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"I was displaced here by mining a month ago. Illegal miners forced me out of my municipality. No, don't write down where I'm from, let alone my name," said a 40-year-old black man frightened for his safety. IPS agreed to say only that he is from Colombia’s southern Pacific coast region.
As Pakistan inches closer to the May 11 elections, and the accompanying heat and dust get even thicker, it is pertinent to stop for a moment and ask: what do women voters in Pakistan want?
The surprise accord reached by the U.S. and Russia in Moscow Tuesday to try to convene an international conference to resolve the two-year-old civil war in Syria as soon as the end of this month has been greeted with equal measures of hope and scepticism.
Adding to a long list of domestic woes, including a factory collapse that left hundreds dead last month, Bangladesh is now grappling with a wave of violence that threatens to deepen the gulf between secular sections of society and religious fundamentalists.
In the 2011 action-thriller "Unknown", scientists are persecuted by the biotech industry because they plan the open release of a drought- and pest-resistant strain of maize that could help eradicate world hunger.
When a Southeast Asian country was riddled with corruption in a bygone era, there were rumours that government officials routinely offered receipts every time they accepted a bribe.
The camp should not have been difficult to find. We were told to drive straight on the road that leads north away from the town of Puttalam, 140 kilometres from Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, and we would come upon the settlement of internally displaced people.
Since Israel secretly deported over 1,000 Sudanese refugees several months ago, sending them back to Sudan and threatening to deport hundreds more Sub-Saharan African refugees, Israeli authorities have suspended this practise in the face of international outrage and condemnation by the United Nations.
At 18, Farah Osman should not be a battle-hardened soldier. He should not have spent the last seven years fighting for the Somali Islamist extremist group Al-Shabaab, or have been trained by foreign jihadists in handling and repairing weapons and improving his shooting skills.
In the hustle and bustle of Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, a small learning centre located in the Bang Bon district is helping children hailing mostly from the war-torn provinces of Myanmar (Burma) gain access to a basic education.
Despite the enormous distance between the two countries, Argentina has become an increasingly frequent destination for migrants from the Dominican Republic, especially women, who are vulnerable to falling prey to sexual exploitation networks.
The social consequences of austerity economics have been most visible in Europe’s southern periphery. In the UK, the coalition government has brought in sharp cutbacks in welfare state provision in the name of dealing with the financial crisis. Their impact is becoming increasingly visible.
A rebel coalition in Sudan has declared war on the government less than a week after it attacked Sudanese forces. “Now there is a fully-fledged war in the new south of the north,” Yasir Arman, a leader of one of the armed groups in the alliance, told IPS, adding that the rebels now control a southern stretch of the country.
Nora Padilla, one of the six winners of this year’s Goldman environmental prize, dedicates her days to organising informal recyclers in the Colombian capital, where the city’s eight million inhabitants are just now reluctantly starting to classify their garbage at source.
More than 1,000 people marched under the brilliant San Francisco sun on May Day. Their signs, such as “Work in America/Live in America/Dream in America. Immigration reform now,” their songs, chants and speeches wove together the twin themes of the day: worker justice and immigrant justice. | <urn:uuid:6ca59fa0-7c4d-47aa-959d-b9b57399bc1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ipsnews.net/news/editors-choice/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957664 | 792 | 1.617188 | 2 |
What Calvinism Has Done For America by John Clover Monsma eBook
What Has Calvinism Done for America?
From the Preface of the book:
In the following pages the author has tried to give a brief account of what he believes to be the origin of American fundamentals. In doing so he was fully conscious of the fact, that he was rowing against the current, that the majority of writers on this subject present an altogether different view, -a view to which the American public has become so accustomed, that any attempts to create a diverse opinion might easily be looked upon as foredoomed to failure.
And yet-the author is a sworn believer in the invincibility of Truth. “Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again; The unending years of God are hers!” It was his love of what he regarded as the truth which made the author write the following pages.
At the same time, this book is meant to answer in some slight measure the clarion call that was issued twenty years ago by Holland’s grand old mand, Dr. Abraham Kuyper, when he lectured for a Princeton, N. J. audience.
Said the dutch statesman, “…I contend for an historical study of the principles of Calvinsim. No love without knowledge; and Calvinism has lost its place in the hearts of the people. It is being advocated only from a theological point of view, and even then very one-sidedly, and merely as a side-issue…Since Calvinism arose, not from an abstract system, but from life itself, it never was in the century of its prime presented as a systematic whole. The tree blossomed and yielded its fruit, but without anyone having made a botanic study of its nature and growth. Calvinism, in its rise, rather acted than argued. But now this study may no longer be delayed. Both the biography and biology of Calvinism must now be thoroughly investigated and thought out, or with our lack of self knowledge, we shall be side-tracked into a world of ideas that is more at discord than in consonance with the life of our Christian democracy, and cut loose from the root on which we once blossomed so vigorously.”
This book is a replica of the original from the collections of The New York Public Library; it was produced from digital images created by The New York Public Library and its partners as part of their preservation efforts.
Type in coupon code USACALVINISM. Coupon code MUST be typed in and the apply button clicked at time of purchase. We are unable to refund or type in the code for you! Offer ends June 7, 2012. | <urn:uuid:bb001a11-60fa-4cd2-b0a6-16eb1c967ed5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://againstdispensationalism.com/2012/06/what-calvinism-has-done-for-america-by-john-clover-monsma-ebook/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973387 | 555 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Indie book store McNally Jackson is giving budding writers the chance to get their work printed on demand using their Espresso Book Machine. Writers can get custom made editions of their work whether it be “your novel, your memoir, your collection of family recipes, a classic tailored for clients or a custom textbook for students.” A range of designs can be chosen to personalize the work for each customer. Most importantly, however, authors retain control of their works providing an opportunity to distribute their work physically without relinquishing control to a publisher.
The book store has also teamed up with author and blogger Cory Doctorow to self-publish his new DIY collection of short stories in a variety of formats and designs. Doctorow has also posted up to date financial results from his choice to circumvent traditional publishing, proving its future potential as a legitimate form of distribution.
Beyond their partnership with Doctorow the machine can also publish anything within the public domain. | <urn:uuid:defeb1ad-fb1f-436e-a3d2-343a44b25c3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psfk.com/2011/06/mcnally-jackson-will-print-your-books-on-demand.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962581 | 192 | 1.585938 | 2 |
|In the hands of skilled artists and writers, tarot is able to take us into so many rich and varied worlds in a way that nothing else can. In Tarot of Northern Shadows, artist Sylvia Gainsford and writer Howard Rodway – whom many will know from their Tarot of the Old Path (1990) and perhaps from their Rune Vision Cards (2002) – again offer us inspirational artwork, supported by an excellent 134 page guidebook. This time, the journey they take us on is into the rich world of Norse, Viking and Celtic myths and legends, in particular the traditional pre-Christian Welsh tales of The Mabinogion.|
If you are unfamiliar with Sylvia Gainsford’s artwork, there are images from Tarot of the Old Path, and the Rune Vision Cards on this website. As in those two decks, all the cards in this deck have a white background. This has given the artist considerable flexibility in the shape of the finished artwork on the white background. Sometimes she fills the card, so that there is just a soft white border where the art work ends; at other times, as in The Fool card, for example, the outline of the figure appears without any scenic background on the white background. Similarly, the image of Frigg, as the pregnant Empress, appears with two totem animals frequently associated with her, and no other background: the heron with its wings outstretched is behind her; a tiger lies to her right, curled around her so that one of its back legs and the end of its upright tail appear immediately behind her, on her left.
Not surprisingly, in a deck linked with Norse mythology, many of the Major Arcana cards feature gods and goddesses, as well as runic symbols. So we find Freyja as The High Priestess, Frigg not only as The Empress but also as the goddess who has knowledge of the destiny of all in the Wheel of Fortune, Odin both as the father creator god in The Emperor but also in his sacrificial role – when he gained knowledge of the runes– as The Hanged Man, Thor appears as the charioteer in The Chariot, in the image shown on the front of the box, and Loki – often represented as a mischief-maker and trickster – appears as The Devil. Of the many beautiful cards in the Major Arcana, one that is particularly striking, both visually and in the mythological story that inspired it, is the image of The World, represented in this deck as Yggdrasil, the world tree.
The cards of the Minor Arcana are again rich and varied. Most echo the Waite-Coleman Smith cards in the meanings presented, even when this is not immediately obvious. So we see three shadowy, sword-wielding Viking warriors on horseback in the background of the 3 of Swords, and in the foreground a grieving couple cradling a dead baby; in the 4 of Swords, four shadowy figures wielding swords are again in the background while in the foreground we see a monk-like figure on his knees in prayer; and then in the 7 of Swords we see a changeling baby in a cradle surrounded by fairies with swords, and in the background two fairies flying away with the human baby: these images while illustrating events from ancient tales have nonetheless captured the essence of these cards’ traditional meanings.
Howard Rodway guides us through this richly varied terrain by providing all the relevant mythological and historical information needed as well as the cards’ meanings, and reverse meanings. There is also a section on Creating the Right Atmosphere for Readings, Card Spreads and Interpretations, three spreads (The Celtic Cross Spread, The Witches’ Circle Astrology Spread and Howard’s Six Card Spread), The Tarot as Art, Card Back Design, a Bibliography and biographical details for both Sylvia Gainsford and himself. Without a doubt, Tarot of Northern Shadows will provide you with truly fabulous new layers of meanings and associations for most if not all of the cards. Particularly if you love mythology, I’d strongly recommend this as one of those must-have decks! | <urn:uuid:ac2f22ea-970c-48bd-b117-b260a83772ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tarotchest.co.uk/product.asp?item=27873 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958433 | 848 | 1.570313 | 2 |
‘Cornucopians in Space’ Deliver a Dangerously Misguided Message
Once a year the very chic and exclusive TED conference takes place in Southern California, bringing together entrepreneurs, inventors, and thought leaders from every corner of the world.
There, gathered around a stage, a kind of hive mind begins to unfold in which the most cutting edge ideas in healthcare, energy, social development, and behavioral psychology are shared from a very plugged-in, big-screen podium. It’s extremely well done.
And despite the reflexive criticism from outside the conference -- that the gathering is inward-looking and elitist -- TED usually does manage to disturb the zeitgeist, a little, with its unveilings in technology and innovation. It is plainly good that next-step advances in solar technology, data collection, and developing world health initiatives are explained and broadcasted from TED. Especially given that policy makers, or those who have the ear of policy makers, are also often in attendance.
A better charge to level against the TED conference, however, is that it’s routinely, if not unfailingly, optimistic.
The 2009 conference, held in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, did not address the unpleasantness of that historic event in any meaningful way. Moreover, very few talks in recent years have addressed energy costs, especially the price revolution in oil.
In some sense, TED is the techno-innovators’ version of the faith expressed by neo-liberal economics, in which the market solves nearly all of its own problems. The enduring posture at TED, therefore, is one that acknowledges serious world problems, ranging from war to famine, water, and food availability, but which nearly always concludes that amazing and ingenious people -- geniuses -- are working to solve the problem. The Great Man theory of history would find each TED conference a comfortable place to be.
So it was perhaps surprising, but also encouraging, that the January 2012 TED conference finally addressed the subject of collapse, by inviting Paul Gilding to give his talk The Earth is Full (opens to video).
I’d actually seen a version of Gilding's talk at the Ilhahee Lecture Series here in Portland last fall. Gilding’s view is that we’ve reached a relationship between global population and available natural resources that makes it inevitable that the economy -- a converter of natural resources into goods -- will sharply slow down, if it has not started to slow down already. Gilding can be thought of not as a neo-Malthusian, or a doomer, but rather as an ecological economist. (As most readers know, I share this same view.) Gilding looks at trailing historical growth rates -- again, the rate at which natural resources are converted to industrial and population growth -- and concludes that the future size of the economy at these growth rates would create a machine that the earth simply cannot sustain. Again, I agree.
But Gilding’s TED talk was countered, if you will, with a more typical and rousing plea from Peter Diamandis of the X Prize Foundation.
Diamandis, grounded heavily by a personal background in science and medicine, is not naive. His talk, Abundance is Our Future, was a laundry list of fast-moving technological innovations that have transformed poverty rates historically and promise to transform quality of life in the years ahead.
One of the most laudable and humanistic beliefs advanced by Diamandis is that the 3 billion people who have not yet come online to the Internet and telecom networks represent a vast and underutilized supply of human thinking. As a previous educator myself, I find this argument to be powerful.
My quibble with Diamandis and his talk is that the magnitude of the world’s present challenges cannot wait for the array of potential solutions that may start to work at the margins of humanity, even despite his core belief that innovation and its impacts will actually start to speed up. After all, Diamandis is an adherent to technological singularity, the notion that exponential growth in technology will eventually reach a crescendo, thus offering humankind super-solutions at a kind of hyperspeed rate of change. (By the way, I don’t agree with this view.)
Diamandis would go on to further test my ability to follow his arguments, however, when he recently announced a team that will explore the possibility of mineral mining on moving asteroids. I’ve no doubt that the public has reacted to this prospect as either impossible or as another silly story about the grandiose dreams of tech millionaires.
I had a different reaction: Why is Diamandis thinking about mineral mining in space, when resources here on Earth -- in his view -- are so abundant?
Blue Sky (Asteroid) Mining
Although here in America we tend to dumb down complex subjects into simple 'either/or' arguments, it was useful to hear the Gilding vs. Diamandis debate at TED. In addition to their respective presentations, they had an onstage exchange that you can see here, hosted by Chris Anderson.
One of the major dividing lines between cornucopian technologists like Diamandis and thinkers like Gilding is the role that technology plays in the creation and extraction of resources. In ecological-economics, technology helps us extract resources. But for folks like Diamandis, technology creates resources. It is both a distinction without a difference and a distinction with a huge difference, depending on your perspective.
And the implications, depending on that difference, for the future price path of commodities, for inflation, for industrial growth, are enormous.
Ask yourself the following. For the technologies that allowed for the increased rate of extraction of coal in the 19th century, or that now allow for the increased rate of extraction of natural gas from shale in the 21st century, did those technologies create the resources, or merely extract them as they already existed? The answer seems rather obvious, doesn’t it? I mean, I want to be sympathetic to the view that technology creates resources, in the sense that technology makes previous unrecognized or unrecoverable resources available. But a threshold I cannot cross, however, is that idea that there are always a new resources waiting to be discovered, if we can only create a technology to obtain them.
Which brings us back to mining for minerals. On asteroids.
Why is Diamandis not pursuing technologies for material upgrading, for example? In material upgrading, the task is to substitute materials once thought inapplicable to processes such as the task of solar manufacturing or electricity transmission. If copper gets too expensive to use for electrical transmission, then some other metal, or combination of metals, or even liquids or gases are used. That’s the theory, anyway.
Why mount energy-intensive missions into space and run heavy payloads back to earth? Surely the ROI (return on investment) for such efforts would be low, even if the minerals involved commanded a very high price....back on earth.
I think I have one answer to this question, but first, let’s review the business plan, the mission, of Planetary Resources, Inc. From the Los Angeles Times:
A group of 21st-century private space entrepreneurs is expected to unveil an ambitious new venture to mine the surface of near-Earth asteroids in search of precious metals and rare metallic elements. The plan may seem like it was torn from a science fiction novel, and critics say the idea may be far-fetched and difficult for a small company to accomplish. But the company, Planetary Resources Inc., has already drawn an A-list of investors and advisors. The backers include Google Inc. Chief Executive Larry Page and Chairman Eric Schmidt, "Avatar" director James Cameron and Microsoft Corp.'s former chief software architect Charles Simonyi...."Humanity has been driven for thousands of years to explore the Earth for resources," said Peter H. Diamandis, the company's co-founder and co-chairman. "The next step is to expand the economic sphere of humanity beyond Earth's confines.
You have to wonder, is it possible that the team behind Planetary Resources accepts that many crucial natural resources, necessary for mobile, greentech, and telecom development are in truth neither replicable, nor substitutable, nor sufficiently recoverable here on our fair and blue planet?
The Abundance Movement
However, it is worth noting this cultural theme comes after a decade in which the production rate of many natural resources, from oil to gold to (more recently) copper, did not speed up but instead either slowed or stagnated in the face of quickly rising prices. Crude oil production has been trapped below a ceiling since 2005. Global production of gold actually fell every year of the past decade until the last two years, but it is once again stagnating. Copper production managed to rise the past decade. However, ore grades of copper have been declining for a century, and this is why copper has now repriced at much higher levels, closer to $4.00 per pound. Recent data shows also that the rate of growth of global copper production in the last decade slowed significantly and also stagnated in the past 24 months.
There’s an important distinction to make, therefore, between an abundance movement that simply posits that we’ll have more of everything, at cheaper prices, in the same style as the past, as opposed to an abundance movement that is tethered to reality and realizes that large changes in consumption, values, and lifestyle will be needed to create the next phase of “wealth.”
Authors such as Juliet Schor, who wrote Plentitude, are much more reflective of and respectful of limits, and therefore do not dream of the next phase of mineral mining in outer space. Rather, many “new wealth” thinkers have gravitated instead to a less is more pathway, in which a lot of our previous consumption and time-bankruptcy is finally recognized as waste.
Three Crucial Problems with the “More is More” Abundance Movement
Peter Thiel recently debated George Gilder at ISI (you can open the video at YouTube, here). Thiel made a familiar point, which is that the impact of technological progress has become more narrow. I have treated this issue in previous reports and pointed to some of the data on which this thesis relies, including the stagnation of Total Factor Productivity, for example.
But Thiel goes on to make a second point, which is that belief in rapid, even accelerating technological progress is surely going to cause tremendous mis-allocation of capital. And that’s the first crucial problem I see with the cornucopian abundance movement.
Like a financial system that refuses to accept that tightly coupled structures are risky and that risk itself grows with in tandem with complexity, the cornucopian abundance approach simply won’t take no for an answer. This means that instead of focusing on smaller solutions with more immediate effects, grandiose solutions with long timelines are pursued instead.
The second crucial problem is a failure to consider the limit outlined by Paul Gilding, which is that present growth rates of energy consumption, for example, imply an economy that just about everyone can agree is simply too large for the planet to handle. You simply cannot keep growing the size of the human-created heat engine up to the level of a star. This was articulated beautifully by physicist Tom Murphy in his recent and very widely read post, Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist. When problem solvers entirely avoid the subject of limits, it is both appealing and exciting, but eventually it becomes vaguely pathological.
Finally, there are a number of pressing issues already on the planet, which range from the risk created when food production is outsourced by water-starved populations to other continents, to large regions of the world such as Asia attempting to provide increased electrified transport for billions of people. Leap-frog adoption of mobile telecom and the rise of social networks will no doubt serve to get these emerging voices out to a world eager to learn and to help with solutions. But celebrating the success of solutions before they’ve actually arrived -- indeed, well before they’ve arrived, is no solution at all.
Repricing the Planet: Real World Copper as Opposed to Metals in Space
In Part II: The Looming Dislocation Risks Posed By Resource Scarcity, we dive further into the challenges that accompany the acceleration of technology, as related to de-industrialization and the displacement of human labor with automation.
Previously, at least in the last century, this dynamic gave rise to increased productivity and wealth. But that may no longer be the case. We are not living in a world where any of our critical natural resources are forecasting a radical upswing in supply. Oil and copper, for example, remain decidedly unconcerned about substitution or miracles from space.
Importantly, we will take a closer look at the red metal (no, not the red planet!) also known as Dr. Copper. What happened to global copper production this past decade as the price rose? And how crucial will copper become, as the world tries to transition away from transport based on liquid BTUs?
Click here to access Part II of this report (free executive summary; paid enrollment required for full access).
About Gregor Macdonald
Gregor Macdonald Archive
|01/30/2013||The Siren Song of the Robot||story|
|12/20/2012||A Tale of Two Forecasts||story|
|11/27/2012||The New Future of Energy Policy||story|
|10/16/2012||The Future of Gold, Oil & the Dollar||story|
|10/03/2012||The War Between Credit and Resources||story|
|09/07/2012||The Repricing of Oil||story|
|08/20/2012||The Demise of the Car||story|
|08/01/2012||When Quantitative Easing Finally Fails||story|
|07/23/2012||The Dawn of the Great California Energy Crash||story|
|06/29/2012||Coal: The Ignored Juggernaut||story| | <urn:uuid:46fa6ed3-a59d-4970-8e80-ac16e9d190c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/gregor-macdonald/cornucopians-in-space-deliver-a-dangerously-misguided-message | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950263 | 2,955 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Trapping will hit the limelight when the show “Mountain Men” debuts tonight on the History Channel. While the reality program will not focus solely on traplines, it appears trapping could be a big part of the show that features three men living and surviving in the wild.
The show will air at 9 p.m. Central on the History Channel.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live your life off the grid? Have you wished you could shed the complications of modern society and live in the wilderness, using only the things nature has provided? Meet Eustace Conway, Tom Oar and Marty Meierotto of the new History series “Mountain Men,” three men who have devoted their lives to survival in its simplest form. But how simple is it really?
From the rugged Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to the seven-month-long winters on the Yaak River in Montana to the frigid northern range of Alaska, the country is full of some very unforgiving terrain. Watch as these men face off against mudslides, falling trees, ravaging weather and even hungry animals, to make sure they obtain the food and supplies they will need to make it through the brutal winter months ahead.
The History Channel has released a series of promotional videos on the show:
If you’re able to check out the show tonight, let us know what you think. Will this show be a positive for the trapping community? | <urn:uuid:192b55b2-2325-47e6-bd76-c872883c8b36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.trapperpredatorcaller.com/article-index/mountain-men-debuts-tonight-on-history-channel | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938855 | 303 | 1.789063 | 2 |
by Elizabeth Bleacher
Author Joan Bauer’s latest young adult novel, Almost Home, was released in September 2012 to critical acclaim. Kirkus’s review of the novel suggested that Bauer had “created one of her strongest young women yet,” but the success of Almost Home won’t come as much of a surprise to Bauer fans. Her previous novel, Close to Famous, was the recipient of the ALA's Schneider Family Book Award, the Christopher Award, the Judy Lopez Memorial Award, and was a YALSA/ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults pick.
Her novels’ true-to-life themes and uplifting resolutions have made Bauer a favorite with young readers and teachers alike. Bauer is the featured presenter at the Young Adult Literature Luncheon at IRA’s Annual Convention on Sunday, April 21, 2013. During the session, the award-winning author will talk about some of her writing inspirations and the importance of laughter in young adult literature.
Bauer was inspired to write her first novel, Squashed, after a serious car accident left her with a lot of time and a lot of healing. The novel touches on the power of agriculture and the challenges that unite families with the help of a uniquely unrelenting humor. Bauer makes it clear that “the laughter in Squashed” was a critical factor in her recovery.
Despite the fact that much of Bauer’s writing explores serious issues, she is still able to instill her novels with a sense of wit and hope. Many of her novels serve as great introductions to important topics, like resilience and honesty. Bauer makes implementing her work in the classroom easy with a number of teaching guides and activity resources.
Registration for IRA’s 58th Annual Convention is open and tickets for the Young Adult Literature Luncheon with Bauer on Sunday, April 21st are available on a first-come basis. The Annual Convention will take place in San Antonio, Texas from April 19 to 22. Visit www.iraconvention.org and the iPlanner Program Grid and Event Search for details.
Elizabeth Bleacher is the strategic communications department intern at the International Reading Association. | <urn:uuid:2a7ec626-a42f-41e6-a12b-8ca54df430b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reading.org/general/Publications/blog/BlogSinglePost/reading-today-online/2013/01/29/author-joan-bauer-to-speak-at-annual-convention-luncheon | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958769 | 444 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Kathleen A. Merrigan is the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Working alongside Secretary Tom Vilsack, Merrigan oversees the day-to-day operation of USDA's many programs and spearheads the $149 billion USDA budget process. She serves on the President's Management Council, working with other Cabinet Deputies to improve accountability and performance across the federal government.
Merrigan brings a wealth of knowledge to USDA from a decades-long career in policy, legislation, and research related to the many missions of USDA.
Deputy Secretary Merrigan has managed the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food effort to highlight the critical connection between farmers and consumers and support local and regional food systems that increase economic opportunity in Rural America.
In November 2009, she made history as the first woman to chair the Ministerial Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Recognizing that most employees work outside of Washington, D.C., Merrigan has visited USDA field offices nationwide to ensure top-flight program delivery that meets constituents' needs.
Recognizing the history and scope of her work, Time magazine named Dr. Merrigan among the "100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2010.
Before becoming Deputy Secretary, Merrigan served for eight years as Assistant Professor and Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment graduate program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts.
Under an appointment by President Bill Clinton, Merrigan was Administrator of the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service from 1999 to 2001. She served for six years as a senior staff member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, working for Senator Patrick Leahy (VT).
Merrigan has also been engaged in agricultural policy in positions at the FAO, the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture, the Texas Department of Agriculture, and the Massachusetts State Senate.
Merrigan holds a Ph.D. degree in environmental planning and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Texas, and a B.A. degree from Williams College.
She and her husband Michael Selmi have two children in elementary school. | <urn:uuid:a5f8b9dd-9179-402f-bb6b-0a48f413c03c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/!ut/p/c5/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os_gAC9-wMJ8QY0MDpxBDA09nXw9DFxcXQ-cAA_1wkA5kFaGuQBXeASbmnu4uBgbe5hB5AxzA0UDfzyM_N1W_IDs7zdFRUREAZXAypA!!/dl3/d3/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS9ZQnZ3LzZfUDhNVlZMVDMxMEJUMTBJQ01IMURERDFDUDA!/?contentidonly=true&contentid=bios_merrigan.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943327 | 455 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Until quite recently, if you told your boss you wanted to work from home for a few days you would more than likely receive a sarcastic response. Something along the lines of "Not got much to do, then?" or even "Planning a few rounds of golf are we?"
But things have changed rather dramatically. A new BT Business Insight poll found that 48% of employers now let staff work at home permanently, and 44% occasionally. Only 8% don't allow it at all.
That's good news, both for employees and businesses.
For staff, the benefits are clear. By being allowed to work from home, they can claw back lost minutes (or hours, for some) spent travelling back and to from work. Assuming they can motivate themselves, they’ll remain productive whilst feeling happier as a result of their improved work-life balance.
For employers, a motivated, productive work force is often the main benefit of allowing home working. That’s not considering the financial savings on things like office space, electricity and any travel expenses.
So why the shift towards home working?
More than anything, it has been driven by the rise in technology – primarily faster home broadband connections and the proliferation of (smarter) mobile phones. Thanks to these advances in technology, there's no reason you can can't be just as productive at home as you are in an office.
You can send and receive email securely from anywhere from your phone. To connect to your corproate network, just set up a VPN on your laptop or tablet. From there you can access corporate data and applications just as if you were in the office. And if your company uses IP telephony you could turn your home phone into your office phone extension, allowing free calls to and from the office, over your home broadband connection.
It's not all rosy, though. There's a couple of potential downsides to consider, when deciding on a remote working policy.
Obviously, working from home does mean that you won't be able to attend meetings in person. (Of course, you may see that as a bonus!) But collaboration tools like conferencing are all you need to set up or attend meetings with colleagues from your home office desk - or even your kitchen table.
Your employees might also miss out on the human contact of an office environment. Whilst some employees will thrive on the freedom to work from anywhere, others work best around their team mates and will feel more “in the loop”. That’s especially true of new starters who'll be able to get up to speed far quicker by having help quickly at hand, and even by overhearing the conversations going on around them.
It’s important, then, that even if you do allow home working - your employees will be happiest if you allow them the choice between home or an office.
Are you one of the 92% who work from home at least some of the time? Do you find that you’re more productive? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Get in touch
We'll call you back within 2 working hours | <urn:uuid:133334af-72c2-4891-b237-706466bc8a80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.insight.bt.com/en/features/working_from_home_poll_results | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966943 | 638 | 1.609375 | 2 |
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In his eye-opening article, "When Human Rights No Longer Matter", Garry Leech writes that:
It is true that, in the past, both Washington and its clients in the Colombian government and military paid lip service to opposing Colombian death squads. At the same time, it was known that the death squads a) were U.S.-trained, b) were advised by U.S. covert agents and c) were comprised of soldiers from the official Colombian military.
Now, Mr. Leech reports, the Colombian military is to be officially transformed into one big death squad with a plan for "war against the Colombian people in the name of anti-terrorism."
Barry Leech is right that we should oppose all U.S. military 'aid' for Colombia as long as the military engages in 'human rights abuses.' But what does this mean? By its nature, the Colombian anti-drug war has always been a war against the Colombian people. It has always relied on abusing human rights, starting with the particularly important right to stay alive.
This history of abuse, now celebrated in a democratically endorsed plan "to wage war against the Colombian people in the name of anti-terrorism," could not exist without the approval of Washington's foreign policy planners. Because the Washington foreign policy establishment is the true constituency of the Colombian government. Take away Washington, and in short order the Colombian puppet state would collapse.
IS U.S. "MAKING A MISTAKE" IN COLOMBIA AND AFGHANISTAN?
The U.S. Establishment always tries to dominate the language of foreign policy discourse. In this way, critics are maneuvered into accepting premises which limit their field of view and therefore the scope of their criticisms.
For example, Washington argues that it is pouring almost a billion dollars a year into military ''aid'' to Colombia in order to "win the drug war". Similarly it claims it is giving $43 million more to the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan to reward them for banning the cultivation of poppy plants used to produce heroin and opium.
Supporters and opponents of Washington's policies tend to accept these claims about the "drug war." Consequently the debate is framed in Washington's terms: "Should the U.S. give aid to anyone, no matter how foul, as long as this helps the drug war?" If they accept this frame of argument, critics are trapped into responses that assume Washington is making a mistake, that it is letting itself be used by monsters.
The premises involved in this frame of argument are lies.
First, Washington is not engaged in a drug war. That's public relations baloney. Washington is the political sponsor of the key forces behind the drug trade.
Second the war on drugs is a cover for waging a real war against forces striving for independence in strategic areas such as Colombia and, more important on a world scale, the Balkans and the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union.
Third, Washington is the creator and patron of the governing terrorists in Afghanistan (the Taliban) and in Colombia. To say Washington is 'aiding' these forces is like saying farmers 'aid' their crops or parents 'aids' their children.
