Pekka Kaasalainen (singer/guitarist from the group Vilperin Perikunta) recorded it with different lyrics titled as "Leppäkerttu" (Ladybird). The original song "Ladybird" was written by Lee Hazlewood and performed by him and Nancy Sinatra. It was a smash hit for them worldwide even if the song stayed at number 20 in the US charts in 1967. As a bonus we present the 1993 version by Anna Hanski and Lee Hazlewood from their album "Gypsies And Indians".
Here's the bunch:
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where are quality net resources for learning about how musical theory applies to jazz? for instance what sort of tunes use a mixolodian scale, or unusual guitar tuning, strange timing, etc.
i want to expand my understanding of theory in jazz compositions
posted by edtut
on Nov 22, 2008 -
I'd like to listen to some rhythmic jazzy stuff in the same genre as the Grim Fandango soundtrack and Fallout 3's Galaxy News Radio tracklist (in particular: Crazy He Calls Me, Easy Living - Billie Holiday; Civilization - Danny Kaye; Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall - Ella Fitzgerald; I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire - The Ink Spots; A Wonderful Guy - Tex Beneke). Need album suggestions!
posted by archagon
on Nov 19, 2008 -
I really like the jazz trio Medeski, Martin, and Wood, especially their song "End of the World Party" (http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=6354e115f8) Do you know any songs or artists with a similar style? I'm getting a little tired of listening to the same songs over and over.
posted by Maia
on Nov 9, 2008 -
I have a few hundred jazz albums on MP3 in my iTunes library. I'd to add the names of the sidemen on the albums to the MP3's comment tags, but I'd rather not enter the info manually, for obvious reasons. Is there any form of script or program that exists that will do this for me -- perhaps pulling from Amazon, or some other source? (Prefix this with, "Hey, Lazyweb," if desired.) [more inside]
posted by tweebiscuit
on Nov 6, 2008 -
Ultimate Thanksgiving music set: Help me find as many food-referential jazz, blues, jump-blues, swing, and generally dance-y songs as possible.
posted by the luke parker fiasco
on Nov 6, 2008 -
Years ago I had one of those "greatest album covers" books, and there was one (a jazz LP, I believe) that featured a gorgeous black and white photo of a woman floating in a lake or river, wearing a white dress, with only her face above water (the photo was taken benearth the surface, so her face wasn't visible). There was no writing of any kind on the cover. Anyway, I've been trying to find out which album that is for years now (the book is long gone), to no avail. Does this ring any bells with anyone?
posted by The Card Cheat
on Oct 21, 2008 -
Does anyone know [the] lyrics to "Donna Lee"? Yes, I know it's an instrumental, thanks. [more inside]
posted by lothar
on Oct 1, 2008 -
Can you recommend a currently active jazz (or other) ensemble that features a particularly spiffy trombone player? [more inside]
posted by Morrigan
on Sep 22, 2008 -
The drums in the Mad Men
theme drive me, um, mad! Where can I get more? [more inside]
posted by COBRA!
on Sep 12, 2008 -
If a guy thrills to the "Ed Wood" soundtrack, music from the old "Batman" (Adam West) series, the soundtracks to "The Incredibles" and "The Pink Panther," what else would he like?
posted by grumblebee
on Jul 11, 2008 -
Should we go to Montreal during the Jazz Festival? Or will it be "too crowded" if we're not super-into jazz? [more inside]
posted by uncleozzy
on Jun 16, 2008 -
OK, I guess I am somewhat embarrassed to admit I have just been introduced to jazz, a genre of music I have never been interested in or listened to before. It was like an explosion of pleasure went off in my head and I discovered that I love it and want to right the wrongs that I have done to myself. [more inside]
posted by 543DoublePlay
on Jun 2, 2008 -
I've got tickets to the Sonoma Jazz Festival that I can't use. Have any tips on getting ride of them? [more inside]
posted by jaybeans
on May 22, 2008 -
I'm for looking non-karaoke instrumentals to sing over, preferably free. Ideally someone just playing an acoustic guitar or piano with no vocals, limited frills and high recording quality, either jazzy standards or pop. It's actually pretty hard to find all three at once on youtube and other such sites, so I thought I'd give Mefi a shot. Somebody must have a collection...any ideas?
posted by StrikeTheViol
on May 17, 2008 -
I'm looking for a photo of a Wendy's Jazz Cap, or even just first-hand recollections of them. These were apparently some type of multicolored painter's cap sold at Wendy's establishments in the late 80's(possibly 1988ish). There seems to be no trace of their existence online. Phone calls to the Wendy's Customer Service hotline have come back with a "try eBay" response. A few good but ultimately fruitless tries to track one down can be found on the comments to my blog
. Any information, photos, or recollections would be very much appreciated.
posted by extraface
on Feb 28, 2008 -
Dark Continent music: I have this archetype in my head of lounge/jazz/big band music from the 40s and 50s that drew upon stereotypes of african adventure. Exotica definitely. Please help me find some! [more inside]
posted by Large Marge
on Feb 12, 2008 -
So, let's just assume I got an internship for this small radio station and I want to start a segment introducing listeners to great Jazz music in movies - can be both specifically written/performed for the particular movie or a song/track that existed previously and was used prominently in the movie. [more inside]
posted by waldlaeufer
on Jan 27, 2008 -
Seattle area jazz/swing bands
(for a wedding reception)? Google offers a big-ass list. But you have thoughtful, intelligent recommendations. Please to hope me?
posted by fatllama
on Jan 7, 2008 -
We're about to purchase the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross CD "Sing a Song of Basie", but need to know if John Hendricks lyrics are included in the remastered CD liner notes.
We know that they were there with the original vinyl, but online retailers are annoyingly vague about the CD.
Does anyone have this CD? Could you let me know?
posted by iTristan
on Jan 6, 2008 -
JazzMe. I want to like jazz more but feel quickly overwhelmed by the genre so I'd like your recommendations, particularly for the albums you come back to time and again, the ones you listen to because you love, not because you feel you ought to. So far Kind of Blue
is the only thing that's really stuck, not that I'm trying to find another KoB
, just your favorites. [more inside]
posted by 6550
on Jan 1, 2008 -
Is this piece of music, used in the film 'Forget Paris', just incidental music or a well known piece of jazz? If it is well known, what is it?
(starts around 2:53) [mild expletive warning for the clip]
I bought the soundtrack, composed by Marc Shaiman, and it's not on there.
posted by Ulleskelf
on Dec 28, 2007 -
Help me identify the LAST unknown songs on my Itunes. Mostly jazz, some blues and one or two pop songs. [more inside]
posted by rileyray3000
on Dec 11, 2007 -
As happens about once a year, my dear boy has lately been stuck hard on Dave Brubeck. I love Time Out as much as he does, but I’m getting a little burned out. What other artists of albums might he enjoy? [more inside]
posted by mostlymartha
on Dec 10, 2007 -
Jazz-heads - help me fill out my Xmas wish-list. Especially seeking those with rec's for (say) quartets to octets featuring Baritone Sax, Trombone, and/or strong and prominent rhythm sections. [more inside]
posted by Ufez Jones
on Dec 2, 2007 -
Hi, folks! I'd just like to ask, out of curiosity, which wind instruments (especially brass) require the least effort and wind. I'm thinking of taking up something, but proper breathing is not my strong suit and I'm looking for something less taxing to build it up on. Any help with this query will be most appreciated!
posted by Buddy-Rey
on Oct 10, 2007 -
Help me identify a great French-language radio station I heard broadcasting near Seattle, WA, or Victoria or Vancouver, BC. [more inside]
posted by Mid
on Sep 29, 2007 -
All-ages venues in SF for Sunday and Monday nights -- what are our options? Give me whatever you've got. [more inside]
posted by rossination
on Sep 15, 2007 -
Where can I find a transcription of Take Love Easy by Joe Pass and Ella Fitzgerald? [more inside]
posted by winterhat
on Aug 26, 2007 -
Where can I download early jazz songs? 1900-1930s? I've seen a site that has a number of them in RealAudio, but I'd prefer something I can easily load on my iPod. I am hoping that many of these are in The Public Domain. Still, I'd pay.
posted by tcv
on Aug 12, 2007 -
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S.1790 - Indian Health Care Improvement Reauthorization and Extension Act of 2009
A bill to amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to revise and extend that Act, and for other purposes. view all titles (3)
All Bill Titles
- Official: A bill to amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to revise and extend that Act, and for other purposes. as introduced.
- Short: Indian Health Care Improvement Reauthorization and Extension Act of 2009 as introduced.
- Short: Indian Health Care Improvement Reauthorization and Extension Act of 2009 as reported to senate.
This Bill currently has no wiki content. If you would like to create a wiki entry for this bill, please Login, and then select the wiki tab to create it.
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Official Summary12/16/2009--Reported to Senate amended. Indian Health Care Improvement Reauthorization and Extension Act of 2009 - Title I: Indian Health Care Improvement Act Reauthorization and Amendments - (Sec. 101) Amends the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to authorize appropriations to carry out
Official Summary12/16/2009--Reported to Senate amended. Indian Health Care Improvement Reauthorization and Extension Act of 2009 - Title I: Indian Health Care Improvement Act Reauthorization and Amendments -
(Sec. 101)Amends the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to authorize appropriations to carry out the Act. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to maintain model diabetes projects in existence on October 29, 1992, and located in specified places.
(Sec. 103)Replaces the Act's declaration of health objectives with a declaration of national Indian health policy. Subtitle A: Indian Health Manpower -
(Sec. 111)Requires development and operation of a Community Health Aide Program in the state of Alaska. Allows establishment, through the Indian Health Service (Service), of a national Community Health Aide Program in accordance with the Alaskan program. Excludes dental health aide therapist services from the national program.
(Sec. 112)Authorizes funding of demonstration programs for Indian health programs to address chronic shortages of health professionals. Subtitle B: Health Services -
(Sec. 121)Revises provisions concerning the Indian Health Care Improvement Fund.
(Sec. 122)Establishes an Indian Catastrophic Health Emergency Fund (CHEF) to meet the extraordinary medical costs associated with the treatment of victims of disasters or catastrophic illnesses who are within the responsibility of the Service.
(Sec. 123)Directs the Secretary to:
(1) determine the incidence of, and the types of complications resulting from, diabetes among Indians and the measures each Service unit should take to reduce the incidence of, and prevent, treat, and control the complications resulting from, diabetes among Indian tribes; and
(2) screen, when medically indicated and with informed consent, each Indian who receives services from the Service for diabetes and for conditions which indicate a high diabetes risk and establish a cost-effective monitoring approach. Authorizes the Secretary to:
(1) provide dialysis programs, including the purchase of dialysis equipment and the provision of necessary staffing; and
(2) establish and maintain in each area office a position of diabetes control officer.
(Sec. 124)Authorizes funding for hospice care and for assisted living, long-term care, home- and community-based, and convenient care services. Authorizes providing long-term care in a facility to Indians either directly or through contracts or compacts with Indian Tribes or Tribal Organizations.
(Sec. 125)Gives tribes and tribal organizations (and in some circumstances, the United States) the right to recover from any responsible or liable third party (including, with limitation, a political subdivision of a state) the reasonable charges billed by the Secretary, a tribe, or a tribal organization in providing health services through the Service, a tribe, or a tribal organization to any individual to the same extent that such individual, or any nongovernmental provider of such services, would be eligible to receive damages, reimbursement, or indemnification for such charges or expenses if the services had been provided by a nongovernmental provider and the individual had been required to pay, and did pay, the charges or expenses. Prohibits state laws, contracts, or any health care plan or program entered into or renewed after enactment of the Indian Health Care Amendments of 1988 from hindering the right of recovery.
(Sec. 126)Revises provisions concerning crediting of reimbursements.
(Sec. 127)Directs the HHS Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior to study and compile a list of the types of staff positions in elementary and secondary education, social services and family and child welfare, law enforcement and judicial services, and alcohol and substance abuse whose qualifications include, or should include, training in the identification, prevention, education, referral, or treatment of mental illness, or dysfunctional and self destructive behavior. Directs those Secretaries to provide training criteria and training appropriate to each such position. Requires the Service to develop and implement, on request, or assist in the development and implementation of, a program of community education on mental illness. Directs the HHS Secretary to develop a plan to increase the health care staff providing behavioral health services by at least 500 positions within five years after enactment, with at least 200 of those positions devoted to child, adolescent, and family services.
(Sec. 129)Authorizes the Secretary to provide funds for certain transportation costs for patients and their escorts.
(Sec. 130)Directs the Secretary to establish an epidemiology center in each Service area to carry out specified duties, including to:
(1) the collect data relating to, and monitor progress made toward meeting, each of the health status objectives of the Service, the Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations in the Service area;
(2) evaluate existing systems that impact Indian health improvement;
(3) assist tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations in identifying highest-priority health status objectives;
(4) make recommendations for service targeting and to improve health care delivery systems;
(6) provide disease surveillance and requested technical assistance. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to Indian tribes, tribal organizations, Indian organizations, and eligible intertribal consortia to conduct epidemiological studies of Indian communities.
(Sec. 132)Requires the Secretary to make grants of not more than $300,000 to each of nine colleges and universities (under current law, grants are authorized for at least three colleges and universities) for the purpose of developing and maintaining Indian psychology career recruitment programs as a means of encouraging Indians to enter the behavioral health field. Directs the Secretary to provide a grant to develop and maintain a program at the University of North Dakota to be known as the "Quentin N. Burdick American Indians Into Psychology Program." Requires such program, to the maximum extent feasible, to coordinate with the Quentin N. Burdick Indian health programs authorized under the Quentin N. Burdick American Indians Into Nursing Program and existing university research and communications networks.Sets forth requirements for receiving a grant and an active duty service requirement for graduates who received stipends under the grant program.
(Sec. 133)Expands the current program for the prevention, control, and elimination of tuberculosis to authorize the Secretary, after consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to make grants available to Indian tribes and tribal organizations for the following:
(1) projects for the prevention, control, and elimination of communicable and infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, hepatitis, HIV, respiratory syncytial virus, hanta virus, sexually transmitted diseases, and H. pylori;
(2) public information and education programs for the prevention, control, and elimination of communicable and infectious diseases;
(3) education, training, and clinical skills improvement activities in the prevention, control, and elimination of communicable and infectious diseases for health professionals, including allied health professionals;
(4) demonstration projects for the screening, treatment, and prevention of hepatitis C virus (HCV).
(Sec. 134)Exempts licensed health professionals employed by a tribal health program, if licensed in any state, from the licensing requirements of the state in which the tribal health program performs the services described in the contract or compact of the tribal health program under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. Authorizes the Secretary to:
(1)provide programs or allowances to transition into an Indian health program, including licensing, board or certification examination assistance, and technical assistance in fulfilling service obligations; and
(2) provide programs or allowances to health professionals employed in an Indian health program to enable those professionals to take leave for professional consultation, management, leadership, and refresher training courses.
(Sec. 136)Revises current provisions concerning the Office of Indian Women's Health Care to provide, in addition to such Office, for an Office of Indian Men's Health.
(Sec. 137)Requires the Comptroller General of the United States (GAO) to submit to the Secretary, to Congress, and to make available to each Indian tribe, a report describing the results of the study of the Comptroller General regarding the funding of the contract health service program and the administration of the contract health service program. Requires the Secretary to consult with Indian tribes regarding the contract health service program, including the distribution of funds pursuant to the program. Subtitle C: Health Facilities -
(Sec. 141)Requires the Secretary, acting through the Service, to maintain a health care facility priority system which:
(1) shall be developed in consultation with Indian tribes and tribal organizations;
(2) shall give Indian tribes' needs the highest priority;
(3) may include a health care facilities list, must include the methodology adopted by the Service in establishing priorities under its health care facility priority system, and may include such health care facilities, and such renovation or expansion needs of any health care facility, as the Service may identify;
(4) shall provide an opportunity for the nomination of planning, design, and construction projects by the Service, Indian tribes, and tribal organizations for consideration under the priority system at least once every three years, or more frequently as the Secretary determines to be appropriate.
(Sec. 142)Prohibits the priority of any project established under the construction priority system in effect on the date of enactment from being affected by any change in the construction priority system taking place after that date for certain projects.
(Sec. 143)Authorizes the Secretary, acting through the Service, to carry out, or to enter into contracts or compacts under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act with Indian tribes or tribal organizations to carry out, health care delivery demonstration projects that test alternative means of delivering health care and services to Indians through facilities. Permits the use of funds for, among other things, contracts for the construction and renovation of hospitals, health centers, health stations, and other facilities to deliver health care services. Gives priority to projects located in any of the following Service units:
(1) Cass Lake, Minnesota;
(2) Mescalero, New Mexico;
(3) Owyhee and Elko, Nevada;
(4) Schurz, Nevada; and
(5) Ft. Yuma, California. Sets forth project approval criteria.
(Sec. 144)Permits a tribal health program that operates a hospital or other health facility and the federally owned quarters associated with such a facility pursuant to a contract or compact under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act to establish the rental rates charged to the occupants of those quarters, on providing notice to the Secretary.
(Sec. 145)Authorizes the head of any federal agency to which funds, equipment, or other supplies are made available for the planning, design, construction, or operation of a health care or sanitation facility to transfer the funds, equipment, or supplies to the Secretary for the planning, design, construction, or operation of a health care or sanitation facility to achieve:
(1) the purposes of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act; and
(2) the purposes for which the funds, equipment, or supplies were made available to the federal agency.
(Sec. 146)Directs the Secretary, acting through the Service, to establish a demonstration program under which the Secretary shall award no less than three grants for purchase, installation and maintenance of modular component health care facilities in Indian communities for provision of health care services.
(Sec. 147)Directs the Secretary, acting through the Service, to establish a demonstration program under which the Secretary shall provide at least three mobile health station projects. Subtitle D: Access to Health Services -
(Sec. 151)Prohibits any payments received by an Indian health program or by an urban Indian organization under title XVIII (Medicare), XIX (Medicaid), or XXI (CHIP) of the Social Security Act for services provided to Indians eligible for benefits under such respective titles from being considered in determining appropriations for the provision of health care and services to Indians. Sets froth provisions concerning use of funds and direct billing.
(Sec. 152)Permits Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations to use amounts made available for health benefits to purchase health benefits coverage in any manner, including through:
(1) a tribally owned and operated health care plan;
(2) a State or locally authorized or licensed health care plan;
(3) a health insurance provider or managed care organization;
(4) a self-insured plan; or
(5) a high deductible or health savings account plan.
(Sec. 153)Directs the Secretary, acting through the Service, to make grants to or enter into contracts with Indian tribes and tribal organizations to assist such tribes and tribal organizations in establishing and administering programs on or near reservations and trust lands, including programs to provide outreach and enrollment through video, electronic delivery methods, or telecommunication devices that allow real-time or time-delayed communication between individual Indians and the benefit program, to assist individual Indians:
(1) to enroll for benefits under a program established under title XVIII, XIX, or XXI of the Social Security Act and other health benefits programs; and
(2) with respect to such programs for which the charging of premiums and cost sharing is not prohibited under such programs, to pay premiums or cost sharing for coverage for such benefits, which may be based on financial need. Sets forth grant conditions.
(Sec. 154)Authorizes the Secretary to enter into (or expand) arrangements for the sharing of medical facilities and services between the Service, Indian tribes, and tribal organizations and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD).
(Sec. 155)Reaffirms, as specified, the goals stated in the document entitled "Memorandum of Understanding Between the VA/Veterans Health Administration And HHS/Indian Health Service" and dated February 25, 2003 (relating to cooperation and resource sharing between the Veterans Health Administration and Service).
(Sec. 156)Requires a federal health care program to accept an entity operated by the Service, an Indian tribe, tribal organization, or urban Indian organization as a provider eligible to receive payment under the program for health care services furnished to an Indian on the same basis as any other provider qualified to participate as a provider of health care services under the program if the entity meets generally applicable State or other requirements for participation as a provider of health care services under the program.
(Sec. 157)Entitles an Indian tribe or tribal organization carrying out programs under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act or an urban Indian organization carrying out programs under title V of this Act to purchase coverage, rights, and benefits for the employees of such Indian tribe or tribal organization, or urban Indian organization, under the federal employees health benefit plan and life insurance program if necessary employee deductions and agency contributions in payment for the coverage, rights, and benefits for the period of employment with such Indian tribe or tribal organization, or urban Indian organization, are currently deposited in the applicable employee's fund.
(Sec. 159)Directs the Secretary to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of treating the Navajo Nation as a state for Medicaid purposes to provide services to Indians living within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation through an entity established having the same authority and performing the same functions as single-state Medicaid agencies responsible for the administration of the Medicaid state plan. Subtitle E: Health Services for Urban Indians -
(Sec. 161)Permits making funds available for the construction or expansion of facilities for urban Indians under the Indian Health Care Improvement Act.
(Sec. 162)Makes the Tulsa Clinic and Oklahoma City Clinic demonstration projects permanent within the Service's direct care program, continues treating them as Service units and operating units in the allocation of resources and coordination of care and as meeting the requirements and definitions of an urban Indian organization under the Indian Health Care Improvement Act.
(Sec. 163)Requires the Secretary to ensure that the Service confers, to the maximum extent practicable, with urban Indian organizations in carrying out the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. Requires the Secretary, acting through the Service, to enter into contracts with, or make grants to, urban Indian organizations to assist the urban Indian organizations in the establishment and administration, within urban centers, of approved programs.
(Sec. 164)Authorizes the Secretary, acting through the Service, to establish programs, including programs for awarding grants, for urban Indian organizations that are identical to other Indian organizations' programs for:
(1) the prevention, control, and elimination of communicable and infectious diseases;
(2) behavioral health and treatment; and
(3) the multidrug abuse program for Indian youth.
(Sec. 165)Authorizes the Secretary, acting through the Service, to enter into contracts with, and make grants to, urban Indian organizations for the employment of Indians trained as health service providers through the Community Health Representative Program in the provision of health care, health promotion, and disease prevention services to urban Indians.
(Sec. 166)Authorizes the Secretary to permit an urban Indian organization that has entered into a contract or received an urban Indian grant, in carrying out the contract or grant, to use, in accordance with such terms and conditions for use and maintenance as are agreed on by the Secretary and the urban Indian organizations:
(1) any existing facility under the jurisdiction of the Secretary;
(2) all equipment contained in or pertaining to such an existing facility; and
(3) any other personal property of the federal Government under the jurisdiction of the Secretary. Authorizes the Secretary, acting through the Service, to make grants to urban Indian organizations for the development, adoption, and implementation of health information technology, telemedicine services development, and related infrastructure. Subtitle F: Organizational Improvements -
(Sec. 171)Rewrites provisions establishing the Indian Health Service and expands the duties of the Director.
(Sec. 172)Establishes within the Service an office, to be known as the "Office of Direct Service Tribes" which shall be located in the Office of the Director. Makes the Office responsible for:
(1) providing Service-wide leadership, guidance and support for direct service tribes to include strategic planning and program evaluation;
(2) ensuring maximum flexibility to tribal health and related support systems for Indian beneficiaries;
(3) serving as the focal point for consultation and participation between direct service tribes and organizations and the Service in the development of Service policy;
(4) holding no less than biannual consultations with direct service tribes in appropriate locations to gather information and aid in the development of health policy; and
(5) directing a national program and providing leadership and advocacy in the development of health policy, program management, budget formulation, resource allocation, and delegation support for direct service tribes.
(Sec. 173)Directs the Secretary to submit to Congress a plan describing the manner and schedule by which an area office, separate and distinct from the Phoenix Area Office of the Service, can be established in the State of Nevada. Subtitle G: Behavioral Health Programs -
(Sec. 181)Rewrites the current title VII (Substance Abuse Programs) of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and entitles the new title VII "Behavioral Health Programs." Sets forth the purposes of title VII, including:
(1) authorizing and directing the Secretary, acting through the Service, Indian tribes, and tribal organizations, to develop a comprehensive behavioral health prevention and treatment program which emphasizes collaboration among alcohol and substance abuse, social services, and mental health programs; and
(2) ensuring Indians, as citizens of the United States and of the States in which they reside, have the same access to behavioral health services to which all citizens have access. Directs the Secretary, acting through the Service, Indian tribes, and tribal organizations, to encourage Indian tribes and tribal organizations to develop tribal plans, and urban Indian organizations to develop local plans, and for all such groups to participate in developing areawide plans for Indian Behavioral Health Services which shall include specified components.Requires the Secretary, acting through the Service, to provide, to the extent feasible and if funding is available, specified programs of comprehensive care, child care, adult care, family care, and elder care. Permits the governing body of any Indian tribe, tribal organization, or urban Indian organization to adopt a resolution for the establishment of a community behavioral health plan providing for the identification and coordination of available resources and programs. Directs the Secretary, acting through the Service, and the Secretary of the Interior to develop and enter into a memoranda of agreement, or review and update any existing memoranda of agreement, as required by the Indian Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1986. Directs the Secretary, acting through the Service, to provide a program of comprehensive behavioral health, prevention, treatment, and aftercare. Directs the Secretary to establish and maintain a mental health technician program within the Service. Requires any individual employed as a psychologist, social worker, or marriage and family therapist for the purpose of providing mental health care services to Indians in a clinical setting to be licensed as a psychologist, social worker, or marriage and family therapist, respectively.Directs the Secretary, acting through the Service, to develop and implement a program for acute detoxification and treatment for Indian youths, including behavioral health services. Requires the program to include regional treatment centers designed to include detoxification and rehabilitation for both sexes on a referral basis and programs developed and implemented by Indian tribes or tribal organizations at the local level under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. Authorizes the Secretary, acting through the Service, to provide, in each area of the Service, not less than one inpatient mental health care facility, or the equivalent, for Indians with behavioral health problems. Directs the Secretary, in cooperation with the Secretary of the Interior, to develop and implement or assist Indian tribes and tribal organizations to develop and implement, within each Service unit or tribal program, a program of community education and involvement which shall be designed to provide concise and timely information to the community leadership of each tribal community. Directs the Secretary, acting through the Service, to plan, develop, implement, and carry out programs to deliver innovative community-based behavioral health services to Indians. Authorizes grants. Authorizes the Secretary, acting through the Service, Indian Tribes, and Tribal Organizations, to establish and operate fetal alcohol spectrum disorders programs. Directs the Secretary, acting through the Service, to establish, in every Service area, programs involving treatment for:
(1) victims of sexual abuse who are Indian children or children in an Indian household; and
(2) other members of the household or family of the victims. Authorizes the Secretary to establish in each Service area programs involving the prevention and treatment of:
(1) Indian victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse; and
(2) other members of the household or family of the victims. Directs the Secretary, in consultation with appropriate federal agencies, to make grants to, or enter into contracts with, Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations or enter into contracts with, or make grants to appropriate institutions for, the conduct of research on the incidence and prevalence of behavioral health problems among Indians served by the Service, Indian tribes, or tribal organizations and among Indians in urban areas. Authorizes the Secretary, acting through the Service, to carry out a demonstration project to award up to five grants for the provision of telemental health services to Indian youth who:
(1) have expressed suicidal ideas;
(2) have attempted suicide; or
(3) have behavioral health conditions that increase or could increase the risk of suicide. Permits an Indian tribe or tribal organization to use and promote the traditional health care practices of the Indian tribes of the youth to be served. Sets forth reporting requirements. Directs the Secretary, acting through the Administration, to carry out such measures as the Secretary determines to be necessary to maximize the time and workload efficiency of the process by which Indian tribes and tribal organizations apply for grants under any program administered by the Administration, including by providing methods other than electronic methods of submitting applications for those grants, if necessary. Sets forth provisions concerning priorities for making grants and requirements for states. Directs the Secretary to carry out such activities as the Secretary determines to be necessary to encourage Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and other mental health care providers to obtain the services of predoctoral psychology and psychiatry interns. Authorizes the Secretary, acting through the Administration, to establish and carry out a demonstration grant program under which the Secretary shall:
(1) identify a culturally compatible, school-based, life skills curriculum for the prevention of Indian and Alaska Native adolescent suicide;
(2) identify the Indian tribes that are at greatest risk for adolescent suicide;
(3) invite those Indian tribes to participate in the demonstration program; and
(4) provide grants to the identified Indian tribes and eligible entities to implement the curriculum. Sets forth reporting requirements. Subtitle H: Miscellaneous -
(Sec. 191)Provides for the confidentiality of medical records, subject to exceptions.
(Sec. 192)Designates the state of Arizona as a contract health service delivery area by the Service for the purpose of providing contract health care services to members of Indian tribes in the State of Arizona. Designates the States of North Dakota and South Dakota as a contract health service delivery area by the Service for the purpose of providing contract health care services to members of Indian tribes in the States of North Dakota and South Dakota. Makes the following California Indians eligible for health services provided by the Service:
(1) any member of a federally recognized Indian tribe;
(2) any descendant of an Indian who was residing in California on June 1, 1852, if such descendant is a member of the Indian community served by a local program of the Service and is regarded as an Indian by the community in which such descendant lives;
(3) any Indian who holds trust interests in public domain, national forest, or reservation allotments in California; and
(4) any Indian of California who is listed on the plans for distribution of the assets of rancherias and reservations located within the State of California under the Act of August 18, 1958, and any descendant of such an Indian.
(Sec. 193)Prohibits the Secretary from removing a member of the National Health Service Corps from an Indian health program or urban Indian organization or withdrawing funding used to support such a member, unless the Secretary, acting through the Service, has ensured that the Indians receiving services from the member will experience no reduction in services. Permits, at the request of an Indian health program, limiting the services of a member of the National Health Service Corps assigned to the Indian health program to the individuals who are eligible for services from that Indian health program.
(Sec. 194)Revises provisions concerning health services for ineligible persons.
(Sec. 195)Requires, effective beginning with the submission of the annual budget request to Congress for FY2011, the President to include, in the amount requested and the budget justification, amounts that reflect any changes in:
(1) the cost of health care services, as indexed for United States dollar inflation; and
(2) the size of the population served by the Service.
(Sec. 196)Directs the Secretary, in coordination with the Secretary of the Interior and the Attorney General, to establish a prescription drug monitoring program, to be carried out at health care facilities of the Service, tribal health care facilities, and urban Indian health care facilities. Sets forth reporting requirements.
(Sec. 197)Prohibits anything in this Act from limiting the ability of a tribal health program funded, in whole or part, by the Service through, or provided for in, a compact with the Service pursuant to provisions of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act to charge an Indian for services provided by the tribal health program. Prohibits authorizing the Service:
(1) to charge an Indian for services; or
(2) to require any tribal health program to charge an Indian for services.
(Sec. 198)Directs the Secretary to submit to Congress a report describing:
(1) all disease and injury prevention activities conducted by the Service, independently or in conjunction with other federal departments and agencies and Indian tribes; and
(2) the effectiveness of those activities, including the reductions of injury or disease conditions achieved by the activities.
(Sec. 199)Requires the The Comptroller General to conduct a study, and evaluate the effectiveness, of coordination of health care services provided to Indians:
(1) through Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP;
(2) by the Service; or
(3) using funds provided by either state or local governments or Indian tribes. Requires a report to Congress. Requires the Comptroller General to conduct a study, and to report on, the use of health care furnished by health care providers under the contract health services program funded by the Service and operated by the Service, an Indian tribe, or a tribal organization. (Sec. 199A) States that, although the Secretary may promote traditional health care practices, consistent with the Service standards for the provision of health care, health promotion, and disease prevention, the United States is not liable for any provision of traditional health care practices that results in damage, injury, or death to a patient. (Sec. 199B) Directs the Secretary, acting through the Service, to establish within the Service the position of the Director of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment. Sets forth the Director's duties and requires a recurring report to Congress. Title II: Amendments to Other Acts -
(Sec. 201)Amends Medicare provisions concerning Indian health service facilities to state that payments made pursuant to such provisions shall not be reduced as a result of any beneficiary deductible, coinsurance, or other charge.