THE DRUG INTERESTS ARE IN CHARGE OF THE DRUG WAR
Despite all the rhetoric, Washington is not interested in stopping the drug trade. From Iran-Contra to the Afghan anti-Soviet war to the Islamist terrorists currently attacking the former Soviet states to the KLA to the Colombia death squads, Washington's proxy armies are deeply and increasingly involved in the drug trade. Drug gangs provide terrorist-military training and produce vast sums of money. This money enables Washington's proxy armies to mount formidable campaigns against target countries without Washington have to shell out impossibly large sums of money.
A 'Boston Globe' article (an excerpt is posted at the end, see Footnote 4) states that Washington's Kosovo Liberation Army is heavily involved in a drug distribution system that starts in Afghanistan and Pakistan and ends up in Western Europe. This drug business involves 400 BILLION dollars a year. (Not that the KLA gets all this money. But we are discussing gross revenues greater than those of IBM, Microsoft and Intel combined. And that's just the Afghanistan-to-Europe trade.)
Washington sponsors and protects this drug trade because drugs provide crucial money and terrorist personnel for Washington's drive for world domination.
The same is true in Latin America. Take Washington's Colombian 'drug war' for example. If this was aimed at stopping the drug business, Washington would focus on penetrating and jailing the powerful drug interests and their Establishment connections. That is, not just the rich drug cartel gangsters, but the gangsters-in-a-suit in big banks and corporations:
Instead of going after the big fish, Washington directs the 'drug war' against coca and poppy fields and the poor farmers who cultivate these fields in areas controlled by FARC, the Colombian liberation army.
By destroying these particular fields, the U.S. and its Colombian proxies drive up the value of the coca and poppy controlled by Washington's Colombian proxies, that is, by the military men and their death squads who are intertwined with the Colombian drug cartels and through them with major financial interests which 'launder' billions in drug profits.
To justify fighting a 'war on drugs' against small farmers who (conveniently) live in guerilla-controlled areas, Washington and the media pedal the story that the FARC guerillas control the drug trade. This is comic book-level propaganda. Washington's motto should be, "A dumb public is a happy public."
If the U.S. government were "fighting the drug war" to stop the export of drugs to the U.S., as it claims, it would focus on those who organize and profit from the export of drugs, instead of destroying the fields (and poisoning the land, animals, and children) of poor peasants who live in FARC-controlled areas.
The U.S. war against drugs doesn't fight drugs. So what is its purpose?
REAL TARGET OF THE "DRUG WAR"
For a hundred years Washington's Latin American policies have aimed at preventing the formation of a unified block of nations that could challenge U.S. domination. Washington's methods: repress and atomize; install anti-popular oligarchs in small, weak states. Give 'aid' to these little monsters who could not survive a year without Big Daddy Monster to the North. In this fashion, Washington has brought untold misery to the Latin American people.
Currently there is a threat to these policies. The Chavez government in Venezuela is politically independent. It has the temerity - the audacity - to ask: "What is good for Venezuelans?" And then there is the powerful FARC in Colombia.
Check out a map. Venezuela is northeast of Colombia. Colombia is south of Panama. Both Colombia and Venezuela border Brazil, second most populous country in the Americas. And Colombia is north of Peru and Ecuador. Together, Colombia and Venezuela constitute the northern cap of South America.
Both Colombia and Venezuela have oil.
If the Colombian FARC wins, it could mean a Venezuelan/Colombian/Cuban alliance that would attract Latin American people and possibly even some existing government(s), like a magnet.
Both Chavez in Venezuela and the FARC in Colombia call for social justice and national sovereignty. This is a compelling mixture; contagious.
In response, Washington is attempting semi-covertly to overthrow Mr. Chavez. At the same time, Washington is escalating its atrocious counter-insurgency campaign against the progressive nationalists in FARC. The methods being used against FARC are as old as Rome and as recent as Vietnam: punish and murder the ordinary people who support the forces fighting the U.S. Make the cost of independence prohibitive.
The present U.S. Secretary of State, that nice guy, Colin Powell, is no stranger to this strategy:
It's one thing for Powell to admit the murderous character of what the U.S. did in long ago Vietnam. But were Washington to admit it was using the same strategy in Colombia, most Americans would be horrified. Hence the huge public relations campaign, disguising the Vietnam-style operation going on right now in Colombia behind the facade of a war against drugs.
IS WASHINGTON 'AIDING'
COLOMBIA AND THE TALIBAN?
The "Does the drug war justify us giving aid to monsters?" argument confuses the real relationship between Washington and said monsters, such as the Colombian military/death squads, and the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan.
This confusion is expressed eloquently by Robert Scheer, who once edited "Ramparts," the late great antiwar magazine. A recent article by Mr. Scheer is entitled, "Bush's Faustian Deal with the Taliban." If you remember your Goethe, this would cast Junior as a lowly mortal who makes a deal with the devil, a much more powerful figure. Here's Mr. Scheer:
Bob Scheer thinks the Taliban are a monstrosity of indigenous origin. In his view, it is outrageous for Americans to let themselves be duped into helping these beasts simply because the beasts have (supposedly) banned drugs. If America does this it will become the Taliban's main sponsor. And so on.
The problem is, it is too late for Washington to become the Taliban's sponsor because Washington gave birth to the Taliban in the first place. (2)
The maternity bill? Over six BILLION U.S. dollars. And that was 1980s money, mind you, so we're talking about a much bigger bill in current U.S. dollars. Washington is the monster parent of this monstrous child.
To preserve the mental equilibrium of Americans, the mass media tries to avoid publishing evidence of Washington's Taliban patrimony. Nevertheless, sometimes some of the truth slips out. Take for example a 'NY Times' article published three days after the U.S. bombed some facilities in Afghanistan:
Six billion dollars. And that's what the CIA admits spending. How much more did they spend that they don't admit?
U.S. covert support for the Taliban has continued throughout the middle and late 1990s, mainly through Washington's junior partner, Saudi Arabia.
TALIBAN AID: PART OF THE ATTACK ON RUSSIA
The Taliban aid package coincides with Washington's increasing attacks on the former Soviet Union in general and Russia in particular. The current very public offer of $43 million in aid is a destabilizing warning to the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union. The message is: you better work with us, not Russia, or we can unleash the Taliban against you.
At the same time, Washington holds out a carrot, offering to provide the Central Asian Republics with military aid. The idea is to offset Russian military ties and increase the U.S. presence in these countries. By having a large contingent of U.S. military (and therefore of course the CIA as well) directly involved inside the Central Asian states, Washington can select the best targets for bribes, thus augmenting the efforts of U.S.- funded "democracy groups" which are presently setting up 'civil society' Fifth Column organizations in these countries.
If the U.S. can make these countries dependent on US military aid (and training, and of course spare parts) Washington can guarantee that their weapons and military plans are insufficient to defeat Taliban-connected terrorists. Moreover, Washington can supply these Islamist terrorists with military intelligence.
-- Jared Israel
1) 'When Human Rights No Longer Matter,' by Garry M. Leech at http://emperors-clothes.com/col/hum.htm
(2) 'Washington's Backing of Afghan Terrorists: Deliberate Policy,' by Jared Israel at http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/anatomy.htm
3) Take the Emperor's Clothes challenge! We at tenc.net are convinced that U.S. newspapers intentionally distort the news to whitewash Washington's actions. Whether you agree with us, are unsure, or would like to see our best evidence so you can prove to yourself that we are just mouthing off, read the detailed study of how the 'N.Y. Times' lied to its readers about the August, 1998 bombing of a pill factory in Sudan. The article is called 'Credible Deception: The Times and the Sudan Missile Attack' and it can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/sudan.html
3a) In countries all over the world, the U.S. has set up "civil society" groups which imitate the 'look' of local activist groups but are in fact trained and funded by U.S. government agencies like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). It was just such forces which overthrew the Miloshevich government in Yugoslavia.
4) Washington pretends to oppose drugs. But its favorite Balkans terrorist group relies on the drug business for cash. Washington could devastate the drug trade by simply arresting this organization. That would easy to do because the organization is the KLA. It was set up by Germany and the U.S. and it is trained by "Western special forces," that is, by the U.S. and Britain)
Here's an excerpt from a recent 'Boston Globe' article which cautiously - but clearly - links the KLA to the drug trade.
5) Concerning Washington's funding of
both sides in Macedonia, see 'WASHINGTON FINANCES ETHNIC WARFARE IN THE
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As you may know, the Website was "down" for about four hours that day. We are strained beyond capacity trying to get out the word.
We recently hired a full time computer person, remodeled the Website, and now need to adapt to the huge increase in demand for Emperor's Clothes.
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Thank you for reading Emperor's Clothes. | <urn:uuid:cf7cd7ac-87ea-429d-a685-df929b242d16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/mis.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93972 | 3,120 | 1.804688 | 2 |
ATLANTA -- The preliminary unemployment rate in metro Atlanta declined to 8.0 percent in November, down two-tenths of a percentage point from 8.2 percent in October. The rate was 8.9 percent in November 2011.
The Georgia Department of Labor announced Thursday that the rate declined because of job growth and fewer new layoffs, represented by first time claims for unemployment insurance benefits.
There was an increase of 12,300 new jobs in metro Atlanta. There were 2,366,500 jobs in November, up five-tenths of a percentage point, from 2,354,200 in October. The growth came mostly in trade, transportation, and warehousing, up 11,000. In one year's time, jobs were up in metro Atlanta by 33,900, or 1.5 percent, from 2,332,600 in November 2011.
There were also 680 fewer new claims for unemployment benefits in construction, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and administrative and support services.
Metro Athens had the lowest area jobless rate at 6.2 percent, while metro Dalton had the highest at 11 percent.
Meanwhile, Georgia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined to 8.5 percent in November, down two-tenths of a percentage point from 8.7 percent in October. The rate was 9.5 percent in November a year ago.
Georgia Department of Labor | <urn:uuid:f54966ab-a9d0-49e6-ab99-c8845d4c3d6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.11alive.com/news/article/269792/299/Metros-unemployment-rate-declines-to-80-percent | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968164 | 286 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Click here for a schedule of events.
The University of Colorado began its diversity summit Tuesday with discussions about building multiculturalism, economic inequities in Boulder and an exercise that allowed people to use wheelchairs to navigate the campus.
How to create a more welcoming environment for foreign students has emerged as a theme at this year's summit, as enrollment of international students on the Boulder campus reached an all-time high this year. A few sessions Thursday will focus on international education, including one that covers academic success of foreign students.
CU's 2012 diversity summit runs through Thursday.
During a panel discussion about diversity and CU's long-term plans, Provost Russell Moore said the Boulder campus has about 200 diversity programs, and while they are all well-intended, the university needs to evaluate the programs that are most successful and those that may be redundant.
Moore also said the university is making more investments in services for international students and that there should be meaningful changes in place by next year to better address the growing international student body.
The provost's comments were in response to a statement made by audience member Gookjin Jeong, a CU student from Korea who is double majoring in international affairs and economics. Jeong said resources for international students -- many of whom are learning a new language and adapting to new cultures -- are not adequate.
Jeong suggested that there be more English tutoring. And, although the student government recently added a new liaison position for international students, Jeong said perhaps several liaisons could represent different regions of the world.
For his part, Jeong said he's applying to become a campus guide to help new or potential international students get better acquainted with Boulder.
CU plans to continually increase the recruitment of international students so there are eventually 900 new students every year and a total of 3,240 -- making up roughly 10 percent of the student body.
This fall, there are 1,643 degree-seeking students with student visas, an all-time high for the campus.
CU's international student body contributes $48 million annually to the Boulder economy, according to Larry Bell, director of international education at CU.
City Manager Jane Brautigam also led a session Tuesday about economic diversity in Boulder, saying some students can't afford to live within city limits.
She also discussed economic and educational gaps between Boulder's white and Latino residents. The median family income in Boulder for white families is $104,000, but it's just $29,400 for Latino families, according to her presentation.
Also, there's an income gap between men and women in Boulder, with the median income for men older than 25 at $45,100, compared with $30,800 for women. Men with graduate or professional degrees who live in Boulder are earning $76,000 on average, compared with $41,500 for women with advanced degrees.
About 8 percent of Boulder's white residents are without health insurance, compared with 37 percent of Latinos, according to Brautigam.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Brittany Anas at 303-473-13132 or email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:89470e8f-8411-4b3f-84f6-19ae2e0428d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_21991334/cu-boulder-diversity-summit-inequities-disabilities-and-growing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959532 | 638 | 1.59375 | 2 |
What are the opportunities for personal, professional and financial growth?
Personal growth. The opportunity to grow in your first job might be as important as the quality of medicine practiced. Obviously, if one doesn't
grow, then stagnation and obsolescence result. This is often experienced as frustration, dissatisfaction and a lack of self-fulfillment.
To avoid disappointment, it is important to ask yourself the following personal questions when seeking your first job. Am
I looking for something to do? Or, am I seeking to do something? You might believe that because of financial obligations that
you must look for something to do. In other words, you might need to get a job to pay some bills and to get on with life.
Although this might be a necessity for a while, working as a veterinarian because it is something to do can become boring
and non-rewarding. In general, you will achieve much greater job satisfaction and gratification if you are engaged in doing
something worthwhile and personally meaningful.
Many individuals enter veterinary medicine because they want to make a difference. They want to enhance the quality of life
of the animals they work with and provide peace of mind to the owners. Many veterinarians not only make a difference in the
lives of their clients and animals, they also make major contributions to colleagues, staff, their community and organized
veterinary medicine. If you want to make a difference, then it is important to explore the opportunities for personal growth
when seeking a new job.
Professional growth. Similarly, you must consider the opportunities for professional growth. You will enter practice with considerable current
knowledge. Unfortunately much of this knowledge becomes outdated within a few years. It is extremely beneficial therefore
to go to work in a cooperative environment in which colleagues are willing to mentor you and provide constructive criticism
on how to manage medical and surgical cases. It also is helpful if the doctors and staff engage in self and cooperative learning.
Does the practice review new medical management procedures? Do they routinely go over new treatment regimens with doctors
and staff? Does the practice contain an up-to-date library, and do they subscribe to current online veterinary literature
services? Will you be encouraged and supported to participate in external continuing education activities? Is the practice
willing to send you to workshops to learn new techniques that can be brought back to the practice? Do the doctors engage in
networking with other practitioners and experts in the field? Although it is possible to grow professionally by doing everything
alone, it is a lot more fun and stimulating to be in a practice where everyone enjoys growing professionally.
Financial growth. Should your first job provide the opportunity for financial growth? Each of you might have different reasons on why you entered
the veterinary profession and frequently financial reward is not one of them. The reality is, however, that you must exhibit
fiscal responsibility if you and your families are to survive. Thus, your first job and any succeeding job should provide
you with a certain basic standard of living, a reasonable quality of life and the opportunity to grow financially. All too
frequently, young graduates take positions and do not explore the long-term potential for financial growth. | <urn:uuid:334b6966-d8ee-4aea-9782-f081989ec1ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=501128&sk=&date=&%0A%09%09%09&pageID=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95752 | 653 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Available here for the first time, Duro, a family-owned company and leading brand in Sweden, has been around since 1930. It's very well established - it is one of only 120 companies to be appointed a purveyor to the Royal Court and has had this distinction since 1946.
The printing process used by Duro uses ten times the standard amount of ink to create a distinctive, rich look, similar to hand-printed papers. All of this is done with an eye on the environment - they started their green initiatives during the 1960s and eliminated PVCs, developed their own water-based inks and uses only solvent free coatings. They currently offer designs in three lines:
Gammalsvenska: historical Swedish wallpaper patterns from different eras of Swedish design - swatches were found in manor houses and recreated by Duro desginers
Atmosfär III: contemporary designs
Galleri: interpretations of nature with a Scandinavian flavor
Duro is available in retail shops in New York (Hildreth's, Janovic, Wallauer's) and in Illinois (J.C. Licht, EPCO), as well as through designers.
More Info: Duro | <urn:uuid:c0859550-13ef-4d0d-b5d4-d7c6980292af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/add-some-swedish-style-to-your-home-wallpaper-by-duro-now-available-in-the-us-173312?img_idx=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968969 | 248 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Consumers spent less in October, as income growth stalled.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending fell 0.2 percent after an 0.8 percent jump in September. It was the first decline in spending since May. Personal income was unchanged after rising 0.4 percent in September.
Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the nation's economy, so the pullback could be a worrisome sign.
The spending jump in September had been partly driven by higher gas prices, strong car sales, as well as the introduction of the new iPhone, which sparked a jump in spending on electronics.
But the big increase in spending in September was also accompanied by a drop in the personal savings rate, which is a concern for economists. The savings rate did rise modestly in October though, to 3.4 percent.
Gas prices retreated in October, cutting what consumers needed to spend at the pump. Hurricane Sandy also hit overall retail sales, particularly car sales, at the end of the month. | <urn:uuid:339edcc5-aafd-4ba2-9308-0c6e8feac493> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wdsu.com/news/money/Consumer-spending-drops-as-income-stalls/-/9853238/17604820/-/4ixxkj/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981388 | 204 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Health in Tyler, Texas
Cost of Living,
There are 372 physicians per 100,000 population in Tyler, TX. The US average is 261.
Tyler, TX Health Index
Air quality in Tyler, TX is 44 on a scale to 100 (higher is better). This is based on ozone alert days and number of pollutants in the air, as reported by the EPA.
Water quality in Tyler, TX is 87 on a scale to 100 (higher is better). The EPA has a complex method of measuring watershed quality using 15 indicators.
Superfund index is 77 on a scale to 100 (higher is better). This is upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts.
Tyler Health SperlingViews
re: Tyler - 9/23/2009: But...how do you LIVE??? where are the jobs?... (read more)Tyler:
I don't understand what some of you people have against Conservative towns, and Christians?? Hypocracy exists to a certain extent, EVERYWHERE! For the most part... (read more)Tyler, pretty town, not much culture: I have lived here for almost 3 years, and while I love Texas, I am very ready to get out of Tyler. It is very conservative and as a single mom in my 30's, I have had a... (read more)Have an opinion about Tyler? Leave a commentTo See All SperlingViews for Tyler Click Here | <urn:uuid:70abeab8-8d53-4ab3-bde0-dc2b0029734b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bestplaces.net/health/city/texas/tyler | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934391 | 304 | 1.609375 | 2 |
On Thursday, after you come to the Tribune’s public forum on high school reform and teaching in Oakland, you’ll still have plenty of time to head across town to a different — and decidedly younger — discussion about education and teenagers.
Charter schools and criminal justice are the subjects of debate at the 6-7:30 p.m. Bay Area Urban Debate League event at the St. Augustine Episcopal Church (not to be confused with the Catholic church on Alcatraz) on 29th Street and Telegraph.
Dmitri Seals, the league’s director, says his hard-working orators have been practicing three times a week for this moment, and that “they are ready to electrify the crowd.”
Admission to the debate, titled “Waiting for Superman,” is free. You can RSVP on Facebook or to firstname.lastname@example.org.
Here are the big questions the debaters will tackle:
- Are charter schools the future of public education in America, or do they do more harm than good for our children?
- Should young people convicted of crimes be thrown in jail, or rehabilitated in community programs next to our homes?
The invitation says:
We invite you to join us in a celebration of the dedication of these young people, and in a discussion of solutions to the issues they bring to the table. If you have seen “Waiting for Superman” or care about problems of youth and crime, you will want to see this – get ready for an exciting night! | <urn:uuid:88b60c37-b4e3-4212-bb09-005a0b1c4c8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ibabuzz.com/education/2012/03/27/students-to-debate-charter-schools-criminal-justice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954123 | 326 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Volume , Number 0
There are no articles.Commentary
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The Cost of Living
Henry A. Giroux
Alex n. Dajkovic
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Errors, Lies, & "Corrections"
Edward S. Herman
New York Times reporters have had a strong propensity to swallow chemical industry propaganda: most dramatically with Keith Schneider's proposition that exposure to dioxin is no more threatening than “spending a week sun-bathing” (originally said to be the view of “scientists,” but eventually admitted to be Schneider's own creation); and Gina Kolata's error laden review and Nicholas Wade's angry repudiation of the book Our Stolen Future—“creating an environmental scare without evidence,” Wade told the authors, without having read the book (see Mark Dowie, “What's Wrong with the New York Times's Science Reporting,” Nation, July 6, 1998). “Junk science” for the Times is not the science produced by industry or its hired hands to protect its right to sell, it is the science of environmentalists and tort lawyers; the paper's use of the phrase replicates the views of industry. The Times has never yet reported the sensational disclosure that both Monsanto's and BASF's studies showing the harmlessness of dioxin, which were actually used by the EPA in fixing tolerances, were based on fraud. It has never reviewed or cited the powerful book by Dan Fagin and Marianne Lavelle on Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and Endangers Your Health (Birch Lane, 1996), and I will be surprised if it ever reviews Joe Thornton's recent Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy (MIT Press, 2000) as this impressive work calls for radical constraints on the chemical industry.
“Scares”: Phony and Real
Times reporters regularly get on industry bandwagons that allege unwarranted “scares,” but they are extremely reluctant to explore evidence of the ill-effects of chemicals or of regulatory weakness and capture that ought to be scary. For example, when the EPA discovered in the late 1980s that Monsanto had failed to deliver several hundred internal studies of possible ill-effects of chemicals, contrary to law, and a follow-up moratorium on penalties resulted in the industry coughing up 11,000 internal studies that should have been submitted to the regulators, the Times never even reported this development, with its huge implications for the workability of existing procedures for testing and protecting the public from any adverse effects of chemicalization of the environment.
The Alar case, in which a February 1989 “60 Minutes” program had featured a cancer threat from the use of the chemical Alar on apples, resulting in a sharp drop of apple sales, was quickly denounced by industry and its spokespersons as an unwarranted “scare.” This scare became institutionalized at the Times, although three months after the CBS program the EPA did ban Alar as a carcinogenic threat, and the seriousness of this threat was confirmed by the National Academy of Sciences in 1992. Nevertheless, Jane Brody cited Alar as the main case in point in her “Health Scares That Aren't So Scary” (August 18, 1998), stating that the EPA had never condemned Alar, and using as her information authority the American Council on Health, an industry-funded propaganda agency that Brody identified only as “based in New York.” I wrote a letter to the publisher, noting that Brody's statement that the EPA had not condemned Alar was false, and that her identification of the American Council on Health was inadequate. The Times published a “Correction” on the Brody piece on September 5, 1998, admitting the two misrepresentations.
More Alar Propaganda
But lo and behold, on August 18, 2000, along comes Times columnist John Tierney, in his “The Apple And the Sins of Journalists,” with an even more egregious set of misrepresentations than Brody on Alar and related issues. Tierney refers to the American Council on Health as “a consumer education group in New York,” actually going one better than Brody, who located it in New York without giving it a misleading positive designation. Tierney denies any health problems associated with pesticides on the grounds that the “cancer epidemic never arrived,” with death rates from cancer down 19 percent. Tierney doesn't recognize any possible ill effects from pesticides except in the form of cancer, although chemical damage to immune systems and reproduction have come into increasing prominence (and are featured in Our Stolen Future). Tierney confuses death rates and incidence; the latter has risen markedly, the former has almost surely declined because of earlier detection and improved medical treatment.
Tierney says that “Scientists denounced the CBS report [on Alar] as inaccurate (there were more potent carcinogens than Alar), alarmist, and possibly carcinogenic itself because the ensuing panic caused people to eat less fruit.” While Tierney cites one scientist who questioned the Alar threat, like Kolata he chooses his experts carefully, and he fails to mention the EPA finding of carcinogenicity or the National Academy of Sciences confirmation of the cancer threat from Alar. The parenthetical that there are “more potent” carcinogens than Alar is idiotic as a basis for denial of a threat, and the carcinogenic threat of not eating fruit is little more than a joke.
I sent another letter to the publisher pointing out that Tierney was repeating claims that had been acknowledged to be false or misleading in an earlier “Correction,” but which the paper's reporters and commentators seem to be reluctant to abandon. Tierney's misrepresentations, however, were not subject to a “Correction,” although his description of the American Council on Health as a “consumer education group” was more misleading than Brody's and his deceptions on Alar and its threats were equally serious. Furthermore, his statements on pesticides and cancer, and cancer and other medical risks, which went beyond Brody's, were misleading and silly.
Perhaps it would have been too embarrassing to have a Correction referring to errors that had been made and corrected previously in the paper. That would suggest not only careless editing but a widely internalized bias that the paper has a hard time keeping under control.
An article some years back by Edwin Diamond, A. Biddle Duke, and Isabelle Anacker, “Can We Expect TV News To Correct Its Mistakes?”, in TV Guide (December 5, 1987), stressed the unwillingness of TV networks to correct errors, and pointed out that newspapers had developed standard practices for doing this through correction boxes, letters to the editor, etc. The authors cited a Gannett Center research report that on average, large newspapers publish “a correction every other day.” But they failed to note the possibility that the papers might correct a few trivial and obvious errors but fail to correct more subtle and important ones. Even more important, “error” may not encompass serious bias in selection of news and sources and in mode of presentation (placement, tone, structure of material within the articles, etc.)
A far more important media shortcoming than an error in dating or misquotation would be the failure to report essential information, such as the Monsanto and BASF dioxin study frauds mentioned earlier, the collusion of the EPA and paper industry in fixing dioxin limits in the late 1980s, and the revelation that the chemical industry had not submitted 11,000 relevant internal studies on chemical effects to the EPA.
As another illustration, after serving up apologetics for the U.S.S. Vincennes' shooting down of an Iranian airliner in 1988 that killed 290 civilians, the Times failed to disclose to its readers the contents of the report by Commander David Carlson in the U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings (September 1989), which offered strong evidence that the apolo- getics for the shootdown were false and that the action was carried out by an irresponsible Rambo commander. The Times then failed to report President George Bush's award of a Legion of Merit in 1990 for “exceptionally meritorious conduct” to this commander of the Vincennes. The Times also failed to report on the Appendix B insertion in the Rambouillet agreement of a proviso for NATO occupation of all Yugoslavia, which made war inevitable, and the paper has never mentioned that an official admitted that this was done precisely because Serbia needed to be bombed.
Apart from these (and countless other) lies of omission, there are scads of direct lies that have remained uncorrected. For years Times reporters have spoken of an Indonesian invasion of East Timor in the midst of a civil war in 1975, when in fact the civil war was over well before the invasion. This is an uncorrectible institutional lie that fits well the 25-year Times apologetics for the invasion-occupation. Z | <urn:uuid:aa96ff92-c96a-414f-bc5f-9d00d788328a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/errors-lies-and-corrections-by-edward-herman | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955747 | 1,958 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The Arthur Cyril Booth Collection
Like many of the early filmmakers, Paul Booth’s father – Arthur Cyril Booth (d.1980) took up filmmaking after getting interested in photography. Arthur was the organist for the parish and also played the organ at the La Scala cinema in Ilkeston (still going strong!). Paul said: “My father was into gadgets of the times – like for example cine cameras. He filmed on mostly 9.5mm. He was a practical man who in WW1 built aeroplanes – which were made out of fabric then. After the war he became an upholsterer in Ilkeston. He owned a Brough Superior motorbike and used to go biking down to the French Riviera”.
Arthur filmed the Carnivals in Ilkeston in 1936 and 1937 and we’re really looking forward to seeing this footage. He also filmed a pilgrimage to Dale Abbey, Derbyshire and the May Procession, a Lourdes Trip made by members of the Our Lady and St Thomas RC church in Ilkeston. Other footage includes some seaside scenes at Mablethorpe, Wolverhampton Illuminations and his parents wedding. Arthur’s films will be carefully stored at the MACE film archive in temperature controlled conditions so that these original films will be preserved for posterity. As part of the Full Circle project, copies of these films will be made onto DVD for Paul and his family ad the local community to share in this heritage and enjoy past events. If you have any films you wish to preserve please contact Kay Ogilvie, senior curator Full Circle on firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:8aa9a98c-d61f-44e2-9f7a-666e5452a9ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://macearchive.wordpress.com/tag/lourdes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964367 | 348 | 1.773438 | 2 |
We have just passed into the new year, and the distractions created by the debate over fiscal cliff appear to be behind us. Maybe.
The fiscal cliff debate has been part of a larger distraction -- the concern over budget deficits at a time when by far the country's most important problem remains the economic downturn caused by the collapse of the housing bubble. The obsession with budget deficits is especially absurd because the enormous deficits of recent years are entirely the result of the economic downturn.
In spite of this, the leadership of both parties has elevated the budget deficit to be the top and virtually only issue in national economic policy. This means ignoring the downturn that continues to cause enormous amount of unnecessary suffering for tens of millions of people.
But fears of big deficits are preventing us from giving the same sort of boost to the economy that got us out of the Great Depression. The explanation is simple: profits have returned to prerecession levels.
This means that from the standpoint of the people who own and run American businesses, everything is pretty much fine. Moreover, they see the deficits created by the downturn as providing an opportunity to go after Social Security and Medicare.
The Campaign to Fix the Debt, a nonpartisan organization involving many of the country's richest and most powerful CEOs, sets out to do just that. It has become standard practice in Washington for Wall Street types and other wealthy interests to finance groups to push their agenda.
The Campaign to Fix the Debt involves the CEOs themselves directly stepping up to the plate and pushing the case for cutting Social Security and Medicare as well as lowering the corporate income tax rate.
It's clear what's going on here. We don't need any conspiracy theories.
CEOs from both political parties have openly come together to demand cuts in Social Security and Medicare, two programs that enjoy massive political support across the political spectrum. The wealthy are joining hands without regard to political affiliation to cut benefits that enjoy broad bipartisan support among everyone who is not rich.
President Barack Obama has an opportunity to show real leadership. He should explain to the public the basic facts that all budget experts know: We do not have a chronic deficit problem. The big deficits are the result of collapsed economy. The priority of the president and Congress must be to put people back to work and bring the economy back up to speed. | <urn:uuid:3d03036e-2ed4-4b3f-b4c0-136b5a8363ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wlky.com/news/national/Baker-Look-beyond-the-fiscal-cliff/-/9366074/17981596/-/n1u2v0z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959888 | 466 | 1.820313 | 2 |
We’ve seen the Romeo and Juliet told several different ways. Set in modern times or at a high school or with DMX. Those are just a few examples. However, we’ve never seen a version where Juliet hails from an inverted, upside down world. Until now.
Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess star in Upside Down as two young people who fall in love. However they must be kept apart because he’s ordinary and not upside down. Poor fella. The heart wants what the heart wants. Guess you can say that he’s head over heels in love.
Question: When it rains in the inverted world and the ground gets really wet, do the corpses fall out of their graves and rain on the right side up world? Because that’s gross. | <urn:uuid:360c7f69-15b9-4989-bb19-caed44e49b83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.screenjunkies.com/video/kirsten-dunst-and-jim-sturgess-dance-on-the-ceiling-in-upside-down-trailer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931925 | 170 | 1.554688 | 2 |
To encourage high school students to take challenging courses and get started on their college degrees.
- Enrolled in a dual credit program at a Texas public college or university; and
- Enrolled in courses for which the student will receive both course credit toward high school academic requirements and course credit toward a college degree.
- Enroll in classes for which the college receives tax support (i.e., a course that does not depend solely on student tuition and fees to cover its costs).
Available only for use at a Texas public college or university.
To access listings of Texas public colleges and universities, follow the links to Texas Public Institutions.
If this program is offered by the college or university, the college may opt to waive all or part of the tuition and fees charged for these courses.
Contact your high school counselor to confirm whether or not the school district has an agreement with a local public community college to offer this exemption. | <urn:uuid:c528152c-447a-43ff-b44c-197fd8518a21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/apps/financialaid/tofa2.cfm?ID=475 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948788 | 190 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The people of Garoh tend to not communicate with the outside world, especially during the night, due to their fear of people shunning the werewolves. According to legend,people hunted werewolves and burned them alive calling this act "purification". During the full moon, the people would cloak themselves in case any tourists would travel by.
The people of Garoh are ruled by their chief, Master Maha.
Some residents of Mikasalla and Garoh have vaguely given a hint to the existence of possibly other werewolves, and other were-creatures, in Osenia. However, because of the lack of interaction with the outside world both villages have, and the fact that other civilized were-creatures were not found in any other point in the game, this may not be true.
Werewolves have certain traits to take note of. At a young age, it is much more difficult for werewolves to control themselves, especially during childhood. Also, in werewolf form, speaking the human tongue is much harder to do. Master Maha is the only known werewolf thus far who can speak the human tongue in his werewolf form fluently.
Though the exact origins of werewolves are not explicitly confirmed, two theories are put forward. Firstly was the theory posed by Master Maha, who, having been forced to live in his werewolf form for many years, had thought long and hard about the causes for his transformation. He believed that the reason for their people's transformation was simply evolution, in much the same way a caterpillar would transform into a butterfly, or in the same way a humans would don armor to change their form into a more sturdy one. Thus, by becoming werewolves, he believed, the residents of Garoh were simply showing and acting upon their natural survival instincts.Kraden, Maha and, to a lesser extent, Sheba. They believed that the wind picked up particles of Psynergy Stone deposits in Air's Rock and blew them over Garoh, endowing the people of that town with Adept-like powers of varying potency. This mutational influence could thus be the cause of both the residents of Garoh's use of Whirlwind and their form-changing behaviour.
On a related note, the moon is, according to Contigo legends, the City of Anemos, an ancient and powerful tribe of Jupiter Adepts, this may have some bearing on the werewolves (being Jupiter Adepts who are influenced by the moon), though this is entirely speculative and may simply be a coincidence.
With the introduction of beastmen in Dark Dawn, it could also be theorized that there is some connection between the two groups. Notable parallels include the full moon acting as a power boost to both, full moon nights being festive, and the fact that many beastmen were originally human. | <urn:uuid:48201224-59f5-4f16-861c-d396e15f903f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://goldensunwiki.net/Werewolf | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978936 | 580 | 1.609375 | 2 |
|Updated: 4/11/2007 4:46 pm
||Published: 4/11/2007 4:46 pm
Because men tend to have thicker, more elastic skin and firmer deposits of fat than women, liposuction can be especially effective. While the methods are generally the same, operations performed on men may use a larger cannula (KAN-yuh-luh) to remove their typically greater amounts of fat. The most common areas on which men request liposuction are the abdomen; the sides of the waist, also known as 'love handles;' the underside of the chin; and the breasts. The abdomen may be reduced with liposuction alone if the skin tone is good and only moderate amounts of fat are present. The procedure can also improve the resistant pockets of fat around the waist called love handles. The chin can be treated with liposuction in younger men when excess fat is the cause, not sagging skin. Still, another area that can be re-shaped is the breast. In some men, a condition called gynecomastia (guy-neh-co-MAST-ee-ah) occurs in which the breasts are larger than normal. If the problem is caused by fatty tissue and not glandular tissue, the fat can be suctioned away through a tiny incision made under the arm or in the dark border around the nipple called the areola (air-ee-OH-la). | <urn:uuid:5b8b4c53-a1c4-4b40-8ae4-cb0dcf16bb39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fox23.com/guides/health/surgery/story/Liposuction-for-men/aH33__kuBEKWX_qWCCgrQA.cspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943154 | 298 | 1.648438 | 2 |
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The ASTM International board of directors will hold their spring meeting in Washington, D.C., the week of April 26. In addition to the formal Board sessions, ASTM's time in D.C. will include a full day of outreach in the city and surrounding areas, with visits to the main offices of the government regulatory agencies, code organizations and trade associations that reflect some of the key industry sectors covered in ASTM standards.
ASTM Advantage Award
June 1 is the deadline for the 2009 ASTM International Advantage Award, a paper competition searching for real-life examples that support the positive value of ASTM standards. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three papers. [Full story]
COMMITTEE NEWS . . . The latest from ASTM's technical committees
Forestland Site Assessment The U.S. EPA has determined that the 2008 revision to the Committee E50 standard describing the environmental assessment needs of parties involved in the acquisition of forestland and rural properties is now compliant with the agency's All Appropriate Inquiries Rule. [Full story]
Light Sport Aircraft Committee F37 is at work on a new standard guide that will aid light sport aircraft manufacturers in understanding the standardization system that governs their products. [Full story]
Eleven Nations Participate in Virtual Meeting On March 5, ASTM International conducted a virtual meeting with more than 135 participants from eleven nations and three continents. The meeting included a presentation on nondestructive tests in concrete as well as information about ASTM symposia, committee weeks and developments in Committee C09. The technical portion of the presentation was delivered in English with consecutive interpretation. For more information regarding ASTM virtual meeting opportunities, please contact Jim Olshefsky.
WTO Workshop on International Standards ASTM member Manuel Lascarro represented the Society at the World Trade Organization's TBT Workshop on the Role of International Standards in Economic Development held March 16-17 in Geneva, Switzerland. The objective of the workshop was to seek ways to broaden the participation of developing countries in technical standardization activities. Lascarro, a former member of the ASTM board of directors, participated in the case study portion of the event, reporting on the use of international standards in public safety. Other topics covered at the workshop included textiles, building construction, energy, food safety and biofuels.
DID YOU KNOW? . . . Earth Day and Committee E60 on Sustainability
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You are receiving this information as a benefit because you are a member of ASTM International. Click here if you do not wish to receive future editions of ASTM eNews and want to be removed from the e-mail list. | <urn:uuid:1d1791e9-4522-484e-a62f-793292455246> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.astm.org/MAGS_NEWSLETTERS/ASTM_enewsletter_APRIL09.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932893 | 1,408 | 1.632813 | 2 |
There was a time in the not-so-distant past when the American deli was in dire straits. The last quality holdouts, like the iconic Katz’s Deli in New York and Langer’s Deli in Los Angeles, were still going strong, but the deli landscape overall was rather desolate. Even in New York — dotted with as many as 3,000 to 4,000 delis only a few generations ago — just a handful of vibrant eateries remained.
For three years, writer David Sax visited delis in America and abroad to bear witness to an institution that was holding on for dear life. In his 2009 book, “Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen,” he describes feeling alternately hopeful and despairing. Delis faced “tremendous odds,” he wrote.
Today, there is a deli renaissance afoot. A small number of next-generation Jewish delis have sprouted up across the country in the last few years. These delis have looked into the culinary past to dig up almost extinct ways of cooking and mixed in modern food sensibilities. Known for their excellent pastrami, they cater to Jews and non-Jews alike.
These delis have changed the conversation about the most classic Jewish American dining experience and given it new life. But have they “saved the deli?” The answer isn’t simple.
In the family tree of delis, “Katz’s is the grandpa, Saul’s is a teenager and Mile End is the next generation,” said Peter Levitt, owner of Saul’s Deli in Berkeley, Calif. Levitt, who worked with Alice Waters, the mother of the organic and local food movements in America, was a trailblazer when he took over his deli from its former proprietor 17 years ago. Right away, he insisted that his meat be humanely sourced, even though it meant cutting salami from the menu.
More than a decade later, others followed: Kenny and Zuke’s in Portland, Ore.; Caplansky’s in Toronto; Mile End in New York and, most recently, Wise Sons in San Francisco. These delis, along with a few others scattered across the country, launched a conversation: Could the deli survive in the modern era? Could it be updated, and what would that mean for the food and atmosphere? “Peter was the first one to ask the questions,” Noah Bernamoff of Mile End said. And “Ken was the first one to say ‘I’m going to make my own pastrami because I think what’s available is crap,’” he added, referring to Ken Gordon, the owner of Kenny and Zuke’s.
Each of these restaurants has a fresh but traditional approach to deli fare — house-cured and smoked meat, pillowy but crusty double-baked rye bread and pickles with just the right amount of crunch. There is an emphasis on local and sustainable practices, too. Levitt took pastrami off the menu for a few weeks when his meat distributor changed management and the beef no longer met his satisfaction. Wise Sons works with Beauty’s Bagels, a new, Jewish-style baking company, to source some of their baked goods.
In a way, these deli entrepreneurs are reclaiming the flavors of a deli they never knew — the deli of their grandparents’ and even great-grandparents’ day. Most of the delis that existed during their own childhoods, on the other hand, served processed meats in sky-high sandwiches. These were the delis ruled by quantity more than quality.
But taste memory is malleable. “I think what I tried to recreate was something that approached [an] ideal in my mind; whether that ideal existed, I have no idea. There’s a palate there that I’m trying to match — part memory and part fantasy,” Gordon said.
Each owner has also put his or her own stamp on the deli. Bernamoff, who grew up in Canada, opened a Montreal-style deli in New York; Wise Sons owners Leo Beckerman and Evan Bloom kept a Chinese chicken salad on their menu as a nod to their Southern California roots. This generation of deli owners is “transforming [the deli] in our own image,” explained Ted Merwin, the author of “Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of an American Icon.”
A rare tasting of pastrami at an event in New York in October hosted by Tablet magazine, Mile End and the ABC Home store, revealed that the blend of old, new and personal traditions in the kitchen has paid off. The pastramis — from Saul’s, Kenny and Zuke’s, Mile End and Wise Sons — were thickly sliced, glistening with fat, lightly smoky and well spiced. If it were just a matter of flavor, the future of pastrami and, by extension, deli would seem to be a bright one.
But there is more to saving the deli than a perfect pastrami sandwich. “Food is never just about food. Jewish deli was always about much more than really great tasting corned beef and pastrami,” Merwin said.
During the golden era of deli, which, according to Merwin, took place between the two world wars, “deli becomes the equivalent of the Irish pub or black barber shop or Italian social clubs — a place for each ethnic group to create bonds of community.” The deli doubled as the local hangout as second generation American Jews started to assimilate into the broader society.
When you enter some (though not all) of these new delis, that atmosphere is closer to a sandwich shop than old-school eatery. Mile End’s second location, in downtown Manhattan, originally opened as a standing-room-only establishment, designed to move diners in and out. Stools were ultimately added, but the space is an extreme example of the changing atmosphere of the deli. Many of these next-generation delis are too small to play the role of a central Jewish space as did delis of yore. What’s more, the Jewish community is no longer the same.
But the sentiment of community — even if it isn’t Jewish — is still there. Bloom and Beckerman of Wise Sons live only a couple of blocks from their deli in the Mission district. “We’re trying first and foremost to create a space that we enjoy as neighbors,” Bloom told me. And in smaller cities like Portland, Kenny and Zuke’s doubles as a communal Jewish space and a popular restaurant, said Merwin.
What is often overlooked in this deli renaissance is the importance of places like Katz’s and Langer’s. Theirs are the shoulders that the new delis stand on. They are “pivotal to the survival of the deli,” said Sax.
Whether diners believe the deli has been saved by these new restaurants is a difficult question to answer. For some, no matter the quality of that thickly sliced pastrami, a deli without the old timey schtick will never satisfy them. But for many others these businesses have a lot to offer. At the very least, they are teaching a new generation to love deli fare. And that love, hopefully, will save the deli.
Devra Ferst is the food editor of the Forward. | <urn:uuid:54539ec2-0e56-4989-a39f-899a30d1f3e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forward.com/articles/165716/the-great-american-deli-rescue/?p=all | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968821 | 1,631 | 1.5625 | 2 |
January 11, 2011
STATE BUDGET: It's worse than the worst-case scenario
The state legislative session begins on January 26, and the latest revenue numbers show North Carolina faces a $3.7 billion budget shortfall. Legislators and the governor say they're going to severely cut state services and lay off thousands of workers in order to balance the budget.
But even the worst-case budget cut scenario—10% cut for education and 15% for all other state agencies—will come up $1.1 billion short of closing the gap. In addition, these cuts would put more than 21,000 people out of work, causing increases in the state’s unemployment rate and in the demand for state services as the families of these former public servants find themselves facing hunger and homelessness. Such deep cuts would sink the nascent economic recovery.
Raising new revenue is essential and, frankly, unavoidable. Closing tax loopholes for corporations, fixing the state’s outdated and unfair sales tax, and requiring the rich to contribute more through the state income tax are three sensible suggestions to get us started.
LEGISLATIVE BRIEFING: In Raleigh on January 17 -- RSVP Today!
Join us for a
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 @ 1:15pm
Marbles Kids Museum, downtown Raleigh
Click here to RSVP
An Overview of the North Carolina State Budget,
Economic Forecast, and Issues Affecting Your Community
GET READY FOR 2011 at a legislative briefing by local legislators and staff from the NC Budget & Tax Center, NC Justice Center and United Way of North Carolina. They will discuss top issues in state public policy such as:
- Impacts of current economic conditions on working families
- The coming state budget shortfall – how deep will it be and how should state leaders respond
- Updates on key programs that support low-income workers and their families, such as the EITC, child-care subsidies, children's health insurance and foreclosure prevention
HEALTH REFORM: Will NC lawmakers give up tax-funded insurance?
The new Republican leaders in the NC General Assembly are calling for a resolution opposing the federal health reform law. It’s strange that they want to take away from older adults the 50% discount on brand-name drugs in Medicare, take away from parents the ability to keep adult children on their insurance plans up to age 26, eliminate the new affordable high-risk pool for people with pre-existing health conditions, and get rid of the requirement that health insurers spend at least 80% of their premiums on actual health care services.
Stranger still is that none of these legislators have called for the state to stop providing free taxpayer-subsidized health coverage for all members of the General Assembly, who are only part-time state employees. They’re also not calling for an end to letting legislators buy into the State Health Plan at the basic rate after they leave the General Assembly, a valuable perk for those who are older or have pre-existing health conditions.
Thanks to the health reform law, a growing number of small businesses are signing up to provide health benefits for their workers. Major insurers around the country are reporting the increase. An article this weekend from Tribune Newspapers reports, "In the six months after the law was signed in March, UnitedHealth Group Inc., the country's largest insurer, added 75,000 new customers who work for companies with fewer than 50 employees." Small-business owners are seeing the value of the tax credit that's included in the reform law, and their employees are now getting this important benefit.
SCHOOLS: Oversight committee wants more lottery $ for education
North Carolina’s Lottery Oversight Committee says not enough of the lottery’s proceeds are going to education. The committee, which advises state legislators on the lottery’s operations, sent a letter to the outgoing leadership of the General Assembly advising that state leaders require the NC “Education” Lottery to return to sending 35% of its proceeds to education.
That 35% was the original formula, until a legislative loophole inserted in 2007 let lottery officials steer more money into prizes. Only 29% of proceeds went to education last year.
Lottery officials said bigger prizes would mean more players and, ultimately, more money for education. But that argument didn't satisfy committee members. They also took issue with $35 million the legislature and Gov. Perdue took from the lottery to pay for expected Medicaid expenses.
JULIA BICK: The loss of a great and passionate advocate
Advocacy organizations throughout North Carolina are mourning the loss of Julia Bick, who served as housing coordinator for the NC Department of Health and Human Services. She dedicated her career to expanding permanent and affordable housing opportunities for people with the most significant and long-term disabilities. In a poignant coincidence of events, Julia died just hours after President Obama signed the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2010 into law. It was Julia's vision and relentless efforts that led to the creation of the North Carolina model of integrated supportive housing – and ultimately to the innovations in the Melville Act. Along with Frank Melville, this groundbreaking legislation, which resurrects HUD’s Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program, is Julia’s legacy. | <urn:uuid:8300cc1f-33a2-4de2-a9a2-6c5c2692cdcd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ncjustice.org/?q=nc-justice-news-state-budget-health-reform-upcoming-events | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956707 | 1,086 | 1.5 | 2 |
The Slovenian/Serbian duo of Matija Bevk and Vasa J. Perovi? are the focus of this issue, which details nineteen projects. An interview with the architects and an essay by Ivan Rupnik, provides insight into understanding their work from their own perspective of conditionalism. "All we find are conditions," state the architects, attributing the phrase to the early thinking of Mies van der Rohe and the embracement of the multiplicity of conditions faced by architects in modern times. Among the projects included are the Congress Centre Brdo, the Schrottenturm Office Complex, Social Housing Polje, the Islamic Religious Centre in Ljubljana and several private houses. | <urn:uuid:01b29696-eee1-48b7-a750-8cfde8e2c0f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pro-qm.de/node/2721 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937023 | 145 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Validating the Trend Day Indicator, 09/06/09
Trend Day Indicator Validation - Real Information About Future Market MovementsI'm going to use some of the concepts from Introduction to Testing Trading Ideas to validate the output from the Trend Day Indicator. This technique works with any indicator. To validate the indicator I'm going to examine the historical results as if it had been a traded as an automated trading system. Then I'm going to examine those results looking for positive expectation and statistical significance.
The Trend Day indicator in red.
The trading system I built buys when the indicator is over 60% and the market is up and sells when the indicator is over 60% and the market is down. Trend following with the Trend Indicator.
The system exits at the end of the day. There are no stops, slippage or commissions.
The results for the e-mini futures contract 1998-present were:
434/742, 58%, avg 1.3 pts, sd 11.4 pts, t: 3.1The t score of 3.1 means the results are significant to 3 standard deviations leaving little liklihood they occurred by chance alone. We were looking for a t score higher than 1.6. | <urn:uuid:404a4be7-1133-40a3-afdd-afe992249aef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.verticalsolutions.com/notes/trend_day_indicator_validation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935364 | 253 | 1.515625 | 2 |
FEMA will assess tornado damage in MinneapolisMINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency will begin assessing damage Thursday from the deadly tornado that tore through parts of north Minneapolis over the weekend to determine whether the area is eligible for federal aid, officials said Wednesday.
Two people were killed and dozens were injured when the tornado hit the city Sunday, buckling sidewalks, toppling trees and ripping roofs off houses. City inspectors have deemed 116 homes uninhabitable, while another 1,819 homes were damaged but could still be lived in. Damage was estimated to be at least $166 million.
Teams made up of FEMA, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety and the Small Business Administration officials will branch out to assess damage to houses, businesses, public buildings and infrastructure. They expect to finish by late Friday, and Gov. Mark Dayton will then send a letter to President Barack Obama requesting federal aid.
State officials will use FEMA's assessment to determine whether the state could shoulder the burden or if it should apply for federal aid. The minimum threshold to qualify for aid is $6.4 million in damage to uninsured public property — a figure that would likely be met, said Kris Eide, director of the state's Homeland Security and Emergency Management division.
Eide said inspectors will talk to residents about insurance and damage to their homes. Crews may need to physically inspect the damage but won't be making any "value judgments," she said.
"We'd like to be able to get into as many homes as we can to be as thorough as we can to make sure we tell a compelling story to the president," Eide said outside a makeshift shelter, where people were walking in and out with garbage bags filled with belongings. "The city of Minneapolis, Hennepin County and the state of Minnesota cannot help folks recover without some federal assistance."
To qualify for federal aid, the city must meet criteria in several areas, including the amount and type of damage, impact on surrounding infrastructure, level of insurance coverage for homeowners and public facilities, and assistance from other sources.
Individual families can receive grants. For renters, it could come as rental assistance or temporary shelter. The majority of people whose homes were damaged were renting. The maximum individual assistance grant is $29,600.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service updated its rating of Sunday's tornado, calling it a "strong end EF1," with wind speeds ranging from 100 to 110 mph. The damage was about a half-mile wide at its widest, and sporadic damage was caused over a distance of more than 14 miles, from Golden Valley to Blaine.
Xcel Energy said about 4,050 customers in north Minneapolis were still without power Wednesday night.
The University of Minnesota was recruiting volunteers to go door-to-door Thursday to check on residents, drop off food and household supplies, and provide information about housing, health and other resources.
Looting is another concern. Rep. Joe Mullery, DFL-St. Paul, said he's spoken with a number of people whose homes are almost uninhabitable, but they won't leave.
"People in the neighborhood tell me it's almost impossible to live in their houses," he said. "But they're afraid to leave because of looters going through looking for stuff."
Police have seen a higher than usual number of burglaries and officers have increased patrols in the area, but spokesman Sgt. Stephen McCarty said he thinks most of the looting reports were rumors. McCarty said if people are worried about looters, they should ask neighbors to watch their home.
"People have to look out for each other," he said.
Housing is proving to be a major need for displaced residents, and since many are staying with friends of family and haven't asked about assistance yet, that need could grow. A one-day assistance center that provided housing help and other services Tuesday drew more than 1,200 people. A disaster recovery center that opened Wednesday served another 1,200 people.
About 90 percent of the people helped on Tuesday were renters who didn't have insurance, said Cathy ten Broeke, director of the office to end homelessness for Minneapolis and Hennepin County.
"They're pretty low-income to start," ten Broeke said. "They've lost everything and don't have much to fall back on. We're dealing with an extra level of tragedy because of that."
Amanda Meeks, 31, is among the displaced. Since the tornado ripped off the side of her north Minneapolis home, exposing the staircase, she's been staying with a friend, meaning seven kids and two adults are squeezing into a modest three-bedroom apartment. The mother of four hasn't been homeless since she was 18, and usually works two or three jobs at once to get by.
"This is so random for me," she said. "And it's not my fault."
While driving around looking for a place to stay, Meeks said she might organize a fundraiser at her children's Columbia Heights school to raise money for a deposit on a new apartment. She waited four hours for help on Tuesday, but didn't get any before she had to pick up her kids from the school bus.
"It was just too hectic and chaotic," she said, noting that she ran into the same problem when she went to another building to apply for food stamps. "It was so jam-packed full. I just couldn't even stay there." | <urn:uuid:6acd9b67-105e-480a-aad3-71685ba85e43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/47371/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981709 | 1,119 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Posted: Mar 1, 2013 12:44 AM by Sam Salzwedel
Updated: Mar 1, 2013 12:44 AM
TUCSON - University of Arizona students are using a free shuttle service called SafeRide to get around campus and the surrounding neighborhoods.
It is a service encouraged by police to avoid walking alone in dark areas. There were 3 robberies on campus in the past month.
UA student, Alexandria Partida, called for a ride to the grocery store Thursday night.
"It's definitely out of convenience but more for safety," she said. "There have been times where I'm at the library and I prefer to take SafeRide rather than use my bike or walk home."
She feels safe at school but does not have the same security off campus at night.
"I definitely have my head on a swivel," she said, "I don't have any headphones in. I like to observe my surroundings."
Chris Nelson is a paid student employee who has driven for SafeRide the past 2 semesters.
"It's a fantastic job. I really enjoy it, and I like helping people," he said. "It comes from student fees, so you might as well get your money's worth and use it."
The Associated Students of the University of Arizona pay for the fleet of about a dozen vehicles and 45 employees.
They serve more than 90,000 passengers a year.
The boundaries go from Broadway Boulevard to Grant Road and Country Club to Stone Avenue. They do not go Downtown.
They operate from 6:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Fridays. It is not supposed to be used as a designated driver service so they do not run Saturday nights.
Their phone number is (520)621-7233.
Check out the latest events FC Tucson has scheduled.
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Complete feeds of all KVOA.com stories | <urn:uuid:a2eafbdb-e311-4ace-a797-d0b8e8e5895f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kvoa.com/news/students-use-free-shuttle-after-robberies-on-campus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959436 | 549 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Steve Machell, sales manager for Gulf Coast Produce Inc., recently attended a Florida farms to schools meeting to discuss how more Florida schools can buy and serve Florida produce.
“They (the agriculture department) are doing a nice job supporting local produce,” Machell said.
“They had a lot of foodservice guys there at the meeting. Florida being the customer, they want Florida product. It’s great and is nice to see Florida trying to push the state’s own products.”
To help increase consumer use of strawberries, the association is working with consumer magazine publisher Meredith Publishing in Des Moines, Iowa, to feature articles on berries in their publications, which include Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle.
For retail merchandising, the group plans to conduct events with individual stores at major Florida retailers.
Billboards on major Florida interstate highways tell tourists traveling to and from the north about Florida’s strawberries. | <urn:uuid:7256729e-d2b5-416d-b4fe-c751f867270e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepacker.com/fruit-vegetable-news/shipping-profiles/florida-strawberries/Group-uses-chefs-bloggers-to-promote-strawberry-consumption-184831411.html?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94461 | 196 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Medway HS evacuated due to smell of gas
MEDWAY, Mass. (WHDH) -- The smell of gas prompted an evacuation of Medway High School on Thursday morning.
Students and teachers were moved to tennis courts outside the school as crews checked for gas leaks. Three small leaks were found and stopped. The building was then ventilated.
Students were dismissed for the day.
Authorities said the reason the leaks were found was because a computer malfunction put too much odorant in the gas lines, making the gas easier to smell.
Fire officials said the odorant is non-toxic, but the smell can make people feel nauseous. Six people were taken to the hospital after they said they were not feeling well.
The gas company said people in the town could smell the extra odorant if they turn on their gas Thursday night.
The school has been cleared for students to return on Friday. | <urn:uuid:859a3c3c-530b-4ed2-b404-a590f236371a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/south/12008585362336/medway-hs-evacuated-due-to-smell-of-gas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991018 | 186 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Join us online for the first EdTechConnect of the 2006-2007 school year! Discovery Education is proud to feature Joe Brennan on Wednesday Sept. 20 at 5:00PM EST.
Who: Joe Brennan is a STAR Discovery Educator who recently retired from Niles Township High Schools and is now an independent consultant specializing in digital storytelling . A former Spanish teacher who coached both soccer and basketball, Joe first became interested in educational video and multimedia because of his visual approach to teaching and coaching. Joe is an Apple Distinguished Educator and the Illinois Computing Educator’s Educator of the Year in 2003.
Topic: The Incompleat Guide to Digital Storytelling – An overview of the tools and resources available to students and teachers to help them share information and inspiration with the rest of the world. From PowerPoint to podcasting to professional video editing programs, classes can collaborate on exciting projects that extend their learning far beyond wall the walls of their school.
This webinar will be limited to the first 200 people, so register now!
If you have any questions about EdTechConnect or registration, contact Steve_Dembo@discovery.com | <urn:uuid:b0a91533-c17f-41e5-9163-c8ba2e2074a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2006/09/15/edtechconnect-returns-with-joe-brennan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932584 | 233 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Sunday, May 19, 2013 6:31 AM
Published on: Thursday, January 17, 2013
By Donna Broadway
ROCKVILLE - In the aftermath of the December Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that claimed the lives of 27 people, 20 of them being children, Montgomery County citizens are concerned with school safety and gun control.
Despite the Montgomery County School board recently voting to move $364,000 from fiscal year 2014 to complete the installation of access control systems in elementary schools, lawmakers and parents still feel that there are more changes to be made.
Many parents are asking for armed security in schools.
There have been school resource officers (SRO’s) in Baltimore City Public Schools since the 1960s, the program expanded to the rest of the state in the 1990s.
SRO’s are fully sworn and armed police officers, who are assigned to a school or police district. The duties of an SRO range from acting as a community liaisons, diffusing violent situations, or simply being an open ear for students.
There are currently 352 school resource officers in Maryland Public Schools. Six of whom are in Montgomery County.
The officers are assigned to the high schools in each police district.
There are over 45,000 high school students in the county, which means there is one officer for almost 8,000 students.
SGT. Suzanne Harrell of the MCPD SRO office assures parents that our SRO’s top priority is to keep students safe in their learning environments.
“Montgomery County has numerous safety plans on the school side and our side. The MCPD and the MCPS meet on a routine basis to discuss these plans and our officers assist with MCPS’s emergency drills, which include shelter-in-place and lockdown drills,” she says.
While Montgomery County is currently discussing department staffing plans for fiscal year 2014, the Maryland General Assembly may have more immediate plans.
Delegate John Cluster(D-8) is currently drafting a bill that will require school resource officers in every Maryland Public School, including elementary schools.
The bill will be proposed as emergency legislation, meaning it will take effect immediately upon approval of Governor O’Malley.
Cluster’s goal is to have the bill done before March and effective by the end of the 2012-2013 school year.
“We have pretty safe schools, but we have problem areas. It’s sad but we have to protect our kids and this is how we do it,” Cluster says.
“This is not the only fix we have to make. We need to make changes to mental health treatment. A lot of facilities have been closed, so we’re giving less help for mental illness. Adding more SROs and available mental health care can make a big difference,” he adds.
Jon Carrier, president of Maryland Association of School Resource Officers, supports Delegate Clusters bill. | <urn:uuid:892c3545-1e0d-4e0d-bcf5-94dac5b5969c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/entertainment/Violence1-17-13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965186 | 607 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Compose with a full orchestra on your iPad or iPhone
Many years ago I built a music synthesizer kit. It was a mass of circuit boards and wires. When I got done, any note I played warbled and quickly went off key.
Times have changed, and now, rather amazingly, an iPhone or iPad can be home to a massive orchestra that will do your bidding as you compose or transcribe music wherever you are.