(Sec. 202)Amends the Native Hawaiian Health Care Act of 1988 to reauthorize appropriation through FY2019. Permits identified private educational organization to continue to offer educational programs and services to Native Hawaiians first, and to others, only after the need for such programs and services by Native Hawaiians has been met.
...Read the Rest
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In the latest move to clear paths to legal residency for illegal immigrants, the Obama administration on Wednesday ruled that thousands of foreign spouses and children can stay with their U.S. citizen relatives while applying for green cards.
The policy “reduces long periods of separation between U.S. citizens and their immediate relatives,” Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Wednesday in a conference call.
Until now, thousands of illegal immigrant spouses, parents and children of U.S. citizens had to return to their native countries to apply for permanent U.S. residency, risking months or years of separation from their families.
The new rule allows them to apply for a waiver in the United States instead. More than 20,000 apply annually for the family waiver, which requires U.S. citizens to show they will suffer “extreme hardship” if their immigrant relative is barred from returning.
The numbers seeking such relief are expected to rise now that families no longer have to risk long separations.
“Most of my clients weren’t willing to take the risk of not being able to come back,” said Bay Area immigration attorney Randall Caudle.
Weighing the separation risk against the risk of being undocumented, they “stayed here … without legal status of any kind,” Caudle said.
The new policy will relieve many families, said California immigration lawyer Maria Rivera.
“The whole purpose of this is to prevent the separation of families,” Rivera said. “I think the government is aware of the hardship on the families, the children, the spouses.”
The Obama administration announced the proposed change early last year, but sought months of public comments before making it final in a rule to be published Thursday in the Federal Register. The policy will take effect on March 4.
Knowing that a change was coming, Rivera advised many of her clients to wait until it took effect before they sought permanent residency.
For years, thousands of Mexican immigrant spouses and children of U.S. citizens have had to travel across the Texas border to the violence-wracked city of Ciudad Juárez for interviews at the U.S. Consulate there, the only American office in Mexico processing such requests for permanent residency.
But leaving the United States after coming here illegally triggered a 10-year or 3-year bar on returning, meaning the family members would also have to apply for special permission to waive the bar. Three quarters of immigrants seeking the waivers are from Mexico.
Those seeking permanent residency will still have to travel to Juárez for an interview, but no longer will they have to wait for many months in Mexico as the U.S. government evaluates their requests.
The policy shift is the latest in a series of executive changes made by the Obama administration as it seeks broader immigration reforms in the new Congress, including a path to citizenship for nearly all the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants.
More than 300,000 young illegal immigrants have applied since August for new work permits granted to college students and other law-abiding young adults and teenagers brought to the country as children.
And on Dec. 21, the same day it announced it deported a record 409,000 people last year, the Obama administration directed federal immigration agents to stop detaining illegal immigrants arrested by police for minor crimes and infractions.
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The Town Hall style debate held tonight between President Barack Obama and Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney was filled with fireworks and quick punches that left me breathless and wanting more! It was an exciting show of aggression and forwardness that revealed the wills and intellects of the debaters, as well as their drive to come out on top (much to the dismay of the moderator).
I watched the debate critically, examining what questions were asked and how they were responded two. Obama and Romney both fell victim to relying on rhetoric to make their point without making definite claims or getting into the details of their supposed solution. Obama fell to this on weapon control, mentioning how he wants to change the direction of the “conversation,” but forgetting to explain how. Romney fell into this trope when he was asked how he would rectify the inequality for women in the workplace.
Obama’s shining moment for me came in the beginning when he argued how he would fix the economy. He gave 5 points of attack: the tax code, reducing the deficit, cutting back on defense spending, energy development, and education. Romney relied heavily on his time in the private sector but did not give specifics. Romney hit a high point when asked how he would be different from President George W. Bush. He claimed he would focus on domestic energy, free trade, small business, and a balanced budget, ensuring voters that as president we would not be returned to the Bush era.
I’ll admit that it’s difficult as a student to find time to educate myself on the specifics of their plans, what’s proven to work, which side has the right idea. Both sides have networks of researchers that can create studies arguing any point under the sun. While I know that debates are not the ideal place to formulate political opinions (due to the theatrical nature of the event) it at least gives me a chance to see where the candidates hold their strengths, and where they falter or turn the question.
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Universal Design Showcase
Project Categories: Residential, Universal Design, New Construction, Ultra Series
Featured Kolbe Products
- Ultra Series Crank-Out Casements
- Ultra Series Radius
- Ultra Series Swinging Patio Doors
- Ultra Series Entrance Doors
- Larger crank handles & locks are easier to operate
- Motorized operators simplify window operation
- ADA-compliant sills and sill ramps on doors
- Wider doors accommodate wheel chair passage
- Lever handles on doors are easier to operate than knobs
Universal Design Options Showcased in Model Home
It's an uncomfortable thought, but the longer we live, the more likely we are to develop physical limitations. In fact, one out of six Americans will experience a major disability during their lifetime. And it's no secret that America is aging significantly – by 2012, there will be more people aged 65 and older than in all the other age categories combined. These figures make it easy to see the growing need for universally accessible living accommodations that enable people to live independently.
Surprisingly, the burgeoning consumer need for accessible housing has not resulted in a proliferation of accessible single-family residences. It was this very absence that prompted Wayne Geurink and his nonprofit group, Chairs & Cares, to develop a demonstration model accessible home in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Officially opened in October 2007, the Chairs & Cares Model Accessible Home was designed by Roger Plamann, an architectural instructor at Wausau's Northcentral Technical College (NTC), with input from a 16 person advisory board. General contractor Keller Builders started construction on the 4,700-square-foot, $1.2 million project, which is sited on the college's campus, in Spring 2006. The prototypical residence is operated by Midstate Independent Living Consultants, a nonprofit agency that serves people with disabilities in north-central and northeastern Wisconsin.
Virtually all of the model home design elements and building components were donated. Committed to the project from its earliest stages, Kolbe & Kolbe Millwork Co. contributed 51 windows, 21 interior doors and entry doors. "Kolbe was the very first contributor to sign on to the project," says Geurink. "We were very impressed with their enthusiasm and commitment, and their superior products provide the design and operation flexibility that accessible design demands," says Geurink.
"Wayne and his team have done an outstanding job with this model accessible home," praises Mike Salsieder, president of Kolbe & Kolbe. He comments that "as an organization, Kolbe is sensitive to the fact that there are many people with physical limitations and that a significant portion of our population is aging. We were privileged to be able to work with Wayne, and members of NTC, as well as other companies in our area to help provide a facility that showcases construction methods that allow people with physical limitations to live independently within a residential setting."
Geurink suffered paralyzing injuries from a car accident in 1991. In 2001, the idea for the Chairs & Cares Model Accessible Home came to him during discussions among members of a spinal cord injury group. He discovered that there wasn't a single example of a universally-designed accessible residence in the central Wisconsin area. The home is intended to give architects and builders ideas about what can be done to make new or remodeled homes more functional for people with physical limitations.
The project has already made an impression on at least one builder: Lewis Reeves, president of Lewis Reeves Homes in Atlanta, who says, "I've been building houses for 30 years. Until I met Wayne, I had no idea where I'd turn – professionally or personally – to help someone with a physical disability to live as comfortably and independently as possible."
"Surveys show that most of us want to remain in our own homes as we age. Enabling more people to live on their own for as long as possible means huge dollar savings for individuals, families and for society as a whole," says Geurink. "To people with low strength and/or less control of their upper body, an inch here or there can make the difference between dependence and independence," Geurink adds.
Navigating doors and doorways, and opening and closing windows are among the biggest challenges for people with limited mobility. Throughout the model home, quality casement windows enable operation for a person with limited strength. Larger crank handles make windows easier to open and close. Oversized lever locks are located near window bottoms, making them more convenient to secure. For bay windows, locks were placed closer to the interior and motorized operators were installed to make operation accessible for people in wheelchairs.
Geurink notes that accessible windows aren't just about operability, but enjoyment, too. The windows have a maximum sill height of 33 inches, allowing viewing from a seated position. "Variety in window types is also important, which is why the home has some floor-to-ceiling windows. These allow for an unobstructed view, as well as letting in lots of light.
To make entry and exit easier, the home's exterior doors feature a flush-to-floor sill. Engineered into the door frames as integral components, the sills ensure that the level of the finished floors align with the thresholds for wheelchair accessibility. People using crutches, canes, or walkers also benefit from the flush thresholds.
All of the exterior and interior doors are wider than usual (36 inches) to comfortably accommodate passage by people in wheel chairs. Interior swinging doors are fitted with lever handles, making them easier for people with limited dexterity to operate than doors with knobs or latch handles. The utility closet door is not only oversized, it has an additional pull bar mounted to its surface to make it easier to close.
Similarly, the closets feature double doors and bi-fold doors, making them easier to open and close for people with restricted mobility and diminished hand strength. Pocket doors provide unobstructed interior openings to a laundry and bathroom.
The windows and exterior doors all feature energy-efficient LoE²-270 glass with double glazing and weatherstripping to prevent draft and temperature variations. For minimal exterior maintenance, the Ultra Series windows are finished in hartford green 70% fluoropolymer, and are trimmed in oak to match the interior doors' classic look.
NOTE: Visitors to Kolbe's facilities in Wausau, Wisconsin may inquire about a tour of the Chairs & Cares Accessible Model Home, which is operated by Midstate Independent Living Consultants, a nonprofit agency serving people with disabilities in north-central and northeastern Wisconsin
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John, not his real name, spent much of his career in the Special Investigation Branch, the Royal Military Police's equivalent of the CID.
But it was a career he felt he was forced to abandon after concluding that the RMP's standards were increasingly at odds with his own moral values.
"For too long I belonged to an organisation that wasn't seeking out the truth."
The turning point for him was a series of suspicious deaths of Iraqi citizens.
One case which came to his attention involved the alleged murder of an Iraqi by a British sergeant.
There was, he claims, evidence to strongly suggest that the Iraqi victim had been shot at point blank range for merely throwing rocks at a British army tank.
Baha Mousa and family. The hotelier died in custody of British forces.
"A friend of mine who was a senior NCO went to the scene and was ordered not to investigate it as a murder. He was told that statements should just be taken as if it was a routine incident."
Some cases involving allegations of murder and abuse, followed by a failure to carry out an adequate investigation, have already come to public attention.
The death of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died in British military custody having allegedly been beaten by soldiers, is currently the subject of a public inquiry.
The terms of reference for another inquiry, into the alleged death in custody of Hamid Al-Sweady, will be announced on Friday.
Abuse is rare
The Ministry of Defence insists that any substantive allegations of abuse brought to its attention will always be investigated and that such cases are relatively rare.
"We must remember that over 100,000 of our personnel served in Iraq and, with the exception of a few individuals, they have performed to the highest standards under extraordinarily testing conditions there," said an MoD statement responding to the allegations.
Any substantive allegations of abuse brought to our attention will always be investigated and such cases are relatively rare
Ministry of Defence
John agrees that the vast majority of British soldiers have served their country with distinction.
However, he believes that serious cases of suspected abuse are far more common than the army is prepared to admit.
"I've seen documentary evidence that there were incidents, running into the hundreds, involving death and serious injury to Iraqis," he claims.
"It is the actions of a few who have been shown to be bad apples. But the system is so flawed and some of the decision making has been so perverse that it is fair to say that the barrel is probably rotten."
Out of depth
In recent decades, the bulk of military police work has involved dealing with the alleged crimes of soldiers stationed at bases in the UK and Germany.
"Soldiers fighting each other, the odd drink-drive, a bit of theft here and there," were the staple source of investigations according to John.
Whistleblower 'John' says the majority of troops serve with distinction
But when troops are deployed to theatres of war and peacekeeping roles abroad, the RMP goes with them.
In the case of Iraq, this meant the RMP suddenly found itself having to investigate alleged war crimes.
"We saw the military police - and the Special Investigation Branch in particular - being massively out of its depth," says John.
The most serious cases arising out of the British involvement in Iraq have, according to John, been characterised by RMP "blunders, mistakes, ineptitude and the course of investigations being bent to serve the real or perceived interests of the chain of command of the army" rather than the interests of justice.
Toe the line
A lack of resources, he claims, is partly to blame. But, he believes, there are also serious structural flaws in the army justice system.
Senior officers in the mainstream army have to be informed when the RMP mounts any investigation into serious allegations.
This, says John, gives the army hierarchy the opportunity to interfere or to make life difficult for the investigators by, for example, refusing to provide transport to the scene of an alleged crime.
"There is a common misconception that the Royal Military Police are in some way independent of the army.
In fact they are very, very closely wrapped into the chain of command and that is why so many things go wrong."
The dark picture John paints of a military police force infected by a culture of ineptitude and cover-up was dramatically reinforced last week when three high court judges accused the RMP's second in command, Colonel Dudley Giles, of being "a most unsatisfactory witness".
In a damning judgment concerning the RMP's failure to disclose documents relating to the alleged murder of Hamid Al-Sweady, the judges concluded that Colonel Giles "lacked the necessary objectivity, proficiency and reliability" expected of an official government witness.
The motto of the Royal Military Police is "By example, shall we lead". But with the trustworthiness of one of the force's most senior officers now in doubt, the RMP will be under more pressure than ever to set a higher standard.
You can hear the full report on the Donal MacIntyre programme on 5 live on Sunday, 11 October, 2009 at 1930 BST. Download the free podcast.You can can contact the programme by emailing email@example.com
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Oxygen is the Christian Union's weekly event.
It is a great opportunity for Christians, those with questions about Christianity or even those who are just interested in what Christianity is on about, to question, share and discuss the Christian story with fellow students.
What we do:
From 5-6pm we chill, chat and share dinner (which has been prepared for us (a small cost applies)).
6-6.30pm: Following dinner we hear a short talk focusing on a passage of the Bible.
6.30-7.30pm: In response to the themes and questions raised in the talk, we break up into small discussion groups to delve deeper into God's word and share our own thoughts.
7.30-8pm: We meet back together to enjoy some dessert/supper.
We welcome all students, whatever age, background or belief to join with us on Monday nights as we focus on the life of Jesus through Gospel of Mark in Semester 1, 2012.
As Christians, we believe it is important to "give reasons for the faith we have", so at Oxygen we will also be looking at some common questions people have with Christianity during the Semester, inlcuding:
1. Isn't the Bible a myth?
2. Hasn't Science disproved Christianity?
3. Why does God allow suffering?
4. Why is there so much evil in the world?
5. How can you say there's only one way to God? What about other religions?
6. How can God be full of love and wrath at the same time?
7. How can God send good people to hell?
If you have any questions, or would like to more about the Christian Union or Oxygen; please text or call Kate on 0421 040 272.
We look forward to seeing you @ Oxygen in 2012.
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Rockstar Games, maker of the hit video games Max Payne 3 and Bully, recently announced it is shutting down its 35-person Vancouver studio and expanding operations in Oakville, Ont. The announcement comes on the heels of the departure of UbiSoft and Radical Entertainment.
The reason for the exodus: taxes. More specifically, the lack of generous tax credits used to keep game makers in town. The B.C. government introduced its first major break for video game developers less than two years ago, offering a 17.5 per cent tax credit for labour costs. At the time it was a significant lure, but it hasn’t stopped companies from looking for greener pastures—much greener pastures, it turns out. The Ontario government offers a tax credit for 37.5 per cent of labour costs. Quebec now has an equally generous subsidy. On top of that, the provinces also offer a much lower cost of living for employees compared to Vancouver.
Many analysts argue that increasing tax credits is hardly the smartest way to establish a healthy, permanent industry and long-term economic growth. “The problem is, it becomes a bit of a one-up game, where everyone tries to beat each other at different rates,” says Peter McCaffrey, a policy analyst at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. “There’s always going to be somewhere else that’s cheaper because they offer a particular incentive, but I don’t think that’s sustainable.”
Canada’s film industry has seen a similar fight between provinces luring companies with richer and richer incentives. This month, Saskatchewan broke that trend and lowered its tax credits to 25 per cent from 45 per cent. As a result, Vérité Films, which was the producer of Corner Gas, announced it was moving the bulk of its company from Regina to Toronto, where the provincial tax credit is as high as 40 per cent.
“Anytime you cross the threshold of a 20 per cent tax credit, you really are beginning to buy the business,” says Pat Bell, B.C.’s minister of jobs, tourism and innovation, when asked about the effectiveness of video game subsidies. “There’s limited value in terms of what it’s providing.”
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Your client--a distraught mother of two--recounts the story of her husband's alcoholism and abuse. You help her cope as she decides to file for divorce. A week later, you receive a subpoena: The patient's lawyer has summoned you to court, as the father has challenged her custody rights. Eager to aid a good mother and hasten stability to the lives of her children, you testify on her behalf. You deliver an expert opinion about a man you never met and soon find yourself in court--as well as before an ethics committee and licensing board--defending your breach of professionalism.
This very plausible situation could befall any practicing psychologists unfamiliar with how the law should guide professional decisions and is one of many case studies in "Ethics and Risk Management," a new CD-ROM instructional series from the APA Insurance Trust.
The trustees--psychologists and educators in graduate professional psychology--have developed a comprehensive risk-management education in eight CD-ROM modules. The set offers 24 hours of continuing-education course credits, covering topics such as professional liability, suicide and homicide, boundary issues, confidentiality and record-keeping.
These are lessons for any psychologist or student because, explains project director Patricia M. Bricklin, PhD, "people are tempted to do a lot of things on the basis that they feel they are doing good without thinking about all sides of the situation."
Connecting ethics and the law
Ensuring that future psychologists understand their legal and ethical liabilities was one of the Trust's foremost objectives in developing this instructional series. Bricklin, a professor of ethics in psychology, observes that "ethics issues are not often taught in doctoral programs from a risk management perspective, or they aren't taught in the most interesting way."
She believes the greatest fault in graduate school curricula is the failure to connect ethics and law. An understanding of this conjunction is essential to the success of graduate students in professional psychology. To deliver this lesson, the CD-ROM series includes a manual, lesson plan, topic outlines, sample cases, discussion and exam questions, and resources and references appropriate for graduate ethics and professional issues courses,as well as professional development seminars.
"Ethics and Risk Management" will also be made available to psychologists outside university programs, says APA Insurance Trust Executive Director Bruce Bennett, PhD. "They can literally take it home, put it in their computer and get risk management information with continuing-education credits."
The psychologists and professors who created the series have run focus groups, beta tested the format and held informational meetings in which their product has been very well-received. According to Bricklin, "one of the comments from people who have viewed the CD-ROM has been, 'This is just like real life and could have happened to me.' The case studies presented aren't so bad that the average psychologist could say 'I would never do anything like that.'"
Perhaps the program's most valuable feature is its realistic approach to presenting situations that everyday, well-intentioned psychologists could encounter. "So many psychologists get into trouble because of the kinds of records they keep--or don't keep," Bricklin offers an example.
"If you get sued," Bennett pipes in, "the question's going to be in your records. What documentation do you have to support the professional decision you made? It is very important that you document what you did or didn't do, and why."
"Certain things are straightforward black and white," adds Bennett. "Don't sleep with your patient, don't breach confidentiality, avoid a conflict of interest with your patient."
Yet even obeying the law and following a code of professionalism, he says, does not guarantee immunity; there are also many shades of gray. "Practice can get very complicated, and that's what we teach to."
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Vice President Joe Biden kicks off a two-day campaign swing through eastern Ohio today, pushing a populist economic message — dubbed “Obama economics” — that he’ll use to draw sharp contrasts between the president and Mitt Romney.
The vice president also plans to offer his first direct, public scrutiny of Romney’s record at the private equity firm Bain Capital, according to excerpts of his first speech in Youngstown released by the Obama campaign.
He will recount the case of GST Steel — the now defunct Kansas City, Mo., company that is also featured in the campaign’s latest TV ad, airing Wednesday in Ohio and four other states.
“He thinks that because he spent his career as a ‘businessman,’ he has the experience to run the economy,” Biden plans to tell a crowd at M7 Technologies, an advanced manufacturing facility. “So let’s take a look at a couple of things he did. He’s raised it. So let’s take a real hard look at it.”
GST Steel was acquired by Bain Capital in 1993 but went bankrupt in 2001 after being saddled with debt. Roughly 750 workers lost their jobs and retirement benefits, while executives and investors profited from investments. (Romney left Bain in 1999 but retained a stake in the company.)
“Romney made sure the wealthy played by a separate set of rules, he ran massive debts, and the middle class lost. And folks, he thinks this experience will help our economy?” Biden will say.
“Where I come from, past is prologue,” he says. “So what do you think he’ll do as president?”
The Romney campaign has said GST was a single case and sought to highlight other positive examples of Bain investments, including the Indiana company Steel Dynamics, which continues to thrive.
Republicans also contend that Biden’s focus on Romney’s background in private equity is meant to be a distraction from the administration’s record on the economy, which is recovering sluggishly from recession.
“With 23 million Americans struggling to find jobs, voters understand that it’s time to elect a successful businessman like Mitt Romney can put people back to work and address the serious economic challenges facing our country,” said Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams.
Still, Biden will claim credit for the recovery on the campaign trail, arguing in his remarks that the economy is “starting to come back.” But he focuses most of his attention on what he calls competing economic philosophies for the future.
“There’s Obama Economics, which values the role of workers in the success of a business, and values the middle class in the success of the economy,” Biden will say. “And then there’s Romney Economics, which says as long as the government helps the guys at the very top do well, workers and small businesses and communities can be left to fend for themselves.
“Nobody knows better than the people of the valley the consequences of that kind of philosophy,” he will say. “You’ve been through hell and back.”
This post has been updated.
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Joe Gould's Last Rites
Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives.
August 28, 1957, Vol. II, No. 44
Last Rites for a Bohemian
By Dan Balaban
Finally they bearded and buried Joe Gould. On Friday morning, August 23, he lay clean-shaven, hands folded, made up like a little wax doll, in the chapel of the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Church at 81st and Madison. The Greenwich Village Lions Club and Campbell's had arranged for burial services and funeral.
Gould's small spare body had been carefully clad in a gray suit, white shirt, and light-gray tie. He looked dapper, as he never had during the decades he had scurried about the Village in hand-me-downs which were always much too big for him. His fringe of scraggly white hair had been cleaned, cut and brushed. Even the big scar on his forehead had disappeared, the scar that his friend Leonard De Grange had always taken pains to include in the many portraits he had painted of Joe Gould because "it had obviously been caused by an accident which, I always thought, may have brought about Joe's condition." In his casket Joe might have been a merchant prince, a philosopher, a Rothschild. In Campbell's, Bohemian and banker are, in death, one.
Perhaps 80 people were there, and these included a host of photographers, reporters, NBC and CBS men, Lions, funeral-parlor people, and others who had never known Joe Gould. Many of Joe's friends were absent because they had gone out of town or, in the rush to save Joe from a pauper's grave, couldn't be reached in time. Such as E.E. Cummings, who had at times boarded Joe and was one of the few men who had read in the penciled dime-store notebooks in which Joe was amassing his "Oral History of Our Time;" Malcolm Cowley, who had long ago given Joe books to review; William Saroyan, who had sought for Joe after being deeply impressed by an essay Gould had written in the old Dial; William Carlos Williams, who had attended Joe's birthday parties; Joseph Mitchell, the New Yorker editor who had written "Professor Sea Gull," the definitive New Yorker profile on Joe which had accounted for much of Gould's renown.
But enough of Joe's friends were there to give the assembly an appropriately motley appearance...Lawrence Woodman, cousin of Joe Gould and director of the Adam-Ahab 4 plus 3 plus X art gallery, was dressed in his Bohemian best, a blue suit, dark gray shirt, and brown, large-figured tie...Prominent was the long, yellowish-white mane and beard of Maurice, the peripatetic magazine vendor who roams the Village at night with his wares. He used to hang around the Public Library with Joe Gould during the Depression. He remembers Joe and others pinning their poetry on the fences at Washington Square South after the Outdoor Art Shows. "I used to know spring was here when Joe Gould would come out from wherever he had been hiding and walk across the Square to the outdoor show." Prince Robert de Rohan Courtenay...was resplendent in top hat, sharply cut gray suit, brocaded vest with medals.
Several persons wished to eulogize Joe Gould, and...Lawrence Woodman, his cousin...was full of the things he wanted to tell people about Gould...Woodman had a sheet of paper on which were copied six poems by Joe Gould; they had come from a little book called "VI," privately printed for a John S. Mayfield in 1943. At least three of them he had wanted to read. They were:
I would like to bury the hatchet,
But I fear I would make it dull,
Or at least I would badly scratch it,
If I buried it in your skull.
I would give a month's salary to sleep with you, my dear,
If I worked for the government at a dollar a year.
My love for you is of the very cleanest,
Holy and sweet is my emotion.
There should be sumpin deep between us
And I suggest the Atlantic Ocean.
Prince Robert de Rohan Courtenay...read from a prepared text. "Here lies a great man," he said. "He paid no attention to the frills and furbelows, and consumed great quantities of ketchup. When his shirt hung outside his pants, he would say: 'It doesn't matter, shirts are dirty anyhow.' Ketchup had great nutritive value for him."
...No sooner had the Prince finished with "the friends whom you have left behind here wish you well in your new adventure; a fond farewell to you, Joe Gould," than Mr. Isaacson of Campbell's leapt to his feet to say that the services were over.
[Each weekday morning, we post an excerpt from another issue of the Voice, going in order from our oldest archives. Visit our Clip Job archive page to see excerpts back to 1956.]
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Protect Your Erection: 11 Tips
How to avoid erectile dysfunction and protect your potency.
Erectile dysfunction (ED) becomes more common as men age. But it is not necessarily a normal part of aging. How can you avoid ED? Here's what experts told WebMD.
1. Watch what you eat.
A diet that's bad for a man's heart is also not good for his ability to have erections.
Research has shown that the same eating patterns that can cause heart attacks due to restricted blood flow in the coronary arteries can also impede blood flow to and within the penis. The blood flow is needed for the penis to become erect. Diets that include very few fruits and vegetables along with lots of fatty, fried, and processed foods can contribute to decreased blood circulation throughout the body.
Anything that is bad for a man's heart is also bad for his penis, says Andrew McCullough, MD, associate professor of clinical urology and director of the male sexual health program at New York University Langone Medical Center.
Recent studies show that ED is relatively uncommon among men who eat a traditional Mediterranean diet, which includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, heart-healthy fats including nuts and olive oil, fish, and wine, particularly red.
"The link between the Mediterranean diet and improved sexual function has been scientifically established," says Irwin Goldstein, MD, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego.
2. Maintain a healthy weight.
Being overweight can bring many health problems, including type 2 diabetes, which can cause nerve damage throughout the body. If the diabetes affects the nerves that supply the penis, ED can result.
3. Avoid high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
High cholesterol or high blood pressure can damage blood vessels, including those that bring blood to the penis. Eventually, this may lead to ED.
Make sure your doctor checks your cholesterol levels and blood pressure. You might also want to check your blood pressure between doctor visits. Some stores and fire stations offer free screenings. Blood pressure monitors are also sold for home use.
If your cholesterol or blood pressure is out of whack, get it treated.
Blood pressure drugs can make it hard to get an erection. But doctors say many cases of ED that get blamed on these drugs are actually caused by arterial damage resulting from high blood pressure (also called hypertension).
4. Drink alcohol in moderation or not at all.
There is no evidence that mild or even moderate alcohol consumption is bad for erectile function," Sharlip says. But chronic heavy drinking can cause liver damage, nerve damage, and other conditions -- such as interfering with the normal balance of male sex hormone levels -- that can lead to ED.
5. Exercise regularly.
Strong evidence links a sedentary lifestyle to erectile dysfunction. Running, swimming, and other forms of aerobic exercise have been shown to help prevent ED.
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LG uses lift scare video to market new monitors
Getting in a lift may seem like a simple regular part of life for most of us, but what if something went wrong?
That’s the fear that a new advertisement plays on in a bid to show off the clarity of their computer monitors. Shame it’s a fake.
The LG IPS Monitors ‘So Real It’s Scary’ campaign claims to show that their screens produce pictures so lifelike that they can trick lift-users into thinking the floor is falling away beneath their feet.
The video supposedly shows how nine monitors put together can make people believe they’re about to fall through the floor, however the fact that the angle of the lift shaft displayed on the screens seems to change depending on which of the ‘hidden’ cameras is being featured would suggest that the video was shot using a green screen special effect.
Either way, the video makes for entertaining viewing. So what do you think? Is it done with green screen, or did they really replace the lift floor with nine monitors?
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Weather for Edinburgh
Thursday 20 June 2013
Temperature: 11 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: West
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Nothing works out right, when you forget engineering and physics, and rely on ideology for your faith. How else do you explain the string of Obama’s ‘successes with “green energy”
In keeping with the recent trend of so-called green companies going into the red, another solar energy company supported by President Obama’s top administration officials declared bankruptcy today.
Solar Trust for America received $2.1 billion in conditional loan guarantees from the Department of Energy — “the largest amount ever offered to a solar project,” according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu — for a project near Blythe, Calif., but declared bankruptcy within a year. It is unclear how much of the guarantee, if any, was actually awarded.
Senior officials in Obama’s administration had very high hopes for the Blythe project. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar attended the groundbreaking ceremony, which he described as “a historic moment in America’s new energy frontier” and “another important step in making America’s clean energy future a reality.” Chu trumpeted at the time that Solar Trust would prove that “when we rev up the great American innovation machine, we can out-compete any other nation.”
The embarrassment should be bipartisan. “This is a huge milestone for our community,” Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., said when the company received its loan guarantee. “I look forward to continuing my work supporting projects . . . that will harness our local energy resources and help reduce our nation’s dangerous dependence on unstable foreign oil.”
Uwe Schmidt, chairman and CEO of the company, also argued that Solar Trust was good for the nation. He wrote last year that “the DOE loan guarantee is a ‘win-win’ for government and the companies involved and will not only advance the cause of energy independence but will create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country.”
The bankruptcy makes Schmidt’s attempt to rebuke DOE critics in the wake of the Solyndra bankruptcy particularly ironic.
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My earlier post about tickets made me think about measures FIFA has taken to render tickets unique to their original purchasers and how this will affect the World Cup. For all the tix I bought, I had to submit identifying information: name, birthdate, passport number, and nationality.
First, what’s the rationale for this policy? First, the request for passport information suggests that it’s an attempt to cut down on hooliganism. A lot of fans involved with international violence have had their passports revoked, so that suggests that it would be an easy step to deny tickets to people whose passport numbers are on the hooligan list.
Second, it appears to be an attempt to reduce secondary markets—resale on eBay, on-site scalping, etc. But it appears to sweep more broadly than that. If I can’t make the game and have a good friend who would benefit from the ticket, then my friend is out of luck and the ticket goes to waste. There is, of course, a good story to be told about this. If I want to buy a ticket and give it to my hooligan friend (hypothetical friend, that is), then he’s out of luck as well, and that’s a positive result of the policy than no one can really object to.
The only reason I have reservations about it is that my sense is that (1) there’s nothing wrong with secondary markets in ticket sales; and (2) I think a lot more fans than tifosi will be shut out if the unique identifiers are actually enforced. But now that I think more about (1), it could be that if scalpers know that secondary markets will be deflated by the ID policy, they won’t try to buy the tix in the first instance, meaning that initial sales go largely to fans and not to would-be gouging touts. As for (2), it is as the man says an empirical question with an empirical answer, so my sense may be wrong. Also, even if the policy shuts out 20 true fans for every one psycho, that still might be a positive result for the atmosphere overall considering the havoc that the latter could wreak.