That brings us to WI Orchestra, a new app from Wallander Instruments that allows you to create and record orchestral music, layer by layer. The app is free, but it only gives you a handful of instruments. In-app purchases let you select an entire family of instruments for US$2.99. To get them all will cost you $15. Wallander technology has been in use for years, and you'll hear its electronically created instruments in TV shows and movies. Lots of composers use the desktop versions of the software every day.
The app allows you to work on up to 98 compositions at a time, and you can export the songs as WAV files. It works on any iDevice running iOS 4.0 or greater, and iPad and iPhones with more than 256 MB of RAM can have projects that run up to 5 minutes.
I tried the app on my iPad and thought it was pretty intuitive. A brief help menu is supplied. The keyboard picked up how hard I was playing, and roughly adjusted volume accordingly. I realized how nice a Bluetooth or USB music keyboard would be with this app. The on-screen version worked OK, but it's certainly not tactile the way a physical keyboard would be.
The instruments sound very realistic, especially with headphones on. You can click here for a demo of how a final piece sounds. The output of the app is mono only. It would be nice to be able to determine the position of an instrument, but you'll have to move up to some more sophisticated software for that kind of control.
There's no way an app like this is going to equal the bells and whistles, literally, of a high-end synthesizer, but WI Orchestra is awfully impressive. You can certainly play with it for free, but if you like it, you'll probably spring for more instruments. Another positive is you won't have wires all over your desk and the smell of solder, like I did eons ago.
ThumbJam is also impressive, and it's designed for real-time music making, rather than layering tracks to make a final product. It's $6.99 and comes with dozens of instruments. Let us know if you've seen some other impressive musical composition apps.
Wi Orchestra is a universal app that runs on an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.
Many years ago I built a music synthesizer kit. It was a mass of circuit boards and wires. When I got done, any note I played warbled... | <urn:uuid:0220f828-5a7b-4098-9c69-293b5a4deea5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/17/compose-with-a-full-orchestra-on-your-ipad-or-iphone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964607 | 600 | 1.734375 | 2 |
||home / march 2002 / feature
Hikaru no Go
By Holly Kolodziejczak
Hikaru no Go is something that's turning out to be hard to sell other people on. At its core, this series is about Go - you know, the ancient Japanese game that involves placing black and white stones on a board. As soon as people hear that, I've lost them... they automatically think that it's going to be boring from that point on. Heck, even I thought it was going to be boring at first, I won't lie. I didn't know the first thing about Go, a month ago. Still, I gave it a chance all the same... and I was hooked from the first episode.
The series opens with an introduction of it's main character, Shindou Hikaru (not to be confused with Shidou Hikaru of Magic Knight Rayearth). Hikaru is a 6th grader in modern Japan who has a dilemma that I know I can relate to - he flunked his last history test pretty badly, and his parents cut off his allowance. So Hikaru ends up digging through his grandfather's old stuff, looking for something to sell, and comes across an old Goban (Go table). But the table has a mysterious blood stain on it that only Hikaru seems to be able to see...
The Goban is tied to the spirit of a Go player from the Heian era named Fujiwara no Sai. Sai was once a Go instructor for the emperor of Japan, but because of a colleague's treachery, he was cast out of the capital in disgrace and ends his own life shortly after. However, Sai's spirit is unable to rest because he still has not been able to achieve the "Hand of God" in his Go games. Unfortunately, Hikaru has just about zero interest in playing Go, so it looks like Sai is out of luck for the time being. Hikaru eventually gives in to Sai's desire, and very slowly begins to form his own passion for the ancient game of Go.
Like Hikaru, children in Japan and all over Asia are suddenly taking an interest in Go. After every episode, there is a brief live-action segment called "Go Go Igo" with one of Japan's female professional Go players, Umezawa Yukari. Yukari-sensei, along with her two young students, Mai-chan and Yuuki-kun, present a small lesson about Go in each segment that helps you understand the game, and therefore understand some of the references in the anime. These lessons are presented so well that I, who knew absolutely nothing about this game before watching this anime, went out in search of places to play Go online. There was even a page in one of the tankoubon with information on where one can play Go and a number to call for information.
Hikaru no Go has spawned such a great newfound interest in Go among Japanese children that the Japanese Go Institute recently hosted a Hikaru no Go beginners Go class, attended by hundreds of children. Beginner's Go boards featuring the Hikaru no Go characters were handed out to the participants, and Yukari-sensei, Mai-chan, and Yuuki-kun were there for the festivities. Clearly, this anime and manga has started something big. Hikaru no Go just started its run on TV Tokyo a few short months ago in October of 2001, and already there is a collectible card game and a Game Boy Advance game for the series.
The animation for this show is very clean and nicely done. Sometimes the angles make the characters look a little weird, but for the most part, the artwork and storyline follow the manga closely. The soundtrack is good, but nothing spectacular. The background music is fitting for the show, but the tension music that plays during some of the Go matches can get a little repetitive if you're paying attention to it. However, if you're anything like me, you'll be so into the match that you won't even notice the BGM.
I actually had to go back and rewatch an episode, specifically concentrating on the background music, because I hadn't really paid attention to it before. It's not bad, and it fits the action that it accompanies. It fades very easily into the background, which is probably the desired effect. The opening song is "Get Over" by dream, and is fittingly inspirational, a very "Keep your head up and never surrender! We'll make it together!" kind of song. Again, the music for this series is good, but nothing truly special.
The sieyuu for Hikaru no Go are definitely no strangers to Studio Pierrot productions, as well as some other major productions. The vocal work for Hikaru is done by Kawakami Tomoko (Chiriko, Fushigi Yuugi; Noelle, Tenshi ni Narumon; Utena, Revolutionary Girl Utena). Kazaku Yumi (Mikage Aya, Ayashi no Ceres) voices Hikaru's friend, Akari. Chiba Nobuo voices Fujiwara no Sai, and Touya Akira is done by Kobayashi Makoto.
As mentioned before, Hikaru no Go began it's run on TV Tokyo in October of 2001. It is currently being fansubbed by Elite Fansubs, and episodes 1-14 are available online in digital format at the time this article was written. Translations for volumes 1-8 of the manga are also available on the web. Hikaru no Go is geared towards junior-high age children of both sexes, but judging from fan groups online, both the manga and anime are wildly popular across every age group and around the globe. Even if you have no interest in Go, give this anime a chance - Hikaru didn't think he'd like it, either.
|HIKARU NO GO: CHARACTER DOSSIER
Hikaru's friend and neighbor. They attend the same school. Akari was with Hikaru when he found the Goban at his grandfather's house, and has been the very confused witness to his transformation since then.
|Fujiwara no Sai
Spirit of a Go player from the Heian era. Sai used to teach Go to the emperor, but was tricked and cast out in disgrace. He ended his own life in utter sadness, but his spirit can't rest until he achieves the "Hand of God".
The 3rd member of the Haze Jr. High Go club. Mitani used to cheat at Go for money, but has reformed with a little help from Hikaru and Sai.
Currently a student at Haze Jr. High, and member of the Go club. In 6th grade, he was better at sports than anything else, until he suddenly became attached to a 1,000 year old spirit (named Fujiwara no Sai) who wants nothing but to play Go.
A child genius, the same age as Hikaru but on the level of a professional Go player. His father is the current Meijin (a Go title) in Japan. Akira was beaten by Hikaru twice, because Hikaru was playing how Sai told him to, and now Akira views Hikaru as his rival and an obstacle which he must overcome in order to achieve the "Hand of God". Akira is a student at Kaiou Jr. High, a rival school.
Captain of the Haze Jr. High Go club. Tsutsui is very unsure of himself, but always encouraging to others. He's a really nice guy, and also teaches Go to Akari when Hikaru's not around.
Studio Pierrot official website (Japanese)
TV Tokyo official website (Japanese)
Hikaru no Go manga scanlations
Elite Fansubs website
The Go Institute | <urn:uuid:7a124103-206a-43ff-b9bc-6c12e114525d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/02.03/feature/2/index.php3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976621 | 1,603 | 1.5 | 2 |
Do you ever have times where it feels like everyone expects something from you…and yet no one is meeting your needs?
You probably don’t want to come across as needy, but a part of you feels like a little child who just wants someone to care for them.
Here’s one way to step into more support and feel like a balanced adult.
Whenever emotional issues show up in our lives (and we all have them!), we tend to want to ignore them. Either we think they’re too painful or we’re just too busy to deal with it at the time.
But when any core issues show up in your life—I’ve learned that our better response is to pay attention with compassion and gratitude. Because those issues are a wonderful signal to you that healing is at hand!
Helping the Wounded Adult Child
When a child is not parented true to their nature, they grow up as a wounded or repressed adult. In this Better Parenting Show episode, I’ll talk about what that looks like for each Type—and what you can do about it now!
- How to overcome the negative messages you received as a child.
- Which Type is most likely to overeat as an adult.
- Ways to handle misdirected anger.
- Messages that can heal your children—even if they’re adults.
Listen to this episode of the Better Parenting Show for your own inner child. You’ll be so glad you did.
To listen, click on the BlogTalk Radio symbol below. | <urn:uuid:05b60604-5e13-4224-ba83-078dff2cd6ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecarolblog.com/tag/inner-child/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952741 | 327 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Australia 2000-meter Peaks
Ranked Peaks have 60 meters of Clean Prominence
Front Runners List: Click here to see list completion progress by climbers that log their climbs using Peakbagger.com.
Compare Climbers: Click here to compare ascents of up to 5 climbers working on this list.
There are a number of lists that show the highest peaks in Australia, often with a cutoff after the ten highest. This list, however, was modeled after the many worldwide threshold lists that use a round-number elevation cutoff. Here, 2000 meters is a very nice round number that provides a list of 15 summits that crown the Australian continent.
A prominence cutoff of 60 meters was chosen because a) it seemed about right for this list, and b) the 1:50,000 contour maps of the area have 20 meter contours, so it made sense to use a multiple of 20. Sixty meters is about 200 feet, which is similar to prominence cutoffs used for lists covering similar terrain in the eastern USA.
The peaks on this list are all relatively easy hikes or scrambles, and it is entirely possible to do several of these peaks in a single day. They are all clustered closely together in or near the Snowy Mountains.
Thanks to Scott Cockrell for suggesting this list and providing the links to the "Austrailia 10" sites.
Links Aussie 10
The Perfect Mountain 10
Map Showing Location of Peaks
= Peak with Rank #1 on List; = Other PeaksClick on a peak to see its name and a clickable link.
(Map only shows peaks ranked by clean prominence)
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Questions/Comments/Corrections? See the Contact Page
Copyright © 1987-2013 by Peakbagger.com. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:8fe3741c-0c0e-4409-bf8a-dde8dc9712f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=2602 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943269 | 381 | 1.71875 | 2 |
As readers at Take As Directed and Terra Sigillata are aware, I’m working at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh as we launch our new wing, the Nature Research Center (NRC). Dedicated to bringing ordinary citizens in touch and involved with science and scientists, the NRC will open to the public during a 24-hour Grand Opening celebration beginning this Friday, April 20, at 5 pm EDT.
Making science accessible to the public is a philosophy evident, for example, in the hire of Brian Malow to serve as the emcee of the Museum’s SECU Daily Planet, the iconic global multimedia theatre at the heart of the NRC.
In keeping with this theme, I’m delighted to announce that science storyteller Perrin Ireland has agreed to join us as artist-in-residence for the duration of our grand opening activities.
“I am currently science storyteller at Alphachimp Studio, Inc, a graphic facilitation studio in Nashville, TN that helps people tell their stories visually,” says Perrin. “I work with scientists and health professionals to transform their content into playful, engaging animations.”
Perrin is well-known to the online and meatspace science communications world as an outstanding visual artist. But she’s an equally vivid writer. When she launched her old blog, Perrin shared this worldview:
My pen and ink explications of science are the love children of graphic novels and dissection manuals. They explore the technicalities and history of the research experience. I discuss the role research plays in the human relationship to other creatures via illustration with the intent to make scientific concepts accessible to a general audience that largely believes itself science illiterate.
I yearn for the days of yore when everybody was an amateur naturalist, and the world was any illustrator’s oyster. People discovered how things worked by drawing what they found. I drew my way through my biology degree at Brown University.
My goal is to invite the lay audience to reclaim science as an intimate practice of embracing the world. I am for a people’s science. (In my graphic stories I’m interested in illustrating that there are many ways to do things besides the ways we do them, and they’re all perfectly acceptable) . . . My calling is to illuminate, to represent the voiceless, minute, creative explosions of life that guide me to continue expanding my perspective.
Perrin will be throughout the Nature Research Center during the 24-hour opening capturing the work of scientists from around the world who are joining us to speak with the public. These programs will not only take place in our Daily Planet theatre but also at our more intimate Windows on Research areas outside of our laboratories.
And funny that I mentioned Brian Malow above – Perrin has agreed to scribe Brian’s late-night science cafe show in the NRC’s new “science sports bar” at midnight to 2 am during the opening. Details are still being negotiated but all signs point to Perrin both being documentarian and interview subject.
I’m really excited to see what happens when two remarkably creative people get together with internationally-recognized scientists at a public event currently anticipated to draw 50,000 visitors during the 24-hour event. So if you’re in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina – or can drive or fly here by Friday, April 20 at 5 pm EDT – we hope you’ll join us.
For a full schedule of our 24-hour Grand Opening events, see this main Plan Your Visit page to learn about events and performances, outdoor displays and activities, indoor activities, the full Daily Planet schedule, and a full PDF event map. | <urn:uuid:9ccaf997-9bbd-442a-b0c6-4cde50868f73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.plos.org/takeasdirected/2012/04/17/perrin-ireland-alphachimp-nrc-artist-in-residence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934992 | 776 | 1.5625 | 2 |
(click for larger)
Anarchism is a very loaded word that conjures specific images in peoples' minds. It's difficult to overcome these stereotypes and honestly I don't discuss it often. We can't even get Universal Healthcare in this country, how can we expect communalism, mutual aid and consensus-based decision making? I'm a poor anarchist in that I'm not very active politically. I try to live and act in manners that reduce oppression and hierarchy as this is what anarchism means to me and, like veganism, I try to live my life as an example (easier said than done!). This past weekend was the Second Annual Anarchist Bookfair and it was one of the best events like this I've been to in a long time. The location could not of been better: Barnsdall Art Park. It's near bus and train lines and easily accessible from Hollywood or downtown. Most importantly it's freakin beautiful. Trees and open space on the top of a hill with beautiful views in every direction.
Looking East. Silver Lake in the foreground and snow-capped Baldy behind
I gave a workshop on veganism that addressed concerns about veganism/animal rights being an issue for only white affluent folks and otherwise unattainable. My argument is simple: You have to separate the issue from who does it. Animals are caged and killed for human use and this is an issue of oppression. I care about living beings and want to reduce suffering therefore I don't eat or wear animal products. Do you have to eat at Whole Foods to be vegan? No. In my household rice and beans (dry beans!) is a common meal, as is stir-fry with whatever veggies are in-season and low-cost at the farmers market or local grocer. There are barriers to veganism, but they are overcome with a few resources. This is the focus of my presentation. It was well-received and some good discussions developed.
I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with friends and activists. Hung out with the people at Earth First! and Little Black Cart. Hundreds of people attended and the vibe was great. I credit the hard work of the organizers in reaching a diverse set of folks and not having any punk bands play. The space we occupy and communicate in influences how that communication happens and this space only improved it. Bike parking would have been nice, but you know, we can't have everything.
Impromptu yoga during sunset watching. Cliches aplenty.
The next event is the Anarchist Cafe on Sunday February 28th at 1pm in DTLA. I'm hosting a workshop specifically on vegan nutrition in the early afternoon. See you there. | <urn:uuid:b5d3c88b-4bcb-4d6c-82f6-7dd6f0ecdf63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nowhip.blogspot.com/2010/01/los-angeles-anarchist-bookfair.html?showComment=1264554833945 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976914 | 549 | 1.734375 | 2 |
June 14, 2011
I'm really quick to blame censorship in political correctness, fear and close-mindedness. I say that it's needless and that it's a result of oversensitivity and a fundamental fear of hurting anyone's feelings.
I was listening to a podcast on the way home yesterday and the hosts played a clip from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In the clip, Sean Penn calls other surfers a bunch of fags. That combined with the fact that no matter how many times I typed it fags was autocorrected to tags got me thinking. Maybe I'm wrong about all the political correctness. Maybe some historically aware folks took a look back and realized that while sticks and sticks and stones did break bones, words left a lasting impression that outlived even the deepest physical scar.
When we were in college, Beth and I got the chance to take a class taught by James Farmer. Farmer was a civil rights pioneer. He marched with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. He rode in the front seats of buses in protest. He was hosed in the streets of the south and beaten and jailed along with his brothers. The class was one night a week for a semester. For two hours we'd listen to farmer, then blinded and wheelchair bound by diabetes, sing the protest songs they'd sung on the bus, tell stories from their marches, recall life on the road with MLK. It was amazing. By the time the final rolled around, we realized that there was virtually nothing to study. It didn't matter. The final exam was nothing but simple multiple choice questions. There was no way to fail. What was important was, as with Farmer himself, the experience.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that most likely behind every claim of political correctness, there's most likely been suffering, been struggle, been a fight. And, personally, I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the fact that words are important.
Dr. Farmer died a few years ago. His memory lives on at our old school where he is memorialized. Rightly so. He is a true hero, luckily one that I was personally able to learn from.
Have you ever met a hero?
Posted by Chris at June 14, 2011 7:44 AM
I don't know what really made this hit home for you, Chris, but I'm *really* happy. I think it's very hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes, and for someone like yourself who is the "majority" in every sense, this really is heartening. I find so many kind, well-meaning "majority" folks unwilling to understand how a culture of degradation, which starts with words, can cause lasting and permanent damage. Why is c*nt not ok, n*gger not ok, but we're fine with bitch, wetback, fag, retard, towel-head, and others?
If you remove language from your vocabulary that is harmful, you generally learn new words, mainly because you get to know folks from all walks of life with their own take on things, their own cultures.
For all the rest of folks who disagree with Chris's concept, I have a favor to ask of you. Ask the parent of a kid who is mentally challenged if their six year old daughter being called a "retard" to her face makes her cry. Better yet, think about how much you want to walk up to that same kid and tell her she's just a "retard", what does she know?
What's the big deal? It's just a word.
I agree that words have way more power than some folks want to realize. Even words that are not considered slurs or insults can wound when used casually.
My children have various mood disorders among the three of them. If I had dime for every time I heard people use biploar or OCD as a punchline to describe someone's indecisiveness or flakiness or desire to have things a certain way, I'd be able to cater a really nice dinner for all of your readers. I try not to get up on my soapbox to talk about what it really means to be bipolar (it's not just mood swings, folks!) or obsessive-compulsive but hearing the terms used in a joking way is tough sometimes.
I was going to say something but no need. Alektra said it all. Almost.
My physically challenged (cerebral palsy)great-granddaughter has been called retard more than once and she and her two beautiful younger sisters have heard the word n*gger far too many times. My younger son has been called f*g and worse since high school and three of my grandchildren's mom was born in Manila - they've had their share of name calling directed at them. Even my Army son has been insulted by people who should know better and would never dream of using racial or ethnic slurs.
Elcie (the "retard" according to some), graduated from high school last week and will start Junior College in August. She walked across that stage with her head held high. For that night, she was my hero. When I watched my son and his partner legally marry in 2008, they were my heroes of the day. Today, my hero is you for understanding empathy.
Of course we go overboard sometimes. I'm not "vertically challenged"; I'm short. But the use of ugly words, even as so-called humor, helps create a climate for hatred to flourish. Words hurt us all.
My daughter has adhd and her mind is like a recorder, she repeats conversation that happened weeks ago verbatim. Until we knew what was wrong with her, we both thought she was just unmotivated and lazy in her actions, but now we know differently. I am very upset that she remembers how I use to tell her to stop being lazy, stop being annoying, stop this, stop that... I have told her that I regret that and I am sorry. I know she remembers. Words are powerful and can hurt and I wish they could be taken back. I hope someday she will remember how it changed.
Yes, some words should not be used. I completely agree that certain terms or names lead to hate and hate is something this world definitely has too much of. But. I'm really, really tired of people playing the "offended" card. If someone repeatedly offends you, cut them out of your life. Stop listening to their radio show. Don't visit the comedy club they're booked at...Essentially, move on and be better for it. Life is hard. It's something we all have to deal with. Do I want to see my kid called names? Absolutely not. But it's going to happen...As trite as it sounds, that's really just a part of life.
Here's my main problem with censorship, WHERE do we draw the line? And WHO draws the line? Telling people what they can or cannot say because somebody is offended is a slippery slope. One that personally terrifies me...It's reminds me too much of 1984.
Holly, I suppose your concern is one of "No one can say that!?"
The rest of us are more concerned about each person's choices. Personal choices are part of free speech. But if someone is saying those things, my question is, why? Why do we feel the need to mock others and their pain? Why put others down? What is the benefit to an individual to assert herself over another?
Yes, people will be mean, but I think you also agree that it doesn't excuse the cruelty. People will also rob, steal, cheat, rape and murder. None of those things is ok, either, though I think there is a spectrum of wrong.
So, if you want to be a good person, be a good person. That is yours alone to determine internally. But I think it is our treatment of others that determines our worth most of all.
'Course, I'm a Christian, so I subscribe to the "Whatsoever you do to the least of my people" theory. So take it for what it's worth. But the Carpenter Himself was a pretty nice dude. From the stories, he was nice to folks with disabilities, little kids, widows, prostitutes, gentiles. You know, the folks everyone else demeaned back in His day.
f your readers. I try not to get up on my soapbox to talk about what it really means to be bipolar (it's not just mood swings, folks!) or obsessive-compulsive but hearing the terms used in a joking way is tough sometimes.
Posted by MamaKaren at June 14, 2011 9:43 AM | <urn:uuid:6ff13b5b-96f8-4929-a277-c7b40b78519a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rudecactus.com/2011/06/words.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983686 | 1,793 | 1.703125 | 2 |
December 27, 2006
Missouri Hog and Pig Inventory Above Year Earlier
Columbia, MO - The December 1, 2006 inventory of hogs and pigs in Missouri is estimated at 2.75 million head, up 50,000 head from a year ago but unchanged from the September 1, 2006 inventory. "The downward trend in the December hog inventory which began in 1997 is beginning to turn around", said Gene Danekas Director of Missouri Agricultural Statistics. "This December is the first year-to-year increase in the total inventory since 2001." Breeding hogs are estimated at 360,000 head, up 15,000 head from a year ago and up 5,000 head from last quarter. Market hogs are estimated at 2.39 million head, up 35,000 head from the same period last year but 5,000 below September 1, 2006.
The September-November 2006 pig crop totaled 1.53 million head, down 2 percent from the same quarter a year earlier but up slightly from the comparable period two years ago. There were 170,000 sows farrowed during this quarter with an average of 9.0 pigs per litter. Farrowing intentions for December-February 2007 are forecast at 175,000 sows, 10,000 sows more than the actual farrowings during the same period last year and 5,000 sows more than two years ago. March-May 2007 farrowings are also forecast at 175,000 sows, 5,000 more than the actual farrowings during that period both last year and two years ago.
United States Hog Inventory Up 1 Percent
U.S. inventory of all hogs and pigs on December 1, 2006 was 62.1 million head. This was up 1 percent from December 1, 2005, but down 1 percent from September 1, 2006.
Breeding inventory, at 6.09 million head, was up 1 percent from last year and up slightly from the previous quarter. Market hog inventory, at 56.1 million head, was up 1 percent from last year, but down 1 percent from last quarter.
The September-November 2006 pig crop, at 26.6 million head, was up 1 percent from 2005 and up 3 percent from 2004. Sows farrowing during this period totaled 2.91 million head, up slightly from 2005 and up 1 percent from 2004. The sows farrowed during this quarter represented 48 percent of the breeding herd. The average pigs saved per litter was 9.13 for the September- November 2006 period, compared to 9.03 last year. Pigs saved per litter by size of operation ranged from 7.60 for operations with 1-99 hogs and pigs to 9.20 for operations with more than 5,000 hogs and pigs.
U.S. hog producers intend to have 2.90 million sows farrow during the December 2006 - February 2007 quarter, up 2 percent from the actual farrowings during the same period in both 2006 and 2005. Intended farrowings for March-May 2007, at 2.93 million sows, are up 1 percent from 2006 and up 2 percent from 2005. | <urn:uuid:820314bd-20ac-4d59-a991-06a8968bcd51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Missouri/Publications/Press_Releases/20061227-Hogs_and_Pigs.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958825 | 642 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Jefferson Airplane's Psychedelic pop and Acid Rock songs helped put San Francisco on the musical map of the 1960s. The band was formed in 1965 with Signe Anderson as lead vocalist. She was soon replaced by Grace Slick of the Great Society and the new, improved Jefferson Airplane landed on a hit with "Somebody To Love" from their timely 1967 album, Surrealistic Pillow (the same lp that hit with the alleged druggie anthem "White Rabbit"). Loaded with swirling guitars and lysergic solos, this album provided part of the soundtrack to San Francisco's Summer of Love. The Jefferson Airplane was founded by Marty Balin, who left the band in 1971. Besides Anderson and Balin, many other notable musicians traveled on the Jefferson Airplane through a revolving door that once welcomed Alexander "Skip" Spence of Moby Grape as well as David Freiberg of the Quicksilver Messenger Service. Following a myriad of lineup changes, the band went through some name changes as well. Jefferson Airplane became Jefferson Starship and then Starship. Jefferson Starship's most celebrated appearance came in the form of a Star Wars made-for-television musical special that was aired shortly after the film's box office success. Hosted by Bea Arthur, the one-hour show featured much of the Star Wars cast as well as a now-endearing musical performance by Jefferson Starship. The band later had a hit in the '80s as Starship with "We Built This City," a MOR/AOR pop hit built with synthesizers, sound bites and the shelf-life of a soft-banana. | <urn:uuid:8bb1f4f9-e245-458b-8723-a94aeed1dad1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/jefferson-airplane | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969156 | 332 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The Benefits of Whey Protein Supplements
The Benefits of Whey Protein Supplements
If you're looking to build muscle, gain strength, and lose weight put down the soy and step this whey.
Whey protein isn’t just for bodybuilders. In fact, whey can help people of all ages achieve better health and a better looking, stronger body. What makes whey so special? It is naturally composed of the best amino acids and immune boosting compounds. In fact, whey has the highest achievable protein digestibility corrected amino acid score (PDCAA) – a measure of both how well a protein is digested and how well it supplies the amino acids needed by an adult. In addition, whey contains all of the essential amino acids your body needs and more branched chain amino acids (BCAAs), specifically the BCAA leucine, then most other types of protein. Why is this important? Read on for whey’s main benefits.
Weight Loss & Maintenance
Protein is the most satiating of the 3 macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat) meaning it will keep you full for a longer period of time and help you decrease your food intake at your next meal. In fact, protein actually alters the satiety signals that are sent to your brain to tell you that you’ve had enough to eat. Whey protein, in particular, has been shown to promote greater fullness. Studies show that whey can decrease hunger to a greater extent than both casein (the primary protein in cottage cheese) and soy, two other proteins loaded with essential amino acids.
In addition to satiating one’s appetite, a few longer term studies show that adding whey protein to your diet may help you lose weight. In one study, scientists put two groups of people through a resistance training program. They told one group not to make any changes to their diet while they told the other group to add 300 – 600 more calories per day in the form of a nutrition supplement (this supplement was taken once per day for the first two weeks and twice a day for the remaining eight weeks of the study). Though both groups of participants lost fat the group given the whey lost twice as much fat as the group that wasn’t given the nutrition supplement. The whey group also gained more muscle.
What component of whey makes it help with weight loss? It could be the fact that it keeps you full for longer. Or, it may be the leucine content. Leucine is a fascinating amino acid that scientists believe may be the key amino acid for breaking down fat in the body and boosting muscle growth.
In terms of total body transformation, whey doesn’t only boost your weight loss efforts but it’s also one of the best types of protein for gaining lean muscle mass and strength. This is vital for both men and women of all ages. Now, keep in mind that women don’t have the hormones to put on size and mass but will gain strength and by following a very well designed training program. Those bodybuilders you see have trained with very heavy weights for years on end and strategically take in enough total calories and protein to gain mass. For the females out there, strength will help you build better posture, boost athletic performance and help you develop a nice, lean, curvy figure.
The other group of people who absolutely must be focused on strength gains are those over the age of 40. Right around this age people start to lose muscle. This process is called sarcopenia and results from a lack of physical activity, not enough protein in one’s diet and changes in muscle tissue due to age. As one of the optimal proteins for building muscle tissue, whey can help slow this process.
Ideally, one should consume 20-30 grams of protein at every meal. Studies show that keeping your protein intake consistent throughout the day, as opposed to consuming little during breakfast, a little more during lunch and a decent amount at dinner. By evenly spacing out your protein intake you’ll build and maintain muscle mass to the greatest extent possible.
In addition, it’s essential to consume protein post-exercise. Though endurance training won’t help you build as much muscle as resistance training, you still need protein to repair muscle tissue. However,, after resistance training, it’s a good idea to take 20-30 grams of whey protein to boost muscle growth. Why? Because, whey proteins like 2:1:1 contains the best array of amino acids to stimulate muscle tissue growth and it’s fast, convenient and doesn’t require refrigeration!
Though you should aim for a variety of foods every day, adding whey protein to your diet after workouts and throughout the day can help you build muscle, gain strength, and help keep you satisfied throughout the day. Remember, whey has the best makeup of amino acids for muscle tissue. So start taking whey protein and start to notice changes in your body and athletic performance!!
If you're looking to add whey protein into your supplement routine, 1R would suggest the following:
- Optimum Nutrition Platinum Hydrowhey - Hydrolyzed whey protein for quicker absorption with a ultra-pure formula
- BSN Syntha-6 - Six source premium protein blend delivers a truly time-released formula that works throughout the day
- Gaspari IntraPro - Pure whey isolate digests quickly to aid new muscle growth and faster recovery
About the Author
Marie Spano is one of the country’s top sports nutritionists and a nutrition communications expert. She combines science with practical experience to help Olympic, professional and recreational athletes implement a nutrition game plan that will maximize their athletic performance. Marie also works with leading food, beverage and supplement companies on their PR and communications strategies. She has appeared on NBC, ABC, Fox and CBS affiliates on the east coast, written hundreds of magazine articles, trade publication articles, book chapters, e-zines and marketing materials. Ms. Spano holds an MS in Nutrition from the University of Georgia where she worked as a graduate assistant in the athletic department and a BS degree is in Exercise and Sports Science from UNC, Greensboro, NC where she ran Division 1 cross country.