Then there’s the question whether the ticketing policy will actually be enforced. I’m not so confident that it will. Enforcement would require every ticket to be matched to a verifiable passport (because standard forms of ID don’t have passport number), although it’s possible that the ticket takers would just require name matching (if the passport number is just to rule out sales to people on the international-hooligan list). Considering that there are as many as 70-odd thousand people going to each game, this could present an insanely difficult logistical issue. But then again, many major clubs have strong ID policies. When I saw Ajax in Amsterdam, it was necessary to buy an ID that was verified at the turnstile when I entered the game. It’s not hard to imagine that the World Cup organizers would be similarly strapped with ticketing tech to reduce logistical snafus (indeed, FIFA's official policy suggests that they'll have just such tech in place).One other fact is that there’s been and will continue to be large-scale secondary markets despite everyone having known about the ID policy for a long time. I wonder what will happen to the folks who buy on these markets? Will they be simply out of luck? Will it screw up the situation for everyone if every purchaser of a scalped ticket remonstrates with stadium security when they realize their ticket is invalid? And how would it look if FIFA managed to enforce the policy at the cost of excluding thousands of fans and creating swaths of empty seats in the stadiums? They’d still make the same amount of money but it could make for a poorer spectacle.
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|Written by Owner|
|Sunday, 02 November 2008 15:10|
Choosing a wetsuit seems challenging at first. However, knowing what to look for makes the process quite simple.
Consider the thickness of the suit first. For most vacation destinations, like Florida, the Bahamas, and other Caribbean islands, a thickness of 2 or 3 millimeters will be fine. A 3mm suit is thick enough to add warmth without any excess neoprene to impede movement.
A wetsuit should fit like a second skin. Wetsuits work by trapping a thin layer of water against the body and slowing the loss of body heat. To work properly, your wetsuit should fit snugly while still allowing the movement necessary to snorkel.
We strongly advise trying on your suit at home before you get in the water. The suit should be tightest around your wrists, ankles, and neck (or arms, legs and neck if wearing a shorty suit). If these sealing points are too loose, they will allow water flow through the suit and prevent you from warming up. The suit should fit close to your body throughout. If you can't zip the suit on your own, don't worry--that's why you have snorkeling buddies!Manufacturer's Size Charts
|Last Updated on Friday, 09 October 2009 20:17|
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I have read the comments on this site regarding Warborne and have spoke to kate at the farm a few weeks ago when I first heard the news. The issue of farm shops has been a challenge for more than 30 years for councils and farmers around the UK. Sadly the rules appear to interpreted in different ways and even sadder is that shops selling truly local produce tend to be the ones to lose out. The changing move towards recognising issues such as peak oil, climate change, food security, rural economies....will I hope make Warborne Farm scenarios fewer. The issue at Warbourne is not wholly down to the planners, supermarkets and a lack of customers are a major factor - as they are at Sunnyfields as well and many other independent outlets.
I have been talking to NFDC planners and our last meeting (a few weeks ago) was spent talking food production with a clear desire from their side to understand local food production and that is a positive.
The challenge for us all is that every year our capacity in terms of people and land diminishes further in terms of increasing local food production when we need to be going the other way. Losing land at Warbourne is a negative for us all.
In terms of The New Forest and local food - The producer markets are far from vibrant, local shops, restaurants and cafes are not full of local produce and residents of The New Forest are not - it appears supporting local food enough.
I repeat losing Laverstoke and Warborne within 6 months of each other is unacceptable and I do believe that the NPA planning authority did not help, although they cannot be blamed in isolation.
I would be very willing in line with other comments to look at the issue of farm shops. I will also point out that Famers' Markets in the UK have certainly plateaued and are in many cases on a fast decline, which re-inforces my point above. Farmers' and Growers can grow it but they need lots of help in other ways.
And finally - An update on The Food and More Project is that I have a meeting in London with Bates, Wells and Braithwaite in two weeks to gain more information about the legal structure of the project. The key for the success of many sustainabilty initiatives has to be in building communities - the intention is for the project to be a CIC Plc (Community Interest Company). We hope the first pilot project will be close to the New Forest. The project has to be of a scale that can start addressing the challenges on a scale that can start to make the required changes asap for the benefit of us all. The project has to be inclusive not exclusive.
Sorry for the long nature of this blog
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A mass grave with the remains of 1,700 prisoners killed during a notorious crackdown by Muammar Gaddafi's regime has been found, the country's new rulers say.
News of the gruesome find came on Sunday as hundreds of fighters of the National Transitional Council thrust into Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown.
NATO warplanes pounded the coastal city for a second straight day.
Khalid Sharif, a spokesman for the NTC's military council, said the prisoners were executed at Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim jail in 1996.
"We found the place where all these martyrs were buried," said Sharif, adding it was evidence of "criminal acts" by Gaddafi's regime.
Salim al-Farjani, a member of the committee set up to identify the remains, appealed for international help.
"We call on foreign organisations and the international community to help us in this task of identifying the remains of more than 1,700 people," said Farjani.
The massacre of the inmates helped trigger the revolt in February, when families of Abu Salim victims in the eastern city of Benghazi called for protests against the arrest of their lawyer.
Farjani said he witnessed the gruesome site where the Abu Salim victims were found.
"We were invited to visit the place where the corpses of the prisoners at Abu Salim were found, where we saw scattered human bones," he said.
Farjani also referred to "egregious acts committed against dead bodies, on which acid was poured to eliminate any evidence of this massacre".
International rights groups had for years urged Gaddafi's regime to come clean about the fate of prisoners killed at the jail.
Fighting over Sirte
On the warfront, NTC fighters attempting to capture Sirte faced fierce resistance from forces loyal to Gaddafi.
Explosions rocked the city and plumes of smoke rose into the sky a day earlier, as NTC fighters backed with rockets and heavy artillery launched attacks and Gaddafi's forces returned fire with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
But Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from the outskirts of Sirte, said NTC fighters were forced to pull back "after a fierce and intense battle. Both sides were using heavy power".
An NTC commander told our correspondent that the forces retreated because there were not enough to hold territory, and they had endured a high casualty toll among their ranks.
"In fact the casualty toll on Saturday was nine dead among the anti-Gaddafi fighters and up to 97 wounded, mostly as a result of snipers' fire," Khodr said.
"We have to remember these are inexperienced fighters."
Khodr added that the NTC commanders are adamant that they were not "forced" to pull back from Sirte's centre.
"They are calling it a tactical retreat" because they said they achieved their three objectives in Sirte, our correspondent reported.
"One of the objectives was to create a corridor to allow families to actually escape; the second objective was to secure the periphery of Sirte; and the third objective was to block any possible escape route for Gaddafi fighters."
However, what was achieved from these objectives is quite debatable, Khodr said.
"Not a lot of civilians managed to get out, [besides just] dozens of them. Thousands of people remained trapped inside Sirte… where people lacked food, fuel, running water and electricity.
"It has been a while since these families [have been] living in unbearable conditions.
"Yet it is very difficult to know if these people actually want to leave because Gaddafi does enjoy support in Sirte."
Fight for Bani Walid
Besides Sirte, Bani Walid, where medics say at least 30 NTC troops were killed in the past 24 hours, remains the only other major urban area left under Gaddafi's control.
NTC fighters took the capital, Tripoli, last month, effectively ending Gaddafi's rule and sending him into hiding.
Taking Sirte would be a huge boost for the NTC as it tries to establish credibility as a government, and a devastating blow for Gaddafi, widely believed to be on the run inside Libya.
NATO, whose warplanes played a vital role in the six-month war that toppled Gaddafi, said its planes had hit a number of targets in Sirte, including an ammunition depot and an anti-aircraft gun.
It said in a statement the air attacks had been mounted to protect civilians from Gaddafi forces inside the town.
A Gaddafi spokesman has accused NATO of killing several hundred civilians in strikes on Sirte. Communications have been largely cut off since the fall of Tripoli.
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A recurring ad on the tv lately talks about the things we need to do to improve education. They mention investing in new buildings and up-to-date technology. But their takeaway is investment in teachers: better preparation, support, etc. OK, but wait.... Nobody (ever?) mentions the real and most serious problem: children going to school who live in poverty. If we ended child poverty, the other things would pretty much take care of themselves I suspect. Finland did it, and so could we, but we have to first shed our national cultural fantasy that poverty is a natural part of the social and cultural landscape.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
On NPR's Morning Edition this morning, a reporter called attention to the idea that the new "right-to-work" laws just put in place in Michigan would cause the unions to lose, among other things, "clout." Doesn't the use of this negative-affect word prejudice the reporting? What sort of "clout" are we talking about? Does collective bargaining for the benefit of workers, who are otherwise at the mercy of amoral corporations, really constitute "clout?" Especially when the collective bargaining leads to better wages, enhanced benefits, safer working conditions (which also benefits employers), and so on? Implying that these are the result of having "clout" is the wrong way to frame this discourse, in my (linguist's) opinion.
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Ken Kalthoff, NBC 5 News
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings announced the city's plans to commemorate 50 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.
Dallas is planning a major public memorial ceremony on November 22, 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination at Dealey Plaza.
"The tone is very important," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said. "We want to mark this day by remembering a great president with a sense of dignity and honor he deserves. The 50th will be a serious, respectful and understated public memorial."
The ceremony will include a moment of silence at 12:25 p.m., the time the shots rang out. The mayor will ask that the silence be observed citywide.
Rawlings said public donations are being taken to cover the cost and no tax money will be used.
Plans call for issuing tickets for the Dealey Plaza event because organizers expect more people will want to attend than the plaza can safely hold.
The mayor said community groups will be consulted about how to fairly distribute the tickets.
TV monitors will be erected elsewhere downtown so people who can't get tickets can still watch the service.
Another murder that same November 1963 day was the killing of Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit, who was on patrol in the nearby community of Oak Cliff looking for the president's killer.
Witnesses said Lee Harvey Oswald gunned Tippit down before Oswald was eventually arrested at the Texas Theater.
Nearly 49 years later, a memorial to Officer Tippit was unveiled Tuesday at the corner of 10th Street and Patton Avenue in Oak Cliff where the shooting occurred.
The Dallas Independent School District supported the memorial after all these years on land that is now part of Adamson High School but had been private land until recently.
Attending the dedication was former Dallas police detective Jim Leavelle, who was assigned to Tippit's case.
Leavelle was wearing the white hat escorting Oswald when Jack Ruby shot Oswald in front of television cameras.
"I think it’s a great honor to Tippit, and he deserves it, and I’m just glad I could be alive to see it," Leavelle said.
Tippit's widow Marie also attended the dedication ceremony.
"I think it should be remembered," she said "The president was killed here and Jay was killed here trying to apprehend the killer of the president so I think it should be remembered."
As for the Kennedy ceremony, a committee of high profile Dallas leaders appointed by Rawlings is planning the memorial.
"I'll never forget the faces of all the weeping women and the men who were just stricken, I mean you can imagine how shocking this was," said Dallas Citizens Council leader Ruth Altshuler, the committee chairperson.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, a former Dallas Mayor, is also a member of the committee charged with recognizing Kennedy's legacy.
"I hope the way that we conduct ourselves with this event will inspire another generation to think about how we treat one another," Kirk said.
More information about the Kennedy Memorial Ceremony can be found at www.50thHonoringJohnFKennedy.com.
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by Marc H. Rudov
April 8, 2011
The “Open Borders” Lifestyle
There’s a remarkable correlation between the power of government that people tolerate and the kinds of technology they embrace. It is no coincidence that Americans are now overwhelmed with invasive laws and gadgets that diminish their individual freedoms. Welcome to the end of self.
Hillel, the great Jewish sage and originator of the Golden Rule, famously asked: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But, if I am only for myself, who am I?”
Fast-forward to the attitude of today’s entitlement culture, in which 50% of Americans pay no income tax and 14.1% of them are on food stamps: “If I am not for myself, my government will be for me. And, because I am only for myself, people will follow me on Twitter.”
A week ago, a new technology company, Color Labs, announced that it had raised $41M in first-round equity funding to build a service that broadcasts photos taken by each subscriber to the smartphone of every nearby subscriber, using proximity algorithms. Why does anyone want to receive strangers’ photos? We hate to receive them from our relatives! People are choosing to wave privacy and individuality to join a group.
The “open borders” lifestyle underscores the end of self, identity, and individuality. Accordingly, Sequoia Capital, which invested $25M in this startup, claims Color Labs is the hottest phenomenon since Google. Sequoia recognizes, accurately, that our culture has replaced the individual with the group. What happened to “I need my space”?
Color Labs is, in a way, akin to Foursquare, purveyor of “check-in” software. With their smartphones, subscribers can track the whereabouts of all their “friends,” no matter where they go. Ironically, survivors of the former Soviet Union risked their lives to escape the constant scrutiny to which these folks are voluntarily submitting themselves.
None of His Damn Business
I recall watching Johnny Carson relate an awkward encounter at a party he had hosted. A guest approached to ask the price he had paid for his beautiful home. Appalled, Johnny explained that he was raised in the Midwest, where people didn’t ask such questions. When the man reminded Carson that he could go to city hall to find the deed, which is public information, Johnny angrily invited him to do so while admonishing him that it was none of his damn business. Johnny’s attitude about self is so yesterday.
If he were alive today, Johnny Carson would find Foursquare and its ilk shocking and nonsensical. People have a natural yearning for freedom and privacy, but they also must work and fight to maintain both -- because Big Government, the lifestyle dictator, has a natural yearning, and objective, to erode and steal our freedom and privacy. That’s why our Founding Fathers fought to build this country.
“End of self” conditioning has periodically raised its ugly head, starting with Woodrow Wilson. Never, though, has it been more entrenched than today. It’s no accident, then, that people are increasingly choosing group-centric technologies and governments. Using “chicken/egg” analysis, Big Government -- such as FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society -- fashionably preceded Facebook and iPhones.
Technology, interestingly, has become a barometer of government power. As wimpiness, political correctness, and anti-capitalism insidiously pervade each successive generation, mostly through our federally controlled schools, all sense of self fades. Big Government then increases its fascistic power, and technology’s invasiveness adapts accordingly. The whole cycle is so evolutionary – progressive -- that few notice until it’s too late.
Reliably, technology -- socialism’s barometer -- symbolizes the populace’s willingness to be monitored and controlled. What Big Government leader doesn’t salivate over a more-pliable electorate and those who soon will join its ranks: students.
Ask any high-caliber schoolteacher about the contemporary classroom, and you’ll likely hear two sad trends: 1) the typical public school revolves around the worst student, not the best -- shrinking the smart kids to equal the slowest kid, thereby making the “group” uniformly mediocre; 2) kids, who know more about recycling than the Revolutionary War, are being indoctrinated with socialism and taught to accept, expect, and extol Big Government.
It’s not surprising, then, that anyone who attends one of our identity-shredding schools will happily and readily support overtaxing the rich and greening the planet while also sharing her schedule, location, and nude photos with friends -- and strangers. What a nice blend of socialism and socializing!
When a student gets his sheepskin and enters the real world, he’ll discover the end-of-self theme perpetuated as an extension of his school. If, for example, he wants to buy a 100-watt lightbulb for his apartment, Big Government will tell him that, to save the planet, he can’t. When he has to pay taxes while other members of “the group” don’t, he’ll hear that he must spread his wealth around.
If he’s not head-down, constantly texting his friends, our graduate may learn that, except for the dictator leader, there’s no individual in socialism -- only the group. Given man’s natural quest for freedom, which he experienced in his rebellious teenage years, it might dawn on him that socialism (aka Marxism, fascism, communism, collectivism, Nazism) never succeeds and cannot exist without force or fiat: Obamacare is mandatory.
Finally, if our graduate discovers that fascism, which derives from the Italian word for bundle, is an oppressive, left-wing, invasive, wealth-redistributing system of government, he may even take another look at his Facebook page and resent his loss of self. Maybe.
Rx from the WhiteNoise Doctor™
Sequoia Capital, with its $25M investment in Color Labs, is bullish on the herd. Most technology companies -- with Facebook in the lead -- are following suit. The herd, the group, the bundle all signal societal submissiveness and voluntary exposure.
Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts!
It’s not a stretch, either, to extrapolate that those who remove borders between people also believe in doing the same between countries. For example, Thomas Friedman, left-leaning author, promoted technology, in The World Is Flat, as a means to do just that.
Technology, like government, always has been, and always will be, a means to an end. The question is, what end? It’s disconcerting, at best, to see so many people actively and deliberately choosing the means to the end of self. Investors and socialists applaud.
Copyright © 2011 by Marc H. Rudov. All Rights Reserved.
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A view of the Rosedale Manor family chapel at Greenwell State Park in Hollywood, MD, July 2, 2009. The family chapel is a 12 ft. x 12 ft. one room chapel that can hold about 15 people.
Greenwell State Park sits on part of a 4000-acre tract once known as Resurrection Manor. In the 1940′s, the Greenwell Family purchased a portion of the land. In 1966, John Philip Greenwell, Jr. (1895 – 1986) established the Greenwell Foundation, and began long-term plans for his Southern Maryland estate. Included in these plans were a place where people with disabilities could come and experience outdoor recreation activities, just like anyone else. The family donated the estate to the State of Maryland in 1971.
The Greenwell Foundation is a non-profit organization that assists the Department of Natural Resources in achieving the Greenwell’s vision. The Foundation manages the rental facilities of Greenwell State Park. This includes the Rosedale Manor family chapel.
Photos By: Anthony Washington
Copyright © 2009 * All Rights Reserved *
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Strong authentication: Bring-Your-Own-Token
Here's number three with a bullet
Published 12:09, 20 February 12
In approaching the research for my recently published TechRadar™ on strong authentication, at first I struggled a bit with overlapping concepts and terminology (as can be seen in the lively discussion that took place over in the Security & Risk community a few months back).
The research ultimately revealed that form factor matters a lot -- smartcards in actual card form, for example, have some properties and use cases distinct from smart chips in other devices. So smartcards became one of the 14 categories we included.
The category that quickly became my favourite was "bring-your-own-token." BYOT is Forrester's term for the various methods (sometimes called "tokenless") that leverage the devices, applications, and communications channels users already have. The classic example is a one-time password that gets sent in an SMS message to a pre-registered phone, but we see emerging vendors doing a lot of innovation in this space.
You can get a surprising amount of risk mitigation value from this lightweight approach, in which you can treat provisioning not as an expensive snail-mail package, but as a mere self-registration exercise. In a world where hard tokens and smartcards prove themselves to be, shall we say, imperfectly invulnerable, lightweightness can have a value all its own. In fact, BYOT showed up just behind these two venerable methods in the "significant success" trajectory on the TechRadar.
Here's my suspicion: BYOD has now led to BYOT. Soon enough we'll be able to combine BYOT with strong biometric bindings between users and their devices, which will help fix vulnerabilities of the type seen in the recent DoD smartcard breach while keeping biometrics "local" (and likely more privacy-protected). In that new era, true user-controllable BYOI -- bring-your-own-identity -- will become a more viable option in all kinds of settings, including the enterprise.
Got thoughts on strong authentication? (One thing I learned on this project: Everyone does!) I hope you'll share them in the comments below.
Posted by Eve Maler
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A little more than halfway through the trial run for its new restaurant rating system, the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department is considering tweaks before rolling it out county-wide next year.
Environmental service director Anita Ray said the current scoring system for the program is unfair.
It allows restaurants to get an "excellent" rating even if sanitarians find multiple critical violations at the business. As long as employees correct the problems before the sanitarian leaves, the offenses will not count toward the restaurant's final rating.
Ray said that isn't fair to restaurants where inspectors never find critical violations.
"There should be some penalty for having that many violations, even if they are corrected," she said.
She does not know how the rating system could be changed to fix that discrepancy, however.
Dr. Rahul Gupta, executive director of the health department, said he likely would ask the Kanawha-Charleston Board of Health committee that designed the program to meet again and hammer out the details.
The six-month pilot program began Aug. 1 after months of work by a committee.
"We knew there would have to be some changes made. That was the purpose of the pilot," he said.
As part of the pilot program, restaurants in South Charleston and along Corridor G now receive inspection forms with orange, yellow or green bars across the bottom. The forms indicate whether compliance with health code is "excellent," "good" or "fair."
Health inspectors rate restaurants based on the number of uncorrected critical and non-critical violations they receive. Only businesses that earn zero uncorrected critical violations are listed as "excellent." Businesses with one uncorrected critical violation and fewer than 11 non-critical violations earn a "good" compliance rating, according to the chart.
Any business with two uncorrected critical violations receives a "fair" compliance rating, no matter the number of non-critical violations. Restaurants with three or more uncorrected critical violations are shut down.
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April 18, 2012 — A new revelation of young American soldiers caught on camera while defiling insurgents’ remains in Afghanistan has intensified questions within the military community about whether fundamental discipline is breaking down given the nature and length of the war.
The photographs, published by The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, show more than a dozen soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division’s Fourth Brigade Combat Team, along with some Afghan security forces, posing with the severed hands and legs of Taliban attackers in Zabul Province in 2010. They seemed likely to further bruise an American-Afghan relationship that has been battered by crisis after crisis over the past year, even as the two governments are in the midst of negotiations over a long-term strategic agreement.
The images also add to a troubling list of cases — including Marines videotaped urinating on Taliban bodies, the burning of Korans, and the massacre of villagers attributed to a lone Army sergeant — that have cast American soldiers in the harshest possible light before the Afghan public. Accordingly, combat veterans and military analysts are beginning to look inside the catchall phrase “stress on the force” to identify factors that could be contributing to the breaches.
One potential explanation put forth by these analysts is the exhaustion felt by the class of non-commissioned officers that forms the backbone of the all-volunteer force: the sergeants responsible for training, mentoring and disciplining small groups of 18- and 19-year-old soldiers at the small-unit level, hour by hour, patrol by patrol.
Another factor, they say, may be the demands of a counterinsurgency strategy that has distributed small units across vast distances to serve at primitive combat outposts. Self-reliance required in isolation may promote heroic camaraderie. But the rugged terrain, logistical challenges and the in-your-face violence of the insurgency may also present great challenges to the noncommissioned officers in charge of these small units, operating far beyond the more consistent senior supervision in past wars.
Officers and analysts express concerns that some of these isolated units are falling prey to diminished standards of behavior and revert to what one combat veteran described as “Lord of the Flies” syndrome, after the William Golding novel portraying a band of cultured British schoolboys reverting to tribal violence when severed from society.
“Some of these incidents certainly seem to be the fault of a breakdown in leadership at the small-unit level,” said Andrew Exum, a defense policy analyst at the Center for a New American Security who teaches a course on irregular warfare at Columbia University.
“Where was the sergeant who is supposed to say: ‘Stop, boys. We don’t do that. We don’t disrespect the dead’?” said Mr. Exum, who led a light infantry platoon in Afghanistan in 2002 and then led a platoon of Rangers in both Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004.
Early reports indicate that the soldiers had been sent to gather fingerprints or retina scans for identification of the suicide bomber. Mr. Exum noted how the horrific experience of being ordered to interact with bloody, severed body parts of an enemy may cause soldiers to develop self-defense mechanisms — in particular dark humor around corpses. “But the line is crossed when you disrespect the dead body,” he said. “It’s one thing to have a psychological release valve, and another thing to take trophy pictures.”
Pentagon and military officials, noting that the proliferation of soldiers’ carrying camera phones has been involved in many of the cases, said that technology and a changing culture had presented new problems, as well. Troops have behaved badly since the beginning of warfare, of course. But now, those actions can be captured in real time, and spread rapidly without commanders’ control, via social networks.
Army officials said Wednesday that the service had guidelines and rules for photos — basically, “think before you post” — but they also acknowledged that social media are evolving so rapidly that regulations were not keeping pace. Rules are set by commanders at the company, battalion and brigade level, but those standards are sometimes ignored by small units in the field.
“Technology today presents definite challenges related to security and propriety,” said Col. Thomas W. Collins, an Army spokesman. “In this case, these photos are probably a manifestation of the soldiers’ relief that this insurgent no longer posed a threat to them or their fellow soldiers. That cannot excuse what they did. We are the United States Army, and the world rightly has very high expectations that our soldiers will do what’s right. Clearly, that didn’t happen in this case.”
With more than a million military personnel having deployed overseas since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the recent cases represent only a tiny percentage of the force. Senior American officials responding on Wednesday noted that, even as they condemned the soldiers’ behavior.
“This is not who we are, and it’s certainly not what we represent when it comes to the great majority of men and women in uniform,” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said at a NATO conference in Brussels, calling the soldiers’ behavior unacceptable and promising a full investigation. President Obama said that those responsible for the actions would be “held accountable,” and Gen. John R. Allen, the senior allied commander in Afghanistan, sounded similar themes. But Afghan officials described an increasing skepticism among the public after case after case of misbehavior has come to light over the past year.
Nadir Nadiry, an Afghan human rights activist in Kabul, said Afghans would likely react negatively because similar photographs had surfaced before and despite military investigations the latest pictures suggested that the actions continued to be perpetrated. “It gives them a sense of, ‘Oh they are continuing to do this,’ ” he said. “Each time they say they will conduct a thorough investigation, but these investigations are not being made public, so the results are not known to the Afghan people.”
Some Afghan officials said the behavior shown in the images was deeply offensive given Muslim views of how to treat dead bodies. Hajji Baz Mohammed, a tribal elder and head of the development council in Qalat, the capital of Zabul Province, where the soldiers were operating, told of how residents were enraged last year after a similar incident involved Afghan security forces.
“Eight months ago, Afghan security forces dishonored the bodies of two dead insurgents, which really infuriated the people here in Zabul,” he said. “People went to the streets, and three more went to the streets and three more died in the clashes between angry mobs and security forces.”
He added, “In the past episode, it was Afghans who insulted the bodies and three people were killed as a result — one can imagine what will happen if the people got to know that non-Muslims are insulting the dead bodies of Muslims.”
Several of the military analysts commenting Wednesday said the kind of lapses shown in the photos struck directly at the ability of American troops to perform their mission, given how important winning Afghans’ sympathies is to keeping the Taliban at bay.
Mr. Mohammed raised the same issue: “These kinds of acts would further increase the already widened gap between the people and the government, and would drive some government supporters toward the Taliban. In the meantime, it’s not good for the Americans: these kinds of acts would generate more hatred and would motivate people to vengeance.”
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There are two questions:
What makes a camera "professional", to a photographer?
What makes a camera "professional" to everyone else?
In this case these people clearly don't know anything about photography as their definition of "professional" is based on pretty stupid criteria.
For example: Detachable Zoom Lenses aren't allowed, so how about detachable prime lenses? Obviously the minimum wage highschool dropouts they'll have working security won't know the difference...
The definition is professional is nuanced. Anything a professional photographer uses, is professional gear, by definition. Professional means "someone who makes a living through photography." This has no implication about skill, or quality.
In terms of gear, professional "equipment" is gear designed for rugged use. It's built with very high quality control, to very exact specifications, highly durable, and offers a bevy of features that your regular hobbyist might not ever want or need.. If you are someone who makes a living shooting cameras, and your camera's cannot fail ever, you buy a professional body. This is almost always reflected in the price, but if you need performance, you pay for it.
In the right skilled hands, any camera is capable of producing images that can grace magazine covers. fstoppers did a photo shoot using only an iPhone camera. And if any random person picked up a new 1Ds, there is a strong likelihood that the pictures will suck.
There will be many professionals who swear by non-professional grade bodies. And certainly they have a point. President Obama's Presidential Portrait was taken with a 5D Mark II. However the 5D II has only a 9-point AF system compared to the 1Ds Mark III 45 point AF system with like 36 high resolution cross-types at f4 or better.
So to recap: professional means professional grade: high durability, high standard of quality, crazy feature set, and full control.
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Wednesday November 30 2005
What a treat this morning to hear, among the Today programme's usual roll-call of bombs, pensions and global warming, the measured tones of the poet laureate talking about a new website, the Poetry Archive, on which are stored recordings of poets reading their works. "Poets," Andrew Motion said, "have unique rights to their work, and unique insights to offer as we hear their idiom, pacing, tone and emphases." The job of the archive, which was the brainchild of Motion and recording producer Richard Carrington, is, Motion says, "to preserve the mystery of poetry while tearing away some of the prejudices which can make it appear unduly 'difficult' or separate from familiar life."
The archive was, in a sense, born out of an awareness of loss. Many, many great poets of the last century died unrecorded. We will never, for example, know how AE Housman would have delivered When I Was One-And-Twenty; the voices of DH Lawrence and Thomas Hardy are likewise lost to us forever. But it doesn't do to dwell on what's missing: turn instead to the crackly but magical recording of Tennyson reading The Charge of the Light Brigade or WB Yeats, one of my poet-heroes, reading his frankly fabulous The Lake Isle of Innisfree.
Other historical recordings include John Betjeman reading A Subaltern's Love Song and Siegfried Sassoon's clear and beautiful rendition of The Dug-Out, as well as recordings of Rudyard Kipling, Robert Browning and Edith Sitwell, among others. The search for as-yet-unarchived historic recordings is ongoing; if you know of one that the site has yet to catalogue, you're invited to tell them about it.
The archive's other equally important task is to ensure that the voices of our contemporary poets are recorded for posterity. Simon Armitage, George Szirtes, Seamus Heaney and Harold Pinter are all there; my most treasured find so far is the wonderful Anne Stevenson reading a favourite of mine, Poem For A Daughter.
I could happily spend all day browsing this site. If you can do the same without risking a sacking, I highly recommend it.
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Where is China Going?
Remarks of Richard Baum at the Foreign Correspondents Club, Beijing, December 13, 2002
Much ink has been spilled of late about China’s new fourth-generation leaders. Rather than rehashing what has been said before, I thought that today I’d step back a bit to assess the broader canvas of China’s ongoing political development: Where has China got to? Where is China going? How will it get there? And what are the major bumps along the road?
First, let me dissociate myself from both the Cassandras and the Pollyannas of the China-watching community. I don’t believe China is on the verge of collapse; nor do I think Nirvana is close at hand.
China is like the proverbial “magic mirror.” You can look into it and see exactly what you want -- or expect -- to see. Those of you who cover the China beat know better than others just what I mean.
First the good news. China is a dynamic country with vast human and material resource potential; it’s markets are thriving; and its middle class is self-confident and growing. Over the past quarter-century, economic growth has been phenomenal. I needn’t tell this group about the “miracle” of economic development in coastal regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen or Guangzhou.
Equally important, the interior provinces are now beginning to experience significant development. Last summer I revisited China’s Western regions for the first time in two decades. Everywhere I went – from Lanzhou, Xining, and Urumqi to Chengdu, Chongqing, and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, infrastructure development was well underway: modern roads and highways, airports and railways; high-rise offices and apartment houses replacing traditional urban structures; modern hotels and restaurants springing up; cellphones, satellite dishes and fiber-optic cables everywhere in evidence.
Much of this development has been stimulated and promoted by a central government that has shifted from a development strategy of tight, narrow micro-economic management to broad macro-economic regulation. In the process, powerful developmental forces have been unleashed, most of them local in nature. By giving local governments a major stake in promoting economic development through fiscal and administrative decentralization and the downward assignment of residual property rights over profits from state-owned enterprises, the long-dormant genii of Chinese entrepreneurship has been released from its captive, bureaucratic-socialist jar.
That’s the good news. Now for the bad news: The newly-unbound genii has got, it seems, an insidious, evil twin: the geni coefficient. Over the past 20 years of reform, income differentials in China have risen from among the lowest in the world to among the highest. Everyone in this room knows the main outlines of this story, viz., the growing income gap between town and countryside, coast and interior, manufacturing and raw material sectors. Today, incomes in Shanghai are, on average, eight to ten times higher than incomes in Guizhou.