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- (3) November 2010 | <urn:uuid:f859fb4f-93eb-4d22-a62b-2c07bb03896d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oneresult.com/articles/supplements/benefits-whey-protein-supplements | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954821 | 1,506 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I just read a friend’s Facebook post where she was asking how to clear her counters of all that paper clutter that comes in the mail and is brought home by the kids. I think this is a problem a lot of us have, me included. Some other sources of clutter in my home are all the electronic gadgets and cords, the toys that come out of rooms but never seem to get back to them, and the nicknacks that come from fast foods, treasure boxes, gifts, friends, and craft projects that just don’t seem to have a home.
Some basics suggestions:
1. Create a mail zone near the front door or where you bring in the mail. Have a recycle can so you can immediately dump all the junk mail. Have a small shredder to shred all those credit card applications and other personal information you don’t want in the garbage. Choose a file system. I like a small file box with or without a lid that you can short term file away things like: bills to pay, forms to sign, things to file in a larger file cabinet, and advertisements to look through. Perhaps even a tab for each child when they bring home schoolwork for you to look at.
2. Buy or decorate 1 foot square boxes for each person that can be a temporary storage place for things you find laying around the house. It helps with a quick clean up and puts all their things in one place where they can easily take a box to their room and put them away all at once.
3. Have a storage place for crafting items. Whether it is a hutch, roll around cart, basket near the crafting area, or box in a cabinet. If you like to crochet or knit while watching TV, put a basket near the couch that you can store your supplies in so that they can be in easy reach, but also contained in one place. Have a zone for children to hang up or display their crafts for a short time.
4. Electronics seem to be floating around my house. Again, have a basket or bucket to be able to put these in if they don’t belong to a specific person. A charging station where multiple electronics can be charged at once is a good idea.
Now the trick is to remember and take the time to put all these things in their proper place and purge unwanted items.
Schedule times like 10 minute tidies, bill paying and filing days, monthly purges and stick to it until it becomes part of the daily/weekly/monthly routine.
Teach the children to put their paper in their special file for mom or dad to look at. Good habits now will help your children to not be clutter bugs when they move out of the house.
You might be interested in: What Gets Me into the Cleaning Mood
Here are some inspirational pictures for stashing your clutter: | <urn:uuid:58fc430a-cbc5-4062-bb2e-09b8a85ce64a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://preservinghomebasics.com/2013/02/where-to-stash-all-that-clutter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958745 | 587 | 1.570313 | 2 |
A composite of studies of trust and estate attorneys, trust officers, and financial planners revealed that:
- Fewer than 10% of plans for their clients addressed art, antiques, and collectibles
- Fewer than 10% used art assets in intergenerational planning
- Fewer than 15% used art assets in philanthropic planning
- Fewer than 5% realize that the true cost of selling a million dollar painting at auction is approximately 35%
- Fewer than 1% used the services of an art succession planning specialist
So what’s the problem? The problem is that collectors and their families can lose, at minimum, as much as 75% in the value of the collection if upon death items are sold through traditional means.
And the collections of which we write are not all Rembrandts, Monets, and Picassos. The collection could consist of antique firearms, Western American art, African ritual masks, textiles, folk art, stamps and coins, classic cars or just about anything else!
In 2009 art was estimated to be a $40 Billion industry1.. There are approximately 17,500 museums, 25,000 galleries, 25,000 historical societies, and 50,000 art shows in the United States alone. Business Week reported that approximately 1/3 of families with a net worth in excess of $10 million are art collectors. And those personal collections, valued at $4 – $6 Trillion nationally, will be transferred to others over the next two generations. Recent trends show the dramatic increase to much higher possibilities.3 Those numbers are stunning, but what’s even more surprising is that the great majority of these collectors haven’t given a thought to that succession process.
If you are not planning for your client’s most prized possessions or favorite hobbies, their beneficiaries may be the ones screaming all the way to the IRS.
Enjoy our white paper. | <urn:uuid:ad6b919f-52d4-46be-b98d-6c863e4a1b39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecomplexestate.com/2012/05/08/art-triggers-an-advanced-estate-planning-issue/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940939 | 391 | 1.648438 | 2 |
With all the emphasis on children around the holidays, our older citizens are sometimes forgotten. We urge people to extend their generosity to them, as well.
In every nursing home in the North Country — and in some neighborhoods, as well — you can find senior citizens who no longer have living relatives in the area or, even more sadly, have family members who just don’t care.
Though nursing-home staff members do their best to ensure that these people have a pleasant holiday, help from the public is always appreciated.
Every year, the Press-Republican reminds people, as they consider charitable giving, to not forget local nursing-home residents. We do so in honor of the late Dr. Angelo LaMariana, a Plattsburgh State music professor and accomplished musician for whom this was special cause.
LaMariana made it to age 95 without needing the services of a nursing home, but he often visited those facilities, as well as a number of shut-ins, to visit friends or deliver communion as a Eucharistic minister. He would stop in the Press-Republican every year and talk about how sad it was to see lonely people as he made his rounds.
In some countries, elders are revered and cherished; in the United States, the emphasis seems to be on youth. It will be interesting to see how that plays out over the years as the baby boomers age; they might be too large a force to be ignored.
If you decide to donate gifts, they don’t have to be expensive; it is the idea that these “forgotten” senior citizens will have a little surprise to open on Christmas.
Gifts that have been suggested by nursing-home staff include: Body wash, body lotions, deodorant, body spray, slipper socks, small plastic spray bottles, sun catchers, CDs of older music, bird feeders, bird seed, large-print calendars, clocks with large numbers, nail polish, emery boards and orange sticks, jewelry, pins, large-print search-a-word books, craft items, craft paint, batteries (AA and AAA), decks of cards, board games, DVDs, large-print calendars, tie-dye kits, white pullover T-shirts (sizes large, medium and extra large), hair bands and barrettes, hats, scarves, mittens, men’s and women’s PJs, aftershave, socks, puzzle books, jewelry, art supplies, shawls, men’s handkerchiefs, men’s baseball caps and hats and portable Walkman-type CD player with headphones.
The presents should not be wrapped — though providing paper would be appreciated — because the staff members need to decide who gets what.
Think about what a wonderful lesson in compassion and respect you could teach your children by getting them involved in this giving project. They could help with the shopping and delivery.
Maybe you want to take it one step further and sit down and spend a little time visiting with one of these senior citizens. That would be a golden gift for their golden years. | <urn:uuid:074c869c-3bd5-429e-b723-de502d97aba1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pressrepublican.com/0200_opinion/x254329137/Editorial-Gifts-for-seniors-in-nursing-homes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968039 | 645 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Google recently announced it was unifying its privacy policies and would be sharing the data it collects about users between all of its products, starting March 1st. That means your web searches and sites you visit will be combined with other Google products like Google Plus and YouTube. If you’d rather avoid that, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reminds us you can remove your Google search history and stop it from being recorded.
Turning off search history is one of the top Google settings you may already know about anyway if you didn’t want Google recording any sensitive searches (health, location, interests, religion, etc.), but with Google becoming more like AOL these days, now’s as good a time as any to check if you’ve got your web history paused or not.
If you’re not logged into Google already, log in. Then, go to https://google.com/history. Click “remove all Web History” and “OK”. Doing so will pause the recording of your searches going forward until you enable it again.
Just one question.
Who reads privacy policies?
You probably don’t. Just like you don’t read the terms and conditions when you download and install software, or sign up for an online email account, or rip the tag off a new mattress.
The 1% of you who do read privacy policies are probably the exact same 1% who are losing sleep because information from your iPhone address book was secretly being uploaded to the servers of Path and some other app makers.
So the Attorney General and the six companies win for looking aware and concerned about online privacy, and the privacy zealots get to rest a little easier before going off on their next crusade. (Probably against Google.)
Plus, apps makers now all have to hire lawyers to write up these privacy policies and interns to put the policies online and build links to them in their apps. Which increases employment!
Wins all around. Well done.
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Starting on March 1, Google will allow itself to share your personal information across Google services, as long as you’re signed in.
Google previously had 60 separate privacy policies for different products. Now, it’s got just one.
Among the changes:
- Google can now look at what you’ve been doing on YouTube, Gmail, and Google+ to suggest search results and “more relevant ads.”
- Google can take information you provide on your Google Profile, including your name and photo, and use it on all your other Google products like Gmail — and can replace past names you used, so you’re the same on all sites.
- Google will collect information from your mobile device, including your phone number, and associate it with your Google Account.
Here’s the most relevant bit pulled from the full policy:
We use the information we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect Google and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content – like giving you more relevant search results and ads.
We may use the name you provide for your Google Profile across all of the services we offer that require a Google Account. In addition, we may replace past names associated with your Google Account so that you are represented consistently across all our services. If other users already have your email, or other information that identifies you, we may show them your publicly visible Google Profile information, such as your name and photo.
You can compare it against the current version here.
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A Best Buy Manager Thinks That The 3,000 Employees Running Its Customer Service Twitter Account Can’t Be Trusted
Best Buy hasn’t been doing so hot lately, and here’s another example that shows why.
The retailer has a Twitter account @Twelpforce that uses 3,000+ employees to help run it. So far it has worked without a major disaster, despite the exposure it has with so many employees working on it.
But at least one Best Buy manager disagrees, and thinks it’s basically a load of crap, reports Chris Morran at the Consumerist.
Morran received a note from a reader, Jonathan, explaining his experience. Jonathan was trying to exchange a box set of CDs, which was missing one CD when he got it, but didn’t have the receipt. The Best Buy site pointed him toward @Twelpforce, who told him to “Talk to a manager at your local Best Buy, they should be able to assist with exchange.”
He did. When he showed the Best Buy manager the tweet from customer service, he dismissed it as an unreliable source (even though the Best Buy website tells you that the only places to ask questions are a phone number and the Twitter account). The manager also said that it’s “just social media” and “that could be anybody.”
Which begs the question: what’s the point of having a customer service Twitter account if Best Buy managers don’t even acknowledge it as a legitimate source of information? Somebody got company policy wrong here, but whether it’s the manager or the person who answered that tweet doesn’t matter. The manager shouldn’t have dismissed the Twitter help line as useless.
It shows a fundamental disconnect between the brick-and-mortar and the online world. The corporate side has accepted that social media is a viable tool, yet that feeling hasn’t been passed down to its employees — even at the manager level. Oops.
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Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.
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- November 2007 (1) | <urn:uuid:70c74e2b-8388-4b9f-b999-b012e5c2d888> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://go-digital.net/blog/tag/policy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931343 | 2,040 | 1.828125 | 2 |
. Wow, I am impressed most of you folks start your seeds.
I am a bit lame in that arena still. Other than stuff that sprouts in place, I buy plants at the local greenhouse. Maybe because my garden tends on the small side, and I cannot use a whole packet of certain seeds. Like, I might plant one sungold cherry tomato, a couple of brandywine, 4 poblano and 4 jalapeno, etc. I guess the greenhouse has a good selection, but probably more $pendy.
I have been screening and packing compost. Trimmed back the raspberries, planted some spinach, lettuce and cilantro. Garlic just came up this week.
So onions. I want to get onions right this year, and be able to stick a bunch away for use all winter.
My success with them in the past has been spotty, which seems odd to me because they seem simple enough.
I start with the little bulbs; is that what most of you do? Most come up, but a lot went to flower right off the bat last year, which looks cool but does not make a large, storable onion. Any thoughts on that? | <urn:uuid:5059bc82-dd1c-4bdc-aee3-6a8d29fc1342> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=11359.msg142001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960308 | 247 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The New Celeron
Just about everyone is familiar with the Pentium II Celeron, Intel's "underpowered, budget CPU" that became a huge hit with the upgrade/DIY community. This no-frills processor, marketed to compete in the "low-end" $1200 and under PC market, actually contained faster and more cutting edge components than the flagship Pentium II, making its performance far from low-end.
Above that, the Celerons proved themselves to be the most overclockable processors to date, with a large majority of thrill-seekers claiming success at 375, 400, and 450MHz from their humble 300Mhz chips. For those who wanted the best bang for the buck, there was no beating a $100 Celeron chip which, with a little tweaking, could outperform a $500 Pentium II.
Moving forward with Celeron line, Intel has recently announced new parts running at 366 and 400Mhz. Besides the changes in core frequency, the biggest part of this announcement was the introduction of yet another CPU package, the 370-pin PPGA (Plastic Pin Grid Array) connector, or PGA-370. Similar to a standard Pentium or K6-2/3 setup, the actual processor is housed in a small plastic package, which also contains the necessary pin contacts to the motherboard. Compared to Intel's latest standard practice, the Single Edge Processor Package (SEPP) for Slot 1/2, PGA is much cheaper to manufacture, and better suites the Celeron chips' on-die cache. | <urn:uuid:587450ae-64b7-4cf4-9d28-f3b388e8c7c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://firingsquad.com/hardware/celeron366/default.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935635 | 325 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Swooping from the top of a saguaro down to the desert floor: Howard Bourne swings the crane while Martin Dohrn drives the camera. Tucson Mountain Park.
What was I doing in Arizona last month?
Thanks for asking. I was helping a film crew wrangle harvester ants for an upcoming National Geographic documentary. The crew, an all-star cast of nature cinematographers including Martin Dohrn, Howard Bourne, and Gavin Thurston, is still in the field- you can follow their progress by blog. The program is tentatively titled “Planet of the Ants” and should be on television in 2010.
If there’s one thing I learned from the experience, it is that nature films are strenuous work. A night with more than 5 hours’ sleep was unusual. We’d often film well past midnight, only to be up before dawn to catch the early morning foragers at another site. The equipment occupies 20 heavy cases and is constant need of being loaded, unloaded, or carried about here and there. The hotter the temperature (and we saw temps in Tucson above 108º), it seems the farther and more frequently the gear needed to be ferried about.
But no matter. The shoot was tremendous fun, and I could not imagine a more genial lot than Martin, Howard, and Gavin. Below is a photo essay from the week.
Martin gets a wide shot of a Pogo nest at sunset using the "Megascope".
The heart of Martin's film kit is a machine called Frankencam, or "Frank". Frank is a remotely-piloted system for pointing miniature lenses nearly in any direction while swooping about and encircling the subject. If you've watched BBC's 2005 "Life in the Undergrowth", filmed in part by an earlier incarnation of Frank, you'll be familiar with the sort of shot I'm talking about. Here, Howard tries not to get stung by harvester ants while making some adjustments prior to filming a sunset sequence.
Gavin drives Frank, with Howard assisting.
Frank at work.
Igor! Fetch me some ants!
Martin and Howard carry Frankencam into position. Frank can take more than an hour to set up, so shots have to be planned ahead.
Proximity to the Mexican border meant a near constant presence of the U.S. Border Patrol in the filming area.
Moonrise in Sycamore Canyon
Illuminated only by a small LCD monitor, Howard (at right) remotely pilots an infrared camera around a Pogo nest at Sycamore canyon, with Gavin assisting.
Gavin gets a lesson from Martin on using Frankencam.
Martin films an ant mating flight. In an unbelievable stroke of luck we arrived on site just as the harvester ants were starting their once-a-year reproductive event.
Although we didn't film them, honeypot ants were common at Sycamore Canyon. Here a worker poses at the nest entrance. | <urn:uuid:94fd53c8-12dd-4d6c-828f-8089c52d5285> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://myrmecos.net/2009/08/03/filming-ants-in-arizona/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947302 | 626 | 1.820313 | 2 |
In a strange interview with Charlie Rose the other day, Egyptian
I understood/understand Mubarak to mean that Egypt physically has Gilad Shalit, and now they are holding him prisoner until Israel agrees to the terms.
Read it carefully, and tell me if you agree.
Mubarak: For instance, we were just about to facilitate the release of the prisoner, Shalit. You know that he's our prisoner [JS: Outright claim of custody]."
Charlie: Right, held by Hamas in Gaza. [JS: Charlie's first correction]
Mubarak: "We were just about to secure his release in our custody [JS: Did he mean into or from?] and solve this problem, but external interventions, outside interventions hindered that. But we are working on that and in collaboration and cooperation with the Germans."
Charlie: It is said that ... the Israelis made extra demand[s] and prevented you and Egypt from gaining control of the prisoner [JS: Charlie's second correction] so that you could return him in exchange for Palestinians. That the problem was that you had a deal and Israel made additional demands. Is that true?
Mubarak: "You have a good deal of truth [JS: Meaning it's not exactly true] in what you said. We had agreed on the release of a number of the prisoners, but at one point in time, Israel added certain terms and conditions that impeded progress - that is, in addition to external interventions. So we are doing an effort, and the Germans are willing to join hands and we do welcome them in order to secure that.
Mubarak: The deal or the agreement was to take care of Shalit [JS: An outright claim that they get custody of Shalit from Hamas] and that Israel would release a number of prisoners, and when this is done we will hand over Shalit to the Israelis. We are still following this [JS: Egypt has Shalit]. Our intelligence organization is working on that, and we still have hope to conclude this on a good note."
Charlie Rose felt the need to outright correct Mubarak twice on the issue of who has custody of Gilad Shalit right now.
Mubarak made at least 4 statements that indicate or imply that Shalit is already in Egyptian hands - and not that they still need to get him into their custody from Hamas.
This raises a lot of questions.
Is Shalit a prisoner in Egypt?
Is that why we couldn't find him in Gaza during the Gaza war?
How long has Egypt held him?
Is Shalit alive or dead?
Why can't the Red Cross or Israel see and verify his health or if he is even alive?
When will the public be told the truth?
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד | <urn:uuid:ff6da0a3-677e-4663-bf5a-31f72a294d91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://muqata.blogspot.com/2009/08/who-has-gilad-shalit-egypt.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96864 | 601 | 1.539063 | 2 |
February 09, 2010
In the following op-ed that appeared in the Feb. 9, 2010, edition of the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren makes the case for the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Warren is the chair of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel.
by Elizabeth Warren
Banking is based on trust. The banks get our paychecks and hold our savings; they know where we spend our money and they keep it private. If we don't trust them, the whole system breaks down. Yet for years, Wall Street CEOs have thrown away customer trust like so much worthless trash.
Banks and brokers have sold deceptive mortgages for more than a decade. Financial wizards made billions by packaging and repackaging those loans into securities. And federal regulators played the role of lookout at a bank robbery, holding back anyone who tried to stop the massive looting from middle-class families. When they weren't selling deceptive mortgages, Wall Street invented new credit card tricks and clever overdraft fees.
In October 2008, when all the risks accumulated and the economy went into a tailspin, Wall Street CEOs squandered what little trust was left when they accepted taxpayer bailouts. As the economy stabilized and it seemed like we would change the rules that got us into this crisis—including the rules that let big banks trick their customers for so many years—it looked like things might come out all right.
Now, a year later, President Obama's proposals for reform are bottled up in the Senate. The same Wall Street CEOs who brought the economy to its knees have spent more than a year and hundreds of millions of dollars furiously lobbying Washington to kill the president's proposal for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA).
Within the thousands of pages of print in the "Restoring American Financial Stability Act" now before the Senate, the consumer agency is the only proposal that would help families directly. Even those most concerned about the role of personal responsibility concede that it is hard for families to make smart decisions and to compare products when the paperwork on mortgages, credit cards and even checking accounts has morphed into reams of incomprehensible legalese.
The consumer agency is a watchdog that would root out gimmicks and traps and slim down paperwork, giving families a fighting chance to hang on to some of their money. So far, Wall Street CEOs seem determined to stop any kind of watchdog. They seem to think that they can run their businesses forever without our trust. This is a bad calculation.
It's a bad calculation because shareholders suffer enormously from the long-term cost of the boom-and- bust cycles that accompany a poorly regulated market. J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently explained this brave new world, saying that crises should be expected "every five to seven years."
He is wrong. New laws that came out of the Great Depression ended 150 years of boom-and-bust cycles and gave us 50 years with virtually no financial meltdowns. The stability ended as we dismantled those laws and failed to replace them with new laws that reflected modern business practices.
The reputations of Wall Street's most storied institutions are evaporating as the lack of meaningful consumer rules has set off a race to the bottom to develop new ways to trick customers. Wall Street executives explain privately that they cannot get rid of fine print, deceptive pricing, and buried tricks unilaterally without losing market share.
Citigroup learned this the hard way in 2007, when it decided to clean up its credit card just a little bit by eliminating universal default—the trick that allowed it to raise rates retroactively, even for consumers that did nothing wrong. Citi's reform resulted in lower revenues and no new customers, triggering an embarrassing public reversal.
Citi explained sheepishly that credit cards were now so complicated that customers couldn't tell when a company offered something a little better. So Citi went back to something a little worse. Without a watchdog in place, the big banks just keep slinging out uglier and uglier products.
With their reputations in tatters, the CEOs have decided to go on the offensive in Washington. They might have had some thoughtful suggestions for how to better shape a consumer agency. Instead, they have unleashed lobbyists who are determined to do anything to kill the consumer agency.
The latest lie is that the CFPA is "big government." The CEOs all know that the current regulatory structure, which they support, is big government at its worst: bureaucratic, unaccountable and ineffective. The CFPA will consolidate seven separate bureaucracies, cut down on paperwork, and promote understandable consumer products. In the process, it will stabilize the industry, rebuild confidence in the securitization market, and leave more money in the pockets of families. Complaining about short, readable contracts and efforts to slim down bureaucracy only further diminishes the banks' credibility.
This generation of Wall Street CEOs could be the ones to forfeit America's trust. When the history of the Great Recession is written, they can be singled out as the bonus babies who were so short-sighted that they put the economy at risk and contributed to the destruction of their own companies. Or they can acknowledge how Americans' trust has been lost and take the first steps to earn it back. | <urn:uuid:e44a4430-8d64-4fec-bf98-a78634649080> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2010/02/09_warren.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959596 | 1,065 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Raja T aka Auto Raja grew up in a Bangalore chawl, dropped out of school at age 10 and had taken to a life of petty crime by his early teens.
He had always preyed on those weaker than himself, bullying children in his class into hand over their pocket money and eventually stealing his mother's gold chain and running away to Chennai in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, where he lived on the streets and thieved for a living.
At age 16, he was arrested. Even for the street-hardened youngster, detention in a remand home was a desolate experience. It was then that he made a promise to God. "I swore that if I ever regained my freedom, I would earn an honest living and find a way to help those less fortunate than myself," he says.
Raja was released on bail 10 days later (he was eventually acquitted). Determined to keep his promise, he returned home and applied for an autorickshaw driver's licence.
A few months later, while driving his autorickshaw around Bangalore, he saw an emaciated, lice-ridden old man near a garbage dump, shuddering from disease. With no money to help him, Raja drove on. But the image haunted him and, a few days later, he returned to the spot.
The man was not there. Locals told Raja he had died that first night.
Ashamed and troubled, Raja resolved never to pass another destitute person without helping. From then on, he lifted every ailing beggar he saw in his arms and drove to the nearest home, NGO or government hospital.
He soon began spending his savings on basic medicines and food for these cast-offs. In 1997, he rented a 30-sq-ft shack in Doddagubbi, on the outskirts of Bangalore, and turned it into a shelter.
He called it Home of Hope. As the numbers he tended to grew, as people saw him return day after day to lift the filthy, ailing, homeless in his arms and carry them to help, donations began to pour in from individuals, charities and trusts.
Today, the 46-year-old runs an 80-bed facility set on a half-acre plot donated by a Christian organisation in Doddagubbi.
A total of 450 people are housed here, with those who can move about helping with household chores and tending the vegetable gardens in the grounds.
The facility is funded via Raja's trust, New Ark Mission, and is open to anyone who has been turned out of their homes and needs care - from sick senior citizens and babies to mentally challenged people of all ages and unwed mothers.
Raja no longer drives an autorickshaw. Home of Hope has become a full-time job, one he pursues with the help of his wife, a homemaker, and his three children, whom he supports on a monthly salary of Rs. 20,000 that he draws from the trust.
Every morning he still heads out himself, in a donated van. "I lift each person off the road with my own hands," he says. "They are often lice-ridden and ailing from skin diseases, but to me each one represents the God I made my promise to." | <urn:uuid:a8c3cd5c-b105-474d-80eb-a6fe26bc84e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/bangalore/One-good-turn/Article1-1006366.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987558 | 673 | 1.601563 | 2 |
This has possibly been the hardest post yet to write. Mainly because I am at a loss for answers. There just does not seem to be a lot of solutions out there to address real wireless attacks. So, I have done my best to come up with some thoughts on how to conduct a wireless assessment that will provide some reasonable level of assurance that your network is not compromised. Note, I said ‘reasonable’ as I do not think there is a way to get absolute assurance that your network cannot be compromised when wireless is involved.
- Document the business reasons for implementing a wireless network. Just because you can, does not always mean you should. In a significant number of situations, you will find that the only reason for implementing wireless is just for the convenience it offers. Does your organization really need wireless ‘guns’ that update inventory in real time or can you use guns that record inventory and then upload it in batch when the ‘gun’ is placed in a cradle? In most situations, the cradle works just as well as the wireless solution. That is not to say that there are not situations that warrant a wireless solution. I have a number of clients that use wireless terminals and handhelds in innovative ways to improve customer service. However, until there is a real business purpose with a real return on investment, do what you can to push back and not implement wireless. But be advised, since some vendors are now only producing wireless solutions, finding a hard wired alternative may not be possible.
- Architect your wireless network to be secure from the start. There are ways to do this that are not as onerous as you might think. Primarily, it needs to be isolated away from the rest of your network. The reason is that no matter the security you implement, wireless uses the public airwaves to transmit, the key word being ‘public’. As a public network, attackers can eavesdrop on your wireless whenever they want and they can and will make attempts to crack your security all they want and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Once your wireless network is isolated, treat it as the public network it is and implement firewalls, IDS/IPS and any other security measures on your wireless network segment. Make sure that you create a consistent configuration so that you minimize the potential for introducing a mistake One of the best methods is to use those centralized, managed wireless solutions versus individual wireless access points.
- The PCI SSC needs to change requirement 11.1 to address the realities of the real world. First, I question the usefulness of wireless scanning in the first place and I would highly recommend that it be dropped. But assuming it is here to stay, for all but the very smallest of merchants, scanning with a wireless analyzer quarterly is a pipe dream. I would recommend that quarterly testing is only a requirement when it is possible. For all other merchants that wish to perform wireless testing with an analyzer I would recommend that requirement 11.1 suggest a sampling approach to ensure that all facilities are tested when significant network changes are implemented at the facility or at least once every three to four years. Let us face facts here, there is no way Best Buy, Wal*Mart or Target are going to test their hundreds or thousands of stores on a quarterly basis. It is just physically impossible. They do not even conduct individual store financial audits that often, so who thought they would get wireless scans done that often? Next, the PCI SSC has to provide in requirement 11.1 some additional alternative solutions besides an IDS/IPS on the wireless network segment. Based on my experience, almost all of my clients that are using wireless are creating a compensating control to satisfy requirement 11.1. It seems to me that if the majority of organizations with wireless are using a compensating control to meet the requirement, then the PCI SSC needs to create a requirement that does not require the majority of organizations to use a compensating control to satisfy the requirement.
- If your organization has decided to use wireless scanning with an analyzer, admit that wireless scanning requires a technical expertise that your organization likely does not have. This is a perfect project for a qualified network security consultant to perform. The costs for such projects are easy to control as they are driven by the location and number of facilities you need scanned. If your facilities are widely scattered, you may want to go with a consulting firm that better covers your locations so that you can minimize travel costs. You can also control costs by using a consistent configuration for your wireless. That way you can use a sample of facilities versus scanning every facility. However, since building construction usually varies from location to location, that may require making sure that all your facilities are scanned within a one or two year period.
- Don’t be buffaloed by a consultant’s certifications. Customers are usually baffled by all the letters following a consultant’s name (even I have a boatload of letters after my name). While certifications are good, it’s a consultant’s practical experience with security and wireless that counts. Nine times out of ten, the consultant that meets with you will not be the one that does the work. So, make sure that you and someone from your technical staff review the biographies of the consultants’ that will actually work on your project and that you personally talk to them either face-to-face or by phone. Ask them about the wireless assessment engagements they have done. Have them describe the process and make sure that it matches the process the sales person described. Ask them about the typical findings that result from such projects and make sure that they can explain their findings to both technical and non-technical personnel. And of course, make sure that you are not buying the process that I’ve discussed earlier.
- Don’t buy supposedly sophisticated looking tools. Regardless of whether you are doing it yourself or getting a consultant to assist, don’t buy based on tools. A lot of people do good work with NetStumbler/Kismet, and the right wireless card. Some of these tools are just expensive solutions using the same techniques as the person with shareware tools. So when evaluating wireless security solutions, ask the vendor tough questions about how their solution discovers rogue access points and get them to address my earlier points on why wireless scanning is flawed. In most situations, you will find that these vendors are offering a solution no better than the one you can get for free. When talking to consultants, be wary of the consultant that talks about their tools and does not talk much about their process. Consultants that talk ad-nauseam about their tools typically do not have the experience to deliver the results that you desire. They are typically going to be no better than anyone else with a scanner.
- Get a good understanding of the consultant’s process. Ask the consultant to describe their wireless security assessment process. Experienced consultants will have a number of service offerings in this area from basic scanning (essentially what I describe earlier but with a much more robust analysis of the results) to a full out wireless assessment that can resemble something out of a good spy movie. Obviously, the more sophisticated it gets, the higher the cost. However, for some clientele such as DoD contractors and the like, a very detailed and sophisticated analysis of all things wireless is what they require in order to satisfy contractual requirements. For most merchants, what they need is something towards the lower end of the cost scale that will provide them with a reasonable assurance that their network is secure. For most processors, their wireless assessment will likely be a bit more robust than a merchant’s because of the added risk they have due to the data they retain.
I have taken up a lot of bandwidth on this topic, possibly too much. However, I think you start to see that wireless is not as simple a technology to secure as some of the security standards portray. Wireless is not a technology that you just “add on” when you need it. In the end, the most critical aspect to wireless is that it requires significant forethought before being added to a network. | <urn:uuid:496f7b67-4876-44f2-ab5c-7c6b53bdfbd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pciguru.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963514 | 1,663 | 1.609375 | 2 |
WHAT'S THE STORY The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) is currently in the middle of a road rehabilitation project for Carter Road from Wheatley's Pond Road to Sunnyside Road.
The $4 million project includes the widening of roads to feature 11-foot lanes, five-foot shoulders on each side, curbs and sidewalks on both sides, a drainage system to deal with storms, relocation of utility poles, streetlights, and a traffic light at the intersection of Carter and Sunnyside roads.
The purpose of the project is to make the road wider and safer for cars, bicyclists, walkers, and joggers. The contractor for the improvements is A-Del Construction Company, of Newark.
WHAT'S NEW The Sunnyside Road end of the project for the most part is completed, according to DelDOT area engineer Craig Blowers. The intersection of Carter and Sunnyside roads was fully reopened on Thursday, after access to Sunnyside east of Carter Road had been closed for several weeks and before that, access to Sunnyside west of Carter Road had been closed.
Now DelDOT is moving into the third stage of the five-stage project.
Stage 3 requires the temporary closing of Carter Road from Wheatley's Pond (Route 300) to Deak Drive, which started Monday. Blowers said a barrier will be placed so drivers can't turn from Wheatley's Pond Road onto Carter Road, or get from Carter Road to Wheatley's Pond Road.
Residents will have access but through a different route. Individuals needing to get to a building on Deak Drive such as Smyrna Family Medical Associates will have access but also through a different route. Ambulances going to the Bayhealth Emergency Department will also have access, but not at the main entrance.
"Stage 3 involves the widening of Route 300 at the intersection of Carter Road and Route 300," Blowers said. "And a little bit of drainage work by the hospital and a little bit of the nose of where Route 6 and Route 300 meet. That's why the barriers are there."
Moreover, Blowers said there will eventually be a left turn "pocket" at the Carter Road-Wheatley's Pond Road light to help alleviate traffic.
Stage 4 also involves the closure of Carter Road up to Clayton Avenue and Deak Drive. Blowers said the portions of the project closing Carter Road to Deak Drive are expected to take about two months and roll into the last stage. Once Stage 4 is complete, the portion of Carter Road from Wheatley's Pond Road to Deak Drive will be reopened.
WHAT'S NEXT The final stage of the project will close the remaining portion of Carter Road from Clayton Avenue to Sunnyside Road in through November. Residents that live on the portions of the road where there's a closure will still have access.
Blowers said there will be points where the project will move its way down the road, therefore, individual sections of 1,000 feet will be impacted at a time.
"Hopefully we're only impacting a few houses at a time, but it will be absolute full closure one side or another," Blowers said.
As for families who have membership in the summers at the Smyrna Swim Club, Blowers said these individuals will still have access to the facility: "I'm not saying it'll be the easiest at all times. I would ask people to bear with us as you may be delayed five minutes, but they will have access."
The project is expected to be completed by November.
"The project is very close to schedule," Blowers said. "The contractor was originally going to shut down for the winter but obviously we've been able to work through the winter thus far. The plan right now is to continue working if they can."
Email Jennifer Dailey at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:9cb3ef83-beed-44e5-aa0d-f317a57d5f3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scsuntimes.com/article/20130122/NEWS/130129933/0/celebrity%20news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962605 | 806 | 1.679688 | 2 |
(USA TODAY) The Obama administration is considering whether to weigh in on a Supreme Court case challenging California's gay marriage ban.
"I have to make sure that I'm not interjecting myself too much into this process, particularly when we're not a party to the case," Obama told KGO-TV of San Francisco during a round of local television interviews Wednesday.
The administration has until Feb. 28 -- a week from now -- to decide whether to file a "friend of the court" brief with the Supreme Court.
The high court is expected to decide by late June whether to uphold or strike down Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage in California.
If the administration gets involved, it is likely to oppose the ban.
Obama told KGO: "My personal view is that same-sex couples should have the same rights and be treated like everybody else and that's something that I feel very strongly about."
From the Associated Press:
"The Proposition 8 ballot initiative was approved by California voters in 2008 and overturned a state Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage. Twenty-nine other states have constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, while nine states and Washington, D.C., recognize same-sex marriage.
"An administration brief alone is unlikely to sway the Justices but the federal government's opinion does carry weight with the court.
"A final decision on whether to file a brief has not been made, a senior administration official said. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli is consulting with the White House on the matter, said the official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to address the private deliberations publicly."
While the Justice Department would formally make the filing, the president himself is almost certain to make the ultimate decision on whether to file."
David Jackson, USA TODAY | <urn:uuid:57122bf6-7b6c-41c6-9997-02cc13faaac8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtsp.com/rss/article/299609/81/Obama-may-weigh-in-on-gay-marriage-case | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952403 | 368 | 1.515625 | 2 |
One of the most powerful gifts that Miriam's Kitchen in Washington, D.C., gives to the men and women who eat there is the power of choice. I saw how passionately chef Steve Badt feels about it one morning, just as the volunteers were getting ready to open the cafeteria line.
They were standing like sentries along the row of stainless steel serving bins. Before Badt rolled up the metal door to serve the clients, who were waiting patiently on the other side, two volunteers started portioning out crusty home fries and grits and satiny scrambled eggs onto trays, so they could start serving the moment the breakfast line opened. "This way, we won't have to keep anybody waiting," one volunteer said.
But when Badt saw the pre-assembled trays, he started shouting. "Stop, stop, get that food off the trays," he yelled. Badt grabbed each tray and shoved the food back into the stainless steel bins, and then tossed the trays angrily into the sink. "Don't ever, ever, serve the food," he told the volunteers, "before you first ask the clients, 'What would you like?' "
Sure enough, as the clients walked down the serving line, each one requested something different. "Grits, please, no home fries," one said, quickly adding, "and don't let my eggs and grits touch." Another diner said: "I want my eggs on top of the grits."
Think about it: Breakfast at Miriam's Kitchen might be the only moment during their day when homeless men and women get to say what they want. And have people cheerfully oblige. | <urn:uuid:edc6c1a0-6bfd-46ac-8857-b4eecaea73ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93399290 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979908 | 343 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Among other topics, today's blog asks how tall your bookstack is, explores the Junie B. Jones/Pulitzer Prize connection, and reviews three novels about teens in small towns.
This past week, the #1 bestselling title on Amazon.com was a children's book.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that the title in question was GO THE F**K TO SLEEP.
Then we wonder why some people thought the world would end this weekend.
This generation's answer to GOODNIGHT, MOON features verses such as:
Thе eagles whο soar through the sky аrе аt rest
Anԁ the creatures whο crawl, rυn аnԁ creep
I know уου′re nοt thirsty. Thаt’s bulls**t. Stοр lying
Lie the f**k down, mу darling, аnԁ sleep.
The book had its origins on Facebook, when author Adam Mansbach, frustrated at getting his daughter to sleep, posted this one-liner on his wall: "Look out for my forthcoming children’s book, Go the — to Sleep."
From there it was only a hop, skip, and a few @#$@#s to a book contract. The finished product, illustrated by Ricardo Cortes and published by Akashic Books, was originally scheduled for this October, but due a viral publicity campaign, will be released next month, with a first printing of 150,000 copies (which is 149,635 copies more than Lionel Shriver's personal favorite among her novels, GAME CONTROL, sold in hardcover. Think about that.)
Yeah, yeah, I know: GTFTS isn't really a children's book.
It's pretty much a joke book for adults.
Look around you.
Think about the average intelligence of the people you see every day.
The kind of people who cut you off on the road, then give you a rude gesture as if it's your fault.
The kind of people who list THE HANGOVER, PART II, as their favorite movie.
The kind of people who appear on Judge Judy (i.e. the kind of people who "have went" on Judge Judy's show because they "borrowed" their best friend two hundred dollars.)
The kind of people who went to see Charlie Sheen's stage show.
Do you really think these people are going to "get" the joke?
Personally, I think they will be reading this book to their toddlers.
And as long as I'm prognosticating, here are a couple more predictions:
NEW YORK POST, April 14, 2012
EXPECTANT MOM KNOCKS OUT SHOWER GUEST IN BABY BRAWL!
A baby shower turned into a brawl last night -- all because of a children's book!
The fight broke out at a baby shower being held for twenty-six year old Nicki Edison, who is infanticipating her first blessed event next month. "It was going along fine," said shower guest Heidi South, who is now nursing a fat lip. "Nicki was opening her gifts and everyone was oohing and ahhing over the dainty little booties and cute little sippy cups. Then one of the older ladies gave Nicki a 'gag gift' -- a book with the title...well, I can't say the word...."
The book in question was GO THE F**K TO SLEEP, a bedtime book for kids.
The expectant mother took immediate offense to the present, insisting it was in bad taste "and besides, I look forward to many precious bedtime moments with my baby and I know that I will never, ever grow frustrated with my own child. I have more class than that. Plus, I have a very sweet nature."
Angered at the gift she'd received, the "sweet-natured" mom-to-be threw a punch bowl at her shower guest, instigating a brawl that resulted in two concussions, one broken arm, several black eyes, and at least one fatality....
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, October 9, 2011
DES PLAINES MAN SUING BOOKSTORE FOR OFFENSIVE BABY BOOK
Jeff Narwell was in a hurry when he ran into Borders last week seeking a book for his new nephew. "I saw GO THE F**K TO SLEEP on the shelf, glanced at the pictures, and purchased it immediately," said the 38-year-old banker.
Now he is suing Borders for causing him grief and embarrassment when he presented the book to his newborn nephew. "His parents were very offended by the language in the book -- and once I read it, I agreed whole-heartedly!"
Borders' spokesperson Lars Layman find the lawsuit without merit. "What was Mr. Narwell expecting?" asked Layman. "The title of the book contains the F word. Is it really a surprise that the text also includes similar language? Duh!"
Incidentally, there is word that Mansbach and Cortes are currently adapting GO THE F**K TO SLEEP into a gentler (i.e. curse free) edition more acceptable to kids. I'm sure that somewhere down the line, someone will order that edition for their children and instead receive the R-rated version from an online bookstore and start a lawsuit there as well.
As for all the kids who (I predict) WILL be experiencing this story as infants and toddlers...well, at least they'll grow up with big vocabularies.
Hope they like the taste of Palmolive.
HIGHER THAN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY!
I've gotten woefully behind in recording the books I'm reading on Goodreads -- and even farther behind listing the books I own on Librarything.
I think that catching up on both these activities would make a good summer project for me.
Because I've been away from Librarything for so many months, I was unaware that they've added a fun new feature. Based on the number of books in your collection, and the pages included in each volume, they now provide some fun stats.
They estimate that my collection weighs 1905 pounds.
If you laid all the pages end-to-end, it would take a half hour to drive from beginning to end.
And this chart (you may have to click the image to enlarge it) estimates that my books (the blue column) would form a stack 166.3 feet high -- taller than the Statue of Liberty, but not as high as Niagara Falls.
When I add my uncataloged volumes to Librarything this summer, I'm sure I'll pass Niagara Falls...and maybe even start to catch up with the 239 foot Taj Mahal.
BOOK AWARD NEWS
The 2011 Charlotte Zolotow Award, given annually by the Cooperative Children's Book Center for "outstanding writing of a picture book" has been won by Rukhsana Kahn for BIG RED LOLLIPOP, illustrated by Sophie Blackall.
The Honor Books are:
Bob Graham for APRIL AND ESME : TOOTH FAIRIES
Sandra Markle for HIP-POCKET PAPA, illustrated by Alan Marks
Philip C. Stead for A SICK DAY FOR AMOS MCGEE, illustrated by Erin E. Stead
Mo Willems for CITY DOG, COUNTRY FROG, illustrated by Jon J. Muth
The committee also noted six "highly commended" titles: CHAVELA AND THE MAGIC BUBBLE, written by Monica Brown and illustrated by Magaly Morales; WILLOUGHBY & THE MOON by Greg Foley; MY GARDEN by Kevin Henkes; I AM A BACKHOE by Anna Grossnickle Hines; LITTLE BLACK CROW by Chris Raschka, and A BEACH TALE, written by Karen Lynn Williams and illustrated by Floyd Cooper.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America just announced that the winner of the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy is I SHALL WEAR MIDNIGHT by Terry Pratchett.
Finally, PEN American Center is announcing a new award named in honor of children's book creator and former PEN trustee, Steven Kroll.
According to a report in School Library Journal, the Steven Kroll Award "will acknowledge the literary contributions of an American or U.S-based writer for an 'exceptional story illustrated in a picture book,' [and] will be presented for the first time in 2012 and come with a $5,000 prize."
JUNIE B. JONES AND THE PULITZER PRIZE
Now those are two phrases you never expected to see in the same sentence!
Yet there is a connection.
I just finished reading this year's Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan.
Liked it, didn't love it.
But I was intrigued enough to seek more background info about the book and its author, and came across an interesting piece from the Wall Street Journal in which Ms. Egan discusses her painstaking revision notes for the novel:
Writing that book I was so focused on making each piece technically different from every other one I tried to summarize the technical aspect, so I wrote “first person female, present tense.” In the notes to myself, it says: “Voice: it’s a little Junie B.” “Junie B. Jones” was this book I was reading with my kids. It was written for five year olds so that was obviously a problem.
I imagine so! Junie B. is unlikely to ever win a Newbery -- much less the Pulitzer Prize!
POEMS FOR BOYS -- NAKED GIRLS INCLUDED
Wandering through the library stacks this week, I came across an unusual book of poetry.
IT'S A BOY'S WORLD was written by August Derleth and illustrated by Claire Victor Dwiggins, who went by the pen-and-ink name of "Dwig."
Published in 1948, it turns out this was the second of two books in the same series. The first, THE BOY'S WAY was released a year earlier.
Paging through this book (you'll have to click on these images to enlarge them) I was impressed by its scope and subject matter. Derleth's evocative words capture a boy's view of springtime, Halloween, school dances, and acorns falling on the roof at night.
The nostalgic tone (as in this piece about drying hickory nuts) made me wonder if these books were originally published for adult readers:
Though at other times, as in this poem about snow, the tone is so universal that I think boys in 1948 and 2011 might see themselves in the words:
One reason I thought the books might be intended for adults is that Dwig's busy-but-effective illustrations sometimes contain risque elements, as in this verse about the wind:
And this one about a bat:
I don't know if these titles were marketed as adult or children's books, but CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS, SOMETHING ABOUT THE AUTHOR, and other reference sources list them as children's books. Published by Stanton and Lee, a small press in Sauk City, Wisconsin, I doubt these volumes found their way into many children's libraries. Have you ever seen them there?
While wandering the library stacks this week I also came across HOSTESS IN THE SKY -- a 1955 career book about stewardesses (as they were called then) by Margaret Hill.
I'd never seen this book before, but what struck a nostalgic chord for me was the illustration on the cover. Remember when rebound library books looked like this -- with an off-colored, muddily-reproduced illustration from the original dustjacket or frontispiece stamped upon that bumpy cold rebound cover:
(Here, incidentally, is the original illustration from the frontispiece.)
These are the kinds of books I grew up with in my local library as a kid. Nearly every older library book had been rebound and was now pea green or sunset orange or bright red or mellow blue, with a picture stamped on the front panel:
My question is: do libraries still bind books this way? I don't see many rebound books on public library shelves these days. Maybe it's just cheaper to buy new replacement copies. When I do see rebound titles, they are either paperbacks bound into hardcover, with the original cover slid into a plastic outershell (as demonstrated on the left) or completely found in one color, such as the uninviting Judy Blume book on the right:
I miss the old rebound books with stamped illustrations. They take me right back to my old public library, many decades ago....
SMALL TOWN TEENS
I just read three recent books for young adults that happen to focus on teenagers growing up in small towns. The first, and most ambitious, is WHERE THINGS COME BACK by John Corey Whaley. Growing up in Lily, Arkansas (population 3,947) seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter who finds it "very difficult to deal with the boredom brought on by living in Lily." Actually, Lily seems fairly hectic to the average reader, considering all that goes in this story, including the death of Cullen's druggy cousin, rumors that Lily might harbor an extinct Lazarus woodpecker, and the sudden disappearance of Cullen's somewhat mystical younger brother Gabriel. The story of Gabriel's disappearance is related in alternate chapters that take place in Africa, as well as Georgia, and dip into such topics as missionary life, suicide, teenage marriage, and a missing book of the Bible. The story is busy and the characters remain frustratingly distant. (It doesn't help that narrator Cullen frequently goes off into third-person tangents, refering to himself as "one," as in: "When one enters the kitchen to find his mother, father, and best friend all seated in front of a stack of uneaten pancakes, he knows that something strange has happened." Also, Cullen's blase attitude about two different sexual affairs is so offhand that the book feels more like a adult novel about teens, rather than a YA story written for teens. Though the complex plot is intriguing, the remote characterizations, many unfinished subplots, and cold storytelling may not appeal to the targeted teenage audience.
Kendall Fletcher lives in Cryer's Cross, Montana (population 212) where her parents run a potato farm and Kendall attends a one-room high school. The town has been devastated by the recent disappearance of a teenage girl and now Kendall's best friend and de facto boyfriend Nico has also disappeared. Rumors abound (did Tiffany and Nico runaway together?) but Kendall, who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder so severe that she must get to school early in order to line up all the desks properly, suspects there may be a darker reason for the dual disappearance: mysterious notes are being etched into the school desk that Tiffany, and later Nico, once used; Kendall also begins to hear voices. The supernatural element that propels the plot is actually one of the weaker aspects of the novel; much more compelling is the multifaceted protagonist's struggles with OCD and her blossoming romance with edgy new-boy-in-town Jacian in this fast-paced novel
The town of West River (population ?) is the setting for SMALL TOWN SINNERS by Melissa Walker, due out July 19, 2011. The premise for the novel is intriguing, centering around a "Hell House" that narrator Lacey Ann and her friends are staging. A staple of some midwest and southern fundamentalist churches, Hell Houses dramatize "sinful behavior" such as abortion, gay marriage, suicide, and cyberporn in an effort to prosletyze young people. The daughter of a pastor, Lacey Ann is complacent in her faith until a new romance and revelations about her friends (one becomes pregnant; another seems to be questioning his sexuality) have Lacey Ann questioning her personal belief system. Though the plot is predictable, the author has created well-rounded characters who are sincere in their beliefs. The Hell House background is fascinating and, even though many readers may not be familiar with this phenomena, Lacey Ann's struggle to reconcile family beliefs with personal growth is a universal experience.
SURPRISE BY MAIL
Have you ever unexpectedly received a package in the mail, opened it, and discovered it was exactly what you wanted?
It happened to me this week.
A couple months ago I came across this 1940 chilren's book in the library and was entranced by the cover. Living for the past year in a house with almost no windows, I've found myself hungry for a view of the sky. This peaceful blue dustjacket instantly relaxed me. I wanted to fall right into the picture:
The illustrations inside were also nice, plus I figured I could learn something from the simple scientific text. So I looked for a copy on the internet, placed it in my "online shopping basket" and then had second thoughts. Yeah, the book was only $8, but the gas and electric bills were due. I didn't need the pretty picture that much.
After several weeks, I had the occasion to order a couple books I needed from the same website. They both arrived in the mail a few days later. Then a third book arrived. I had no idea what it could be -- I'd only ordered two books!
I opened up the package and -- SURPRISE! -- out slid a copy of THE SKY IS BLUE.
Once again, I was mesmerized by the cover...but I knew I hadn't ordered the book.
...Then I figured it out.
I had accidentally left the book in my "shopping basket" a couple months ago, and when I bought the additional two books weeks later, THE SKY IS BLUE order was sent in as well.
Maybe "there are no accidents" and I subconsciously left the book in my basket on purpose. I don't know. All I can say is that I was delighted to be surprised by this book, and am delighted to add it to my bookshelves. It was only eight bucks -- well worth the cover picture alone. I almost feel like framing it.
Thanks for visiting Collecting Children's Books. I'll be back midweek with a blog linking a famous adult author with a well-known children's and YA writer. Hope you'll be back. | <urn:uuid:d8daab47-fd28-4717-aded-51a2d05f4fa6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://collectingchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/2011/05/sunday-brunch.html?showComment=1306124758180 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968885 | 3,891 | 1.617188 | 2 |
How to be a high impact volunteer
by Sebastian Farquhar on October 28th, 2012
Lots of volunteering is definitely not actually about helping people. It usually doesn’t hurt, but neither does going for a walk. If what you really want is to volunteer your time to make the world a better place, what should you do?
It’s not all what it seems
You may think I’m being cynical when I say most volunteering is usually not that helpful. But many charities agree with me. FORGE, a charity that looks after refugees, shifted its focus away from volunteers to a model that should have been able to help people more effectively. It turns out, that was a bad move for them – because their volunteers were also their chief fundraisers. Their income plummeted. Many charities have similar experiences – volunteers are an important investment, but they don’t directly contribute to the charity’s good works.
It’s not even usually true that a volunteer is free for a charity. There are substantial costs to managing and engaging volunteers. That’s usually worth it for a charity, because they’re counting on you to donate later. But it’s not a great start.
That’s not even taking into account the peculiar practice of getting lots of people to put huge amounts of time and effort into baking cakes and/or buying things in order to then auction them off (often below cost) in order to donate the proceeds to charity.
Let’s do it right
What I’ve just described sounds awful, but of course it isn’t. Even if that’s all there was on the table, it would still make sense to volunteer, in the same way that it makes sense to engage in any fun activity. Besides, even if the volunteers I’m describing aren’t helping as much as they possibly could, they are still helping. But we can do so much more. What are some ways to be a high-impact volunteer?
Volunteer for cost-effective organisations
Even better, look for organisations that have detailed cost-effectiveness evidence and a clear need for more resources.
Volunteer for labor-constrained charities
Some charities actually have plenty of money (they’ll never admit it though!). What they really need are talented people who have a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm about the cause they’re working towards. Some charities could hire the first person who came to them with the skills they need, but they don’t know if that person exists. You might not be looking for a job, but if you’re that sort of person then you’ll be a very high impact volunteer.
Highly skilled volunteers are good
If you have rare and valuable skills, volunteering those skills to an organisation makes great sense. They would often not be able to afford your services otherwise, and would do less well as a result. For example, some small charities spend a substantial portion of their budgets hiring external accountants and lawyers. Particularly if you have really rare knowledge of a particular field, your time might literally be worth more than that of anyone else in the world.
Volunteer your enthusiasm
Nine times out of ten, what a charitable organisation really wants more than anything else is that you tell all your friends about them and try to persuade them that the charity is important. After all, you have something special that no-one else does: the ability to share new ideas with your friends and energise them. Rather than volunteering your time to an organisation, make a point of bringing that organisation up in conversation. You’ll do it much more good that way.
Don’t do replaceable things
The volunteer jobs that do the least good are ones that are easily replaceable. Volunteering for unskilled labour jobs is often fairly low impact, particularly if those jobs are in the developing world. If you’re flying to Africa to build houses you should think again - odds are you’re taking someone else’s job over there, and then doing it badly. Think about donating the cost of air-fare to an effective organisation, and reduce your carbon dioxide emissions.
Volunteer your money
Particularly if you have a high-earning job, there’s an element of silliness about volunteering in a low-skilled role. An extra hour of your work could hire several people to do the low-skilled work, and there’s a good chance they’d all be better at it than you. It can help the cause you care about much more to just donate.
If you’re looking for volunteering roles that fit these rules of thumb there’s some help. The main page on volunteering has a lot of these thoughts and some others, with some specific suggestions. A good shortcut is that organisations that care a lot about their effectiveness (like us) will not take you on as a volunteer unless they think that you’re actually going to make a difference. | <urn:uuid:d5c99efd-435b-4474-be35-117ff3783592> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://80000hours.org/blog/110-how-to-be-a-high-impact-volunteer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965915 | 1,045 | 1.632813 | 2 |
June 5, 2007
Cooley Named to NIH Child Psychopathology Study Section
Michele R. Cooley, PhD, MEd, an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Mental Health, has been appointed to a four-year term as a member of the Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities Study Section, Center for Scientific Review (CSR).
This U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study section selects members based on their competence and achievement. Membership represents a commitment of professional time and energy as well as an opportunity to contribute to the national biomedical research effort by reviewing and making recommendations on grant applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health.
Cooley’s research focuses on preventing the mental and behavioral effects of youth’s exposure to pervasive community violence. She also designs and implements preventive interventions to address the violence, which has been identified as a significant public health problem of epidemic proportions.
CSR organizes the peer review groups that evaluate the majority of grant applications submitted to the National Institutes of Health. CSR recruits about 18,000 outside scientific experts each year for its review groups.Public Affairs media contacts for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Kenna L. Lowe or Tim Parsons at 410-955-6878 or firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:2c277083-e380-4167-bb86-bf83869d46e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jhsph.edu/news/stories/2007/cooley-csr.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932691 | 278 | 1.5 | 2 |
One of the biggest challenges in building a product is prioritization.
When you have 1,000 things bombarding you and demanding your attention, it’s hard to figure out what is most important. You have your customers telling you one thing (vocal minority), your team and investors telling you another (selection bias), and your data telling you another (confirmation bias).
Everyone is an armchair critic.
The result is that I see a lot of products that do way too many things poorly. Many times this is the result of multiple undeliberate pivots in a short period of time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pro-pivot — I think the general idea encourages fast iteration. However, I think sometimes entrepreneurs pivot poorly. They are so stuck on the product they’ve built (sunk cost fallacy) that they fail to extricate themselves from the trenches of building a product to reevaluate the overall problem they are trying to solve.
They end up with a Frankenstein of a product that does nothing well, a jack of all trades, master of nothing. The product “pivot” ends up being a hammer in search of a nail, rather than the other way around. Because they’ve spent so much time building out the product, the mental bias is that there has to be some value to the product they’ve built; it is easy to mistakenly correlate time spent building the product with market need.
The entrepreneur’s job is to synthesize all of this feedback and test your assumptions in a methodical and deliberate manner.
Without a product True North, you end up wasting time optimizing on a local maximum and building a Frankenstein Product.
(Stay tuned for a follow up post on a framework to avoid building a Frankenstein product.)
One of the prevalent trends in startups recently is the bundling of products into one, with a combined value greater than the sum of its parts.
This is not a new concept; product bundling is a strategy that has historically been effective in selling products and maximizing economic value.
Product bundling is most effective when bundling high volume, high margin products, commoditizing the individual products and increasing the value of the bundle as a whole. This means that bundling is particularly effective with information and digital products.
In some cases, bundling of inferior products can actually be more compelling than individual, unbundled superior products.
Here are 6 examples of bundling and the value bundling adds:
Example 1: Pokémon Cards
Value: Randomness and Potential Expected Value
This is where I expose my nerd card. Pokémon cards were a big fad when I was a kid. We would buy booster packs of Pokémon cards, which included a random unknown selection of 10 cards.
In the case of Pokémon cards, the randomness of the unknown selection of cards within the booster pack drove large sales of the booster packs. My friends and I would buy 10 booster packs and hope to get 1 holographic Charizard card. As a business, it would be difficult to sell the more common cards individually, so by bundling them with the potential of the rare card, you increase the value of the booster pack and drive huge sales of the booster packs. The booster pack’s value was greater than the sum of its parts.
The value of the “rare” cards was driven by scarcity of and demand for the rare physical product rather than any real value itself. And the potential (read: expected value) of that booster pack was driven up by the fact that those rare cards were bundled with the common cards.
Example 2: Subscription Services: Birchbox, Quarterly, Craft Coffee, Trunk Club, Foodzie, etc.
Value: Discovery; Convenience; Curation
Subscriptions services bundle individual products into a recurring box of unknown products. The idea is that you receive products that you wouldn’t have otherwise known about or bought for the following reasons:
Discovery: You find products that you wouldn’t have discovered otherwise.
Convenience: You can try out the products without having to leave the comfort of your home. Then, the hope is that you will buy the full sized product (conversion to purchase) or become a loyal customer (customer acquisition to lifetime value).
Curation: You get advice for which products are better, or a better fit for you. This is especially powerful when products are commoditized and the market is saturated to the point where it is difficult to choose which one is better.
Example 3: Information: NYTimes, Twitter, News.me, Summify, Social Weekend
Another type of bundling is the bundling of information and content.
One of the reasons people read the NYTimes is because they trust the NYT editors and writers to give them the perfect balance of information and news, both the must-know breaking news as well as the interesting reports on stuff off the beaten path.
I personally get all of my news through Twitter. Others might get that information through News.me as a filter on top of Twitter. We all choose our own filter bubbles and arbiters of information. We trust those arbiters to bundle information together. In some cases, we value it so much that we even pay for it in the form of a subscription.
Example 4: Products/Interest Graph: Pinterest, The Fancy
Startups like Pinterest and The Fancy let people create digital bundles of products and images. The analogy that Pinterest uses is the digital scrapbook. The value proposition here is that I am interested in what products people with similar tastes like.
The startup that can successfully convert this bundling to purchasing behavior will be well-positioned to win. The Fancy is getting good early traction around converting curated digital bundles into single purchases.
Ultimately, I think the opportunity is to convert curated digital bundles into buying whole bundles of products.
Example 5: Media: Music (CDs, Napster, BitTorrent, iTunes, Spotify/Rdio)
There were two major shifts of bundling in the music industry.
The first was the shift from the physical to digital medium, from CDs to MP3s. The critical effect here was the idea that consumers could suddenly get songs a la carte, and buy individual songs separate from the bundled album. There was more value in debundling the songs from the CDs, because the consumer didn’t get much value out of the predetermined album bundle. They wanted to create their own mixtapes, burning MP3s on CD-R’s.
The second major shift was from MP3s to streaming services like Spotify and Rdio. Here, the idea of owning any form of content is completely removed. People now listen to playlists of songs they don’t own, curated by other people they many times don’t now in real life.
Example 6: Financial Products: CDOs
Value: Hedging Risk
Finally, an example in the financial services space. Not to oversimplify the financial crisis in 2008, but collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) gained instant notoriety in 2008 for being the financial instrument that caused the financial crisis. CDOs were originally intended to hedge risk; specifically, mortgage-backed securities of varying risks of default were bundled together into a larger financial product.