At the same time, marketization of the economy and the downward transfer of residual property rights have multiplied both the rewards of and the opportunities for bribery, graft, and other forms of corrupt behavior – much of it committed by officials charged with managing state assets and resources. With more and bigger unproductive rents available for extraction by self-serving cadres at every level, and with more and bigger local governmental revenue streams moving off-budget to avoid higherj-level taxation or expropriation, the temptation to engage in corrupt behavior has seemingly become ubiquitous and irresistible.
And all this is complicated by the chronic underperformance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the state banking system. China’s banks are awash in unperforming loans, currently estimated at over $500 billion, or 43% of GNP. With thousands of money-losing SOEs forced to close their doors or merge with more profitable firms in recent years, urban unemployment currently affects 35-40 million Chinese workers -- approximately 10 percent of the toal -- most of whom have no reliable social safety net.
In sum, the Chinese economic picture is a very mixed one.
Turning from economic indicators to social indicators of China’s developmental health, we find a similarly mixed picture. The good news is that the deepening of China’s market reforms has produced a thriving consumer culture. The options and alternatives available to ordinary citizens in their daily lives have multiplied greatly, and currently include choices over housing, employment, education, and – increasingly – information.
As the party-state has receded from micro-managing every aspect of people’s lives, personal freedom and autonomy have grown apace. Personal space has been augmented, and the pursuit of individual and group interests has greatly expanded. The mass media are more lively than ever before, while civic associations, business groups and professional societies have begun to flourish. All this is good news indeed.
But the rise of a new urban culture of active, informed, socially empowered citizens has not been matched by significantly enhanced political rights and freedoms. Despite recent, largely cosmetic attempts to “keep abreast of the times” (a key theme at last month’s 16th CCP National Congress), the Chinese Communist Party – and in particular its executive arm, the Politburo and its Standing Committee – remains an exclusive, closed, insecure, and change-resistant ruling clique.
This lack of citizen empowerment has been underscored by the increasing incidence of labor disturbances in recent years – with an estimated 30,000 “events” occurring in 2001 alone. More and more, disgruntled workers are making their unhappiness felt, as are rural farmers who have grown weary of excessive fiscal exactions by predatory township governments. All this has served to underscore the absence of effective institutional mechanisms for articulating public opinion and governmental response.
To be sure, limited political innovations have been attempted from time to time, including village elections and the “cha’er” system of nominating more candidates than the number of offices to be filled. But even these quasi-democratic initiatives have been carefully controlled from above; and nowhere has anything resembling genuine political pluralism been permitted to take root. This, it seems to me, is the single most telling, and potentially tragic, failing of the current regime.
Charles Lindblom once remarked that Leninist systems were particularly adept at forcing change in society “from above”; that is, they had muscular, coercive “thumbs” that could exert highly concentrated pressure on society. By the same token, however, Leninist systems had weakly-developed “fingers” for sensing societal feedback and for responding to dispersed environmental stimuli. By contrast, Lindblom observed, market democracies had rather weak thumbs (i.e., they could not generate much coercive power from above), but they had very sensitive, well-developed fingers to accurately register societal feedback, rendering them better able to adapt to environmental vicissitudes.
As the mass mobilization phase of the Chinese revolution recedes farther into the past, there is an exponential increase in the need for sensitivity in the system’s socio-political receptors. It is not enough to have a marketized economy that responds to a myriad of dispersed economic signals. There must also be a socio-political marketplace that accurately registers – and responds to – increasingly complex, pluralistic societal signals. And this is all the more important as China begins to confront the twin evils of a looming HIV/AIDS epidemic and rampant environmental degradation.
Chinese society has become more and more complex, diverse, differentiated, specialized, and dynamic. Yet its dominant political institutions remain painfully simplistic, ossified and anachronistic, dominated at the top by a small handful of self-selected techno-oligarchs who are accountable to no-one but themselves and their cronies.
Jiang Zemin’s “three represents” were added to the CCP constitution last month in an effort to broaden the party’s dwindling popular appeal by ending its doctrinally-embedded exclusion of “new bourgeois” elements from among the business and middle classes. This is an important first step in “opening up” the Chinese political system. But it is only a first step, and a rather small one at that. For while the “three represents” may help to increase socio-economic diversity within the party, it will do little to empower ordinary citizens vis-à-vis the party. For it neither creates representative – and hence politically accountable – institutions of governance; nor promotes greater transparency in policy making and administration.
What, then, is needed? What is to be done?
Although there is much to be said for Western-style democratization, the burden of modern Chinese history and culture, together with the lingering, twin traumas of the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen debacle, weigh heavily against expectations of an early, wholesale democratic breakthrough. Politics is (or should be) the art of the possible, or at least the plausible. What, then, is possible under China’s present circumstances?
At this stage, what is most urgently needed is a shift in the direction of “soft authoritarianism.” Such an evolutionary shift was beginning to take shape in the late 1980s, under the guidance of pro-reform party leader Zhao Ziyang. But it was stopped in its tracks in the wake of the Tiananmen crackdown, when Zhao was purged for “splitting the party.” Thereafter, fear of endemic instability and chaos, reinforced by the sudden, startling disintegration of the Soviet Union, prevented China’s third-generation leaders, under Jiang Zemin and Li Peng, from renewing Zhao’s program for augmented political pluralism in China.
I would conjecture that China’s newly-empowered fourth generation leaders are not so tightly wedded to the past as their predecessors. They are pragmatic problem-solvers, not rigid bureaucrats; none are ideologues; none bear responsibility for the brutal Tiananmen crackdown of June 4, 1989. This means that they may not be rigidly averse to “reversing the verdict” on that event, thereby restoring Zhao Ziyang’s good name and unfreezing the reforms that bear his imprimatur.
Given the relative improbability of a radical democratic breakthrough from above – which would inevitably threaten the very foundations of Communist Party rule in China -- we might reasonably expect China’s new leaders to begin once again to experiment with more inclusive, hybrid forms of soft-authoritarian governance. This would presumably involve relaxing present restrictions on unofficial religious and social organizations; enlarging the scope of political and intellectual tolerance; legitimizing the existence of pluralistic political interests; and strengthening the autonomy and efficacy of the mass media, organs of public opinion, and existing “consultative” bodies such as the National People’s Congress, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and the PRC’s eight existing “democratic parties” – relics of traditional CCP “united front” policies often disparaged by critics as “flowerpots” because of their tight control and supervision by the CCP.
This is precisely the direction in which Zhao Ziyang was moving before his 1989 purge and the post-Tiananmen backlash put an end, for more than a decade, to all talk of meaningful political reform. The time may now be ripe to revive this reform agenda. Though the soft-authoritarian measures mentioned above are not wholly or sufficiently democratic – i.e., they do not involve multi-party electoral competition at all levels of the system – they nonetheless constitute a vital political opening, baby steps on the path of China’s smooth and safe transition to political modernity.
The biggest barrier to such innovation, of course, is the formidable force of inertia. Short of a severe, large-scale systemic crisis, might not China’s leaders simply opt for the “path of least resistance”, preferring to “muddle through” with minimal structural change, as did their third-generation predecessors?
While “muddling through” is arguably the default mode of politically-challenged elites everywhere, Chinese leaders may no longer have this luxury. Given a deepening of the socio-economic stresses confronting them – unemployment, income polarization, corruption, HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, and so on – time may not be on their side. Although the country’s extraordinary record of aggregate economic growth since the Tiananmen debacle -- averaging over 8% per year for the past 13 years -- has enabled the country to weather the transitional shocks and displacements of marketization without undergoing serious, systemic political upheaval, the good times may not last. China is not recession-proof, and the PRC’s entry into the WTO has exposed the country far more than ever before to the vicissitudes of global economic forces.
Could China’s leaders muddle thru a bit longer? Yes, probably. After all, they have confounded outside observers and defied predictions of crisis many times before. So long as the economy keeps growing rapidly, they may be able to delay further the introduction of necessary reforms. But this makes the regime hostage to economic forces that increasingly lie beyond its control.
Far better, I would argue, to pro-actively initiate reforms while the economy is robust, rather than waiting until the system is in crisis and regime collapse becomes a real (rather than merely a hypothetical) possibility. The need for sensitive socio-political “fingers” has never been greater in China. The Leninist “thumb” needs to relax its grip – while it still can.
Richard Baum, Professor of Political Science, is Director of the UCLA Center for Chinese, and interim Director of the UCLA Asia Institute
Published: Tuesday, December 17, 2002
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By Zoe Yabrove
By Bree Davies
By Byron Graham
By Susan Froyd
By Josiah M. Hesse
By Bree Davies
By Susan Froyd
By Kate Gibbons
I first heard Paul Robeson's voice during the folk revival of the early 1960s, the days when Bob Dylan and Joan Baez were ascendant. Someone had put together a disc of folk songs from earlier in the century that included Robeson singing "Get on Board, Little Children." It was an unforgettable voice, dark and deep as the ocean, and full of kindly, protective authority. I could see the boat of the song, which seemed to be rocking on that great sound, and the line of hitherto lost children climbing the gangplank. I knew a little about Paul Robeson -- that he was a famed actor and singer, that he stood up against fascism wherever he found it -- and somehow the song got linked in my mind with all the Jewish children who'd been sent into what their families hoped was safety during World War II.
Philip Hayes Dean's Paul Robeson is a one-man play being staged by Shadow Theatre Company as part of Black History Month. It has the limitations of its genre: It's a little static; it requires one actor to hold the stage for well over two hours; it's not a warts-and-all biography, but purely hagiographic. Nonetheless, this is a wonderful evening of theater. And if any American ever deserved to be venerated, it's Paul Robeson -- for his intellect, artistry and athleticism, and most of all for the passion for justice that burned through his actions. These days, when small-souled politicians pretend to the mantle of greatness using marketing techniques and an army of yapping broadcasters, it's refreshing to contemplate the life of someone genuinely heroic.
At the play's beginning, Robeson, age 75, is preparing a tape to send to an event being held at Carnegie Hall in his honor. We learn about his difficulties with racism while a student and football player at Rutgers. After getting a law degree at Columbia University, Robeson joined a law firm. He left because, among other things, the white secretaries refused to take dictation from him. He became a part of the Harlem Renaissance. He performed in Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings and The Emperor Jones. Then the musical Showboattook him to London, where he found a culture more congenial than his own. In America, he was "an exotic," he says in the play, while in England, "I am considered an actor, an athlete and, most important, a scholar."
But in 1934, Robeson traveled to Berlin with his wife, Essie, to meet a Jewish friend. Within minutes of disembarking from the train, he learned that his friend's child, a dwarf, had been taken away by fascists; the friend had come to the station only to tell him this and to warn him to leave. As he and Essie stood on the platform, a group of Brownshirts converged on them. Robeson secured their escape through a willful show of rage and defiance, a desperately calculated piece of acting.
After a visit to Russia, where he met Stanislavsky and Sergei Eisenstein, Robeson turned his attention to the fight against Franco in Spain. "I felt I was being born in the crucible of the Spanish Civil War," he said. But when he began setting up a series of fundraising concerts in England, he discovered that his friends in the British aristocracy had a nasty affinity for the fascist cause.
Robeson eventually returned to America. He played Othello on Broadway. He also learned that African-American soldiers returning to the South from World War II were met by lynch mobs -- as had those who returned from World War I. Robeson was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956 and eventually blacklisted. His passport was confiscated. The result was "my being erased from the consciousness of the American people."
It goes without saying that the success of this play depends on the actor playing the central role, and Russell Costen's performance is superb. Robeson was a physically imposing figure, a tall and powerful man, while Costen is shorter and has a less resonant voice. Nonetheless, Costen finds Robeson's gravitas, his measured vocal cadences, the occasional deep rumble in the bass. His timing is impeccable, and he isn't afraid to let a few silent seconds pass when necessary. Invisible characters sometimes inhabit the stage -- as they must in a one-person play -- and he makes these characters feel real, giving us the voices of a New York secretary, an English aristocrat, a German Jew. This is a highly skilled performance, but it isn't only about skill. It is a generous and openhearted act of tribute.
The production is a triumph for Costen and for director Michael R. Duran. It is also a triumph for the Shadow Theatre Company, which, under company founder and producer Jeffrey Nickelson, works consistently to discover those elements of the human spirit that transcend barriers of race, place and time. Don't miss it.
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Last Saturday, thanks to Corinne and her generous friend, we went to the town of Sion, using special offer train tickets. The weather that day was beautiful and the temperatures were very pleasant (20° C). We were extremely lucky...
We left Geneva at 7h30 in the morning and took the Cisalpino train (which goes all the way from Geneva to Venice, Italy) till Sion, the capital city of the canton of Valais, where we arrived 1h40 minutes later. There, we visited the town, saw some great momuments, bought 2 kilos of regional mountain cheese and sat on terraces sipping on cups of coffee.
Sion is a very old place that was already inhabited during Neolithic times. It's name takes it's origin from the Latin "Sedunum" which derives from the Seduni Celtic tribes that lived in this region and were conquered by the Romans during the first century BC. The Roman Catholic diocese of Sion is the oldest in Switzerland and one of the oldest north of the Alps, so it is not exactly a surprise if Valais is such a strongly Catholic canton (as opposed to Geneva which is Protestant).
This alluring and attractive town has a population of 27'000. It is situated in the valley of the Rhône and is surrounded by mountains as well as two rocky hills jutting incongruously from a relatively the flat countryside. The crest of both hills is adorned with the medieval Castle of Tourbillon (pics 3, 4, 6 and 9) and the Basilica of Valère (pics soon to follow) which are visible from afar and offer a magnificent spectacle.
Et pour les francophones, voici des liens en français:
Sion (voir lien I & lien II)
Canton du Valais (voir lien)
Vallée du Rhône (voir lien)
Basilique/Château de Valère (voir lien)
Château de Tourbillon (voir lien)
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Mon, Mar 10, 2008 | 18:17 GMT
Nintendo refuses to release Holocaust DS game in US
According to this, Nintendo has confirmed that Imagination Is the Only Escape will not be released in America.
“At this time, there are no plans for this game to be released for any Nintendo platforms in North America,” the company said in a statement.
The game, created by 21-year-old Brit Luc Bernard and published by Alten8, is the story of a boy living in Eastern France at the time of German occupation during WWII, who seeks to escape the horrors of war through his fantasy world.
“There will be no on-screen violence in this product,” said Bernard. “I don’t see war as a game. I don’t find that amusing.”
Bernard’s mother was Jewish, and his maternal grandmother looked after orphaned Jewish children after WWII.
While Nintendo may not approve of the game, US-based Anti-Defamation League has welcomed the concept of the title, although it hasn’t seen the title as yet.
“We certainly believe that we have to find new ways of teaching lessons of the Holocaust as new technologies are being developed,” said a spokesperson for the society.
Bernard is also developing Eternity’s Child for Wii and DS, again published by Alten8, which focuses on a world destroyed by global warming.
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Lego robots rampage through Salmon Creek school
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Salmon Creek -- Twenty teams unleashed homemade, self-propelled robots at Salmon Creek Elementary School during the 2012 FIRST Lego League qualifying tournament Dec. 1. Three Clark County teams made the cut and will proceed to the state competition. They are the Soggy Cloverteers, the Dynamos and the Brain Bots. All three teams are made up of 9- to 14-year-olds. The competition at Skyview involved a 21/2-minute solo run, followed by a checklist of tasks. Teams were only allowed to touch their robots when they were at "home base." The competition was sponsored by Clark County 4-H.
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This web site demonstrates the complete and organized corruption of New Jersey state government that extends from the governor's office and the state supreme court to a small-town council; it is a story supported by provided facts that will never appear in New Jersey newspapers.
The following story demonstrates not only the complete corruption of New Jersey courts, but it also demonstrates the blatant violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution regarding free speech.....
and it also demonstrates the frightening violation of the Fourth Amendment that protects citizens from unwarranted arrest.
The New Jersey state government's complete departure from its constitution is demonstrated; that constitution, modeled after the federal constitution, was designed so that the three branches of government were separated in order to provide checks on each other when abuses of power presented....
however, it is not an exaggeration to state that New Jersey government is controlled by a handful of political bosses who in turn control all three branches.
For those who do not care to verify libelous accusations the soon to follow ten statements are provable beyond a reasonable doubt.
For those who require proof regarding libelous accusations detailed evidence is provided, however the time required for the examination of the evidence is more than a few hours.
The home page that you are reading will require about fifteen minutes to complete and presumably provides an adequate summary of what is likely a commonplace but nevertheless serious example of organized governmental corruption.
Perhaps it can be reasoned by most visitors that the following ten libelous accusations are indeed provable; presumably defamation litigation would result from egregious but unfounded accusations....
but no such defamation litigation has occurred.
Evidence of public corruption is not erased when a new governor takes the oath of office, nor can the stonewalling and/or cover up of that evidence by a corrupt government (until a statute of limitation occurs) result in its being erased.
1. The Saint Barnabas Health Care System is New Jersey's largest health care system, and it criminally retaliated against a whistleblowing RN by staging a morphine theft that was attributed to the RN.
2. The whistleblowing RN fought back and eventually won a six-day trial against the Saint Barnabas Health Care System after winning the reversal of a judicial decision that dismissed the whistleblower's litigation for being completely without merit.
But even though the whistleblower won at trial a completely corrupt New Jersey judiciary ensured the career destruction of the RN who suffered ruinous losses as a result of his conscientious action.
3. Even though the RN won at trial the New Jersey judiciary protected the Saint Barnabas Health Care System from being held accountable for the violation of both civil and criminal law.
4. As US Attorney for New Jersey Christopher Christie covered up egregious public corruption.....,
and as New Jersey governor he continues to protect that corruption.
5. Ocean County (New Jersey) state representatives David Wolfe, James Holzapfel, and Andrew Ciesla* protect a demonstrably corrupt Ocean County judiciary regarding the sale of criminal and civil law.
*Andrew Ciesla did not run for re-election in 2011, and will presumably eventually collect a generous pension and health benefits as a result of his tenure.
6. The New Jersey oversight entity for the state's judiciary covers up evidence of the judiciary's corruption.
7. The media in New Jersey conceals from the public evidence of organized governmental corruption; indeed, a completely corrupt government could not exist without the aid of a corrupt media.
8. The media in New Jersey conceals from the public criminal and civil wrong doing by the Saint Barnabas Health Care System.
9. The whistleblowing RN's effort to expose organized governmental corruption in New Jersey was threatened by a local governmental attempt to suppress First Amendment constitutional rights regarding freedom of speech....
this attempt was aided by the local police who eventually arrested the RN, refused to give the reason for the arrest, handcuffed him to a metal bench in a cold room within the police station continuously for more than four hours, and then transferred him in handcuffs to a lock down psychiatric unit for an evaluation;
many visitors will recognize the Soviet-era ploy of confining political dissidents to insane asylums,
and a few visitors will recognize the brazen violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution that protects citizens from arrest without probable cause.
10. The American Nurses Association and the New Jersey State Nurses Association concealed from its members the presumably rare story of a trial win by a whistleblowing RN who represented himself against New Jersey's largest health care system.
The following presentation on this page and on subsequent pages is for those who require proof regarding egregious allegations.
Unsupported allegations are meaningless, therefore every claim made throughout this web site regarding criminal retaliation, judicial corruption, and the cover up of judicial corruption is supported by tangible, unambiguous, and irrefutable evidence that is provided herein.
This web site demonstrates not only the cover up by the New Jersey Supreme Court of undeniable judicial corruption of subordinate courts, but it also demonstrates that the New Jersey Supreme Court blatantly disregarded its own precedent position regarding the whistleblowing law, and that it condoned the sale of both civil and criminal law to a politically connected interest.
The tangible evidence of governmental corruption presented in this web site will instill fear of the legal system into all (who are politically unconnected) who examine it.
To paraphrase the slogan of a popular television cable news network, I provide the facts, you decide. However, the evidence of corruption is detailed, and an understanding of that evidence requires both reason and thoughtful consideration of the arguments that are presented.
The presentation of the mobile billboard shown in the above photo is a frequent occurrence in front of the Ocean County Court House for about an hour at a time usually at noon.
The Asbury Park Press is the area's largest newspaper, and is New Jersey's second largest newspaper......
the ignoring by the Asbury Park Press of a prominent and repeated accusation of judicial corruption gives credibility to the claim that it is a corrupt newspaper and that it enables pervasive governmental corruption in Ocean County.
Visitors to this web site can examine the detailed evidence of judicial corruption that was ignored and that was arguably covered up by the Asbury Park Press.
Frank Buczynski, who lives in Forked River, New Jersey (see photo above) was the corrupt trial judge who used my technical trial error as an excuse to defeat the primary intent of the whistleblowing law that is also known as CEPA.
It is well known that the legislative intent of the whistleblowing law is to ensure the award of remedies to a whistleblower who wins at trial; Buczynski made sure that I received no remedies even though I won at trial.
Remedies refer to the reinstatement of employment after a whistleblower has been wrongly terminated, to the return of lost wages, to the return of legal fees that were incurred as a result of fighting the illegal actions of an employer, and to the assessment of damages regarding the violation of civil and/or criminal law.
A New Jersey Supreme Court opinion stated that:
"CEPA is remedial social legislation designed to promote two complementary public purposes: to protect and thereby encourage employees to report illegal or unethical workplace activities…
our goal in the interpretation of a statute is always to determine the legislature’s intent…
a single guiding principle has instructed our interpretation of CEPA in the decades since its enactment. As broad, remedial legislation the statute must be construed liberally".
The above quote by the New Jersey Supreme Court acknowledges that the legislative intent of the whistleblowing law is to protect and encourage employees.....
however, my case illustrates the nightmare of judicial corruption that a whistleblower will face if he suffers employer retaliation and attempts to seek the protection of the law.
My case illustrates that whistleblowers are not protected by the law.
The complete denial of remedies to a trial-winning whistle blower is inconsistent with a supreme court directive that legislative intent be honored...
and it is inconsistent with the directive that the whistle blowing law be considered remedial legislation.
A recent appointee to the United States Supreme Court stated the well-known task of a judge:
"the task of a judge is not to make law, it is to apply the law".
Of course the New Jersey Supreme Court disregarded the application of law in my case because the employer who violated criminal law while in the act of violating the whistle blowing law represented the state's largest health care system.
The above photo was taken in front of the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex that is the home of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Stuart Rabner is the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
This web site demonstrates that the New Jersey Supreme Court is neither conservative or liberal but rather completely corrupt, and that it will sell civil and criminal law to those who can buy it via political connection.
An unfounded and easily disproven allegation of corruption against a judge would presumably result in defamation litigation by that judge against the person who made the allegation.
Also presumably, a well-supported allegation of egregious corruption against a judge would necessarily result in disciplinary action against that judge.
Accordingly, only in a completely corrupt state could a citizen prominently accuse of corruption not only a local superior court judge but also the state's chief justice and subsequently precipitate no reaction.
Attempt to suppress freedom of speech
This web site demonstrates the attempt by the town in which I live, Seaside Park, to deny my First Amendment rights regarding my effort to disseminate evidence of high-level New Jersey state governmental corruption.
Pervasive New Jersey governmental corruption is sure to continue when efforts to expose corruption are frustrated rather than applauded.
Prior to displaying the truck-mounted billboard (shown above) I obtained the authorization for the display by the local code enforcement officer, by the local police department, and by the New Jersey State Police.
I also submitted an inquiry to the New Jersey Attorney General's office regarding my plan to display a mobile billboard, and that inquiry was forwarded to the Motor Vehicle Commission; I was subsequently informed that the display of a mobile billboard was part of my First Amendment rights:
(click to see a complete photocopy of the letter from the MVC that confirms my First Amendment rights, then click the Back button/left-pointing arrow in the upper left screen to return)
Informed New Jersey citizens are presumably aware that the New Jersey Attorney General (NJAG) enables corruption; those who click to see the complete copy of the letter from the MVC (above) will see that I stated my intention to display a banner urging the support for those who are serving in the United States military; I was not going to inform the NJAG that I intended to disseminate evidence of high level state corruption.
There is no difference as far as the First Amendment is concerned between a banner that urges the support for troops and a banner that announces evidence of governmental corruption.
First Amendment rights verified by the MVC (that was tasked to make that determination by the NJAG) are not relinquished upon entering any city or town in the United States.
After displaying the truck-mounted billboard for more than a year while parked in front of my residence I was abruptly threatened with the issuing of a summons that could result in a $1000 fine and/or 90 days in jail; I was informed that l would receive those penalties if I continue to park my truck (with attached billboard) on a public street or drive it on a public right of way.
My residence is situated on State Route #35. Thousands of cars pass my residence each summer enroute to Island Beach State Park and the Atlantic Ocean beach.
I presented at a Seaside Park town council meeting regarding the transparent harassment of my effort to expose organized state corruption. At that meeting the council refused to answer my question "does this council want Ocean County corruption exposed?"
It is not inappropriate for a town council to advocate the exposure of public corruption; indeed, silence by a town council in the face of undeniable corruption is corruption itself.
I encountered Seaside Park council members who exhibited the same deceitful posturing that I experienced with state authorities who claimed that evidence of corruption did not exist.
An individual, alone, obviously cannot win a fight against a corrupt government.
Community leaders like those who make up the Seaside Park council represent the last hope for fighting corruption in a state where the government and the media are completely corrupt.
However, it is clear that the Seaside Park council is a part of the organized corruption that infects Ocean County (New Jersey).
The town's double talking attorney at the aforementioned council meeting stated that the letter from the MVC (above) did not confirm my First Amendment rights but rather stated only that I did not need commercial plates in order to display a non-commercial banner.
The trumped-up excuse for the abrupt threat is specified by municipal Code 25-624E...
According to the official Borough of Seaside Park Code the definition of sign is:
SIGN- Any announcement, display, advertisement or illustration placed to be seen from any street or public way.
An advertising sign painted on a commercial vehicle can presumably be seen from the street.
A bumper sticker on a vehicle can also presumably be seen from the street, and is by the town's definition a sign.
Therefore, according to the trumped-up excuse used to attempt to deny my First Amendment rights no commercial vehicle with an affixed sign and no vehicle having a bumper sticker can exist in Seaside Park without prior approval of the governing body.
(click to see the complete violation notice, then click the Back button located in the upper left hand corner of the screen to return)
Clearly, Code 25-624E refers to the erection of signs on public property known as limited public forums, for example on the lawn in front of the town hall, and does not refer to vehicular commercial or non-commercial signs, and does not refer to vehicle-mounted bumper stickers.
Code 25-624E certainly cannot legitimately refer to vehicle-mounted billboards that expose governmental corruption.
The perverse interpretation of Code 25-624E effectively restricts protest signs to private property which, as any reasonably informed citizen knows, is blatantly unconstitutional.
No town in the United States can pass an ordinance or create a code that takes away a right that is outlined in the Bill of Rights.
Indeed, a United States Supreme Court justice stated that regarding freedom of speech ......
"streets and parks....have immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public, ......
such use of the streets and public places has...been a part of the priviledges, immunities, rights and liberties of citizens." Hague v. CIO, 307 U.S. at 515.
The United States Supreme Court held in 1939 that parks, sidewalks, and public streets have always been recognized as legitimate forums for public communication......
therefore any attempt to restrict that public communication in such a forum is unconstitutional.
However, the perversion of the Seaside Park Code in question bans all signs from the street.
The shoulder of State Route #35 in front of my house, where cars legally park, is known as a traditional public forum for expressing views regarding public issues.
It is pointless to display a banner on private property that exposes governmental corruption; such a banner is less likely to be seen by either the government that it targets or by other citizens, and the free exchange of ideas is clearly frustrated......
but again, the perversion of the Seaside Park Code in question restricts such banners to private property.
Corrupt town officials working with corrupt municipal judges can take away constitutional rights when they are aided by a completely corrupt state government that is shielded from the public by a corrupt media.
The intitial threat of a summons occurred in June 2010; one year later I received the first of four successive summonses for displaying a sign without permission.
I informed the Seaside Park municipal judge that he would have to issue a warrant for my arrest because I will never again voluntarily stand before a corrupt judge.
After I ignored the fourth summons the Seaside Park municipal judge issued a warrant for my arrest, and required that I pay $1000 in order to stay out of jail. The judge suggested that I give myself up at the local police department as if I was a public enemy.
About a month after the latest threat from the municipal judge I was arrested by several officers of the Seaside Park Police who were lying in wait for me; the time was shortly before 11PM, and I was on my way to work at a nearby nursing home.
The arresting officer might have said regarding my arrest "my hands are tied", or "I'm only following orders"; that excuse didn't work for post-war Germans who claimed that they were only following orders given by criminal Nazis, nor does it work for Soprano State (New Jersey) policemen who knowingly obey arrest warrants issued by demonstrably corrupt judges who are appointed and controlled by political bosses.
Six months prior to my arrest the banner shown in the above photo was prominently displayed in Seaside Park for many weeks; what was it about the demonstrable corruption that is illustrated by this web site that the Seaside Park police did not understand?
In this instance the police exposed themselves to be willing participants in obvious harassment of an individual who was peacefully and lawfully exposing public corruption.....
in the same way that corrupt judges expose themselves by transparently lying, perverting the intent of law, or transparently ignoring the law (upon orders from a political boss) in order to retain their judicial jobs.
No reasonably informed citizen of the United States can claim to be unaware of the constitution's provision for freedom of speech and where it can unquestionably be practiced ....
and the Seaside Park Police cannot credibly claim to be unaware that my freedom of speech was being suppressed.
I paid $500 in order to avoid prolonged incarceration.
The corrupt Seaside Park municipal judge threatened to arrange the revocation of my driver's license if I failed to appear in court after I posted bail, and I would lose $500 that was taken away from me by polite thugs with badges who were knowingly in the service of a corrupt judge.
One day before my scheduled court appearance in Seaside Park Municipal Court, and one day after I displayed the above banner regarding police-aided harassment, I received in the mail an obviously hastily-prepared notice that my case has been moved to a court in another county (Monmouth Beach in Monmouth County) as if that move ensured a fair hearing before an honest judge.
This extreme move involved not a crime, not a vehicular moving violation, but merely an alleged code violation.
As expected, my hearing in front of a judge in the neighboring county was marked by:
-the perversion of the code that I had allegedly violated regarding the banner attached to my truck,
-a twisting of facts and of definitions in order to fit an
obviously pre-determined ruling,
-and an ignoring of a constitutional right.
The judge claimed that my truck with the attached banner could not be parked in front of my house on the shoulder along State Route #35 because it is public property....
and that a van-type motor vehicle with a sign of the same size painted onto its side could be parked on that shoulder.
The judge ruled that since the road in front of my house, State Route #35, was public property and was a right-of-way......
that I cannot drive my truck with the attached banner, for example, to the local post office in Seaside Park and park on the shoulder along State Route #35 where other cars are parked.
Indeed, his ruling means that I cannot drive my truck with the attached banner on State Route #35 within Seaside Park, since it is a right-of-way, without violating the code that states....
"The placement of any sign on public property or within any public right-of-way is prohibited without approval by resolution of the governing body"
The neighboring county judge, in blatant violation of the federal constitution, attempted to create in a traditional public forum a zone where freedom of speech is prohibited.
The political speech shown by the banners that have been attached to my truck is an example of the speech that has been extended the highest degree of protection by the constitution, specifically .......
that one cannot be prohibited, at least in a traditional public forum, from criticizing the government.
And the judge claimed that, regarding freedom of speech, there is a difference between a banner that urges the support of the military and a banner that exposes governmental corruption.
But I suppose that I was fortunate when I appeared before this judge who was sitting no more than three feet away from me....
at one point I reached my threshold for tolerating mendacity and stated that the proceeding represented a kangaroo court...
while two armed policemen were within eight feet of me;
the judge ignored my comment.
Not suprisingly, the judge was shown several photos of banners that proclaimed judicial corruption; he was of course ethically and morally bound to report that corruption to the appropriate authority...
of course he took no such action.
I received an $86 fine.
I ignored the ruling of a corrupt judge who attempted to deny a constitutional right, .....
and I resumed parking along State Route #35 in front of my residence where other cars legally park.
Several months after my appearance in front of the aforementioned judge, and two months after I resumed parking in front of my residence the second cycle of summonses began.
I received the first of four second-cycle summonses for my failure to obtain a permit (for sign placement) from the corrupt town council that is cited in the banner below......
the First Amendment to the United States constitution clearly prohibits a governing body from restricting in any way a citizen's right to expose that governing body's corruption.
An obviously planned second arrest occurred, like my first arrest, on a Saturday night shortly before 11PM when a cash bail is presumed to be more difficult....
most, if not all banks are closed on Sunday.
The arrest was clearly planned so that my harassment was maximized. The Seaside Park Police waited until I was about a half mile from my house before they attempted to stop my truck.
I live on the main road in Seaside Park, and I can often be seen out and around my house doing chores while numerous police cars cruise by, yet the police in order to maximize harassment waited to arrest me until I was enroute to work.
This time however I recognized that the police were willing participants in political harassment and the suppression of freedom of speech, and I slowly returned to my house where I parked while police lights flashed and a siren screamed.
Along the half mile journey to my house I picked up no less than six police cars with flashing lights and screaming sirens.
I was charged with attempting to flee/evade/elude while traveling at no more than 25 MPH.
The police officially claimed that I was speeding at 30 MPH in a 25 MPH zone.
I was very aware that my actions were closely watched by the police during the half mile journey home, therefore I carefully adhered to stop signs and the speed limit...
nevertheless the police charged me with 18 moving violations all of which were trumped up.
I was charged with attempting to flee/evade/elude in a truck with a large billboard attached to it while speeding at 30MPH, and my bail was set at $50,000 cash ....
on the basis of my so-called creation of a risk of death or injury to others.....
while traveling at 25 MPH and obeying all stop signs and other traffic laws.......
this meant that I would be in the Ocean County Jail unless someone posted $50,000 in greenbacks.
I spent one night in the Ocean County Jail before I could arrange bail with a bondsman....
to whom I lost $5000 that will not be returned to me.
The judge who ordered my $50,000 bail was clearly attempting to make sure that I remained in jail.
And although my truck was legally parked in front of my house the Seaside Park Police towed and impounded it.
It is my hope that a police video captured my alleged attempt to flee; a jury at a criminal trial will presumably be shown the video.
I will represent myself at a criminal trial, but one wonders how a fair trial can be conducted within a demonstrably and completely corrupt judicial system that in turn is part of a completely corrupt New Jersey state government.
And without doubt the judge who is assigned
to my criminal trial,
Judge Wendel Daniels
will, like his corrupt fellow judge Frank Buczynski,
fix the trial by preventing me from showing the jury the evidence that will exonerate me.
Daniels has already demonstrated that he is grossly unethical; do you think that he, like Buczynski, owes his judicial job to a political boss?
One day after my release from the Ocean County Jail I was again arrested by the Seaside Park police, and handcuffed to a metal bench for 4 hours and 15 minutes in a well-chilled room....
I was dressed in a light tank top and shorts.
One hour prior to the arrest I hand delivered a letter addressed to the Seaside Park Chief of Police....
this letter was copied to the Seaside Park Council, the New Jersey State Police, and the Ocean County Prosecutor....
in the letter I informed the Chief of Police that it was my intention to defame him by exposing his cooperation with Ocean County organized corruption regarding his aid to suppress free speech that exposes that corruption.
The four hours on that bench, while shivering because of the cold, was an ordeal that I suspect most people my age (57) could not endure.
I repeatedly asked why I was being held, and received no reply.
I repeatedly asked to make my one telephone call to which I thought that I was entitled, and I was ignored.
After four hours handcuffed to the metal bench I was approached by a woman who identified herself as a mobile psychiatric screener who, after a few questions and comments, told me that I was being sent to a lock down psychiatric unit of a nearby hospital Community Medical Center ......
whose agents staged the morphine theft that started my quest to call attention to the pervasive corruption of New Jersey government.
Despite my pleas no one gave me a reason for my being transferred for further psychiatric evaluation......
I remained handcuffed while the Seaside Park police transferred me to the lock down psychiatric unit.
Twenty four hours after my arrest I was released immediately after the evaluation, but not before yet another day of my freedom was lost due to the actions of corrupt officials.
Two weeks after my overnight stay in the lock down unit I received from Community Medical Center a bill for $7670.
I was snatched off a public street by so-called law enforcement officers, held without explanation under extremely uncomfortable conditions, and denied my supposed right to a telephone call.
The circumstances of my latest adventure would seem to remind one of Soviet and Nazi Gestapo tactics that were used to silence political dissidents.
Not only did the town of Seaside Park try to take away my freedom of speech on public streets regarding the banner that was attached to my truck, but it also tried to take away my right to exercise free speech on my own property
I was warned by town officials to remove the banner in front of my house that is shown by the above photo...
or else I would receive another summons....
the town claimed that I needed to get a permit for sign placement on my property, and that the sign had to conform to maximum size restrictions.
However in a landmark 1994 United States Supreme Court decision regarding Gilleo v. City of Ladue it was ruled that in the absence of safety hazards towns cannot regulate residential signs especially when political speech is involved....
the US Supreme Court's decision undisputably opined, in the absence of safety issues, that it is the homeowner's right to determine the size of political signs....
and clearly, the intention of the First Amendment is to prohibit the government from requiring that a citizen obtain a permit in order to spread the word of that government's corruption.
Who can protect the people from a completely corrupt judicial branch?
The governor (via the state Attorney General) can direct the prosecution of corrupt judges.
Provable Fact: Christie protects well-connected criminals.
Provable Fact: Christie protects judges who are criminals.
Provable Fact: Christie ignores New Jersey's constitution and his clearly-defined executive role regarding checks and balances.
Yet Christie is New Jersey's poster boy for conservatism?
Clearly, Christie DOES NOT believe in honest government that the people can trust, and he is an opportunist who verbalizes conservative ideals for arguably immoral voters who overlook the inconsistency between his statements and his demonstrable corruption.
The legislature can also impeach judges; but of course in the Soprano State the legislature is controlled by the same bosses who control the judiciary and the governor.
Rational individuals will understand that the bosses do not exert control over the government for altruistic reasons but rather for reasons that are motivated by greed and a desire for power....the same reasons that motivate their puppets who are repeatedly re-elected by an unbelievably ignorant and/or amoral electorate.
Tangible evidence is presented in this web site that demonstrates New Jersey Governor Christie's servitude to a special interest that was manifested by his attempted cover up not only of egregious public corruption but also of violation of federal law.
Christie, New Jersey’s supposed champion corruption fighter and former United States Attorney for New Jersey, is in reality a demonstrable liar and a posturing phony regarding the fight against corruption.
Christie protected the undeniable corruption in my case that exemplifies a significantly greater threat to New Jersey's citizens than any of his well-reported targets regarding his posturing fight against corruption.
There can be no credible argument against the premise that a corrupt judiciary is a significantly greater threat to the people than is a public official like a mayor, a lawmaker, or a building inspector who takes a bribe.
There are few, if any, greater examples of betrayal of trust than that of a corrupt judge who sells not only civil law but also criminal law.
Christie's betrayal of trust regarding his protection of organized governmental corruption is arguably more egregious than that of any of the targets of his former federal office regarding public corruption.
Christie's turning a blind eye to the judicial sale of civil and criminal law, especially when the New Jersey Supreme Court condoned that sale, is not the practice of politics but is rather an act of blatant corruption in return for obvious political support regarding his bid to become New Jersey governor.
While serving as a federal attorney for New Jersey Christie frequently and hypocritically condemned the betrayal of trust by convicted targets of his office regarding his posturing fight against corruption.
Only the citizens of the most corrupt state in the nation could elect a corrupt candidate like Christie to be their governor; this occurred on 3 November 2009.
Without doubt there are New Jersey voters who
were aware of Christie's corruption
yet voted for him nevertheless; the pervasive nature of these morally corrupt voters is is why New Jersey government is destined to remain completely corrupt.
NEW JERSEY VOTERS AND CORRUPTION...
Christie has of course not targeted the organized corruption of New Jersey state government, but instead has not only protected it but has rewarded it via reappointment of knowingly corrupt judges an example of which is the reappointment of the chief justice of the state supreme court.
The addressing of New Jersey's economic crisis (that was caused by both Democrats and Republicans) by Christie does not prevent him from ensuring that corrupt judges are held accountable and removed from positions of trust, but he will take no action because of his own corruption.
There is a reason why I have not been the target of defamation litigation regarding my banners that proclaim the corruption of specific judges; those judges know that I can easily prove at a civil trial their corruption to a jury.
The ease with which I can prove judicial corruption translates to a guaranteed conviction of those judges at a criminal trial....
but Christie will not fight organized corruption of which he is a part.
Christie allows the corrupt judges who are exposed by this web site to remain in positions of trust, but he incredibly continues to posture regarding his desire to reform New Jersey government.
Christie will surely allow organized governmental corruption in New Jersey to continue and to flourish for the bosses' benefit; it is suggested that his effort to fix New Jersey's economic crisis is motivated solely by the bosses' desire to keep alive the goose that lays for them golden eggs.
All except the corrupt, specifically corrupt political bosses and those who are protected by them, will suffer during Christie's term in office.
Pre-trial Judicial Corruption
There is no difference between accepting a monetary bribe for fixing a court case......
and accepting from a political boss a judicial position (that is attached to a $170,000 annual salary plus lavish benefits) in return for an agreement to fix court cases upon command.
Prior to winning at trial this case was dismissed/thrown out by a corrupt judge named Edward Oles who attempted to completely conceal evidence of criminal retaliation.
At the time he dismissed the litigation Oles stated in writing that "there is absolutely" no evidence in my favor.
Judge Edward Oles is clearly a brazen liar.
However, while representing myself after losing more than $50,000 to a succession* of disappointing lawyers two of whom told me that my case was weak, I not only won an appeal of Oles' dismissal but won a subsequent six-day jury trial.
*The first of these four lawyers, Ben Zander, was recently disbarred by a hypocritical and corrupt New Jersey Supreme Court that sold criminal and civil law to the Saint Barnabas Health Care System; Zander had previously been convicted of a felony in federal court.
Regarding the supposed weakness of my case it is not inconceivable that my lawyers were corrupted by my former employer that represents New Jersey's largest health care system.
Corrupt Trial Judge
I won at trial while making my first appearance before a jury, while fighting a well-experienced trial lawyer, and while fighting a corrupt trial judge who demonstrably attempted to sabotage my case before the jury.
The conditions under which I won at trial implies the strength of the evidence that Oles attempted to conceal when he dismissed this case for being supposedly completely without merit.
Although I won at trial a corrupt trial judge ignored the unquestionable intent of the law, ignored a sworn oath to apply the law, and used my technical error as an excuse to completely deny to me compensation for my losses that included five years of lost wages and (at the time of trial) $50,000 lost to legal fees.
I did everything relevant in order to win at trial. Mentioning the evidence of my losses was irrelevant to winning the trial, therefore I planned to show the jury that evidence during my closing argument.
The trial judge, Frank Buczynski, waited until moments after I rested my case to tell me that even if I won the trial I could not recover my losses nor could I obtain punitive damages as a result of the illegal and malicious actions taken against me.
Buczynski knew of my losses as a result of a pre-trial exchange of evidence a copy of which was given to him, and he refused my request to re-open my case for the only purpose of showing the jury the evidence of my significant losses.
Buczynski also brazenly protected the Saint Barnabas Health Care System regarding its criminal retaliation; Buczynski contradicted the decision of a higher court (and disregarded the evidence at trial), and stated on record during trial in front of the jury that the issue regarding the morphine theft (criminal retaliation) was irrelevant, and he ensured that a jury did not address that issue:
The above transcript shows that Buczynski was essentially instructing the lawyer for the Saint Barnabas Health Care System to make an objection to my line of damaging questioning about the morphine theft.
Trial judges do not usually make objections.
My line of questioning was directed in this instance toward demonstrating to the jury that the Saint Barnabas Health Care System staged the morphine theft that was attributed to me; because of the strength of the evidence regarding the staging of the theft Buczynski claimed that the theft was irrelevant.
It is precisely because of the overwhelming strength of the evidence of the staging of morphine theft that every judge/justice who was associated with this case attempted to either negate the theft or cover it up; that evidence is provided in detail on subsequent pages of this web site.
For example, the pre-trial Appellate Court judge who overturned Oles' dismissal of this case transparently avoided mention of the criminal set up for morphine theft that started this case;
the written argument that I submitted to the pre-trial Appellate Court mentioned twenty four times my claim of criminal set up for morphine theft that was not only a sensational claim but was also a very relevant claim, yet.......
presumably an unfounded but sensational claim that was mentioned twenty four times would have at least been mentioned and refuted by the Appellate Court.
Buczynski did not want the Saint Barnabas Health Care System to be held liable for the violation of civil law let alone for the violation of criminal law; he was therefore attempting to remove criminal retaliation as an issue.
Buczysnki's malicious motives are further illustrated by his post-verdict statement that the jury need not determine guilt regarding the staging of the morphine theft that precipitated this litigation:
However, regarding Buczynski's lie that the morphine theft was irrelevant.....
The pre-trial Appellate Court that overturned Oles' dismissal of my case stated in its written opinion regarding the morphine theft:
"although plaintiff was originally suspended because he was suspected of morphine theft he was never asked to take a drug test".
The pre-trial Appellate Division court established the relevancy of the morphine theft when it stated in its written opinion that:
"the temporal proximity between his complaint to the State Board of Health in November 2000 and his suspension on January 8 2001 permits an inference of a causal connection."
The Appellate Division's reference to "causal connection" links my suspension to my complaint to the Board of Health; my suspension was therefore identified by the Appellate Division, perhaps unintentionally but nevertheless accurately, as the legal element retaliation.
My suspension was therefore relevant to this case.
note: Retaliation is one of the legal elements that must be proven in order to win at trial; the term legal element is explained on a later page of this web site.
I was suspended because I was suspected of morphine theft (see the above quote by the Appellate Division), therefore....
The morphine theft was relevant to my case.
Buczynski is clearly a malicious liar who remains on the bench because of a completely corrupt government.
And disregarding the pre-trial Appellate Division that opined in writing that a rational jury would conclude that my termination was unjustified, ......
and disregarding the jury's decision, ...
Buczynski stated on record that my termination was justified:
Buczynski ensured that although winning at trial I maximally suffered for my act of looking out for others who could not look out for themselves, and he ensured that my former employer was protected regarding the violation of not only civil law but also criminal law.
Further unbelievable evidence of Buczynski's corruption is provided on the Introduction page and on the page titled Buczynski's corruption. Because the evidence is unbelievable photocopies are provided with detailed explanations.
Pre-trial judge Oles tried to prevent my case from being presented to a jury.
Trial judge Buczynski made sure that the at-hand evidence of my losses was not presented to the jury, and he made sure that the Saint Barnabas Health Care System could not be found guilty of criminal retaliation.
Bribes paid with tax dollars
A judicial position and its associated perks is called a benefit, and the law allows the compensation for honest judicial performance.
However, regarding the acceptance of a benefit there is no provision for occasional blatant judicial disregard of the law and of legislative intent, or for occasional gross judicial prejudice.
Accordingly, any such malicious and deliberate judicial breach of trust cannot be lawfully compensated by a benefit.
In other words, the law does not allow compensation for demonstrably corrupt judicial actions that are taken in order to retain a benefit; accepting the aforementioned benefit in this case constitutes the acceptance of a bribe according to
One would think that a judge would be penalized for corrupting the law.
However in New Jersey a judge clearly reinforces his judicial position by corrupting the law upon command by a political boss who controls the continued employment of that judge.
Regarding the above photo that shows a banner that defames a superior court judge, it is unbelievable that a community would remain indifferent to such a judge who remains in a position of trust and authority....
yet it is a measure of the community's morals, or rather lack thereof, that is exposed by that indifference that ultimately made possible my arrest for drawing attention to serious public corruption.
It would seem that the residents of Seaside Park are a microcosm of the state's macrocosm that is responsible for empowering what is likely the most corrupt state government in the nation.
It would also seem that the residents of Seaside Park lack the morals that would otherwise enable them to understand that an individual victim of a corrupt government translates to their victimization; perhaps they think themselves invulnerable from becoming individual, isolated victims?
I appealed the outcome of a trial that I won; presumably such appeals are not common; this was the second appeal in this case of Ocean County Superior Court actions.
However, the judge associated with my second appeal was as brazenly and demonstrably corrupt as Oles and Buczynski.
That Appellate Division judge ignored the only two arguments of my appeal both of which were unquestionably grounds to grant me a new trial.
And the written opinion of the Appellate Division regarding my second appeal is filled with prejudice, demonstrable lies, and half-truths.
Judges lie, ignore the law, and ignore the facts because THEY CAN in the presence of a completely corrupt government.
I was horrified at the blatant corruption of the Appellate Division judge; his corruption is unbelievable, therefore photocopies of the evidence and the associated explanations are provided on the page titled 7-Kestin's corruption.
New Jersey Supreme Court Appeal
Although I was aware of the notorious reputation of the New Jersey Supreme Court, that was once referred to by a well known newspaper reporter as a "robed clan of clowns", I filed yet another appeal.
I not only reminded the justices of their own position regarding the whistleblowing law but I provided the evidence of Oles', Buczynski's, and Kestin's corruption.
Of course the justices not only disregarded established legislative intent and disregarded their own precedent position, but they claimed that evidence of judicial corruption was nonexistent.
The justices also required that I pay $500 to the Saint Barnabas Health Care System for their administrative costs associated with fighting my appeal that was necessitated by blatantly corrupt judges.
Buying Oversight, Buying Awards
This web site demonstrates that New Jersey's largest health care system can buy not only protection by local superior courts, but that it can buy protection by the state's highest court as well as protection by the federal attorney for New Jersey.
It can therefore be presumed that New Jersey's largest health care provider can buy the results of private and public investigations into its operations.
It can also be presumed that New Jersey's largest health care system can buy awards and favorable mention in New Jersey's demonstrably-corrupt media.
Community Medical Center is an affiliate of the Saint Barnabas Health Care System, and it is the hospital where a whistleblowing RN was criminally set up for morphine theft.
This story also demonstrates the cover up of judicial corruption by the entity tasked to provide oversight to the judiciary, namely the Advisory Committee for Judicial Conduct.
Only in the most corrupt state in the nation could an oversight entity cover up evidence of corruption.
As an example, judge Frank Buczynski was cleared of wrong doing by the Advisory Committee for Judicial Conduct yet this web site contains the tangible evidence that Buczynski is a corrupt judge and a deceiving liar; it would seem therefore that Buczynski has ample ground to litigate against me for defamation (see photo above).
The investigator for the Advisory Committee for Judicial Conduct who covered up the evidence of Buczynski's corruption has an annual salary (in 2009) of $90,000; the investigator's name is John Tonelli. The primary motivation for the pervasive corruption in my case, in the absence of a direct bribe, can be nothing other than the securing of a high-paying job that is coupled to excellent job benefits.
I will demonstrate the corruption of multiple New Jersey state legislators that include Ocean County (New Jersey) senator Andrew Ciesla and assemblymen James Holzapfel and David Wolfe (all three Republicans). The evidence regarding the blatant sale of civil and criminal law in my case demands the exercise of the balances upon which the three-branch system of government is based, and the refusal to merely acknowledge the detailed supplied evidence of judicial corruption is clear evidence of their (Ciesla, Holzapfel, and Wolfe) corruption by the same forces that corrupted the Ocean County judiciary.
There are few duties more important for a lawmaker than to ensure that their constituents are served by an honest judiciary that honors the clear intent of the law, yet the corrupt Republican lawmakers mentioned above will without a doubt be re-elected by an ignorant and/or unethical constituency that ignores the evidence of those lawmakers' corruption.
The people's best defense against a corrupt government is an honest media, however New Jersey corruption has flourished to the point of bankrupting the state arguably because the same forces that have corrupted the government have also corrupted the media.
It is not the corruption of individual lawmakers, mayors, or minor officials that is destroying New Jersey, but rather it is organized governmental corruption that is responsible for that destruction.
Litigation that is remarkable for repeated and blatant judicial corruption that includes the demonstrable corruption of the state's highest court is newsworthy; that such litigation was not reported by the media is credible evidence that the media too is corrupt.
Two of New Jersey's largest newspapers, the Asbury Park Press and the Newark Star Ledger, ignored a newsworthy win after a six-day trial by a whistleblowing registered nurse who represented himself against New Jersey's largest health care system, and ignored the egregious and tangible evidence of corruption at the highest level of state government that this case exposed.
The two newspaper headlines that appear on this page were published by a transparently-biased local publication known as the Ocean County Observer that is now out of business.
As will be shown in this web site the evidence of criminal retaliation and judicial corruption is overwhelming, yet the Ocean County Observer made no mention whatsoever of that evidence.
Corrupt nursing organizations
I will demonstrate to the members of the New Jersey nursing profession that the New Jersey State Nurses Association and the American Nurses Association completely and unethically ignored the win at trial of a whistleblowing registered nurse, that those organizations refused to call public attention to the malicious destruction of a registered nurse who tried to protect those who could not protect themselves, and that those organizations refused to warn fellow nurses that the whistle blowing law in New Jersey is worthless and that it provides no protection from unethical but well-connected employers who can buy the protection of New Jersey’s corrupt judiciary.
Perhaps the aforementioned nursing organizations covered up the story of a trial-winning, whistleblowing RN because it involved nurses who criminally conspired with an employer to retaliate against a whistleblower; the detailed evidence of that criminal conspiracy is provided.
Readers of this web site will see that I appealed the outcome of a trial that I won, an outcome that denied to me compensation for my ruinous losses as a result of criminal actions taken against me by the Saint Barnabas Heath Care System; those readers will easily recognize the repeated and brazen judicial corruption that I encountered before and after my trial.
The New Jersey Supreme Court denied my appeal for a new trial, but my case did not end with the decision of that demonstrably corrupt court; legal actions can only end as a result of lawful judicial decisions that adhere to clear legislative intent.
My case will end when I receive a fair trial in accordance with established-via-precedent legislative intent.
Those corrupt elected and appointed officials associated with my case cannot be exonerated (regarding their corruption) by the passage of time.
My case will end when the associated elected and appointed officials are held accountable for their corruption; I understand that in a corrupt New Jersey this accountability is unlikely.
However I am unwilling to be a silent victim of corruption, and I never again want to stand before a corrupt judge who is held unaccountable by a completely corrupt government.
Therefore I will continue to disseminate evidence of a completely corrupt government, and hope that my fellow citizens understand that they too can become victims of that government.
David A. Miller
Back to the top
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Around the Nation
Fri February 8, 2013
Historic Blizzard Freezes Transit In Northeast U.S.
Originally published on Fri February 8, 2013 7:09 pm
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Audie Cornish.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
Heavy snow is falling across the Northeast, and when it's all over, winter storm Nemo could be a blizzard of historic proportions. The governor of Massachusetts has even ordered all cars off the roads.
CORNISH: The impact on transportation is widespread: thousands of flights cancelled, trains service disrupted. NPR's Jim Zarroli tells us more.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: From New Jersey to Maine today, public officials pleaded with residents not to go outside unless they absolutely needed to. Here was Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy.
GOVERNOR DAN MALLOY: The whole point of this is if you don't currently have a reason to be on the road, if you're not an emergency personnel that's required to report to work somewhere, stay home now. This is it.
ZARROLI: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island all declared a state of emergency. It wasn't just the heavy snow that posed a threat. In Massachusetts, where people still talk about the blizzard of 1978, forecasters say wind gusts could be 70 miles an hour. Yesterday, Governor Deval Patrick asked people not to drive unless necessary. Today, he ordered them off the roads altogether by 4 p.m.
GOVERNOR DEVAL PATRICK: This is going to be a very serious weather event. If we get the amount of snow forecast, the recovery will be slow. People should prepare for that.
ZARROLI: Perhaps because this blizzard comes so close on the heels of Hurricane Sandy, people were inclined to take the threat of a bad storm pretty seriously. In Boston, cab driver Jean de Mustaine(ph) heard about the order to get off the roads and didn't lose any time complying.
JEAN DE MUSTAINE: I'm going to go home. I'm not going to go out. I'm going to sleep. All cab drivers have to stop by 4 p.m. because the way it is now, it's going to be bad.
ZARROLI: With the roads closed, there was no way to get around. Air travel has pretty much ground to a halt. All public transportation in and around Boston was suspended. But a lot of people were trying to make the best of it. Carol Levitt(ph) caught one of the last commuter trains out of South Station. She was heading outside the city to go sledding.
CAROL LEVITT: I am going to the suburbs so that I can enjoy some adventures in the snow with friends and family, and it beats the heck out of staying holed up in my apartment in Boston.
ZARROLI: The snow is expected to be lighter in the New York area, but it could still amount to a foot or more by tomorrow afternoon. Long Island Railroad, Metro-North and New Jersey Transit scheduled extra trains throughout the afternoon to help commuters get out of the city faster.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Pleased be advised, there will be no more train service after 1 p.m.
ZARROLI: At Penn Station, a larger than normal crowd of people stood waiting to board the trains. Amtrak suspended all service north of the city by the early afternoon. Jasmine Castro(ph) came from Baltimore for the weekend for a long-planned trip. The bus she wanted to take was cancelled, so she came on the train, but the weekend was quickly unraveling anyway.
JASMINE CASTRO: I'm here for a Christmas present that my boyfriend bought me to see the "Sex and the City" tour and also to see "Chicago" for the Broadway show. And then as soon as we got on, he got a phone call saying the "Sex and the City" tour was cancelled. So hopefully "Chicago's" still on.
ZARROLI: But the subways are running, and life in the city is about as normal as it can be, given a storm of this magnitude. That's not the case in the suburbs. Parts of Long Island are still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Sandy a little more than three months ago, and the blizzard is expected to hit that area especially hard. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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adolescence, attachment parenting, Awesome Women, Big, books, Books, children of cancer patients, Ireland, Janis Ian, Library, Life Lessons, Mother daughter relationship, Mother enough, mothering and guilt, movie Big, Mundanity, Northern Ireland, Poetry, Portland, reading, Reading, Summer Reading Flowchart, Summer Reading Infographic, Tom Hanks, wish come true, Words of Wisdom, World Book Day, Writing
After a fortune-telling machine grants his wish, 13 year-old Josh Baskin begins an adventure in the world of work and romance and in the adult body of Tom Hanks. We don’t need to watch the movie Big to predict the ending of the timeless tale behind it. We know that the boy who falls in love with the woman will eventually be pulled back to his thirteen year-old life, so we aren’t surprised by her response to his suggestion that she go back with him. ”I’ve been there before. It’s hard enough the first time … you know what I mean?” she asks, and the almost immediate reality, “You don’t know what I mean …” We smile too, almost conspiratorially, as we watch him walk away from her, his body shrinking within the business suit that had fit just moments before, falling out of shoes that are too big. Be careful what you wish for …
As I have written before, my mother has a flair for transforming the most mundane task into something altogether fascinating. Just yesterday, as we talked on the phone, she was “doing a bit of ironing,” which transported me back to a typical childhood scene. She leaning over the ironing board, smoothing out with hot steam the wrinkles in my father’s shirts, pausing – for dramatic effect – to remind me to consider the lilies, to “mark her words” that there would be plenty of time for work and plenty of fish in the sea. Implicit in her explicit admonishment not to wish my life away, was the fact that she was not wishing my life away. Mostly, she struck an artful balance between shielding me from the world while empowering me to find the voice to explore its realities. But not all the time. Especially not when I was in the throes of the kind of teenage angst found in a Janis Ian ballad. In those moments, she must have longed for the hands of the clock to fly back to an easier time.
What goes around really does come around. Sometimes, when my teenage daughter announces, one hand on her hip, that she cannot wait to have her own apartment in a place where it rains all the time – notably not Ireland, the country of my birth, but somewhere infinitely more hip like Portland or Seattle – I find myself wanting to tell her that all of it, even the growing up part, is such a bad idea! It lasts but a moment, this longing to hold her as an infant in my arms once again, but it is a powerful moment that holds me in its grip just long enough to make me feel selfish and rather guilty.
Guilt and mothering. To satisfy my curiosity, I wondered where it would take me if I fed Google with those three words. Hardly surprising and almost instantaneously, our favorite search engine dutifully produced about 842,000 results on the topic. Somewhere in there, I’m sure of it, lies a discussion of the media maelstrom that swirled around the TIME magazine cover featuring a previously unknown Jamie Lynne Grumet breast-feeding her three year old son. How the ratings soared as all the experts weighed in on the subject of attachment parenting, extended breast-feeding, “baby-wearing,” and co-sleeping. The topic du jour for longer than a day, I remember everyone seemed to have something to say about it. For me, within all the noise was the matter of guilt, induced not by the cover photograph of a little boy at his mother’s breast, but by the question emblazoned in red next to it.
“Are you MOM ENOUGH?”
Naturally, I wanted to respond, “Why, yes. Yes, I am. Of course I am.” But perhaps the folks at TIME weren’t talking to me. Perhaps they were referring to some other woman whose credentials in mothering were inferior to Ms. Grumet’s or mine? No. They were speaking directly to me, and off I went to second-guess my expertise as a mother. But first, I had to grapple with the meaning of “enough” and “you” in the context of mothering, as opposed to grappling with these in the context of an Uncle Sam pointing at the whole country and saying he needed it.
Am I enough of a mother? What does TIME mean by “enough?” I know what I mean when I compare something “good” to that which I find “good enough.” (In the end, I think I’d prefer something a bit more sentimental as my epitaph than “here lies one who was mom enough.”) Perhaps I am taking it too far. Then again, probably not any farther than countless headlines and results of clinical studies have taken me over the course of my mothering, many of which have prompted me to question if any and every difficulty experienced by my child could be attributed to some tiny but critical error made by me. Struggling academically? Bottle-feeding might be the culprit. Low birth weight? Poor nutritional choices on the part of the mother during pregnancy. Talkative in class? A little immature? It must be something to do with her always being the youngest, at least six months younger than everyone else in the class. Whose fault was that, exactly? After all, Arizona’s Education Code stipulates that a child is considered “five years old” and eligible for kindergarten only if her date of birth falls not in December but before September 1 of the current school year. Clearly, this was poor family planning. Again, my fault. Recurrent ear infections? As a particularly cranky on-call pediatrician guilt-tripped me one Saturday morning when my child was screaming with a double ear infection: “Well, she is a day-care baby so what do you expect?” I remember retorting that I only taught part-time at the college. Unfazed, he reiterated to me, as though I were in fifth grade, “A day-care baby is a day-care baby.” I was just not “mom enough” for the good doctor. Nor was he “good enough” for me. I will not write here the retort I had silently reserved for him – my mother is reading this, after all.
Ah, but I digress. One of my wishes came true this weekend, when I discovered that my teenage daughter loves to read. Real books, too. None of these starting-at-the-back manga narratives that I still don’t “get,” not even the stuff of all those electronic games I railed against – for the Nintendo DS, then the Game Cube, the Wii, the Itouch, and the Ipad. It is almost painful to acknowledge that only a few years ago, the mere promise of a new game was almost enough to convince her to read from an actual book with actual pages for fifteen minutes. That and perhaps the tiniest of guilt trips . . .