Ultimately, however, rather than hedge risk, CDOs incorrectly masked risk. The models behind the CDOs did a bad job of predicting how risky the underlying securities were, and the ratings agencies did a bad job of realizing this.
Conclusion: Bundling and the Commoditization of Complements
As a parting thought, the overarching idea of bundling is the idea of the commoditization of complements. By bundling products, you commoditize the individual products. This in turn increases the value of the bundled product you are selling.
The classic example is the hot dog stand. Take a hypothetical situation with two competing hot dog stands. One of them charges for the hot dogs, ketchup, and soda individually. The other hot dog stand bundles them all together into a “happy meal.” The value of the bundled product is much higher if the customer would have bought all three items anyway.
In fact, bundling may actually be a good antidote against “race-to-the-bottom” pricing, where the only competitive advantage among commoditized products is price.
Bundling is an incredibly effective tool to increase the value to your product offering.
The luxury of scale is a double-edged sword. While scale can bring huge network effects you can leverage for fast user growth of new products, it can also mislead a big company to go after the wrong opportunities and paralyze a small company.
So when developing a new product, make sure you build a compelling first time user experience (FTUE) that does not rely on the benefits of network effects. The FTUE is important to get a push out of the gate, but iteration and designed-in network effects are what will win the game in the long run.
When Big Companies Assume the Luxury of Scale
Big companies that have achieved scale and take scale for granted are many times trapped into slow moving and myopic decisions that optimize on a local maximum.1 This is a topic that’s covered extensively in The Innovator’s Dilemma.
Big company that did this poorly: Google
Google Wave and Google Buzz both failed because they assumed the luxury of scale. They assumed that the large user base of Gmail and Google Search would transfer directly to a social product. Google mysteriously assumed that, just because it was a Google product, people would automatically sign up and use it regularly. It made no effort at integrating with email or any particular effort to ensure engagement other than sticking “Google” in front of the product name.
The FTUE was bad because Google neglected the core user behavior for both of those products: both are inherently controlled private experiences. Yes, Gmail is “social” in the sense that you are emailing other people, but they are private in the sense that the user expects data generated by Gmail to be private.
Big company that did this well: Zynga
Zynga was able to turn effectively a non-scalable game studio business into a massively scalable company with huge network effects and metrics-driven best practices. They understood the core value proposition and the first time user experience to make sure the user is hooked with each new game. Every single time Zynga launches a new game, they know:
And most importantly, the folks at Zynga understood that you have to design to scale by designing in network effects. If they had designed assuming scale, they would have failed much like Google Buzz and Wave did.
When Small Companies Assume the Luxury of Scale
Small companies that have not achieved scale, yet assume massive distribution without understanding the core value proposition of the product, often end up with a product that has a bad first time user experience (FTUE) and fails to convert users into highly engaged users.
I’m a big believer in the KISS school of design. Test single hypotheses and control for every other variable to isolate a cause-and-effect relationship.
Small company that did this well: Foursquare
Foursquare’s first iteration of their app was solely focused on getting people to check in to a venue. No other bells and whistles in the feature set. They tested that core use case / value proposition and found that it is a hugely viral action that taps into our need to humblebrag (more on this in a separate blog post).
They assumed no scale or network effects. I still remember the key complaint about Foursquare when they first launched — that you need a certain number of friends for the product to be really interesting. I think the threshold number of users that Facebook found that users became engaged users was around 15 friends. So Foursquare used Twitter’s existing scale and pushed a lot of actions to Twitter by default. Also, Foursquare’s badges and mayorships features helped improve the single-player experience.
Small company that did this poorly: Hot Potato v1
In the first version of our Hot Potato app,2 we fell into the trap of assuming scale for the FTUE. As a result, we failed to pinpoint the main reason why a product feature is compelling from the first time the user loads the app. The single-player experience was bad. When users landed inside an event conversation stream, they saw an empty feed the majority of the time. The app worked well for large scale events like WWDC and SXSW, but failed for the long tail of event feeds on the app.
So when developing an app, make sure the FTUE is compelling. Users have limited attention spans. Without a core focus, everything looks like the most important thing to focus on. The edge cases begin to look like the core focus.
Make the product useful for your first users and understand its reliance on network effects before designing for scale.3
If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.
Hot Potato was an app we built for people to have conversations with like-minded people around live events. ↩
One of the more fascinating patterns in online communities is the emergence of highly engaged communities and behavioral patterns built on old, and many times, bad technology.
The classic example is Craigslist. Despite the old and sub-optimal design, people continue to use Craigslist and have created behaviors of their own to meet their needs. Check out this excellent diagram by Andrew Parker that shows all of the startups that have been built around each section of Craiglist.
The existence of these highly engaged communities and the fact that the crowd coalesces around a common cause despite technological hurdles is a strong indicator for the market need.
Also fascinating are the patterns of behaviors that emerge within those communities. For example, Style Forum is a highly engaged community of people passionate about mens’ fashion. Within this community, some behavioral patterns have emerged:
Only recently have the forum administrators added new features based on that user feedback, but the new features are big hits. There have also been startups launched to build very focused products around those specific behaviors.
This means that you should have just the right amount of structure in your product to define the core action, but have enough slack to enable serendipity.
An example of this is Twitter. Early Twitter users created the @ reply, retweet, and #hashtag.1 When the Twitter product team recognized these behavioral patterns, they productized these behaviors and made them part of the core product to own that behavior.
Another example of this is what my friend Joe did at The Fancy. His product did one thing very well (posting pictures of objects), and then he closely observed what his users wanted. He found that his users were scouring the internet to find a place to buy the product and posting the link in the comments.
So not only did he build a product that captured that serendipitous behavior, he recognized the behavioral patterns and productized around that. The result is the new e-commerce offering you see on pages like this one.
Maximize structure around your single core behavior and minimize structure around edge cases to maximize serendipity. | <urn:uuid:4bed4a44-870e-49e4-9378-348dfb6ff24c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://williampeng.com/tagged/strategy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953135 | 3,166 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Raising preschoolers can be exasperating, not to mention exhausting. And single parents have it tougher still. Elsa Kok Colopy has been there. She knows the struggle well.
In A Single Mom's Guide to Finding Joy in the Chaos, Elsa comes alongside readers as a trusted friend to help them handle twenty crucial parenting issues. Writing with warmth and vulnerability, Elsa addresses everything from nutrition to discipline, including how readers can
With short, easy-to-read chapters, this book makes it easy for moms to find the encouragement they need, the moment they need it. A Single Mom's Guide to Finding Joy in the Chaos is full of powerful inspiration and hope for moms raising kids on their own. | <urn:uuid:c29ef6a1-cbd4-44f9-9e1b-9cd466556c62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianbookpreviews.com/christian-book-detail.php?isbn=0800730666 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935913 | 142 | 1.554688 | 2 |
“Pie is the food of the heroic. No pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished.”
New York Times, 1902
Are there any two words more comforting than “baked goods”? The smell of dough rising. The warmth of a cookie fresh from the oven. The childish glee of licking frosting from your fingers. Even the most horrible cake is wonderful when received as a gift. So when it came to Kaht & John’s Assignment #11 (bake something exceptional then give it away), I knew I had to do it right.
I decided to break this assignment into 3 parts:
- Ensure I’m making the best possible item I can.
- Bake it.
- Make sure the final product winds up in the hands I intend.
For part 1, I turned to the professionals, asking a slew of oven aficionados for their Top Three Very Best Baking Tips. Not that I haven’t churned out a few cookies in my day, but I wanted some advice from people who do it on the real – as in, for money. It seems that any baking site worth it’s salt has a pointer or two, but wanted something more personal. I decided to skip the middle man & directly contact the people who make it happen. As it turns out, many of the people who make it happen are not very good emailers. Or maybe they hate blogs. Or Calders. Or maybe it was just that I wasn’t THAT Calder.
I was lost. Should I sift or fold? Should I whisk or beat? Whom could I turn to? How could this be done?! I was close to panic when I found that the bakers who bake best advise last. & oh! How they came through with their advice! That anyone should have their tips in one hand & a recipe in the other & STILL fail at baking, well, at least now you know who can do it for you.
Thank you, dear bakers. Your advice to me is valuable beyond measure. I hope that others will benefit from it, too.
BAKING ADVICE FROM FOUR SPECTACULAR PROS
I believe the single most important thing a home baker can do to improve product quality is to invest in an inexpensive oven thermometer. I’ve baked in many apartment ovens over the last few years, and not one of them was within 10 degrees of what the dial claimed. If your recipe tells you to bake at 350 and you are really baking at 325 or 375, your results could vary in disappointing ways.
Recipes often call for mixing with wooden spoon. I have never in my life used a wooden spoon to mix doughs or batters. I use a strong, flat roux whisk for gently mixing batters and I use my hands for bread doughs. If the dough sticks to your hands at first, simply rub your hands together and reincorporate the pieces.
Instead of baking pizzas and breads on costly pizza stones, pick up an unglazed quarry stone at a home improvement store for under a buck (make sure it has no glaze, or it may contain lead). The stone will help you create excellent quality crusts.
Aja Marsh is a natural foods chef, writer, and photographer living in Brooklyn, New York. Raised in Texas, she received her undergraduate degree in Visual Arts at the University of Florida and came to New York to be educated at Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. Aja will sleep when she’s dead. You can find more of her work on her website, www.ajataharimarsh.com.
Julie Harber is a freelance food writer and graduate of the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago where she earned a certificate in the culinary arts. She recently wrote a restaurant review for Hungry Chicago (a soon-to-be released book of Chicago’s best restaurants and bars). Julie has a B.A in English from Lake Forest College which focused on creative nonfiction writing. She loves going out to eat at both the well-known and hidden restaurants in Chicago, cooking with her friends, and frequenting the Music Box Theatre.
My first tip would be to gather all your ingredients together and have your mise en place (cooking term that translates to everything in its place) ready. In other words, look at the recipe and measure out all the ingredients before you begin stirring, mixing, kneading, or melting. Most baking recipes calls for wet and dry ingredients and most dry ingredients can be put into one bowl so don’t waste a million little dishes if the ingredients are all going to wind up together anyway! This is something I learned in cooking school. When I used to just bake at home I would get out ingredients as I went and I was always so frustrated and unorganized and it made the whole process very tense. When everything is in its place and ready to go, it makes baking much less intimidating.
When it comes to making cookies, the best tip I can offer is to use room temperature ingredients. When fat (in this case butter) is at room temperature, it homogenizes with the sugar much more easily and won’t leave lumps. Also, having your eggs at room temperature will make it easier for the eggs to emulsify and make an even better dough. Once your dough is made, chill the dough before baking. This will help maintain the structure of the cookie.
My third and final tip is to keep it simple. The best desserts are the simplest ones with a few ingredients. People respond to simple things made extraordinarily. Vanilla ice cream is like Chanel’s little black dress–it’s simple, timeless, and always fabulous. Pair the vanilla ice cream with a warm hazelnut brownie and caramel sauce and you’ve got one hell of a dessert!
A-K is the author of Swell Vegan, a vegan/whole foods blog (and zine!). A professional chef and food photographer, A-K resides in Minneapolis with her bicycle, kitties, & girlfriend. She has, on occasion, been known to seriously get down.
Thanks again, everyone! Coming soon – Part 2: The Baking, or, Oh, What a Tangled Dough We Weave. | <urn:uuid:696d032e-7aa2-4af5-ac6b-b69a9de92c9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://12x2.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/assignment-11-baking-part-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957747 | 1,313 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Obama and the Hip-Hip Problem
Young black activists roared their approval when Barack Obama recently greeted criticism on the trail by dusting off his shoulders, a reference to a rap song by Jay-Z called "Dirt Off Your Shoulder." The media covering the moment went crazy, too. Washington Post reporter Teresa Wiltz hailed Obama's moves and called it a "seminal moment in the campaign, the merging of politics and pop culture," and noted the lyrics suggest "If you feelin' like a pimp...go and brush your shoulders off."
So Barack Obama is feeling like a pimp?
Online at "The Root," a Washington Post website for African-Americans, Obama supporter and Princeton professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell was sky high. "Like every other hip-hop generation voter in America I went crazy when he did it," she wrote. "I almost couldn't believe it. It was a perfect moment."
Harris-Lacewell read that moment as a sign of racial swagger and solidarity with "his base of young urban brown and black voters" and they loved it. "He displayed all the familiar self-assurance and bravado of the hip-hop emcee. The people who got it went nuts, while those who don't know hip-hop just thought he was being funny and confident."
The video went viral and became a YouTube sensation.
What is it about this music that drove Obama to emulate it, and drove the Princeton professor crazy in the process? This Jay-Z song boasts about a "middle finger to the law." Harris-Lacewell touted that Obama would like the song "99 Problems," which has an entire verse about being racially profiled by the "mother f-ing law" for "doing 55 in a 54." Jay-Z also tells critics to kiss his whole (rectum).
Senator Obama claims to be a fan of Jay-Z and Kanye West, but he knows that he has to distance himself a little from the lyrical lows of this "art." He's been gently critical in interviews. "I love the art of hip hop. I don't always love the message of hip hop," he said. Even with the rappers he loves, "There's a message that is not only sometimes degrading to women; not only uses the N-word a little too frequently; but also something I'm really concerned about, it's always talking about material things."
"A little too frequently?" This is like saying a tsunami's a little too wet.
Obama should take a look at a new report from the Parents Television Council about three popular rap-music programs that air in the afternoon or early evening - "Sucker Free" on MTV and "Rap City" and "106 & Park" on Black Entertainment Television for two weeks in December and a week in March.
In 41 and a half hours studied, analysts found 282 uses of the N-word. Is that "a little too frequently," too?
A little too much degrading of women? In those same hours, there were 143 uses of the B-word to describe women.
A little too much focus on material things? Here, Obama is gliding by the question of what material things are acquired. The rap shows included 205 depictions or discussions of drug sale or use and other illegal activity during the study period, for an average of 7.5 instances per hour, or roughly one instance every eight minutes.
Obama did not discuss the heavily sexualized world of rap in his answer. Sexually explicit scenes or lyrical references on these shows appeared 27 times an hour in December, and 40 times an hour in March. No one could miss that drumbeat.
In just one week of programming - 14 hours in March - PTC analysts found 1,342 instances of offensive/adult content, or 95.8 instances per hour, or one instance of adult content every 38 seconds.
Who is being influenced by these messages? During the two-week December 2007 study period, children under 18 made up roughly 40 percent of the audience for these three BET and MTV rap programs. Because all of these programs re-air throughout the day, study results underestimate the percentage of unique children who are exposed to this flood of sexually explicit and violent and crime-glamorizing rapper swagger.
A year ago, Obama made an obvious point when he said Don Imus was fired by NBC for using degrading words that are all over rap radio, but rap mogul Russell Simmons cried foul: "What we need to reform is the conditions that create these lyrics. Obama needs to reform the conditions of poverty."
That is, of course, ludicrous. Poverty doesn't "cause" violent gansta rap anymore than road rage is caused by Toyota. These messages are vile and contemptible and black leaders like former Gov. Doug Wilder and Bill Cosby are true heroes for saying so, while suffering the inevitable blowback.
And Barack Obama is dusting off his shoulders to the applause of the crowd.
Food for thought. | <urn:uuid:43751340-f662-46e8-b291-ea41888b4caf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mrc.org/bozells-column/obama-and-hip-hip-problem | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966969 | 1,034 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Doctors and the Internet: How Will This Work?
There has been a significant amount of discussion regarding “physician professionalism” on twitter. Upon pondering the questions posed, I have read much about the concept of “professionalism” in medicine and law and would like to share a few of my humble thoughts.
First let me say, that I come from a position where I have seen the word “professionalism” be bastardized to create funding for dubious projects in medicine, to keep doctors from advocating for their patients, to keep patients fearful and “in line” and many other untoward activities. It is right up there with “it’s for the BABIES!” as a sentence that imposes immediate alliance in any situation. Who would want to be “against the babies” or “unprofessional”? No one. Therefore, when someone plays that card, it impedes real conversation about issues that affect the lives of our patients and our peers.
I think the recent article in Amednews is a fine example of how this works. A self appointed director of “who gets to be on twitter” decided that he knows best whether someone should blog or tweet anonymously or whether someone’s post is appropriate for the masses. By establishing that position, he intimates that the general public and physicians are not smart enough to decipher the words or intentions of someone else. The most offensive part of his activities from my perspective, is he has attacked those he assumed were weaker or less able to defend themselves. Someone of foreign descent, a single woman out there in the internet jungle, a man whose words may be hard to defend, etc. This is a classic maneuver to induce compliance by attacking those who can’t defend themselves, thereby making the rest of us fearful that we will be next. And certainly, as gauged by private messages I have received, he is creating success with establishing fear among doctors that they may post something of which he doesn’t approve, thereby causing embarrassment and the terrible, terrible label of being “unprofessional”.
Ironically, he participated in a chat last week consisting of the question: “How do we get more doctors involved in twitter?” It was noted that innovators were the only docs on twitter, that the “early adopters” have not even begun tweeting yet. There is a reticence, among doctors who know that every single word they write has legal implications, to open themselves to the public and share what they know, how they care and create conversation. I love doctors and I think their voices need to be heard. They have been silenced by legal implications and by this type of behavior, so we are not hearing from them. I think we need to hear from them. They are intelligent, caring, educated, experienced people who really do, for the most part, passionately care about their patients and their communities.
Now, I will be the first to say that words which burb writes, at times, make me cringe in the worst of ways. But clumsy as his attempts may have been, underneath this is a valuable lesson. Doctors are in extreme distress, financially, emotionally and with their health. It is not easy to serve the public, day after day, when you are significantly abused on an hourly basis by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, other forces in medicine and yes, your own patients. Recent posts on doc only sites indicate that patient theft of office items (even pieces of equipment the person could never use??) is at an all time high. Rudeness and outright violence against physicians is written about on a daily basis, but for the doctor, is to be taken in stride without comment or reaction. I, personally, had a hand fracture from a violent-patient interaction. And yes, I was expected to take this in stride, which I did. It’s a part of the job. This is the state of medicine and why, in some fields, over half the doctors are looking for alternative careers. It is a CRITICAL ISSUE in medicine and burbdoc is a free voice to speak about it. The anger, frustration, self judgment and other-judgment in medicine has reached, truly, a critical point. If burbdoc is a release valve for this, then his words need to be heard.
What would be the appropriate way to have handled someone you think is “rogue”? I believe the appropriate way to have handled this would have been to open it for discussion, on twitter or google plus. Where everyone could chime in with their thoughts and, as a group, we could have come to a higher understanding. This bullying behavior is unacceptable as it not only impedes conversation but impedes one of the greatest use of the internet, which is to move humankind to a higher plane of conversation. Bullying does not afford that possibility.
I have much more to say on this topic, but let me end with the thought that physicians need support now, more than ever. Medicine has been taken over by corporate forces which divide the patient/physician relationship rather than enhance it. Doctors and patients need more say in the process. I fervently believe if that were the case, our medical system would improve rapidly. Right now, corporate and governmental agencies are making most of the decisions and although some are good, they cannot possibly be the best for our country if patients and doctors are not heard from. Silencing voices that may be uncomfortable is not the way to do this. It is unprofessional (see how that works? )Uncategorized comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. | <urn:uuid:312a70ee-3609-49e4-bc95-16e2c875e54e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mtndoc.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/doctors-and-the-internet-how-will-this-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973125 | 1,168 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Alaska Drilling Debate Heats Up
In an effort to turn drilling in ANWR into a national security issue, Sen. James Inhofe (R - Oklahoma) filed an amendment that proposes attaching the entire ANWR drilling bill to a defense authorization bill scheduled for debate on Friday.
"He's always seen energy policy as a national security issue," a spokesman for Inhofe said. "Even before attacks, we were contemplating moving up energy policy to the defense bill in hopes of moving them forward this year."
Adam Kolton of the Alaska Wilderness League, an environmental group opposed to drilling, criticized Inhofe's amendment. "It would be unfortunate and wrong for any politician to try to exploit this national tragedy to advance a partisan political agenda unrelated to the matter at hand," Kolton said.
Just as before Sept. 11, the debate is likely to come down to squabbling over statistics. Drilling proponents argue that the oil underneath the Alaskan tundra represents decades worth of imports from Saudi Arabia. Opponents say all the recoverable oil in the reserve is about what the country burns through in nine months.
Kolton has an unlikely ally in Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska). Although Murkowski is a leading advocate of drilling, he took the Senate floor Wednesday to dispel rumors that he was planning to tack the ANWR drilling amendment onto the defense bill.
Not only did Murkowski deny that he had any such plan, but also said doing so "would be inappropriate and in poor taste." It's not clear if he knew of Inhofe's amendment at the time of his remarks, but it's a remarkable split between two close allies.
A spokesman for Inhofe said his office had acted independently, and had not told Murkowski about its plan to attach the ANWR bill to defense legislation. The situation is especially ironic since Murkowski actually authored the ANWR bill.
Despite the criticism over timing, Inhofe's amendment is the opening salvo in a debate that promises to be hotter than ever now that national security is set to dominate the national agenda.
Even before last week's attack, drilling advocates argued for tapping the oil beneath the pristine Alaskan wilderness to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. But now that war seems possible and instability in the Middle East probable, their case seems much stronger.
Some opposed to drilling were reluctant to reopen the divisive debate when the nation is still in mourning. But others found it hard not to respond to Inhofe's surprise move, even at a time when few want to appear partisan.
"We're saddened and horrified by what happened," said Peter Sherman, a lobbyist with a MoveOn.org, a group opposed to drilling. "But we need to continue to safeguard what makes America special, and the places key to the American character."
Sherman rejected the argument that drilling would improve national security, arguing that it would be too little, too late. Even if drilling were approved tomorrow, it would take a decade before any oil would flow from the wilderness area, he said.
"There are lot of other things we could do to make a much more immediate difference," Sherman said. He suggested simple improvements in fuel efficiency, like keeping tires inflated and improving gas mileage on SUVs, would save more oil, and sooner, than drilling in Alaska would ever supply.
Milton Copulos, a defense expert at the National Defense Council Foundation, disagrees. "The basic choice we're facing is balancing aesthetic values against national security," he said. As the largest undeveloped oil field in North America, Copulos called ANWR a vital energy asset.
Copulos dismissed arguments that conservation could eliminate the need for more domestic oil supply. Much of what could be done had already been implemented following the oil crisis in the 1970s, he said, and called more regulations unfeasible.
"The only thing fuel efficiency standards have done is cause grief for auto manufacturers," Copulos said.
The differences in the numbers -- decades worth of imports from Saudi Arabia, compared to a nine-month supply -- are part spin, part differing interpretations of a U.S. Geological Survey report on how much oil is under the wilderness area.
Despite the confusion, the spin isn't too hard to unravel.
Basically, the USGS report estimates that ANWR has about 16 billion barrels of oil under it, but how much is worth accessing depends on the price of oil. Unless the price of oil tops $30 a barrel, only between 3 and 10 billion barrels will be worth pumping.
Advocates of drilling like to use the 16 billion figure, opponents favor calculating how much would be worth pumping at current prices -- around $20 -- which turns out to be about 6 billion barrels.
The U.S. uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day. So, 6 billion barrels is a 300-day supply. That's where the nine-months-supply figure that drilling opponents like to throw around comes from.
If you use drilling advocates' figure of 16 billion barrels, and divide it by the 1.7 million barrels the country imports from Saudi Arabia every day, that's 25 years worth of Saudi crude. | <urn:uuid:da9dd069-048a-4a18-af38-4b549b61bf33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2001/09/47005 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97021 | 1,071 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Published in Drug Week, September 10th, 2004
"Colorectal cancer incidence after adenoma removal has been studied in selected populations of adenoma patients. Our study estimates the trend in colorectal cancer incidence after adenoma removal in actual clinical practice," reported F. Loeve and colleagues.
They continued, "From PALGA, a nationwide network and registry of histo- and cytopathology in the Netherlands, we extracted data of all patients diagnosed with colorectal adenomas between I January 1988 and I October 1998."
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NewsRx also is available at LexisNexis, Gale, ProQuest, Factiva, Dialog, Thomson Reuters, NewsEdge, and Dow Jones. | <urn:uuid:a340d061-f580-4567-bf3d-c23b21053834> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsrx.com/newsletters/Drug-Week/2004-09-10/091020043331617W.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932459 | 184 | 1.828125 | 2 |
advertSAFE Solves The Problem of Selling to an Increasingly Wary Public
A new online identity verification service is launched and seeks to address Internet safety in online advertising and the significant fears consumers have over being victims of scams and fraud while online.
GUERNSEY, Guernsey, Oct. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the UK Home Office, in August 2012 the UK was subjected to £73 billion worth of fraud, both online and offline. Here are some facts:
- Identity fraud against individuals constituted over £1.2 billion
- 9.4% of UK individuals suffered identity fraud in 2011
- 27.9% of UK individuals have suffered identity fraud at some point
- The average loss is £481 per person
That £1.2 billion figure is personal losses, not losses from bank fraud, credit card fraud or other scams.
With statistics like these it's no wonder somebody wanted to make a stand. That's where http://www.advertSAFE.com comes in to tackle Internet safety and online advertising problems.
http://www.advertSAFE.com is a perfect 'no cost' solution for any website wanting to verify the identity of new and existing users, members or advertisers. In addition giving the website in question more trust and credibility along the way.
In return for completing the online verification through the advertSAFE website, a user receives a special digital ID badge and certificate they can display anywhere to prove they are who they say they are. Visitors can click on the badge and be taken to the advertSAFE verified profile of that user.
With this new verification system, users can prove their identity without revealing too much about themselves and interested parties can check they are who they say they are with a single click.
The online verification process can be quickly and easily undertaken at the http://www.advertSAFE.com website.
Applicants supply a range of personally identifiable information to get verified, which is then checked and verified by advertSAFE and their global partners in a few seconds.
Once satisfied, the identity badge and certificate is presented and can be used in online adverts, profiles, forum signatures and any number of places online. That badge also links to a "verification score" which shows prospects how much verification the person has undertaken and how likely it is that they are who they say they are.
Those wanting to get fully verified will pay a small nominal fee (£7.50 or $12.50) to cover administration of the digital identity check. This will grant Standard Membership as long as verification is successful. Achieve a verification score of over 75% and users will automatically be granted Premier Membership with extra benefits.
In an age where we can be anybody we like, http://www.advertSAFE.com is a significant step in fighting fraud and scam advertisements online.
David Davies , co-founder of advertSAFE, explains: "The internet is the place to buy, sell, connect with old friends, make new ones, pursue your passions, find a job or even love... and it's potential is still growing every day. However, it's extremely hard to assess whether people and organisations are the real deal ... and equally hard to provide a verified ID of your own to other users."
The benefit of using this unique verification system is that internet users can check the identity of prospective friends, partners, love interests, sellers, retailers and any number of internet users.
"Thanks to advertSAFE, verifying other users and proving your own identity is quick, easy and dependable." Davies concludes. "In just a few clicks, individuals and businesses can join our growing community of trusted internet users. Internet users can be more confident about doing business or interacting with verified advertSAFE members."
http://www.advertSAFE.com currently works with British Telecom, GB Group plc, McAfee Secure, MasterCard, Visa, Barclays, PayPal and many more to provide a fast, effective independent third party identity verification service to millions of genuine internet users worldwide.
PRLog ID: www.prlog.org/12005376
SOURCE advertSAFE Limited
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Internet Users Urged to Stay Safe Over Festive Period
Jan 07, 2013, 07:14 ET
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Request more information about PR Newswire products and services or call us at (888) 776-0942. | <urn:uuid:a0030ab0-b395-4e61-a0e8-a6c4639d3801> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/advertsafe-solves-the-problem-of-selling-to-an-increasingly-wary-public-175258411.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936105 | 928 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Talks between US, Vietnamese leaders attract media interest
The Los Angeles Times quoted President Triet as saying his talks with President Bush were "frank and open" over many issues, including the counting number of US servicemen reported missing in action (MIA) and the lingering effects of Agent Orange/dioxin sprayed across Viet Nam during the Viet Nam war.
The US Associated Press (AP) agency ran an article right after the two leaders' talks, quoting President Bush as confirming, "We want to have good relations with Viet Nam." The news agency noted the Vietnamese President's wishing for continued efforts from both Viet Nam and the US in boosting their bilateral fast-growing relations, especially in trade and economic areas.
Disagreement over human rights should not stop a thriving trade relationship from getting stronger, President Triet said.
Meanwhile, Representative Roy Blunt, the number second House Republican, said President Triet told lawmakers that Viet Nam "had lots of human right" and that there should be no more talks about war as the present Viet Nam is a peaceful, friendly, and an actively and dynamically developing country.
After the talks, President Triet visited and had a party with the Vietnamese community in Orange County, California, which is home to a large population of Vietnamese who settled after the war.
The second page of the "Washington Post" posted a photo of President Triet and President Bush together with an article detailing the US leader's positive opinions of the growing and expanding trade relations between the two countries. The Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) would lay a strong foundation for the official bilateral exchanges of free trade, Bush said.
President Triet's visit to the New York stock exchange right after arriving in the US and his vow to welcome US investors with open arms is "a sign of time", the "Le Figaro"newspaper in France remarked. Also the "Le Monde" paper posted a detailed report on the whole US trip by the Vietnamese President.(VNA)
|Back Top page Print Email| | <urn:uuid:c84953c7-8567-44b4-aa9b-418194b1055c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mofa.gov.vn/vnemb.tx/vnemb.vn/tinkhac/ns070625101321?b_start:int=20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961942 | 417 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Panama City- Many noticed a little more helicopter activity in parts of Bay County on Tuesday.
It was part of a day long drill involving emergency responders from the state and a large selection of the panhandle.
"So far it has been an excellent test. We have found that we do have some weaknesses, but we also have a lot of strengths," said April Hantzis, one of the many helicopter pilots taking part in Tuesday's drill.
The purpose of the exercise is to test communication between multiple emergency responder agencies.
"We can all come together and work out those problems so that we have a better interoperability of all agencies in the event of a natural disaster, a terrorist event," said Hantzis.
Bay County Sheriff's Communications Director Rob Fortner says his team uses frequency "patches" to patch together radio communication in times of emergency.