Imagine my glee this afternoon as my daughter rattled off her opinion about Chinua Ahebe’s Things Fall Apart and recommended that I read it. Coolly, I pretended I had never heard of the novel, while visions of our very own mother-daughter book club danced in my head. Just yesterday, while strains of Ray la Montagne’s “Trouble” on filled the car, my brilliant girl noticed “Ray Montag” on the radio display which led her to begin a conversation about Ray Bradbury’s recent passing and Montag, the book-burning fireman, in Fahrenheit 451. A conversation. With me. About a novel. Be still my heart! Could this possibly be the same recalcitrant reader who, when confronted with her seventh grade summer reading assignment, counted out loud the 211 pages of My Brother Sam is Dead, painstakingly did the math, and then announced that a fortnight should take care of it, at the glacial pace of a chapter a day?
And then an epiphany. She is reading different books, but she has been reading all along. Reading her world, assessing the situations in which she finds herself, sometimes through no choice of her own. It matters not if it is manga or Shakespeare, the label on the back of a shampoo bottle, a text from a friend, a comic, a peace sign, a pink ribbon, a green light. Inhabiting the world of words and symbols, printed or digital, she has been reading, finding meaning. And when it means something, it really matters.
I have written before about how my daughter’s adolescence was unfairly interrupted by my cancer diagnosis. Some day, when she emerges from what I once heard Whoopi Goldberg brilliantly describe as “the teen tunnel,” I will ask her if reading books was the thing that helped her through it. In the meantime, I am curious. Which books should she read this summer? She has already worked her way through the infographic below. The result? Animal Farm. As it turns out, an unopened hardback edition has been waiting for her in my bookcase for almost as long as she has been alive.
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Like he has dozens of times over the past two years, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler this week extolled the benefits of his agency’s intense efforts to reform US swaps market.
“As of October 12, the new era of swaps market reform began,” Gensler said in a speech to a Futures Industry Association conference in Chicago, delivered Thursday by video due to travel troubles following Hurricane Sandy. “This will lead to significant benefits for the public. It also presents opportunities as well as challenges for market participants.”
During the conference, CFTC Commissioner Scott O’Malia, a Republican and frequent critic of the CFTC’s swaps reform rulemaking process, had less kind words for the start of this new era. It was a “train wreck,” he told Reuters.
Rather than praising or panning these new reforms, many energy firms remain in a state of befuddled flux, with risk managers still wondering if some of their physical market transactions will be defined as swaps and subject to new, potentially costly regulations, or even when new reporting and recordkeeping requirements will begin.
“We’ve done a lot of analysis and preparation to try and make sure that we comply with all the requirements, interpret them correctly and manage the best we can for our customers,” said Patrice Gorton, a risk manager with Avista a Spokane, Washington-based electric utility. “There’s just not enough clarity there and it makes it challenging for businesses.”
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was aimed at increasing transparency in swaps markets and subjecting the majority of the shadowy market to regulation for the first time. But more than two years after President Obama signed it into law, it’s unclear whether the law has had any impact on these markets.
“It really remains to be seen what the impact of all this is going to be,” said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group that pushed for far-reaching reforms in the wake of the financial crisis. “Not enough of Dodd-Frank has been implemented, and there’s so much uncertainty now.”
At the same time, energy firms remain uncertain just how their energy trading will be affected going forward, according to more than a dozen lobbyists, lawyers, energy company executives and academics who were interviewed for this story.
One executive with a multinational oil and gas company said energy firms still don’t know which derivatives transactions will be subject to the Dodd-Frank-inspired rules that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is scrambling to complete by the end of the year. Many firms don’t even know when the rules will take effect, this executive said.
So far, the uncertainty over what the new regime will ultimately look like has kept significant change at bay in derivatives markets. But Sanjeev Joshipura of the Commodity Markets Council, a Washington-based industry group, said some market players — particularly gas and oil hedgers — are bracing for a big shift, and may be eyeing markets in Asia and Europe where the rules are seen as more relaxed.
“There’s not one rule, there’s several rules that could impact the markets, and the markets are bracing for their impact,” Joshipura said. “Given the uncertainty and given the lack of scheduling, I think the industry has done what they could do to prepare. I don’t see them, right now, as being fully prepared to withstand the regulatory increase in activity that will come into effect shortly.”
Energy firms are still wrestling with several pending rules and regulations, including:
–The imposition of federal position limits in crude oil, natural gas and 26 other commodity contracts, which many experts argue would have more impact on the energy markets than any other mandate in Dodd-Frank. But CFTC’s position-limits rule was delayed indefinitely last month when a federal district court in Washington struck it down, siding with two Wall Street lobbying groups that argued that the mandate was not necessary. It’s unclear if CFTC will appeal the court’s decision or craft another rule, but either way, federal position limits are unlikely in commodity markets for at least a year, according to Paul Pantano, the head of the energy and commodities group at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.
–CFTC has yet to finalize its new margin and capital requirements for swaps, potentially the costliest of the new rules, since it will dictate how much money firms will have to put aside to support their activities in the market.
–Clearing rules have been delayed and the majority of reporting rules are months away, but firms are already spending tens of millions of dollars to upgrade their systems to comply, sources told Platts.
–The Volcker rule, which is named after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. This measure, which was meant to prohibit big banks from proprietary trading, was supposed to be in place in June, but has been stalled for months by regulators. The rule is expected to have a severe impact on energy trading by banks.
–CFTC has yet to finalize rules over swap execution facilities, where the majority of swaps trading is expected to migrate once the regulatory regime is in place. Perhaps most pressing is a rule that would require 85% of a contract’s trades to be executed on an electronic exchange in an effort to boost price transparency. The rule, which remains in flux, could spell the end of hundreds of illiquid energy swaps, sources claim.
–The Securities and Exchange Commission has finalized a rule requiring publicly traded US oil and gas companies to report payments made in overseas energy projects, but the American Petroleum Institute, a Washington-based trade group, has sued to overturn it.
–CFTC has raised a lower, $25 million threshold for swaps dealing with municipal and state-owned utilities to $800 million, essentially allowing market participants to act as counterparties with these utilities without being classified as swap dealers. However, businesses are scrambling to monitor this and other limits to make sure they are not classified by regulators as “dealers,” subjecting them to new costs and stricter regulations.
–CFTC has unveiled a proposal to keep most transactions in wholesale electricity markets from being subject to new derivatives reform rules, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has criticized it as unnecessary and burdensome. CFTC has yet to finalize this proposal.
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The College Section of NCTE supports the exploration of English Studies in the variety of collegiate settings.
Join the College Section at the 2010 NCTE Annual Convention! this year's program offers a wide range of sessions and events that address many professional issues and concerns.
College Section Announcements!
Want to know what's happening with the College Section? Go here for the latest announcements.
Connect with us. The NCTE Annual Convention sparked many discussions among new and continuing college educators. Continue the conversations on the NCTE Ning today!
English Studies Issue Briefs
View brief introductions to key issues in English Studies.
are membership groups which have been authorized by the NCTE Executive Committee. They:
- serve individuals who share the same special interests or who have similar jobs.
- offer their members the opportunity to meet face to face during the NCTE Annual Convention.
- provide information to members through newsletters, journals, listservs, or websites.
- present sessions at the NCTE Annual Convention
Assembly on American Literature (AAL) (http://www.ncte.org/assemblies/list#AAL)
This assembly promotes communication and cooperation among people who have a special interest in the field of American literature; presents programs and special projects on this subject; encourages the development of research, experimentation, and investigation into effective teaching and scholarship; promotes writing of articles and publications devoted to it; and integrates the efforts of those with an interest in the subject. The assembly does not promote only the "canon" of American literature, but encourages teachers to explore and utilize the rich and diverse cultures within American literature in their classrooms.
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Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:13 AM
HOUSTON—The majority of women who use birth control opt for the birth control pill, but later in life, many women choose to change methods or devices.
Alison West, a 39-year-old, stay-at-home mother of three, recently went in for a follow-up visit with her Obstetrician/Gynecologist Dr. Deanna McDonald with The Methodist Sugar Land Hospital.
No longer wanting to expand her family, West underwent a procedure to implant the Essure, a permanent, non-invasive birth control device. It was done in Dr. McDonald’s office.
“We put these small little coils into the tubes to cause the blockage of the tubes,” explained Dr. McDonald. “We’re able to do it in the office most of the time so you don’t have to go to sleep.”
“The procedure itself was 10 minutes. It was pretty painless,” West said after the procedure.
The Essure inserts are made from the same silicone-free material used in heart stents and are just one of the many options available to women.
“Over the past few years I had wondered what were my options because it seemed like it was surgery of some sort or a hysterectomy, tubligation, all of which were not appealing,” West said.
She eventually decided on the Essure after consulting with Dr. McDonald. She took comfort in knowing there would be no surgery and she would receive a confirmation test to ensure her tubes were blocked.
While the Essure has worked well for West, it’s not for everyone -- especially for women still considering childbirth.
There are traditional birth control pills, but for the sake of convenience, women also have a range of options to choose from, including vaginal rings and intrauterine devices -- or IUDs.
“It’s a T-shape device that goes inside the uterus,” said Dr. McDonald. “There’s one that has hormones in it that you can leave in for five years. There’s another IUD you can leave in for 10 years that has no hormone in it. They’re beneficial for ladies who have had breast cancer, things like that. Women who cannot have any hormones at all, but aren’t quite ready to shut the door on fertility and all those options as well.”
Whatever a woman’s need or preference, it’s best to consult with a doctor before making a change, just as West did. She’s happy to share she has no more worries, feels very liberated, and is on to the next phase.
The Essure, like other birth control devices or methods, is often covered by most insurance plans; however, consult with your insurance provider to confirm coverage.
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Nixon Watergate Testimony Unsealed
The testimony covers the 18-and-a-half minute gap in a tape recording of Nixon and his chief of staff three days after the break-in at the Watergate Hotel.
The tape’s gap was considered crucial in determining the president’s role in covering up the Watergate Scandal, according to the Associated Press.
Historian Stanley Kutler, who was part of the lawsuit to free the records, said he doubted the tape would reveal much information.
"I have no illusions. Richard Nixon knew how to dodge questions with the best of them. I am sure that he danced, skipped, around a number of things,” Kutler told The Daily Beast before reviewing the tape.
In his testimony, Nixon told jurors that the tapes got erased by accident, reports Politico.
Kutler said that after reviewing the tape, he did not find any new information.
"It's Nixon being Nixon," Kutler told Politico. "It's a virtuoso performance. How about $10 for every time he says, I don't recall?"
The testimony has been posted online, according to the AP. Thousands of other Watergate-related documents and sound recordings have been posted as well.
Grand jury documents usually remain private and sealed, according to Politico. Obama’s administration argued that too many people mentioned in the testimony were still alive, so it should not be released. A judge ordered the testimony to be released, however, after he determined its historical value was greater than privacy concerns.
Reach assoicate news editor Hannah Madans here.
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Or join our email list below to enjoy the weekly Neon Tommy News Highlights.
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Call the sustainable food movement radical. Call it inspiring. You can even say it’s unattainable or even the privileged musings of life seen through the lens of a chilled glass of chardonnay. Just please, don’t call it “hip.”
In conversations about our changing food system, it’s not the words of doubt or disbelief that get me down. “Unrealistic” may be hard to hear but at least it launches an important debate and allows us to really dig into the issues. “Elitist?” Bring that one on, too. It’s the perfect segue into a conversation about inner-city agriculture and the work being done in urban deserts to make those communities more self-sufficient. But please don’t call the food movement “hip.” It’s the kind of comment that, though it may seem innocuous and may even be intended as a compliment, is the most dangerous of all descriptors.
If you hear a note of bitterness about all of this, you’re not entirely off base. As a geek squad lifer there is a frizzy-haired, glasses-wearing, enthusiastic science club member at my core. So I am pretty hard-wired to steer clear of anything labeled “cool” or “popular” lest it beat my socially awkward self to the snub. What can I say? Cafeteria table rejection leaves a mark.
But that’s the power of “hip.” Hip is not only exciting and trend setting, it’s also exclusive in a mean sort of way. After all, the circle of hip can’t be allowed to grow too large or hip will then be average and everyone knows that there’s nothing cool about being common. That’s where the hipsters get it wrong. Yes, the sustainable community lauds small producers—and rightfully so. Small batch production and human-sized farms are valued in the sustainability community for their attention to quality and the hope they give us all for a decentralized, non-industrial food, not as a means of keeping up a velvet rope.
To be hip is also to be trendy, of the moment, the implication being that sustainable agriculture is a “fad,” a fashion that will pass with next season’s hemline. Problem is that trendy things tend to morph into caricature and eventually into burn-out (see women’s shoulder pads, circa 1980 for an example). Mockomedies like “Portlandia” and the sighs and eye rolls that the pickle making, chicken raising, food tattoo wearing Brooklynites are starting to attract among their fellow urbanites are just the start. We need to reclaim the real food movement in the “by the people for the people” spirit in which it started, lest the food movement become too cool for school.
Don’t get me wrong, just because I don’t want sustainable agriculture to be called hip doesn’t meant that I’m not thrilled to see its popularity sky rocket. Local eating on the rise, the increase in the number of farmers markets in the country, CSA subscriptions selling out, heritage and heirloom vegetables finding a place at ever more tables—nothing could be better for eaters, farmers and the planet.
It is simply this. As we grow ever curious about the origin of our food, it is critical that we also remember the origin of the food movement. This is not a trend that was born on the cover of a magazine or brewed up in a Brooklyn basement. The craft of fermenting pickles and hanging sausages was not invented in the back of a pop-up restaurant; it came out of frugal and hungry necessity and has been part of a food culture and practice that has sustained us for generations. The organic food movement was not born with the USDA label in 2001; it is a decades-long struggle that has been fought by generations of outsiders and rebel farmers who want to make a better food system a reality for all eaters. Yes, the real food movement can be a nose to tail dinner at a white tablecloth restaurant but it is also the working parents who cook a locally-sourced dinner from scratch and within their grocery budget for their four kids every night.
Growing food without chemicals, preserving it at home, cooking by hand—these are practices that should never go out of style. We need to be careful not to burden them with the labels of fashion.
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UK consumers throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food each year – that’s about 1/3 of the fresh food bought in British supermarkets each year.
Yikes, that’s a food fact that I found hard to believe until I waded through the detritus of my own fridge yesterday and had to cast aside green beans, mushrooms and even some moldy peppers that we bought weeks ago and still hadn’t used.
I don’t know about you guys but I’m a little liberal when it comes to past-by dates on vegetables – how bad can three day-old green beans be after all? Especially when they’ve been flown in from Peru in the first place (and yes I realize this is also a problem). But I draw the line at 10 days…or when there is too much mold to cut away!
Mushy banana pancakes anyone?
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Tampa City Council reverses course, rejects panhandling ban
TAMPA — The Tampa City Council reversed course Thursday, voting to reject a proposed ban on roadside solicitations on the city’s busiest roads.
The council killed the ban after hearing emotional testimony from nearly 40 people, mostly newspaper vendors, who predicted it would put them out of work.
]“It’s not the best job, but it’s something,” said Sonia Long, one of an estimated 260 vendors who hawk the St. Petersburg Times or Tampa Tribune in Tampa.
“I, too, have a college degree and I, too, have worked in corporate America, but it has been because of the economy that I have had to go and find other means to provide for my family,” said Long, 43, who has three three children. “Please don’t take the only dignity and respect that I have.”
The proposed ordinance would have banned panhandling, charitable collections, newspaper sales and other driver-to-pedestrian transactions on the city’s busiest roads, including N Dale Mabry Highway and Kennedy Boulevard.
But the ban would not have been complete. Roadside solicitations still would have been allowed on less-busy “collector” roads.
That would not have been enough, said Gwen Miller, one of two council members to change their vote from two weeks ago, when the proposed ban was initially approved.
Between the first and second votes, Miller said she went out looked at the traffic on smaller collector roads. She concluded there wasn’t enough traffic to support newspaper vendors.
“This is their livelihood, and I don’t want to take anyone’s livelihood away from them,’’ Miller said. “They would not have made any money on those streets.”
Council member Curtis Stokes said he changed his vote for two reasons. First, he thought banning solicitations on big roads but not little ones would have pushed panhandlers into neighborhoods, a position shared by Charlie Miranda, who also voted against the ordinance.
Stokes also said he was moved by hearing Morris Hintzman, the chief executive officer of Metropolitan Ministries, where Stokes is on the board of directors, say that the council needs to consider what to do to address homelessness.
“We’re dealing with 20 percent more people this year than we did a year ago,” Hintzman said.
The council’s vote now elevates panhandling as an issue in the city’s March 1 elections, where voters will make choices for mayor and all seven City Council seats.
Council chairman Thomas Scott and Council member Mary Mulhern voted for the ordinance, saying it wasn’t perfect but was a compromise that would make intersections safer.
Mulhern, who has repeatedly worried about how homelessness has been exacerbated by the recession, said the decision on what to do about panhandling has been the most difficult she’s dealt with on the council. It almost led her not to seek re-election, she said.
Based on what he’s hearing at candidate forums, Scott, who is running for mayor, said he expects that a re-constituted council would schedule a vote in early April on a total, citywide ban on roadside solicitations.
Scott challenged the idea that he doesn’t care about people in need or people who need work. One of his own parishioners at the 34th Street Church of God, where he is senior pastor, asked him to vote against the ordinance.
“I know what it is to be poor,” he said. “I grew up poor. I know what it is to sell newspapers. I’ve done that. I know what it is to be hungry.”
But state and federal courts have ruled that when it comes to making roadside solicitations — an activity with strong First Amendment overtones — the city cannot treat different groups differently, he said.
As a result, it could not allow some groups, such as firefighters collecting for charity, to ask for donations while banning others. Nor can it restrict street vending to certain days unless it has evidence showing that traffic conditions are not as dangerous on those days, City Attorney Chip Fletcher said.
Meanwhile, the Hillsborough County Commission this week moved toward tightening its regulation of solicitations in unincorporated Hillsborough.
County commissioners voted Wednesday to proceed with a proposal to extend the county’s existing panhandling ban to state roads, essentially eliminating all solicitation in unincorporated areas.
A county-appointed task force that included representatives from law enforcement and social service organizations concluded that panhandling was mainly a public safety issue that warrants stricter limits.
A comprehensive ban would make enforcement easier for deputies who now must figure out whether a panhandler is on a county or state road before taking action, Hillsborough County sheriff’s officials say.
The County Commission’s ban also would restrict newspaper sales and charitable solicitations. Commissioners have asked the staff to create new ordinance language, and the next step is to schedule a public hearing.
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sponsored by the Library of Congress Cataloging Directorate
NAS: Library Needs a Digital Strategy
By Gail Fineberg
The Library needs to develop an overall strategy for acquiring, describing, and preserving electronic journals and books, Web sites and links, databases, and other digital creations.
If it is to be relevant in the 21st Century, the Library must not only acquire digital information for its own collections through the copyright deposit system, but also lead other libraries in a collaborative, strategic effort to select digital information that is worth keeping, determine how to catalog it, and decide how and where to archive it before it is lost forever.
That is the thrust of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee report, LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress, issued to the Library on July 26. Dr. Billington commissioned the study in 1998.
James J. O'Donnell, vice provost, Office of Information Systems and Computing, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, chaired the 16-member Committee on an Information Technology Strategy for the Library of Congress. The committee project was approved by the governing board of the National Research Council, which is the chief operating arm of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering.
O'Donnell and four other committee members commented on their 207-page study during a public session, July 26, at the Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
O'Donnell summed up the committee's overarching conclusions: "The digital revolution has upended expectations, expanded possibilities, and posed breathtaking opportunities for libraries around the world.
"Our study of the Library of Congress and its strategic and tactical reactions to this moment in history concludes that the walls of that venerable place have not yet sufficiently been penetrated by the thrilling possibilities of the moment, and that if this moment is lost, the library risks subsiding into gray irrelevance," O'Donnell warned, adding that he and the committee "stand behind that fundamental conclusion with all our professional conviction."
Committee members and follow-up panelists, who also commented on the report, praised Dr. Billington's "bold decision" to ask the National Academy of Sciences for the study.
"I very much admire Dr. Billington's decision to request this study," said panelist Deanna Marcum, Council of Library and Information Resources. "While the staff might well have been able to write its own self-study, the fact is that there is nothing like an outside statement to focus an institution on making necessary changes."
Another panelist, Clifford Lynch, Coalition for Networked Information, said the Library could have hired a "routine consultant" to address some technology issues at LC.
"Instead, the Library went to the National Research Council, which has a well-established history of putting together independent, broad-ranging, thoughtful committees that have a notable degree of independence and rigor. . . . What we have is quite a remarkable report, which I think the Library of Congress needs to be applauded for asking for," Lynch said.
"This isn't just a narrow review of information technology. This is really about how the Library of Congress and the digital world connect up with our society, with the whole system of libraries, and the management of cultural and intellectual heritage in this country," Lynch said.LC's Initial Response
The NAS recommendations pose "one of the most interesting collective challenges in the history of the Library of Congress," the Librarian said. "The study addresses what we should be doing and how fast we should be doing it."
Addressing LC managers during a special session the day after the report was issued, Dr. Billington said he was "enormously energized" by the report.
"It's not going to be business as usual," the Librarian said, adding that he expects a large-scale response to the report, on the order of the Library's successful efforts to establish the National Digital Library Program in a short time and to plan and implement the Integrated Library System.
He said he would not have wanted a study like this "if I didn't think we had extraordinary commitment in this institution, if I didn't think we had in place extraordinary managers who are dedicated."
(Copies of the NAS study may be obtained from the National Research Council site, at http://www.nap.edu/books/0309071445/html/.)
Committee chair O'Donnell has been invited to brief the staff on the report at an all-staff forum, from 2 to 3 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 25, in the Coolidge Auditorium.
"Now we get down to work," Scott told the managers. He said he wants the Library's response to the report in hand by the end of the year and concrete budget requests ready to go. The NAS committee asked that the Library publish, by Jan. 1, 2001, its own review of the report and outline of the agenda the Library will pursue.
Alluding to the committee's emphasis on flexible personnel practices that will enable the Library to recruit, hire, retain, and train staff, Scott said, "The Library has to fix its personnel policies and hiring practices, library-wide. If it can't do that, it can't do anything."
He said the HR21 task force needs to accelerate the work it has been doing "and stop talking about it," adding "the time for pilots is past."
Scott said the Digital Futures Group has to "step up the pace, too, and get more people involved."
He also noted the urgency of securing the Library's computer systems.
"If we focus on these things, we will have a plan that is well thought out that we can implement," Scott said. "By the summer 2001, the library community will see changes that we have started to implement."
Associate Librarian for Library Services Winston Tabb said he was "gratified and relieved" to learn from the report that the "Library is on the right track, but needs to run faster."
"A major reason the committee could say, after 18 months of looking at us closely, that we are on the right track is that most of the major elements of what they believe we must do to lead this Library-and the nation's libraries-in the 21st century is contained in the five-year plan of the Digital Futures Group, which was prepared entirely by the staff of the Library of Congress," Tabb said.
That the thinking, vision, goals, and plan of the Digital Futures Group converges with the NAS report illustrates that the Library "has an exceptional staff who should make the nation proud," Tabb said.
The associate librarian said this is not the time for second-guessing past decisions or indecisions, endless chat sessions, or hand-wringing. "If we do not seize the offensive and begin immediately to prioritize and develop action plans for those recommendations with which we agree, we will have wasted a rare opportunity to lead, to renew this Library, and to make a lasting difference in the intellectual life of this nation," Tabb said.
The Digital Futures Group is eager to begin its assigned task of reviewing the NAS recommendation, he said, and to work closely, as assigned, with the Register of Copyrights "on perhaps the most critical challenge we face-accelerated development of a full CORDS production system that will enable copyright owners to deposit, and the Library to acquire, works in digital form."Digital Strategy
In his July 26 statement, O'Donnell said three of the committee's conclusions-those relating to the Library's digital strategy, management structure, and human resources-deserved primary mention.
O'Donnell said the committee concluded that "the Library has made very slow progress in devising strategy and tactics for the acquisition, preservation, cataloging, and accessibility of material that is created and distributed primarily in digital format-material we call 'born digital.'
"Although there have been ad hoc projects and pilot programs around the Library, no overall strategy has been developed, and fundamental systems needed to make such a strategy feasible are not in place. This is not to say the Library has been inactive, but we do believe that the steps taken have been far too limited in scale," he said.
He noted that the National Digital Library Program-"a kind of internal Apollo Project"-brought together skilled and visionary people, found resources in creative ways, and delivered the product (5 million digital artifacts) "in an astonishingly short time."
"But turning the Library's paper treasures into digital artifacts is only one tiny part of the work of creating a true National Digital Library," O'Donnell said.
The committee reviewed the Library's history, noted the preeminence of its traditional collections and its landmark achievements, such as the creation and standardization of machine-readable cataloging (MARC), assessed the status of digital information and technology in LC's various units and curatorial divisions, and recommended some strategies for capturing, accessing, and preserving digital information.
The committee made a case for acquiring digital information. "At the heart of its recommendations is the committee's strong awareness of the role of digital information at the center of contemporary discourse. That role is a simple fact, unrelated to whatever e-zealots or bibliophiles might wish to be the case.
"For some important areas of human knowledge, the best new knowledge can be acquired in digital form," the committee said.
Formats include thousands of e-journals, many of them scholarly journals, including digital versions of printed journals and digital-only publications, most of which will be linked through indexing services and search engines; e-books, which vendors are beginning to distribute as the result of deals with publishers; databases; and some 3.6 million Web pages and linked resources.
"Probably the most active area of digital publishing today is taking place on the World Wide Web. . . . some of these digital works are as important as records of current research and creativity as were the journals and books of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries," the committee said.
Librarians in the 21st century will have to change their thinking about collections, the committee said. "[C]ollection will consist necessarily of a range of activities, from the acquisition of traditional materials to something much more like what we do when we own stocks in companies whose printed share certificates we never see."
In deciding what digital information to acquire, the Library will have to think through how much it can afford to preserve. LC should develop acquisition and preservation strategies in concert with other libraries.
"The burden of preserving digital collections is enormous. The committee believes that this burden must necessarily be shared among a variety of archiving institutions," the committee said. "To ensure that all important research materials are preserved for future generations, it is important that archiving institutions understand the scope of each other's stewardship roles, as is the case with hard-copy publications."
The committee recommended that the Library:
Some of the toughest questions for all libraries relate to ownership of digital information and the high cost of acquiring, accessing, maintaining, and preserving it. Traditionally, libraries owned materials as the result of purchases, gifts, or exchanges, and permitted use as allowed by copyright or best practice. "Many electronic resources, on the other hand, are maintained by publishers, vendors, or others designated by them, and libraries or individuals can obtain rights of access through custom or mass-market licenses," the committee said.
"The Library of Congress has a unique and privileged position in the acquisition of cultural materials," the committee said. "While other libraries in the United States must find willing sellers and must have the financial wherewithal to become willing buyers in a freely made commercial transaction, the requirement of legal deposit with the Copyright Office gives LC a presumptive right to full ownership of a copy of each and every artifact published in the United States."Copyright Is Critical
"The Library's role in registering copyright and enforcing the mandatory deposit law creates a unique opportunity for it to collect digital information that might otherwise vanish from the historical record," the committee said.
However, the committee also found: "The Library of Congress, as recipient of mandatory deposit copies of works published in the United States, lags significantly in receiving and archiving the born-digital product of the nation."
The committee questioned whether the Copyright Office should continue to develop the Copyright Office Electronic Registration, Recordation and Deposit System (CORDS) in its current form or use a different system for receiving deposits of digital publications, registering them, and adding them to the Library's collections. This project has been underway since 1993. The committee said it was "concerned about the scale and deployment" of CORDS, which is expected to handle 100,000 digital deposits (less than 15 percent of the projected total of 725,000 deposits) by the year 2004.
O'Donnell said it "is urgent that this stage of experimentation be brought to conclusion with the installation of a system capable of handling much larger quantities of digital information, and in particular, capable of allowing the deposit of the huge, creative output of the World Wide Web.
"We believe that this last requirement can only be achieved if the Copyright Office and other units of the Library begin to work together with an intensity that they have not hitherto been challenged to demonstrate," O'Donnell said.
The new copyright acquisition system needs to integrate well with other Library systems and make it easier for providers of information to register and deposit their works, and for the Library to enforce the deposit requirement, the committee said.
The committee recommended that the Copyright Office complete a statement of work for a production system in FY 2001, as planned, and "as soon as possible," by the end of calendar year 2000.
"To achieve this goal, the resources and attention of Library-wide senior management should be directed to the Copyright Office, perhaps comparable to the scale and visibility of the ILS implementation," the committee said.
The committee urged the Congress to support and fund the acquisition of a production system.
Finding that the mechanisms and policies for the deposit of digital works currently favor printouts or tangible forms, such as CD-ROM, over digital editions of digital works, the committee recommended that new standards be set for the appropriate formats for digital material acquired through copyright deposit, purchase, exchange, and donation.
In particular, the committee recommended that LC "aggressively pursue clarification of its right to collect copies of U.S.-based Web sites under the copyright deposit law. If questions about this right remain, then LC should seek legislation that changes the copyright law to ensure that it has this right."Preserving a Digital Heritage
The committee emphasized the importance of LC delineating its responsibilities for preserving digital information: as sole proprietor and custodian of some digital materials, as a "fail-safe" caretaker of collections created by others, and as a partner in preserving distributed digital collections.
"As LC identifies the areas in which it will assume the lead responsibility for digital preservation, other organizations can adjust the scope of their digital collections accordingly," the committee said.
"Just as the Library cannot ignore the problem of digital preservation, it cannot be expected to do it all," the committee said.
The committee noted three challenges. Digital materials are especially vulnerable to loss and destruction because they are stored on fragile magnetic and optical media that deteriorate rapidly and that can fail suddenly. They become unreadable and inaccessible if the playback devices or software necessary to retrieve information become obsolete. Legal questions surround libraries' rights to copy digital information for preservation or backup purposes, to reformat information so it remains accessible, and to provide public access.
The committee found that, although many national libraries, university research libraries, archives, bibliographic utilities, and organizations with large holdings of digital information are actively pursuing solutions to these problems of digital preservation, "LC has at best played only a minimal role in these initiatives.
"As a consequence, it has little awareness of potential solutions that are emerging from joint research and development projects and has not contributed much to this important national and international problem for the library community," the committee found.
The Library should join, and, where possible, lead or facilitate national and international research and development efforts in digital preservation, the committee recommended. Also, the Library should take an active role, including working with Congress if necessary, to rework intellectual property restraints to permit copying migrating digital information to a new format for preservation purposes.
Lacking an overarching strategy and long-range plan for digital preservation, the committee said, the Library should "immediately form a high-level planning group to coordinate digital preservation efforts and develop the policies, technical capacity, and expertise to preserve digital information. A digital preservation plan should be put in place and implemented as soon as possible.
The committee also recommended that high priority be given to filling the position of head of the Preservation Directorate with someone who is knowledgeable about digital preservation.Accessing Digital Information
"One enduring role of libraries during the transition from physical to digital information will be the intellectual task of cataloging-imposing order on diverse resources with the goal of making those resources easier to discover and manage," the committee said.
Noting that LC probably has the largest cataloging operation in the world, and remarking upon LC's long and distinguished history of leadership in setting and coordinating cataloging standards (MARC, Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, subject headings, name authority controls), the committee urged LC to assume a leadership role in the development of digital information "metadata," defined as "information that describes the structure or content of a document but is not part of the document."
"The metadata environment is evolving rapidly. This will have profound implications for libraries and other information providers generally and for the Library of Congress in particular," the committee said. "It is the responsibility of the Library, and indeed of the nation, to offer leadership here for the benefit of the national and worldwide communities of information providers and users."
The committee made two recommendations:
(1) The Library should treat the development of a richer but more complex metadata environment as a strategic issue, increasing dramatically its level of involvement and planning in this area, and it should be much more actively involved with the library and information community in advancing the evolution of metadata practices.
"This will require a dedication of resources, direct involvement by the Librarian in setting and adjusting expectations, and the strong commitment of a project leader assigned from the Executive Committee of the Library."
(2) "The Library should actively encourage and participate in effort to develop tools for automatically creating metadata. These tools should be integrated in the cataloging work flow."
"In the end, the success or failure of the Library in the digital age will be marked chiefly by its ability to rethink and reinvent (along with comparable institutions around the world) the way the collecting and cataloging are done, whether the artifacts are digital or analog. If this report has a single central message, it is this one," the committee said.Committee Recommends Second DLC and New Committees
In its assessment of management issues, the committee said: "It is no longer possible, if it ever was, for senior management of large organizations to regard information technology as a black box to be controlled and managed by technologists. Certainly a library, the core of whose business is the storage and preservation of information, needs to integrate strategic and tactical thinking about information technology into every level of its management vision."
Responsibility for overall strategic planning should be the job of a second deputy librarian, the committee recommended. This deputy also would supervise Information Technology Services, chair a new information technology vision, strategy, research, and planning group (ITVSRP), and manage LC's relationship with a panel of outside experts on a new Technical Advisory Board.
Citing the Whole-Book Cataloging Pilot Program as an example of reengineering work processes, the committee also emphasized a need to examine Library-wide workflow processes "and rationalize them across unit boundaries before new information systems are designed and developed or acquired." The Copyright Office and its interface with Library Services is the place to start this assessment, the committee said.
"The ITVSRP group would be chartered to lead the Library of Congress, and the national and world libraries, into the digital age," the committee said. "It would also provide strategic technical thinking for the Library. Members of the ITVSRP group would have a good grasp of current technologies, be effective communicators and diplomats both within LC and without (to help build bridges to industry and academia), and have some grasp of how LC works today."
Every unit of the Library would have to get approval from this group for major information technology investments, the committee suggested.
The committee also recommended the creation of a Technical Advisory Board, which would be run by a distinguished outside chair and include librarians from the United States and abroad with a broad vision of the future of libraries, as well as technology specialists with expertise in relevant areas, the committee said.
This board would sit with the Executive Committee of the Library twice a year and inform executives of developments and directions in information initiatives and enterprises that the Library has in hand with the ITVSRP.
The committee recommended further that the technology awareness of LC be enhanced by creating a limited number of visiting research positions within LC for experts from around the country.
The committee also recommended that the Library not appoint a chief information officer at this time.
These recommendations flowed from the committee's findings of no strategic planning for information technology within LC, a lack of senior management review of priority setting within Information Technology Services (ITS), and attendant shadow and duplicate systems in the Library as units establish their own systems. "No one within the Library is explicitly looking at technology and technical trends, looking at where technology will be five years out. No one is bringing that vision to the major service units and current innovators and saying to them, 'This is what [Information Technology] could bring to you in five years; how would you use it?'" the committee said.
The committee noted that although ITS is chartered to provide a service to the rest of the Library, "it is not chartered or budgeted to generate ideas about the Library's future, even as that future relates to technology."
"The current ITS organization and staff are not well suited to provide technical vision, strategy, or technical leadership for the Library. These roles require an outward-looking organization that participates in national and international library initiatives," the committee said.Human Resources
O'Donnell said the committee was "deeply concerned that human resource issues in the Library-some a legacy of past management problems, some intrinsically related to the challenges of managing information technology in the federal sector-pose the most threatening set of obstacles to improvement."
One problem is noncompetitive pay. "It is practically impossible for the Library to hire new college graduates in computer science," the committee said, noting that the Library is able to pay only about 60 percent of the going salaries for IT workers.
Another problem is a federal personnel system bogged down by Civil Service human resources regulations; several layers of court-ordered procedural steps added to all hiring and review of personnel as result of the Cook case; and outmoded management practices "that are redolent of old, assembly-line methods."
"In the short term, hiring has become slower and more cumbersome, just at a moment when technical staff particularly are pursued with increasing speed and agility by virtually every other sector of the economy," the committee said.
"The need for workforce flexibility in the digital age is in direct conflict with rigid human resource rules at the Library of Congress," the committee said.
Noting that the National Digital Library Program hired quickly not-to-exceed staff and contractors with special skills, the committee recommended a greater reliance on outsourcing and contract employees.
(Deputy Librarian Scott on Thursday, July 27, gave managers the green light to use personal service contracts to expedite hiring. "If a particular unit needs special hiring dispensation, you've got it," Scott said.)
Noting that some 40 percent of the LC staff will be eligible to retire by 2004, the committee recommended against the automatic hiring of replacements with similar skills. "Retirements should instead be viewed as opportunities to hire staff with the qualifications in librarianship and technology needed to meet the digital challenge, and reengineering should be rewarded when senior management allocates staff positions to units," the committee recommended.
The committee recommended that LC's Human Resources directorate review hiring practices to make sure job descriptions are written to appeal to applicants outside the government.
Recognizing the long tenure of employees, the committee recommended more training opportunities for staff. Professional development, outside technical training, and practice in using the training are crucial.
"Congress should be asked to increase the Library's training budget by a significant amount. This increase should be more than an incremental one-more on the order of a doubling or tripling of this year's amount in the next budget submitted to Congress," the committee recommended.
The committee also recommended that LC increase the number of junior and senior level staff involved in professional association activities, which are a source of learning, networking, and leadership training; that more internships be offered to graduate and undergraduate students; and that mentoring teams be formed to provide peer training in technology.
A formal assessment of lessons learned from the ILS installation should be completed by Jan. 1, 2001, the committee said.
Finally, the committee recommended that human resources staff "should become agents of change and business partners more rapidly than is foreseen in the HR21 plan."IT Infrastructure
Noting that the Library increasingly turns to outside sources for information technology needs, such as the Voyager software and Sun server for the new ILS, the committee said the Library will continue to need a strong in-house organization to perform some internal information technology development, training, support, and operations, and to monitor outside contracts.
The committee said Information Technology Services (ITS) basically does its job of supporting LC's computer and communication systems. It acquires, supports, and maintains the computer, networking, and telephone systems for LC; it does most of the in-house programming and much of the computer-systems training; and it monitors contracts with software and hardware vendors.
"ITS produces substantial and serviceable high-level architectural documents on topics such as storage and retrieval of digital content, centrally supported systems infrastructure, and telecommunications. Its server and storage architectures meet its customers' needs.
"Although it is not what in industry would be seen as an exceptionally responsive or cutting-edge technical organization, given the many restraints of its environment, ITS adequately provides basic services. The Library of Congress systems work and people get their jobs done, even though-as is true in other organizations-they want more services than the central organization can possibly deliver within budget constraints," the committee found.
Although mid-level management seems to be hard-working and competent, "ITS staff do not . . . have the technical depth to meet the current challenges. They cannot keep current in areas like networks, security, middleware, and databases . . . because the Library of Congress does not budget adequate time or money for their continuing education or attendance at professional conferences. Nor is there a budget for members of the IITS staff to spend time investigating new technology," the committee found.
Committee recommendations included investing more in the continuing education and training of ITS staff.
The committee suggested ITS be more businesslike in its operations by instituting a system of service-level agreements that include performance metrics and by instituting a cost-accounting system by which service units may determine what their information technology actually costs them.
The committee found two main infrastructure problems, the lack of information technology security and underpowered networks.
Finding that LC's computer and information security competence and policies are "seriously inadequate," the committee recommended that technical experts should be retained to recommend an information security plan, which should be implemented promptly. Congress should provide funding for a disaster recovery strategy and its implementation.
All local area networks need to upgraded to 100-megabit-per-second Ethernet circuits as soon as possible, and compatible Ethernet switches should replace ATM switches designed for digitized telephone traffic, the committee recommended.
Among the committee's other findings and recommendations are these:
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Rome (CNN) -- More than 140 Catholic cardinals met Monday at the Vatican, where the process of selecting a new pope edged toward beginning.
The cardinals met twice during the day, in the morning and in the evening. After the evening session, most left by car, though some departed on foot. Few spoke as they left the meeting.
After the morning session, a decision had not been made on when the conclave to select Pope Benedict XVI's successor would start, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters.
"It's on the table, but no decision has been reached," Lombardi said.
The General Congregations meeting is a key step before the conclave, in which all cardinals younger than 80 are to meet in the Vatican to vote for the next pope.
Of the 142 cardinals who attended Monday morning's session, 103 were cardinal electors, Lombardi said. Another 12 cardinal electors were expected to arrive later Monday and Tuesday, he said.
During the afternoon meeting, four more cardinals joined those who had already been here; the group decided that congregations on Tuesday and Wednesday would take place in the morning only, he added.
And the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the Pontifical Household, held the first meditation as outlined by the Apostolic Constitution, Lombardi said.
Benedict announced his intention to step down on February 11 and resigned Thursday, becoming the first pope to do so in 600 years. The transfer of papal power has almost always happened after the sitting pope has died.
Normally, the College of Cardinals is not allowed to select a new pontiff until 15 to 20 days after the office becomes vacant. However, Benedict amended the 500-year-old policy to get a successor into place more rapidly.
The cardinals may to be able to do so before March 15, Lombardi has said.
This would give the new pontiff more than a week to prepare for the March 24 Palm Sunday celebrations.
Some gambling houses are offering odds on who will next lead the Catholic Church.
Favorites include the archbishop of Milan, Italy, Cardinal Angelo Scola; Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Italy; Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, who would become the first African pontiff since Pope Gelasius I died more than 1,500 years ago; and Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Canada, who would become the first North American pope.
One former cardinal who won't participate in the conclave is Keith O'Brien of Scotland, who resigned last month. O'Brien apologized Sunday for sexual impropriety, without specifying any incident. "To those I have offended, I apologize and ask forgiveness," he said in a statement.
The Vatican refused to answer questions on Monday about whether it will discipline O'Brien. In response to questions from British journalists, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Thomas Rosica read the statement that O'Brien released on Sunday.
"That is all we can say, is what's been said," Rosica said.
But others did comment. "It looks as if the incidence of abuse is practically zero right now as far as we can tell, but they are still the victims and the wound therefore is deep in their hearts and minds very often," Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, told reporters in Rome. "As long as it's with them, it's with all of us and that will last for a long time, so the next pope has to be aware of this."
Philip Tartaglia, the archbishop of Glasgow and apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, will administer O'Brien's archdiocese until a new appointment is made.
"The most stinging charge which has been leveled against us in this matter is hypocrisy, and for obvious reasons," Tartaglia said in prepared remarks slated for delivery Monday night in his sermon at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Glasgow. "I think there is little doubt that the credibility and moral authority of the Catholic Church in Scotland has been dealt a serious blow, and we will need to come to terms with that."
He added, "As for the Church's mission in our country, yes, our credibility and moral authority have been undermined. It will take time, perhaps a long time, to recover these intangible but important realities. But we cannot be defeatist. The answer to this sad episode is not to throw in the towel. We need, rather, to renew our faithfulness to Jesus Christ and to go about our business humbly."
While Benedict has no direct involvement in the selection of his successor, his influence will be felt: He appointed 67 of at least 115 cardinals set to make the decision.
Cardinals must vote in person, via paper ballot. Once the process begins, the cardinals aren't allowed to talk with anyone outside of the conclave. They cannot leave until white smoke emerges from the Vatican chimney -- the signal that a new leader has been picked.
Lombardi said Monday that 4,300 journalists have been accredited to cover the papal conclave.
CNN's Richard Allen Green reported from Rome. CNN's Mark Morgenstein reported from Atlanta. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.
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Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle, shares an insight that those in agriculture need to adopt: Facts are not exciting. Stories are.
I thought we were going to get customers excited by telling them there were no antibiotics in our meat or no growth hormones used to raise the animals or no RGBH in our cheese or sour cream. Well, that's not a very appetizing message.
How can agri-professionals adopt this? When thinking about sharing information with consumers, non-farmers, or the press, don't provide just facts. While they are true (they are facts, right?) what people always remember are the stories.
So now we have a marketing program that's going to start a dialogue about why better ingredients make for better-tasting and more healthful food.
I have been asked several times on how one might "increase loyalty" through media, marketing, and communications? My questions right away were:
What is an indicator of being loyal?
Can you measure it? and
Is it possible to move the indicator in a specific direction?
Marketing Profs offered ideas with 10 Tips for Building Customer Loyalty. This one article highlights the key points of understanding the true purpose of marketing, never take loyalty for granted, tap into what customers want, and integrity leads to trust=> which leads to a relationship.
Josh St. Peters(@jstpeters) explains some of the approaches Pioneer Hi-Bred uses to connect with customers, partners, and interested groups. Mobile devices are key to shortening the cycle to get information to customers and educate FFA students. Josh also talks about the ever changing hardware/tools and how to work through those changes.
Tim Zweber(@zweberfarms) uses social media to interact with customers on their organic milk and meat. Tim also mentions they want to educate consumers about agriculture. This conversation is from the 2010 AgChat Foundation Agvocacy 2.0 Training, August 30-31, Chicago, IL, USA.
Mark Gale(@MarksKiosk), Charleston|Orwig, makes the observation that social and new media can not be a communications "check-off" item and companies need to make commitments in people, hours, and tools to successfully utilize the web.
Jeff Fowle(@jefffowle), President of the Agchat Foundation, share thoughts on why ranchers and farmers use social media. This conversation is from the 2010 AgChat Foundation Agvocacy 2.0 Training, August 30-31, Chicago, IL, USA.
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Need some ideas to entertain the kids? What's in the bag? is a great game to play on a rainy day or even at the kids birthday parties! You can make it suitable for whatever age group you are entertaining, which is one of the reasons this game is a perfect game for any time of year!
Number of players:
1 to lots
What you need:
lots of household objects
A great guessing game that you can make entirely age appropriate.
Put a few things in the bag from around the house - like paperclips, a coin, a lime, a toy car, a dog biscuit, a rock, etc.
Let your child reach into the bag and choose an object.
Encourage them to feel it, roll it in their hands and imagine what it might be.
Ask them to guess before pulling it out.
For older children, make the objects less defined by their shape.
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In some of our systems we have a blocklist of IP address which stops certain IP's viewing the website. Currently the PHP just issues text saying your ip address has been blocked blah blah blah.
I have come across the HTTP Error Code 403 and to be more exact error code 403.6 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_403) which I think would be better than just text.
But i read somewhere that the .6 is only for windows or something along those lines??
Can I send a 403.6 header through PHP from my LAMP servers and would this be better practice than just sending "you've been blocked text"?
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Half way mark in Oceans consultation: hundreds participate
23 July 2001
More than 700 New Zealanders have attended public meetings and hui on the Oceans Policy; 16,000 submission booklets have been distributed and nearly 300 school packs sent out, as the public consultation process hits the half way mark.
Dame Cath Tizard, Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Oceans Policy, which is conducting the consultation, said the committee was pleased by the response so far, but wanted to see that grow exponentially in the second half of the exercise.
"People are taking this consultation - and the issues that it raises - very seriously," Dame Cath said.
"Some of the issues we have been hearing about include the effects of urban development on the natural character of the coast, marine farming, marine reserves, coastal water quality, algae blooms, and the behaviour of foreign fishing vessels.
"We are asking New Zealanders to tell us about their vision and values in relation to the oceans - not an easy thing to communicate, and we are really pleased to see the deep thought that is going into it."
The independent Ministerial Advisory Committee for Oceans Policy will attend more than 50 public meetings and hui from Kaitaia to Stewart Island over the course of the consultation.
At the halfway point the committee has now travelled to 20 centres, including Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands, and has heard from 60 people through the meetings or formal submissions.
The committee has also developed a schools' pack, giving young people an opportunity to have their say. So far, nearly 300 school packs have been requested. The pack can also be downloaded from the website, at www.oceans.govt.nz
The website and 0800 number have also been running hot. With four weeks of the consultation to go, the committee is gearing up for more interest, more challenging questions, and more submissions from the public and stakeholder groups alike.
The deadline for submissions for stage one is August 17, 2001.
For further information on the Oceans Policy and the public meetings in your area call 0800 001461 or check www.oceans.govt.nz
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Home Asia Pacific South Asia India
First meeting of Nalanda group in Singapore
IANS, July 10, 2007
Patna, India -- The first meeting of the Nalanda Mentor Group, headed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to oversee the opening of an international university in Nalanda in Bihar will be held in Singapore July 13-14.
"The Nalanda Mentor Group will discuss the proposal of support and help of Singapore, Japan and other countries and the syllabus of the proposed university at its first meeting," officials said on Monday.
The meeting will be attended by Amartya Sen and other members, including Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, government officials from China and Japan, Lord Meghnad Desai, Sugata Bose, a grand nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who teaches at Harvard University in the US, and some experts on Buddhism. Singapore, China and Japan are expected to fund the university.
The idea of the university was first mooted in the late 1990s but it was President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's initiative in early 2006 that gave shape to the project, which is to come up at the ancient site of Buddhist learning.
The excavated site of the ancient university at Nalanda is protected as a place of national importance. A fifth century architectural marvel, the university was home to over 10,000 students and nearly 2,000 teachers.
After the Singapore meeting, three more are to be held in China, Japan and Bihar. Officials said the state government had begun acquiring the 500 acres of land needed for the university.
The proposed university will be fully residential, like ancient Nalanda. In the first phase, seven schools with 46 foreign faculty members and over 400 Indian academics will be established.
The university will have courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism along with other subjects. A renowned international scholar will be its chancellor.
Nalanda is the Sanskrit term for 'giver of knowledge'.
Nalanda University, which existed until 1197 AD, attracted students and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey, besides being a pedestal of higher education in India.
Though it was devoted to Buddhist studies, it also trained students in subjects such as fine arts, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, politics and the art of war.
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Cycling in Sydney Australia
Here's a video of a rainy day trip heading south on the Kent St Cycleway. You don't have to watch it - just skip to the text below if you like:
I counted the number of vehicles heading north:
That's a ratio of 2.76 motor vehicles for every bike.
So what proportion of the street is devoted to the roadway compared to the cycleway?
Here I'm estimating a little; for about two thirds of the trip there is one northbound lane on the road, and for the remainder there are two northbound lanes. Each roadway lane is approximately 2.2 times wider than a lane on the cycleway.
This leads to the following calculation to determine the roadway to cycleway space allocation:
(0.33 x 2 x 2.2) + (0.67 x 2.2) = 2.95 square metres for motor vehicles for every one square metre for bikes.
Conclusion: there are fewer motor vehicles than bicycles per square metre on Kent St. On a rainy day!
So much for the "people aren't using the cycleways" line. Imagine how these numbers would look on a sunny day, and once the cycleway network is a little more connected.
Whats that 27% of the traffic in that video is created by cyclists?
I'm bad with numbers.
I remember going past that taxi stopped over the curb in the cycle lane! I must have been on the same stretch at about the same time. Didn't see myself in the video though.
I often idly count the cars waiting at junctions compared to the bikes. There are frequently more bikes than cars - however the cars take up huge amount of road space. 15 cars makes a substantial traffic queue that takes a long time to clear a junction. 15 bikes are moving and over the lights in just a few seconds.
I really think people underestimate how many cyclists there are because they move through the city so efficiently. I also think they over-estimate the number of cars - it doesn't take many motorists to create gridlock - just a few dozen is enough to snarl up a junction.
15 bikes are moving and over the lights in just a few seconds.
Is that why we only get a tiny fraction of the green time given to the road congesters? Again, cyclists subsidise motorists.
Colin, have you sent these very telling figures to Dunc Gay and Gladys ? You could also mention the number of bikes parked beside the path -- I noticed at least three in the first block.
Did you also count the parked cars? They should rip up another lane, and turn it into a carpark.
Why don't you send that to some of the naysayers?
I nearly bloody drowned on the Kent St cycleway the other night it was raining so hard. It turned into the Tank Stream.
Nice analysis of a FANTASTIC video :)
FYI - there may be some up coming research on lane spacing & light phasing of bicycles vs cars...
When the cycleways are linked, it's quite conceivable that bikes will out number cars.
In that case we should campaign to rip up the roads ,
or ban cars during peak times
or make the roads a SUP and enforce a 10km/h on cars and they have to give way to pedestrians.
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Essroc, which is headquartered in Upper Nazareth Township, is the eighth… (Morning Call file photo )
Essroc Cement Corp. has agreed to spend $33 million to correct violations of the U.S. Clean Air Act at five of its plants, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.
Essroc will clean up its cement-making plants in the Nazareth area; Logansport, Ind.; Speed, Ind.; Martinsburg, W.Va., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, the EPA said.
The idle Essroc plant in Bessemer, Allegheny County, will be closed permanently. Two years ago, the EPA complained that Essroc modified the plant without using the most advanced pollution controls.
Essroc's new measures will reduce its emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide by 7,000 tons a year, the EPA said. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide have been linked to acid rain, smog and childhood asthma.
"EPA is committed to cutting illegal air pollution from the largest sources of emissions," said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator in the EPA's office of enforcement. "The pollution controls required by today's settlement will reduce harmful air pollutants, protecting communities across the nation."
Essroc also has promised to pay a $1.7 million fine under the agreement, which would settle a pollution investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, awaits a 30-day public comment period and final court approval.
The states of Pennsylvania, Indiana and West Virginia, and Puerto Rico joined Essroc, the EPA and the Justice Department in signing the settlement.
"This will bring Essroc into compliance with the nation's Clean Air Act and marks significant progress in addressing the nation's largest sources of air pollution, and protecting the most vulnerable among us, especially children and the elderly, from respiratory and other health problems," said Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant U.S. attorney general for the environment.
Among other measures, Essroc has agreed to replace the engines on several of its off-road vehicles to cut their nitrogen oxide emissions 50 to 80 percent, at a cost of $745,000.
As Essroc installs the latest pollution-control technology at all five of its plants, it also will test a selective catalytic reduction system, an SCRS, in two kilns at the Logansport plant.
"If successful, this will be the first SCRS used on long wet kilns anywhere in the world," the EPA said.
Essroc, headquartered in Upper Nazareth Township, is in the eighth largest cement producer in the nation.
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Posting by Kirstin Bourne
Mushroom season has only just started and already ROM mycologists have been out in the field conducting research and searching for new specimens to add to the museum collection. Last week I got the chance to join Jean-Marc Moncalvo, the ROM’s Senior Curator of Mycology, along with Ph.D. Candidate Santiago Sanchez and Josie Carding, a summer intern in the Schad Gallery of Biodiversity for a few days of foraging and camping in Ontario’s Awenda Provincial Park.
Posting by Brendt Hyde, Mineralogy Technician
The discovery of diamonds in the 1990’s marked a beginning for Canada’s first diamond mine, the Ekati Diamond Mine, located in the Northwest Territories. It also marked the beginning of the, still relatively young, diamond mining industry in Canada.
By Ka Bo Tsang, Assistant Curator – Chinese Paintings & Textiles
Most people think of Chinese painting as artwork created by artists using special brushes in combination with ink and colour pigments to give shape to ideas on paper or silk through the adroit manipulation of lines, dots, and spots. While this general impression is true, there are exceptions.
Paul Sereno, one of my FAVOURITE palaeontologists, is coming to @ROMToronto this Sunday and I could not be be MORE excited. Except for maybe those times when I was a kid…
(cue time travel sound effect- swosh swish swash)
When I was a kid I had a pretty strict bed time. For grades 3 through 5, bed time was somewhere around 8-9PM. Very rarely were exceptions made. About the only time I ever remember my mom letting me stay up was for one of my favourite tv shows, Paleoworld.
When ROM Ichthyologist Dr. Hernan Lopez-Fernandez was unable to attend a 2011 expedition to the Cuyuni River in Guyana, he found other creative ways to collaborate with fellow scientists. Dr. Lopez-Fernandez enabled Devin Bloom, a U of T graduate student with extensive experience in Guyana through previous joint expeditions, to attend in his place and share the specimen collections and tissue samples with the ROM.
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Curbside recycling could face public vote here By:David Lias
Plain Talk By David Lias Plain Talk The dream of many Vermillion citizens to one day have curbside recycling offered within the city appears close to reality. But concerns have been voiced that the city would be shouldering too much of the burden for the proposed operation that was approved on second reading April 21 by the Vermillion City Council. Leo Backhaus, a former city alderman, made it known that he may circulate petitions to refer the matter to a public vote. The city council's action comes after aldermen reviewed the results of a survey conducted in Vermillion by the USD Government Research Bureau. The results of the survey were positive, both in the number that were returned, and in the number of residents expressing a desire for curbside recycling, even to the point of being willing to pay for such a service. City staff has been busy ever since working to design a curbside recycling program that is both affordable and also provides quality service to households. One of the challenges in formulating this plan has been to establish a way to separate operational costs for curbside recycling from the joint powers operation that manages the landfill shared by Yankton and Vermillion while placing the revenue received from the sale of the recyclables back into the coffers of the joint powers operation. Vermillion submitted a proposal to the joint powers board to establish a base level tonnage of recyclables utilizing 2007 collections. The proposal has 40 percent of the recycling revenue received from the sale of recycling materials above the base tonnage going to Vermillion to offset the operating costs of the weekly residential curbside collection. This new recycling service is being made possible in Vermillion thanks to a grant/loan package from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that will help offset the costs of needed equipment. The recycling program will need to generate enough income for Vermillion to pay back the low-interest loan. Vermillion residents will be charged a monthly fee to help cover both fixed and operating costs of the program. City Manager John Prescott, in a memo to city aldermen, noted that city staff is working to develop multiple income streams to help fund the program due to the unpredictability of the recycling market and fixed costs, such as fuel. The initial monthly fee for homeowners is anticipated to be $3.30 plus applicable sales tax. "The package is a $35,000 grant and a $175,000 loan at 2.5 percent interest for seven years," said Phyllis Packard, Vermillion's solid waste director. "It would cover the costs of curb sorter trucks, pickup, hydraulic dump trailer, the school trailer, and contingencies and other equipment needed for a total of $210,000." Packard noted that the curb sorter truck will feature seven separate sections, with each holding a different recyclable material routinely collected by the city. "We will be describing and educating all households with excessive education the proper way to sort their recyclables once the curbside program is launched," Packard said. Her research shows that Yankton, Mitchell and Brookings currently have curbside recycling, and the average charge in those communities for the curbside service is between $3 and $3.25 monthly. "And the current value of all the (recyclable) materials that we're currently collecting are at their all-time average high," she said. "Our current value for materials is very strong and has been consistently strong for the last two years." Newspaper and corrugated cardboard is averaging approximately $110 per ton. Recycled plastic is currently fetching about $300 per ton, and recycled tin can be sold for $150 to $200 per ton. "The price of aluminum is approximately $1,500 per ton, which is why we can pay for that material," Packard said. "So all the materials that we do collect have very strong selling markets." Backhaus told the council he opposes the recycling ordinance. He produced a document that he said indicates Vermillion is currently doing an excellent job of recycling. He added that he believes in recycling material rather than throwing it away; Backhaus said he has been an active recycler for 15 years. "But it looks like the rest of our neighbors from the other two (adjoining) counties, plus our rural neighbors, are not holding up their fair share," he said. Backhaus said if he was interpreting the figures in the city's recycling report correctly, Vermillion is recycling far more than Yankton. "It looks to me like Vermillion residents are paying their share right now," he said, "so I think rather than starting a new thing that's going to be costing the residents of the city of Vermillion some more tax, I think you need to take another look at this, because I don't think it's right or fair." Backhaus said he believes there is plenty of opposition to the curbside recycling ordinance. "It just hasn't shown up yet," he said. "If you do go ahead and pass this, I'd like to see that it comes to a vote of the citizens of the city of Vermillion. I'm almost sure they (the people) are going to vote it down. I don't know why we should be penalized here in Vermillion for what other communities are not doing, and evidently they are not doing their share." Packard noted that the landfill and the recycling center are operated under the joint powers agreement between Vermillion, Yankton and Clay and Yankton counties. "We do not have control over what those other communities do as far as their recycling," she said. "In the joint powers agreement, it is expressly stated that collection of garbage and recycling are not part of the joint powers. The funds that are in the joint powers are not available for collection." Yankton's curbside recycling program, she said, doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the joint powers. "It is not anything under my power," Packard said. "As such, the proposal that we've put forward for the community of Vermillion is a hauling service for the citizens of Vermillion. It is a completely separate entity within the city of Vermillion government operation."
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(Page 2 of 2)
I challenge every community, every school, and every state to adopt national standards of excellence, to measure whether schools are meeting those standards, to cut bureaucratic red-tape so that schools and teachers have more flexibility for grassroots reform, and to hold them accountable for results. So tonight I issue a call to action: action by this Congress, action by our states, by our people, to prepare America for the 21st century; action to keep our economy and our democracy strong and working for all our people; action to strengthen education and harness the forces of technology and science; action to build stronger families and stronger communities and a safer environment; action to keep America the world's strongest force for peace, freedom, and prosperity; and above all, action to build a more perfect Union here at home. It is a time to build, to build the America within reach, an America where everybody has a chance to get ahead with hard work; where every citizen can live in a safe community; where families are strong, schools are good, and all our young people can go on to college; an America where scientists find cures for diseases from diabetes to Alzheimer's to AIDS; an America where every child can stretch a hand across a keyboard and reach every book ever written, every painting ever painted, every symphony ever composed; where government provides opportunity and citizens honor the responsibility to give something back to their communities; an America which leads the world to new heights of peace and prosperity.
By 2032, the Trust Fund will be exhausted and Social Security will be unable to pay the full benefits older Americans have been promised. Tonight I ask you to work with me to make a bipartisan downpayment on Social Security reform by crediting the interest savings from debt reduction to the Social Security Trust Fund so that it will be strong and sound for the next 50 years.
Year after year in Washington, budget debates seem to come down to an old, tired argument: on one side, those who want more Government, regardless of the cost; on the other, those who want less Government, regardless of the need. My budget supports three great goals for America: We will win this war; we will protect our homeland; and we will revive our economy. In a whirlwind of change and hope and peril, our faith is sure; our resolve is firm; and our Union is strong.
We can press on with economic growth and reforms in education and Medicare, or we can turn back to old policies and old divisions. Now, as we see a little gray in the mirror—or a lot of gray— [laughter]—and we watch our children moving into adulthood, we ask the question: What will be the state of their Union? Will we choose to build our prosperity by leading the world economy, or shut ourselves off from trade and opportunity? With enough good sense and good will, you and I can fix Medicare and Medicaid and save Social Security.
The strength—the secret of our strength, the miracle of America is that our greatness lies not in our Government, but in the spirit and determination of our people. While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before. It's because of this spirit, this great decency and great strength, that I have never been more hopeful about America's future than I am tonight.
God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
Matt Welch is editor in chief of Reason magazine.
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Passion driven schools do exist. My friend and writing partner, or as Doug Johnson calls us (A & A),and I recently Skyped in to connect with the teachers and leadership team at Aurora High School to kick off their book study of The Passion Driven Classroom.
We were so excited to hear their reactions, thoughts, and ideas of how the conversations about teaching and learning could change when passion is driving them. After we ended the call, we wondered how and if the visit impacted them. A short time later, we received this comment from their amazing leader (and new blogger), Alicia Lopez.
To say we were humbled, is an understatement:
Hi Amy and Angela,
Here in Aurora, Ohio we were so delighted to meet the two of you in person on Thursday, Feb. 24 – two passionate, visionary advocates for children! Your message and examples remind educators around the world of why we said “Yes” to teaching and learning. The conversations that are emerging throughout our district are inspiring signs of new directions!
We cannot allow federal, state, local mandates, 17th century school structures and practices – 45 minute class periods, 180+day school year, political-driven narrow perspectives on teacher accountability, data-driven practices that fail to focus on the “whole child,” standardized assessments void of 21st century learning expectations, financial cutbacks – paralyze educators from taking a close look at their passion for learning. We must choose empowerment over in-action. We, as educators, can make the choice to find creative ways to ignite students’ passion for learning within and outside our district/classroom walls. There is a sense of urgency for our children. Sir Ken Robinson shares – Passion isn’t something that is created but rather the results of the conditions under which learning is allowed to occur.” So…we do have choice. Our challenge is to let go of practices and attitudes that prevent us from getting to know students’ passions, gifts and talents.
Our Feb. 18 PD conversations around Passion-Driven Classrooms and our SKYPE meeting with you on Thursday, Feb. 24 mark the beginning of our collaborative journey here in Aurora. Educators are finding the time to continue the conversation. Several high school teachers meet after school to discuss topics like – culture in the classroom to promote learning, student engagement, social networking tools in the classroom, peer observations, professional learning communities – Are they really working, or are they looked upon as superficial structures imposed by administrators? What is the next level of PLCs? What should they look like if they are for kids? What forums are there for students’ voice and ideas about learning and student engagement?
Several middle school teachers will continue their discussions. They agreed to get together the first Friday of each month – after school to share ideas – technology integration, sharing mini lessons. This team is calling their get together – An informal meeting of the minds! Love it.
Elementary teachers connecting with high school Chemistry teacher to learn more about reverse instruction – developing partnership that invites high school and elementary students to collaborate on student passion driven topics.
Many expressed an interest in reading and discussing the book – Habitudes.
Look forward to discussions and possibilities for every day practice.
Our district’s technology integration team are so passion-driven! The work they do 24/7 cannot be captured here. We continue to learn so much through their examples and vision for out-of-the box student engagement practices.
Aurora will be a place “where passion meets practice and students learn” because of teachers’ deep commitment to students and their passion for life-long learning! We will continue to share our story, challenges and celebrations!
“Change comes from the questions we ask” (Banach). From the heart…Amy & Angela thanks so much for your gift of time and words of encouragement. Alicia
As you reflect on Aurora’s journey, how can a conversation about passion in education impact your staff and colleagues? How would your goals and objectives change if PASSION drove the conversation?
We would love to hear more!
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To the editor:
America has reached a tipping point. Not only has the federal government grown in spending but in its reach to state and local governments.
The federal government now dominates activity that was traditionally reserved to the states, leaving little or no room for state-level innovation in policy areas such as education, transportation, health care, welfare and even law enforcement. They have so grossly expanded public-sector debt that, as of today, each and every man, woman and child carries a debt burden of over $45,000.
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One of the tallest buildings in Manhattan, this art deco tower has not only established itself in the New York City skyline but also as one of lower Manhattan's most prestigious residential buildings. Built in 1929 by architects Cross and Cross, the views of this historic New York landmark almost as impressive as the views from it.
Each morning we'll email the latest apartments matching your criteria.
Get recommended listings and offers from agents and landlords.
Apartments we think you'll like, based on your profile.
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| 0.956012
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If you could become Keith Smart for a day, what would you say to the Kings? Kevin Fippin offers his answer.
News flash: Keith Smart has a pretty difficult job. He's not only tasked with designing a winning game strategy and managing rotations, but he's also responsible for motivating a very young team. Many would tell you that he's lost the ability to inspire this group. Some might even argue that he never could. I'm not going to talk to you about coaching changes or personnel decisions. Actually, I'm going to talk to you about art projects...but we'll get to that a bit later.
Imagine you were given the opportunity to try and light a fire under this team's collective ass. What would you tell them? How would you reach them? It's a question I've been pondering of late. Would it mean more coming from a fan? Would I try to appeal to their sense of pride? Professionalism? Competiveness? Loyalty? Do they even want to be inspired? Do they even NEED to be inspired? They are professional athletes after all.
As fans of a struggling team, I think we would all jump at the opportunity to look our guys in the eye and tell them what we're thinking. We would do anything to tell them how we live for the 3-point shots, amazing passes, and soaring dunks. We'd jump at the chance to tell them how we die a bit inside with every turnover, tough break, or loss. And lets face it: Kings fans have done their share of dying lately. If no one else has been able to reach this team, then why not give us a chance, right? What would you say? What would I say for that matter? Would it even make a difference? Well, consider this my audition.
Many years ago, someone told me a story about a little boy. He loved to play with LEGOS while watching cartoons. He loved playing baseball and pretending he was a super hero. He attended Kindergarten, walked to school with his grandma, and wore a Snap, Crackle, and Pop backpack everyday. He was a good kid but he was nothing remarkable.
Like many Kindergarteners he spent most of his day pretending to be a transformer, eating play dough, and doing art projects. This is the story of one particular art project that oddly enough, would shape his life forever. This is the story of "The Square Duck."
Upon arriving to school one day the boy was handed a lifelike picture of a duck, several sheets of construction paper, a stick of glue, and scissors. It's important to note that these were not the scissors you and I know and enjoy using today. These were evil scissors. Evil...dull...scissors that dug into a small kids hand and made it virtually impossible to cut paper into round shapes.
This project was simple enough. Using the paper, crappy ass devil scissors, and a stick of glue to make a duck that looks just like the example provided. Our hero struggled mightily that day, for ducks are round and the scissors just weren't havin' any of that nonsense. To this day, many people wonder if it was the laziness of the boy, the crappiness of the scissors, or a combination of the two that led to the creation of the "Square Duck." But one thing is for sure....that duck was SQUARE. This was not a proud waterfowl by any means. Let's put it this way- if Brad Miller was out hunting, he would likely pass this dude up.
The boy's teacher was concerned. She thought, "Who looks at a picture of a duck and see's some kind of yellow brick with wings? This kid has problems!" She immediately phoned the boy's mother and demanded that he be tested for a variety of learning disabilities.
The tests would all come back negative and the boy's mother was none too happy with the outrageous assumption that something might be wrong with her little Lego Maniac. When she looked at the Square Duck she saw something special. She saw something different and unique. She was proud of this ugly Tetris block with feet.
The boy was never asked why he made a Square Duck. But, I bet if you asked him, he might tell you he did it because he had to. He might tell you that the scissors sucked, they hurt his hand, and he needed to make a duck, so he did. He did the best job he could with the tools at hand and he didn't make excuses. The result was unorthodox. Some might even call it ugly. But, everyone calls it a duck.
That's where you come in Marcus, Jimmer, IT, Tyreke, and DeMarcus. You see TRob, Salmons, JT, Travis, and Chuck Wagon and the rest...this has more to do with you than you think. Many experts look at you all and see a group of mismatched players. They see a bunch of parts that don't compliment each other. They see dull scissors and undersized point guards. They see an old glue stick and wing players that can't shoot. They see dried up markers and players who won't pass. You've played all season like you're trying to imitate what everyone else's idea of good NBA team is when all you really need to be is YOU. You weren't put on this team to be someone you aren't. You were placed on this team because you have a set of skills that someone finds valuable. Someone looked at you and thought maybe, just maybe, when you combine those skills with the skills of the man sitting next to you, they might just end up with something special.
This is not a team full of super stars. This is not a team full of All Stars. You aren't the most expensive group of players. You can't play by the same rules as OKC or Miami and expect to win. You're the SACRAMENTO Kings and it's time to embrace that reality. You play for the city with the craziest group of fans in the NBA. A city that hasn't stopped fighting for the privilege of watching you play this game. It's time to realize exactly who you are, and try to come together to be something better than you could ever hope to be as a hodgepodge of individual parts. Much like the city whose name is stitched across your chest, you're going to have to fight tooth and nail, if you're to have any chance at success. And...you're going to have to do it together.
You still have time. Start today. Start right now. Look at the man next to you and realize he's just like you and you need each other to survive. Like I said, someone looked at you and believed. Someone thought they could take these parts that few else wanted, smash them all together, and create something special. And he's not alone; despite what the experts think, and no matter how frustrated we might get, many of us still believe. We still watch every game and we live and die with each win and loss. Now it's up to you. What do you want to be? If you come together now, they might just get more than they bargained for. They might just get ... a SQUARE DUCK.
To whom it may concern. My name is Kevin Fippin, I am obviously the boy from the story, the duck is awesome, and I'm available for consultations. Call me. Call any one of us. We all have a story to tell.
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- Filed Under
The transition into dependency in old age is surely difficult for everyone who experiences it. Fortunately for many, family members are there to help in the decision making and even in the care itself. For those without family, caring friends can do the same. Pity the poor souls who have neither family nor friends. For them, private and public social services can be surrogate helpers.
Here I want to concentrate on family involvement. The family can and often does play a variety of roles in the transition to long-term-care (LTC).
The Census Bureau tells us that multigenerational homes are ...
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Today's Google+ is very different from tomorrow's. And marketers need to be preparing for this future Google+, not the current one. Here are six things Google+ will have in the future that it doesn't currently.
It's likely that viral campaigns of all kinds will be more, well, viral on Google+. Instead of serving as a second company Website, as many use Facebook, Google+ will reward the releasing of content into the Plus stream, where users can share it to the point of ubiquity. It's also likely that Google+ will be useful as a marketing platform, rather than simply a marketing place.
Pages on Google+ may be able to import and connect to applications and content posted elsewhere on the Web, and vice versa. Entire Google+ business pages could be hosted on Websites outside the service. The advantage is the unification of conversations around product and brand. Visitors to the Website comment, click, and interact, and those actions may also be reflected on the business page on Google+.
Twitter is the best place for fans to follow celebrities. Within a year or two, however, Google+ may rule. Because it is more flexible -- for example, no limit on post character counts -- celebrities will be able to offer fans far more content and interaction.
Celebrities will probably dominate Circle counts the way they currently dominate Twitter. And that spells influence. Right now, the top celebrities on Twitter are TV and music stars, with a few movie stars and pro athletes. Many of these stars are open to cross-promotion deals, have corporate-sponsored concert tours, or participate directly in advertising campaigns as spokespeople or actors.
Google+ will greatly magnify the influence of celebrities. A star Circled by 3 million fans can post a video from a commercial or promotion, which can then be shared and reshared by dozens of millions more. Celebrity posts will probably be orders of magnitude more viral on Google+ than on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or just about any other site or medium.
Google+ is theoretically less than beta, a mere "project" not open to the public. Integration between Google+ and other Google services has barely begun, with minimal connections established with Google Search and Google Books. In other words, Google+ is off in its own corner of the Internet.
In the future, however, Google+ will be everywhere and inescapable. Because any post by any user can be simply labeled "Public" and thereby turned into a search-indexed Webpage available to anyone, and because the posts can be of any length, more people will link to those posts as Webpages of all sorts.
After Google publishes APIs, third-party companies will create services around Google+ that we can't fully imagine yet.
Google+ is nowhere now, but in the future, it will be everywhere -- unlike Facebook and Twitter, which will remain largely isolated, walled gardens.
Some custom development is possible on Facebook, but Google+ customization is likely to be far more flexible. The reason is that Google is seeking to become a social layer for the Internet. Customizability is clearly a strategic feature for Google+.
Google+ currently has no advertising. This will probably change in the future. Google+ could build a killer advertising system with huge advantages both in cost and effectiveness. Google is better than anyone in the world at taking huge data sets and turning them into user relevance. Using all the data available on users -- from search behavior to location to purchase history to social networking activity -- Google+ could soon offer the best contextual advertising ever.
Right now, Google+ is populated by technically savvy younger males, as well as wealthy suburbanites. Future demographics are likely to broaden, ultimately to teens, women, and the middle and lower middle classes.
Because Google+ is more sophisticated, complex, and later to launch than Facebook, however, the demographics are unlikely to be as broad as Facebook's anytime soon. Within two years or so, the mix on Google+ will be far broader than now, but on average probably more educated and affluent than Facebook.
As Facebook and Google divide social networking, companies may be more effective on one service or the other based on different demographics.
The most important idea for marketers is not merely to prepare for Google+, but to prepare for the Google+ of tomorrow -- which is very different from the Google+ of today.
— Mike Elgan is a Silicon Valley-based columnist, writer, speaker, and blogger.
The CMO Site is an executive social network that provides CMOs and other marketing executives from the world's leading organizations with a real-time, online venue where they can convene to discuss how they're delivering on the most critical marketing priorities. Join us!
As a marketer, my disappointment with AdSense is that I can't do demographic/psychographic targetting as well as I could on Facebook. I've been dreaming of the day when I can place ads for a very targeted base through AdSense. And now that Google+ is here, they can! I don't just mean ads on Google+, I mean any AdSense ad that a Google account user views while logged in. Imagine the power of contextual advertising that can mix content and social media profile data. Wow.
How about a G+reet... short for 'greeting'. If something isn't broke, don't fix it right??? Might as well ride the coat tails of Twitter, since they seem to ride everyone elses' (LinkedIn, Facebook, G+)...
@ Mike - I would think Twitter would be preparing to adapting and becoming more flexible, like adding the features you mentioned.Otherwise, I would agree with you.G+ has to come up with term for their message broadcasting features, similar to the “Tweet”.
No, I have no endgame in mind at all. I'm currently on a "Google+ Diet," forgoing all other forms of online communication, because I had become far too spread out. Google+ is the only service I'm aware of that can replace my newsletter, blog, microblog, social network and social bookmarking services.
One of the features in Twitter than makes is so compeling is the ability to use hashtags to develop content threads. When a major trending event is taking place, such as a hurricane, tsunami, or Beyoncé, people quickly figure out how to assemble and share ideas. This is most effective because you don't have know who is saying what; you're concentrating on the what.
Do you see anything comparable in the works for Google+?
The proliferation of smartphones and tablet devices presents new opportunities and challenges for marketers to reach customers where they are and when they’re ready to buy. Apps, the mobile Web, social check-ins, geofencing, and mobile ad standards are among the tools marketers need to master in this new world. Learn how to use new mobile technology effectively and avoid its hazards.LEARN MORE
Is a massive, three-day industry event featuring A-list speakers like Bill Clinton and Malcolm Gladwell the right approach for a company seeking to generate awareness of its brand? Steve thinks that goes part of the way, but if brands want their names to stick they need to build communities.
CMOs rely on aggregate data for customer preferences and are missing the opportunity to get one-on-one information through social media and other resources, according to a study of 1,734 CMOs conducted by IBM. Watch a Webinar presenting the findings, and get a copy of the report for yourself.
"Moneyball," the new Brad Pitt baseball movie, is one every marketer should see. It's not just about relying on metrics and analytics over gut feelings, it's also about relying on the right metrics and analytics.
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In January, Longmont Power and Communications (LPC) announced they would begin connecting businesses located within 500 feet of the existing network. As we reported, local businesses were chomping at the bit to get hooked up and enjoy the high-speed next generation network. Even without efforts at marketing or advertising, more businesses have added themselves to the queue. LPC will present the formal business plan for expanding the network to the City Council on May 14th. Tony Kindelspire recently reported on the race to get on LPC's network in the Longmont Times-Call:
"We are bringing to council a business plan to build out all of Longmont," [Vince] Jordan, [Broadband Services Manager], said. "It's the whole enchilada."
The fact that there has so far been only limited rollout is due to economics. Currently, the installations are being paid for from a reserve fund that Longmont Power has built up over the years leasing portions of its fiber-optic loop to entities such as Longmont United Hospital and a third-party provider that services the school district. Those leases bring in about $250,000 annually, Jordan said.
For 2013, the Longmont City Council authorized LPC to use $375,000 of that reserve fund to begin connecting businesses and residents to the loop.
This model works, but does not connect everyone fast enough for their liking:
To expedite the build-out, extra up-front dollars will have to be allocated, but where those dollars will come from is yet to be determined, Jordan said, adding that ultimately, the decision will lie with City Council.
Right now, Longmont will cover the initial cost of connecting subscribers except in cases of extraordinarily high cost cases. If it would cost $10,000 to install but the payback to the utility in 2.5 years is only $6,000, a customer would have to cover the $4,000 difference presently. While there are over 1,300 businesses with in 500 feet of the network, connection costs vary depending on proximity to roads, structures, and geography.
Jordan notes LPC's first priority is to boost economic development:
"We're really focused on economic development, so the ones that will put the most dollars (they save on broadband costs) back into their business, those are the ones we're working with first."
Businesses and organizations that are on the network appreciate fast symmetrical service, affordability, and the fact that they get service from the city rather than a commercial provider:
"I emailed Vince asking when I could get on," said Michael Jurey, network/telecommunication specialist for Longmont Clinic. "Luckily, the loop ran right by Longmont Clinic. On our side of the street no less."
Jurey said the city's network is three times faster than the speeds the clinic got before at a cost savings of $1,600 a month.
"We use it for two reasons," said one of the other three owners [of the Pumphouse, a restaurant and brewpub in Longmont], Dave D'Epagnier. "No. 1 is our business functions -- we process credit cards with it ... just normal day-to-day business activities. Plus, it's a big place, and we could have 50 customers that are using the broadband all at once."
The other thing that attracted him and the other owners was that the business was finally able to tap into the city-owned network after so many years of having to buy high-speed service from a commercial provider. And that is all thanks to the voters, D'Epagnier said.
According to a Scott Rochat article in the Times-Call, the business plan for a FTTH network to anyone in town is possible within three years with a $41 million investment. That plan eliminates the usual $500 - $15,000 hook-up fee:
"We have to be competitive," said Tom Roiniotis, director of LPC. "None of the incumbents charge an install fee, so we won't as well."
Uptown Services prepared the business plan and included residential fees from $39.95 for 10 Mbps to $99.95 for 100 Mbps for Internet. Residential Internet would be symmetrical. Business rates would range from $49.95 for 20 Mbps/5 Mbps to $499.95 for 250 Mbps symmetrical.
If LPC wants to pursue a triple play offering, Uptown estimates it would cost another $6 million. At this point, LPC does not consider triple play a good investment:
"The young generation that's active now, they don't watch TV in the conventional way," Jordan said. At a recent presentation, he said, when he asked a college student how often he watched traditional scheduled TV programming, the response was "Never."
According to a survey conducted for the business plan, about 68 percent of respondents said they would either definitely or probably switch to the city for Internet service if it were cheaper than existing services. Only about 20 percent said they had a "triple play" or wanted it.
Uptown's estimates were based on a take rate of 35% and the business plan estimates a broadband utility to be in the black within four years and to pay for itself in ten years.
Possible funding mechanisms include:
Certificates of participation, using city property as collateral
A bond issue backed by sales tax
A bond issue backed by electrical revenue
If the city council considers the plan favorable, it will go to the city finance department for more detailed review.
Here is a quick video from LPC, as technicians install connections at the Pumphouse:
Steve Harmon, director of OPS, said there are between seven to eight test sites in the city that are basic residences receiving these services. Throughout the trial run, OPS will monitor what services are working efficiently and which ones have problems that need to be fixed.
“We’re getting feedback from those people and we are working on fine-tuning the system’s channel configurations,” Harmon said.
As this stage, test sites do not have telephone capability, which will be part of triple-play service from OPS. Harmon noted that service will not be offered until all issues are resolved. That being said, OPS expects launch to be in late spring or early summer.
“This is a most exciting time in the life of our community. Opelika is about to become the first city in Alabama to have fiber to the user. Very soon we’ll fully deploy smart grid along with telecommunications that include video (cable TV), ultra-high speed internet and telephone service. The future is bright for Opelika.”
Bartow, Florida, located in Polk County near the center of the state, is considering a FTTH network for the community's 17,000 residents. At a recent City Commission meeting, members decided to put city administrators on task and develop a plan to eventually offer triple play services to residents.
Suzie Schottelkotte reported on the initiative for The Ledger.com, quoting Mayor Leo Longworth, who commented, "I think the residents are ready for it and it's something that's needed."
The City has an existing 100 mile fiber network and offers connections to some local businesses. Government and schools also use the network. At the meeting, city commissioners heard from a fiber optic consulting firm that estimated an expansion to households at $3.3 million for capital costs and $2.5 million to run the network during the startup years until the network breaks even.
Comcast now serves the community through its cable television franchise agreement and is a source of constituent discontent:
"Without discrediting anybody, we just don't have the quality," [Mayor Longworth] said.
[Mayor] Long reminded commissioners that they as well as city staffers and the general public present, are familiar with the problems experienced with the current broadband provider. Long also expressed the doubt another provider would be willing to come to Bartow to install and upgrade the current system in place. The number of businesses and the size of the population does not provide any true incentive.
The Florida Cable Telecommunications Association (lobbyists for the cable industry) responded to the initiative in a predictable fashion. From the Ledger article:
"Before the city fathers take the taxpayers' money and move in this direction, they had better understand what they're getting into," he said. "It's going to be a long time before they're making money. How long do they want to lose money? — that's the real question."
The network generated about $155,000 in revenue for the city in 2012 and both stories indicate the desire to generate revenue as the main impetus. Currently, net income from the city electric department account for about half of Bartow's general fund. Community leaders hope entering the telecommunications industry will diversify the revenue source.
While potential revenue can be a factor, communities tend to primarily focus on expanding connectivity for quality of life, affordability, educational, and economic development.
Bartow has an advantage because it already possesses an existing network that contributes to local economic development. Students are already connected with city resources, and local government is taking advantage of the network. The leaders and staff at Bartow have a higher level of expertise than communities who start from scratch.
While the commission seemed positive about the plan, both reporters describe a healthy dose of caution when moving forward. From the Ledger article:
"This can be done," [City Manager George Long] told commissioners during Wednesday's workshop. "There are very few negatives here. We can do it, but it has to be done properly."
Flash back to May 5, 1998 and the community of Emmetsburg, Iowa. This town of just under 4,000 people voted to establish a municipal cable communications or television system. It has taken fifteen years, but Emmetsburg is on the verge of joining the many other Iowa communities with municipal networks. Jane Whitmore of the Emmetsburg News reported on April 2 that the City Council adopted Ordinance #577, establishing the Board of Trustees of the Emmetsburg Municipal Communications Utility.
Emmetsburg will be joining four other local communities as part of The Community Agency (TCA), a coalition of cities in northwest Iowa that collectively own a hybrid fiber coaxial cable network. TCA began as a cable television system in 2000 and now offers Internet, telephone, and limited wireless Internet in O'Brien County. Emmetsburg will build a FTTH network as part of TCA.
Talks to join TCA began last summer; City Administrator John Bird commented for the article:
"It's important for our readers to know that when the Board (of Trustees) started talking about this late last summer, their reasons for wanting to get into this (communications utility) are noble. Their goals, their objectives are noble from an industrial and economic development standpoint," Bird noted.
He continued, "They believe that we're at a gross disadvantage, considering today's global economy. In the global market, people can work from their home in Emmetsburg, Iowa, for a corporation located anywhere in the world, or higher tech industries who really need quality, high speed broadband. We're at a disadvantage."
DJ Weber, General Manager of TCA, noted the lack of interest from the incumbents to invest in the area. He also commented on how the existence of municipal networks often lower rates and improve service for all customers due to increased competition.
Emmetsburg currently provides sewer, water, and gas to residents. The network will be financed with municipal revenue bonds, but the other utilities will also contribute some revenue toward it as each will benefit from benefits such as remote meter reading.
A 1998 study on a potential communications system priced the network at $10 million. According to Bird, today's estimate is less than $7 million. From the article:
"It comes back to the commitment of the community," added Weber. "We've said this all along to John [Bird], the council and the utility board and the staff, it really comes back, ultimately, to the citizens of this community."
What can you do with a gig? There is a residential customer in Clarksville, Tennessee, that knows. CDE Lightband, Clarksville's municipal provider, recently began offering 1 gig service for $349.95 per month. The Leaf Chroniclerecently reported that CDE Lightband also just signed on its first 1 gig residential customer.
CDE Lightband offers triple play and is part of the Clarksville Department of Electricity. Clarksville is a fast growing city with around 133,000 located along the northwestern border of the state. In addition to the 1 gig service, CDE Lightband offers speeds from 10 - 100 Mbpssymmetrical and a variety of smartly priced packages.
While 1 gig of service will make life faster for the residential customers who choose it, community leaders also see the possibilities for the community as a whole. From the article:
"Opportunities for education, health and industrial uses are unlimited with the 1 gigabit of Internet services that CDE Lightband now offers, and it helps to position our community for further economic growth,” Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan said in the [press] release.
Congrats to CDE Lightband, its new 1 gig customer, and the Clarksville community!
Smart meters aren't just for electricity anymore. In Santa Clara, the city is now using the technology to bring free citywide outdoor Wi-Fi to the entire community. The Washington Post recently covered the story
New smart meters, now being installed on homes, are primarily for electricity and water metering. The meters send usage reports via the city's wireless network, but they also have a separate channel that provides outdoor Internet access. The more houses outfitted with the new meters, the larger the network.
While expanding the Wi-Fi network with this new technology won't bring high capacity connections to all households in Santa Clara, it is a step in the right direction.
“This is just one of the major benefits our community will enjoy as a result of our advanced metering technology,” said John Roukema, director of Silicon Valley Power, the community’s utility provider. “Now our residents, visitors and local workforce can get Internet access while waiting for a train, shopping downtown, getting their car washed or relaxing in their yard.”
Benton PUD, located in south central Washington, recently expanded its fiber foot print through Richland and Rattlesnake Mountain. The move involved a collaborative effort between the City of Richland, the Benton PUD, and the Department of Energy.
According to Annette Cary of the Tri-City Herald, the expansion will bring better communications to the Hanford Nuclear Site. Schools, libraries, and businesses in Richland will take advantage of the additional fiber from downtown to north Richland.
Benton PUD offers fiber to businesses in Kennewick, Prosser, Benton City, and now Richland via an open access model. Residential wireless is also available in Prosser, Pesco and Kennewick with five retail providers on the network.
According to the article, Benton PUD will also use the fiber for its advanced metering system. From the article:
"This agreement allows Benton PUD to increase its capacity and redundancy, while also helping the Hanford project," Rick Dunn, PUD director of engineering, said in a statement.
The fiber also provides additional capacity for the Hanford Federal Cloud, a system that allows Hanford information to be stored at centralized and consolidated data centers rather than on individual worker's computers. The fiber serves several DOE facilities connected to Hanford.
"Having a fast, reliable communications infrastructure is critical in supporting Hanford's cleanup mission," Ben Ellison, DOE's Hanford chief information officer, said in a statement. "This project gives DOE the capacity it needs to further the mission and allows for future growth of both the community and Hanford cleanup activities."
While the DOE sees the fiber as an asset in the ongoing clean up of the decommissioned nuclear production complex, local leaders see it as an opportunity to bring more business to the area. Richalnd and southern Washington are also known for low power rates, another feature attractive to potential businesses. As clean-up winds down at Hanford, Richland is looking to the future and wisely using fiber as a way to reach out for commercial opportunities.
We have long been impressed with Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU) in Iowa. They built an incredibly successful municipal cable network that has now been upgraded to a FTTH network. CFU transfers $1.6 million into the town's general fund every year, reminding us that community owned networks often pay far more in taxes than the national cable and telephone companies.
Last week, Moody's Investor Service gave an investor-grade A-3 rating to revenue debt from CFU, another sign of its strong success.
Moody's rating report noted the utility's large market share, competitive pricing and product offerings, expansive fiber optic network, long-term financial planning and conservative budgeting practices as reasons for the continued strong rating of the utility's revenue debt.
CFU also compiles the community savings resulting from each of its services by comparing its rates to nearby communities (see most recent comparison [pdf]). The benefits total $7.7 million each year, almost $500 per family. This includes a $200 difference in cable TV bills and a $130 difference in Internet service.
Glasgow was a true pioneer in community owned broadband networks, starting with its own cable plant in the 1980s. Billy Ray, CEO of Glasgow Electric Plant Board, has been an inspiration for municipal broadband networks -- one can't dig into the early history of LUS Fiber in Louisiana without running into something from Billy Ray, for instance. Glasgow's network has been a tremendous success, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of benefits to the community.
In our interview, we discuss the bitter legal fights of the early years as Glasgow built its own cable network and eventually began offering Internet access. Additionally, we discuss the important role of these information networks in creating more efficient (and less costly) electrical systems -- an incredibly important implication that does not get enough coverage.
Given the extraordinary history of Billy Ray and Glasgow EPB, we hope this will be the first of several conversations exploring that community. You can read more from Billy Ray on his blog.
We want your feedback and suggestions for the show - please e-mail us or leave a comment below. Also, feel free to suggest other guests, topics, or questions you want us to address.
This show is 27 minutes long and can be played below on this page or subscribe via iTunes or via the tool of your choice using this feed. Search for us in iTunes and leave a positive comment!
Franklin, Kentucky expects to see more positive economic growth when it launches its new fiber optic network. According to an article in the Bowling Green Daily News, the south central community is ready for the upgrade:
“We are super excited about it,” said James McCaslin, associate vice president of academic affairs and director of Franklin-Simpson Center. “It will be like going from 1970 to 2013 with the flip of a switch.”
We contacted Tammie Carey, Fiber Services Manager for Franklin Municipal FiberNET, and she was good enough to answer some questions. She told us that 32 miles of aerial fiber are strung in three loops around the city to ensure redundancy. She expects the network to launch near the end of January for local businesses, though the utility has already been serving one business as detailed below.
The decision was based solely on a desire to boost economic development, a sentiment echoed in the Daily News article:
It’s hard to recruit industry now if you don’t have (fiber optics),” said Dennis Griffin, industrial recruiter for Simpson County. “A lot of industries, particularly in this area, are satellite plants connected to their corporate offices, somewhere else in the United States. They all need to be connected by fiber.
“So if you don’t have that, it’s hard to compete with communities that do,” Griffin said. “Ten years ago, you could get by with T-1 lines – now most industries are just expecting that you have fiber."
Apparently, City officials contacted AT&T and Comcast several years ago and asked them to install fiber to the Franklin industrial parks. When they refused, City Leaders began pondering the possibility of a municipal fiber network. Tammie tells us about the decision in an email:
It was economic based. Our Industrial Authority was working with several industries regarding possibly locating in our community. A need they had was large amounts of reliable bandwidth. The existing companies would not build fiber to the industrial park locations. The city saw this as a major hindrance with our economic development recruitment and made the decision to invest in a system.
The decision is paying off even before the formal launch. Tractor Supply Company built a distribution center in Franklin in 2011. Tammie tells us that the retail farm and ranch supplier required a high capacity connection for basic business. Franklin Municipal FiberNET was able to meet the company's needs and is already servicing the facility. Tractor Supply Company brought 336 new jobs to the community. City leaders anticipate reproducing this success story as they offer services to more local businesses.
The City plans to connect all its facilities and departments. The local vocational college will also lease dark fiber from the city. Windstream is providing Internet access via Franklin Municipal FiberNET:
Previously we used internet service supplied by Comcast Cable. Comcast has a franchise agreement with the city. As part of the franchise agreement, all the government offices use their internet service for free. So this is actually an added expense for the city. However, we feel the reliability and consistency in speed will help employees work more efficiently.
The network is funded with a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration that was awarded in 2005. The remaining $1.4 million is funded through municipal bonds.
There are currently no plans to bring fiber to any of the 8,400 residents but city leaders continue to mull over possible Wi-fi in parts of town. For now, Franklin is taking it slow. From the article:
“But no plans have been made,” Carey said. “We want to know how to crawl before we run the marathon. So we want to do one piece and make sure we are doing it well.”
Another aspect of RUC’s community focus is the fact that it provides customers with two local TV channels, in contrast to Charter, which offers none. In the wake of a Wisconsin law that removed requirements that cable operators provide financial support for PEG (public, educational and government) access channels, Rice says RUC is working on plans to continue operating its local channels, to make them more attractive and, in doing so, to further differentiate its service from Charter’s in terms of being responsive to the local community.
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