"We can connect all of these communication centers or all of these regions so that we can respond in a joint fashion," said Fortner.
The Florida Interoperability Network is comprised of ten nearby counties.
Bay, Walton, Escambia, and Jackson Counties Sheriff's Office helicopters all participated in testing communications. | <urn:uuid:8bed1c9e-7c10-4833-8230-5e90424f74ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/Emergency-Responder-Agencies-Perform-Communications-Drill-175508971.html?site=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966001 | 244 | 1.679688 | 2 |
If you have any debt you may be looking for away to deal with it. If you have too much debt, and feel overwhelmed with just making your monthly minimum payments, you may be desperate to find a solution to get out of debt as quickly as possible. The truth is that debt weighs down your budget. It prevents you from building wealth and it can stop you from reaching your ultimate goals. There are several different approaches you can take to get out of debt, and you should consider all of your options before making a decision on the best course for you. Remember that it took time to build the amount of debt you currently have, and it will take time to pay it all off.
The best solution is to set up a debt payment plan and work to get rid of your debt on your own. This may take more time, but it is the best option for your credit score. It also helps you to address your spending habits that got you into debt. Most people who choose to get out of debt this way do not go back into debt again. There are two components to this plan. First, you need to list your debts in the order you want to pay them off. Then any extra money you have needs to be applied to those debts. The second part is to follow a written budget, and to find extra money each month to put towards those debts. The budgeting aspect is the key to controlling your finances and building wealth in the future.
Credit counseling is another option to help you get out of debt. You will go to a credit counseling service and take in a list of the debts you owe, and your current monthly expenses. The service works with you to put together a budget you can follow. Then they contact your creditors and work out a lower interest rate for your payments. Then you pay the credit counseling service one monthly payment and they in turn pay your creditors. You need to find a reputable company because sometimes the companies close down suddenly taking your money with them. Additionally, it will show that you worked with a credit counseling agency on your credit report. You can negotiate lower rates on your own, as well.
Another option is loan consolidation. People choose loan consolidation to lock in a lower interest rate and to make payments more manageable. These loans are installment loans, which mean there is a set time period for paying off the loan. There are several dangers when choosing this option. The first danger is that many people do not address their spending habits, and continue to run up debt on the credit cards they just paid off. They end up in a worse situation then they were in before the consolidation loan. Another risk is when you use a home equity or second mortgage to pay off your debt, because it puts your home at risk if you default on the debt.
Debt settlement only works when you are already behind on your debts. In debt settlement, you negotiate a lower payment amount for the debt and the bank counts it as payment in full. Generally, you can negotiate the debt down to about twenty-five percent of the original debt. You must make a lump sum payment for this method to work, and the debt will read settled on your credit report. A debt settlement company will accept monthly payments from you and set the money aside to settle the debts. These companies can suddenly close and take your money with them, as well, so be sure to do the background search before choosing a company. Additionally, you can negotiate the same settlement yourself and save money on the fees the company charges. It does hurt your credit score, but a settled debt is better than an outstanding debt.
Bankruptcy should be a last resort. If you are considering bankruptcy you should talk with a lawyer. He will help you determine if you should file a chapter seven or chapter thirteen bankruptcy. He can also help decide whether or not you should reaffirm some debts such as your mortgage and car payment. If you choose to file bankruptcy it will adversely affect your credit. You will have a difficult time borrowing money in the future. If you lose your home in the bankruptcy you will not be able to buy a new one for several years. | <urn:uuid:3927ecb6-9f9d-42e1-a7a1-1ade89a35832> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://moneyfor20s.about.com/od/gettingoutofdebt/a/Solutions-To-Dealing-With-Debt.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971462 | 836 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Hotel Convento da Alpendurada Marco de Canaveses
After more than 20 years of continuous refurbishment the Convento de Alpendurada Hotel offers guests a medieval atmosphere rich in history and culture. Offering 150 rooms, a chapel and lounges with Arabic and Roman influences as well as leisure facilities such as pools, tennis courts, riverside meadows, forests and more than 30 Km. of trails. The perfect place for peace and wellbeing.
Hotel Casa do Loureiro Marco de Canaveses
The 'Casa do Loureiro' is a small traditional farm that aims to became an environmental sustainable rural model. It is a meeting point for the traditional culture, environmental practices and Nature. Organic (biological) certification guarantees the good quality of its products: wine, oranges, olives, chestnuts and walnuts. Sculpted granite walls and medieval roads delimit the ancient buildings. Its construction began on the early XVIII, improved by the end of that century.The main works were inspired by the house style called Pombalina (architecture style developed as a result of the great earthquake of Lisbon, 1755). The Casa do Loureiro has been part of the heritage of the same family for many generations. Therefore the current owners live in the main house as a living museum of everyday life, which saves among others, documents related with its history.It is located in the magnificent landscapes in the Douro valley, 50 km from the city of Oporto. | <urn:uuid:89875e81-7789-4768-9ac0-8dce85d0da1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.trivago.com/marco-de-canaveses-444232/hotel | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941035 | 315 | 1.546875 | 2 |
I have been working on my book (on and off...) for about 6 months. I have a good bit planned out with the plot, story line, and characters. I even have a small idea on how to start the story but somehow it never seems to be right.... So is there a certain place I should start my story? Way before the life changing events? Presently where the main character is and then just do backflashes? Please help!
If the beginning is blocking you, start writing something else.
You have an outline, right? You know roughly what's going to happen when. So pick some point which is easier, and start there. My suggestion is to start near the beginning (If your intro is I. in your outline, start with II., for example), but start with whatever part makes you excited to be writing.
Once you get into the groove, and you're feeling the voices of your characters and watching the story unfold under your fingertips, you can let that momentum carry you back to the opening of the story.
And you might develop an opening and then toss it three months from now when you're halfway through the book and you realize there's a better way to present your story. That's okay too.
Find excuses to start writing, not excuses to keep you from writing.
Here are some pointers from what I have learned from experience and from what more experienced writers have told me:
When in doubt, make it count for something. Many authors begin the story at a place which is or will be a pivotal part of the plot. Only you will know where or what this is, of course.
That is not to say that you should elaborate or explain why this particular passage is central, of course. Suspense and lack of information will drive your story forward.
A few famous examples:
The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler begins with the main event: The time when the protagonists wife asks him for a divorce. This is the event that triggers everything that transpires in the book.
Lord of the Rings by Tolkien begins with him describing the hobbit race. They will turn out to be the main focus of the books.
The hitchhiker's guide the the galaxy, by Douglas Adams begins with a description of Earth, and its subsequent destruction. The reasons for which are not immediately obvious.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown begins with the assassination of an old man, which puts us firmly in the middle of the conspiracy and a murder mystery.
Perhaps more or less all books can be crammed into such a category, but the point is, this central point was invented (or discovered) by the author. Follow the threads in your story, see where they originate, and begin there.
There have been a bunch of good suggestions already. I think what I'm offering up is coming from a slightly different angle.
My first question to you is how do you want to write your story, or how do you want to write stories in general? Some writers are fervent outliners and they refuse to write any scenes until a solid skeleton is built. Some writers are intentionally discovery writers, they write with some purpose, story, character, setting, etc in mind, but they do not have a specific plan for what will happen. They let the story come to them as they write and edit.
As stated, there is not one answer. The most important is to not allow yourself too much time to think about it. There isn't a perfect formula, but for me, I try to evenly balance my time between mental processing and content creation. Or another way to put it, just start typing, or scribbling, or sketching... It is frustrating as a writer to produce bad content, but it is a contradiction as a writer to produce no content.
Trying something like a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) group... or a meet-up to get you into the discipline of producing content. Once you're writing consistently you can even potentially work on multiple projects at once to keep your mind fresh, as perhaps even find other genres you really enjoy.
There's tons of advice to be given, but the most important is to put words on paper. The rest will follow...
The most important thing to remember when writing the opening of the story is that you have to keep the reader interested.
If it bores the reader, there is a high chance that he or she will put the book down.
This does not mean starting straight off with the life-changing events; in fact, those events will feel fake if there is no build-up. (Not to mention that the reader might not understand what's going on - another reason readers put down books!)
Bottom line, though, is that it depends on many factors.
By the way, you can post possible openings here and ask for critique.
There isn't a certain way to start a novel - it all depends on the story you want to tell.
The opening will set the tone of your story and should ideally give an idea of the main themes in the book. For example, if a big part of your story is the main character dealing with their past, then maybe you would want to start in the past, or start with a flashback to the past. Or if a big part is the relationship between two characters, then you could start in the present with a key scene between them that foreshadows the tribulations that are to come; or perhaps with a flashback to how they met, if the meeting has information that will intrigue the reader and throw some mystery onto the relationship.
It really comes down to what feels right - the fact that you're able to discern that things don't fit is a good start! Keep trying different tacks until you find one that you know is the one.
In the teach-a-writer-to-fish vein, may I suggest that a fruitful approach to a question like this is to look at some books you particularly like and see how those writers did it.
protected by Monica Cellio♦ Apr 22 at 0:57
This question is protected to prevent "thanks!", "me too!", or spam answers by new users. To answer it, you must have earned at least 10 reputation on this site. | <urn:uuid:fb3632bb-8c5c-45c6-b1a3-a051625b148e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/4793/how-to-start-a-book-off/4795 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970391 | 1,289 | 1.75 | 2 |
20-06 Stacking Chair by Emeco designed by Sir Norman Foster
The look of the 20-06 Collection recalls the design of the classic Navy Chair, the all-aluminum icon first made for submarines in WWII, but is updated for modern times with a sleek, minimal structure.
Made with 80% recycled aluminum content
Dimensions: 31.5" h x 18.5" w x 19.5" d
Available in brushed aluminum
Seat and back pad available
Armless chairs stack 15 high
Estimated lifespan of 150 years or more
A more "anonymous" version of the Navy chair, the 20-06 was created for use in an indoor/outdoor cafe in 2006. These chairs have solid bars of aluminum at the bend in each leg - resulting in a super strong structure that can hold 1000 pounds, while only weighing seven pounds!
Emeco uses 80 percent recycled aluminum to make its chairs, and the aluminum content in Emeco chairs are 100 percent recyclable. During the production process, aluminum emits no VOCs or aldehydes in any measurable concentration.
In addition to using environmentally friendly materials in the production process, Emeco uses 100 percent recyclable shipping and packing materials (they even use paper tape).
Emeco's founder, Winton C. Dinges, was a master tool and die maker with an engineering background. He believed that a hands-on approach to production using outstanding materials would lead to outstanding design and outstanding furniture. It is a vision that has served Emeco well since 1944.
Few organizations have as storied a history as the Electric Machine and Equipment Company. Emeco's first major achievement was the Navy Chair- a chair designed in collaboration with ALCOA for seaworthiness. Since then, it has expanded its offering but held closely to Dinges' vision. Emeco and its manufacturing facilities are based in Hanover, Pennsylvania. | <urn:uuid:8f02d1e0-1c07-4585-9d21-c2948ffa7f94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smartfurniture.com/products/2006-Stacking-Chair.html?att=767&cid=812 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937081 | 392 | 1.679688 | 2 |
You cannot be a hypocrite by saying that you can live without money because it is almost impossible since money is the key for giving value to important stuff. With money you can buy many things those you want. That is why we need to know how to use the money wisely so we will not get any misery in the world. Learn how to earn money and ensure you know how to use it in the balance way. Balance in this case means you need to make the expenses less than the incomes.
I am enjoying every time when I sit in my chair in the relax day that I get in the week end. This is really good way to re-build entire brain and mind so I can find something new and better than before. People should do this if they are dealing with business because new inspiration comes when we are calm down without any pressure. Every person deserves this condition including you and me. Retire from the busy stuff from your business activity at least a day to recharge your power.
If you have problem in making a good design or photo for your restaurant display then you need to contact the right service. You should choose the best photographer with experience in providing special information about the food display especially if you want to attract more visitors to come and eat at your restaurant. There are many services you can contact but make sure you choose the best one according to the feedback from the photography forum or other reference from your friend and family. If you need to find the best photography and graphic design service, you should choose from the internet. You can go to the popular search engine, check by entering the keyword and waiting for the best result. I am sure this is the best option that we really need for our life and make sure we know where to go. Continue reading | <urn:uuid:854e05f2-d39f-4aa6-8de5-f17bdf2f362e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.paganunitycampaign.org/category/inspiration | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962786 | 356 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Even though I grew up in the Ozarks and studied the culture of the Arkansas mound builders in grade school, I have never had much interest in fiction dealing with the American Indian. Judie Aitken's tour de force of a first novel, A Love Beyond Time, may just change my way of thinking. Strong characters, a dramatic moment in history, and a mostly unsentimental view of the Plains Indians add up to a very satisfactory book.
Ryan Burke, Ph. D, is an anthropologist employed by the Smithsonian and the newest member of the Little Big Horn Encampment Project. The team leader, archeologist Edwin Gaffney, does not share her delight and enthusiasm at her assignment. Dr. Gaffney expected a male anthropologist, and he immediately makes his displeasure at having a woman on the team very clear.
The other three archeologists on the team are more welcoming. They have their own problems with Gaffney -- they suspect him of stealing artifacts and selling them to private collectors. They can prove nothing, however, and Ryan knows that accusing a scholar of Gaffney's standing without proof would be fatal to all their careers. She settles in and begins recording the oral histories of the descendents of the Indians who were present at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
The first Indian she meets is Charles Antone Crying Wolf, a Lakota Sioux. Charley Crying Wolf is very old, but his mind is still keen and his sense of humor sharp. Charley also believes that artifacts are being stolen from the site. Charley also tells Ryan that his oldest grandson, Dillon Wolf, a lawyer, is planning on meeting with the authorities in Washington to get the site shut down because of the thefts.
Ryan is horrified…so much is being learned at the site…but Charley tells her she can help. "(B)e patient, be careful, and be watchful, very watchful -- like a little mouse." Later, he tells her, there will be even more she can do, when the time is right. "(W)ouldn't it be wonderful if someone could go back to that time over a hundred and twenty years ago and set a trap, an old trap to catch a new thief?"
Charley has a second plan in mind that involves Ryan and his grandson, Dillon. When Dillon visits Charley on the reservation, Charley tries to introduce him to Ryan, but Dillon won't even consider it. He despises all white people; he would certainly never date a white woman. He flies back to Washington for his meeting without seeing Ryan. Not until Ryan travels back to June 1876 will she meet the man then known as Calls to the Wolf.
I was especially interested to see how Aitken would handle Ryan's reactions to the period she visited when she travels in time. A writer should always depict the historical period accurately, but when the time traveler is a trained observer like an anthropologist, with an extensive knowledge of the period she is visiting, any errors on the writer's part will be particularly noticeable. Within the limits of my knowledge of the Plains Indians in the late 19th century and the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Aitken's portrayal of the Indian encampment and the battle rings true.
Even more important, the thoughts and attitudes of Aitken's Lakota Sioux struck me as convincing. Although Calls to the Wolf -- usually known simply as Wolf -- had the traits we all expect in a strong, romantic hero, his attitudes and ways of responding to his world impressed me as appropriate to his time and place.
I could recommend A Love Beyond Time strictly on the basis of its historical authenticity, the well-developed secondary characters such as Charley Crying Wolf and Wolf's 19th century companions, and Aitken's competent writing style, but it was the compelling romance between Ryan and Wolf that kept me turning the pages. In a genre where "happily ever after" is a given, Aitken managed to make me anxious for Ryan and Wolf to find love in the days before a horrific battle and then to find it again in our era. Quite an accomplishment for a first-time author.
--Nancy J. Silberstein | <urn:uuid:e2ad27ed-a460-4bdc-807c-bd37c3499399> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theromancereader.com/aitken-love.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973189 | 864 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Inpatient Alcohol Treatment
Inpatient alcohol treatment is a viable option for those suffering with alcoholism who have been unsuccessful with outpatient treatments. When alcohol starts to have a devastating impact on families, professional lives and relationships – it may be time to consider inpatient alcohol treatment.
If you struggle with alcohol, here are a few signs you may want to consider inpatient alcohol treatment.
• Performance at work or school is becoming difficult or suffering as a result of your drinking
• You are drinking at unconventional times, such as in the morning
• You find yourself drinking alone
• You find ways to avoid your friends and family in favor of drinking
• Your drinking leads to high-risk behaviors
Inpatient alcohol treatment is often the best option for people whose alcohol use has serious potential to
place themselves or others in danger. If you find yourself driving under the influence, drinking at work, drinking around family members or acting out through dangerous or destructive behavior, inpatient alcohol treatment should be seriously considered.
Inpatient alcohol treatment centers offer the opportunity to address and treat alcoholism in a safe environment that will keep you and your loved ones out of danger during this difficult and trying period.
What to Expect During Inpatient Alcohol Treatment
Physical and psychological evaluation: upon admittance to an inpatient alcohol treatment program, patients receive a screening for any physical or psychological conditions to determine the type and level of treatment needed.
Detoxification period: during this phase, patients are forced to address and learn to manage alcohol withdrawal symptoms, which are usually severe among patients with alcohol dependency. Inpatient alcohol treatment offers an advantage to the withdrawal phase because patients have no access to alcohol.
Another advantage is the support network offered to help patients overcome and manage painful and often debilitating withdrawal symptoms. Once these symptoms are under control, more in-depth inpatient substance abuse treatment can begin.
• Treatment through medication when needed
• Behavioral and psychotherapy
• Enrollment in Alcoholics Anonymous
Life After Inpatient Substance Abuse Treatment
Staying clean following a period of inpatient alcohol treatment is a major challenge, one that many people don’t overcome right away. However, according to Alcoholics Anonymous, proper preparation can help ensure success.
There are a few things to keep in mind when leaving inpatient substance abuse treatment.
The same problems and struggles will exist once a patient leaves an inpatient alcohol treatment program. This time, it’s going to take will power and determination to confront life’s many problems without turning to alcohol. In fact, reverting to alcohol will only compound problems, which is why patients end up in an inpatient alcohol treatment program in the first place.
No One Faces Alcoholism Alone
If you struggle with alcohol abuse, you are one of more than 2,000,000 people working to overcome alcohol addiction. Seek out support networks such as A.A. in your area and stick with the meetings, no matter how hard life may become.
How to Find an Inpatient Alcohol Treatment Center
If your drinking has gotten to the point where you feel you need an inpatient treatment program, the first appointment you make should be with your doctor or therapist. A medical professional can help you find an effective inpatient substance abuse program in your area.
Have a list of potential treatment centers and contact them directly to determine which program will best suit your needs. Programs fill up quickly and it may take a few tries to find a center that can accept you right away. And remember, your treatment may be covered, so talk to your insurance provider to determine whether inpatient alcohol treatment is covered under your policy.
If you are having financial difficulties as a result of your alcoholism, there may be public programs available in your state. Contact your local health department or substance abuse center to find out what inpatient substance abuse programs might be available for you. | <urn:uuid:f44c0aca-d3d2-476c-be29-2af7090f9957> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abusetreatmentcenters.net/inpatient-alcohol-treatment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936732 | 783 | 1.789063 | 2 |
I respect the great thinkers devising anti-spam solutions based on intelligent protocols and brilliant mathematics. (And by spam I refer to all unpleasant e-mail such as worms.) I also believe that although this research will improve security for those who choose to apply it, science won’t be enough to eliminate spam. We need patient, diligent, and ruthless mail servers.
There are two spam-friendly tenets of the modern e-mail infrastructure that must be overturned. One is the expectation that all incoming e-mail is delivered to the recipient immediately and on the first try. The second is that active investigation of the validity of incoming connections and senders is poor Internet etiquette, wastes bandwidth, and delays message delivery. My back-of-the-napkin, spam-hostile mail server deals disappointment to those who hold these concepts as entitlements.
My server will return error responses to all first-time senders. It will take the time, as much as a full day, to verify the sender against databases of known spammers, IP range ownerships, and domain registrations. My server will cache these lookups for several days out of consideration for the hosts of these invaluable public databases. If your server looks clean, I’ll pass your message on to the user’s inbox but I’ll flag it as originating from an untrusted server and include an internal URL or mailbox that can refuse further connections.
If my server’s investigation yields something suspicious — such as finding that you’re sending from a dynamically assigned IP address — my server will send you and your postmaster a URL that explains why you’re blocked along with links to a form you can fill out to restore your good name.
In effect, my server will perform many of the duties of a public spam blacklist, but it’s under my control and accepts user contributions. It will make time for validations and stretch out the span and frequency of investigatory queries by amending the unrealistic tenets of modern e-mail. I don’t care if your message sits in my queue for a full day while I check out your server. It’s an inconvenience that you and my user must endure but once.
I think that the strongest element of my daydreamed mail server is that, through links to other services, the mail server knows everything and forgets nothing. If one of my users sends mail to your server, you’re trusted for a while and that trust is renewed when another message is sent. When my intrusion detection system spots a port scan, and my mail server sees an e-mail connection attempt from the same IP, that IP is in my permanent hall of shame. Suspicious Web sites flagged by my HTTP proxy/filter become suspicious mail senders as well. A user who submits e-mail addresses to a non-secure Web site raises a yellow flag — if the volume of the user’s e-mail from untrusted servers spikes following that, my server will leave the user a voicemail with his or her new e-mail address.
Once we accept that e-mail is not IM, we free our systems to patiently investigate the origins of messages. Once we accept that there is no universal right to connect to our mail servers, we don’t have to work so hard to figure out what is and isn’t spam, or to certify an individual sender or message. Every unknown sender can wait a day to have his or her first message checked out, and to have other services confer on whether an external server is naughty or nice. It’s not everything, just one way to break the backs of spammers.
Read more about applications in InfoWorld's Applications Channel. | <urn:uuid:33bc7686-909c-4889-ac1b-e8ec7a593927> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/make-spam-wait-504 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932293 | 771 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Let us help you choosing the right course
What do you want: more knowledge or a diploma?
Are you a team leader, coach or middle manager, or do you wish to become one? Do you want to improve your coaching skills? You can also learn how to give great workshops. Or you can take it one step further and learn how to teach others to become a trainer in a course Train the trainer. Do you wish to qualify for promotion or do you aspire to a new job? Mind the course description and pay attention to the course level or the diploma you’ll be qualifying for. The course level is important, but also the title, as it indicates what you will learn. What qualifications are you looking for: didactic skills, co-active coaching, management and coaching, team management or mediation?
Together or alone?
When you are searching for a course for yourself, you can filter for Open Registration. If you’re searching for a course for the whole team, you might want to consider an in-company training.
Good collaboration means making the best use of individual qualities and your leadership capacities in appointing tasks and roles. A training course in management and coaching can help you achieve a productive division of tasks. You will learn how to manage group processes, how to control group dynamics and how to check group behaviour. In doing this, an open and constructive internal communication is vital.
If the group dynamics and social climate in your team are good and sound, you are in the clear. Nevertheless, you might want to know how to make that well-oiled machine run even smoother. Perhaps there are points for improvement and you want the team you lead to follow a training course in team building? Perhaps there are great difficulties in your team and you want to restore order? Does your staff speak about each other instead of to each other? This causes lower productivity and missed targets. Perhaps your team is ready for Group Intervention (RET). You learn to deal with opposition and create support for your ideas. Ultimately, you can choose to solve matters by means of Reteaming.
Commercial or nonprofit?
A training course in (situational) leadership is centred on the different management and leadership styles that are required and effective within different occupations and fields. For instance, there is a difference in coaching within the commercial field or the government service. Whether your organisation is about serving the public interest or making profit, it makes a difference in the way you lead your team.
Now you know: there are many varieties in team coaching. There may be similarities in what the courses offer, but the emphasis lies on different matters. It is therefore important that you try different search terms, as set forth in this article. See which subjects are of importance to you and you’ll find the most relevant course. And do order a brochure when you’ve found the training course that meets your needs. We hope to have helped you and your team get on the right track, heading towards a golden future with a winning team! | <urn:uuid:2c5d1f9a-cf57-428b-af74-11421d50ac77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.springest.co.uk/management/team-coaching/sheffield | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952246 | 618 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Search and Browse All Media Releases
Grandparents raising grandchildren - 16/08/2012
Identifying ways to support the growing number of grandparents in Australia, and around the world, who are taking on the role of raising their grandchildren is the aim of a forum being hosted by Southern Cross University in Lismore today (August 16).
The University’s Centre for Children and Young People and the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales are hosting the forum, which will be attended by grandparents, policy-makers, service providers and researchers.
Professor Anne Graham, director of the Centre for Children and Young People, said there had been some research into the issues surrounding grandparents as caregivers, but more needed to be done.
“While grandparents are now starting to be heard, more research needs to be done to identify and understand their diverse experiences in order to design policies and programs that best meet their needs,” Professor Graham said.
Professor Graham said research had already shown that grandparents often felt they weren’t particularly well-supported and, because care arrangements were often informal, there was not adequate acknowledgement of the contribution they were making.
“There are also issues of loss and grief for many grandparents in regard to their own children,” she said.
“Ultimately it’s about finding more equitable outcomes for grandparents and the grandchildren in their care.”
Professor Graham said the forum was being supported the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
“It is really significant for us to have the support of the Academy and is evidence of the importance of the research being undertaken though our Centre for Children and Young People and the Social Policy Research Centre.
“This forum is one of a number of initiatives being undertaken as part of the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) program, funded by the federal government.”
Photo: Attending today's forum are from left, Professor Bettina Cass, Professor Deb Brennan and Professor Anne Graham
Media are invited to attend the forum. Please contact Brigid Veale, head of Communications and Publications, 66593006 or 0439 680 748 for details.
For further information, please contact:
Communications and Publications
Southern Cross University
PO Box 157 • Lismore NSW 2480 • Australia
T +61 2 6659 3006 or +61 2 66203508 • e firstname.lastname@example.org • w www.scu.edu.au/scunews | <urn:uuid:bbcf66c9-793a-4188-a7ba-654bba9d9fbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scu.edu.au/news/media.php?item_id=5401&action=show_item&type=M | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945858 | 512 | 1.804688 | 2 |
(AP) Some call Graham Chapman the forgotten Python. Some call him the enigmatic one. John Cleese calls him the dead one.
Don't expect the animated film A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman to sort out his place in the British comedy troupe. Based on Chapman's book, an autobiography curiously co-authored with five other writers, the film doesn't reveal much that Python fans don't already know about the facts of his life.
But fans will come away with a better sense of the strange inner workings of Chapman, who died of throat cancer in 1989 but is reunited with Cleese and most of his Python mates in the voice cast of A Liar's Autobiography, which has a limited U.S. theatrical run starting Friday and has its television premiere the same day on Epix.
Ex-Python member Terry Jones thinks Chapman would have loved the cryptic mishmash of observations, self-analysis, bizarre asides, flights of fancy and revisionist personal history that make up the film.
What an odd person he was, Jones fondly recollected at September's Toronto International Film Festival in an interview alongside son Bill Jones, who co-directed A Liar's Autobiography with Ben Timlett and Jeff Simpson.
Fourteen companies crafted the visuals in 17 different animation styles, presented in 3-D and leaping from such vignettes as a procrastinator's writing holiday with Cleese in Spain and a re-creation of a skit with Chapman as Oscar Wilde, to a sedate moment drinking spiked tea with the Queen Mother and a rousing production of the Python tune Sit on My Face.
Chapman studied at Cambridge, where he became a doctor and met Cleese, who became his writing partner and closest colleague among the Python troupe, which included fellow Brits Jones, Michael Palin and Eric Idle, and American animator Terry Gilliam.
Joining the Cambridge Footlights performing group, Chapman gradually veered away from medicine, joining Cleese as a writer on David Frost's BBC show The Frost Report and eventually co-starring in the groundbreaking sketch comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus, which premiered in 1969.
The other Pythons had signature bits and skits Cleese with his Ministry of Silly Walks, Palin with his lumberjack song, Jones with his menu of endless Spam variations, Idle with his nudge-nudge, wink-wink routine and Gilliam distinguished himself with his surreal animation.
Chapman reveled in shrill cross-dressing characters but often tended toward self-serious straightmen roles, much as he did with the leads in the troupe's biggest film comedies, as King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the title role in Monty Python's Life of Brian.
Terry Jones recalls the first time he saw Chapman perform in London, an odd duck playing alongside Cleese and fellow British comedian Bill Oddie.
I couldn't take my eyes off Graham, because he looked like he'd just walked on off the street, and what was he doing on stage? Jones said. John Cleese and Bill Oddie were being funny on stage. Graham was not being funny. He was being serious, and that's why I think he worked so well as King Arthur and Brian. Because John wanted to do Brian, wanted to play Brian, and we persuaded him out of it. Because Graham was, he's just the rock around which everybody else is doing funny performances.
If Chapman seemed like the straight guy, the rock to the other Pythons' zaniness, it was an illusion that held up only in front of the camera. Behind the scenes, Chapman could be notoriously unreliable, boozing and partying and so bad about showing up on time that he became known as the late Graham Chapman decades before he died.
A Liar's Autobiography chronicles not so much the facts of Chapman's life as his trickster spirit, as a cartoon figure named Graham Chapman works through such issues as his alcoholism, promiscuity and confusion over his sexuality (he eventually decides he's 70 percent gay, based on a survey he did with himself).
Chapman provides the backbone of the animation voices, which the filmmakers culled from recordings he did of his book. Jones, Cleese, Palin and Gilliam added vocals (Idle was too busy, co-director Bill Jones said), making it a reunion of sorts with their dead colleague.
The film includes video of Cleese's notorious eulogy for Chapman, in which he lovingly bid good riddance to the freeloading bastard.
Graham would have been very cross if John hadn't said that about him, Terry Jones said.
Bill Jones and co-director Timlett had just come off of making the six-part documentary series Monty Python: Almost The Truth The Lawyers Cut when the opportunity came their way to do A Liar's Autobiography. They didn't want to do another Python-related documentary, though, and it suited Chapman's unfathomable spirit to let his life play out in whimsical, free-form animated sequences.
It's just an appreciation of his twisted humor. Not understanding who the man is or finding out any facts about the man's life, but getting a sense of him and getting at his feelings, Bill Jones said. I think we're just trying to show the sort of thing he enjoyed, because he is sort of the forgotten Python. He hasn't been around for 23 years. | <urn:uuid:e33e5928-8c61-4242-836f-acf008ab991b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesleader.com/stories/Liars-Autobiography-honors-Pythons-dead-one,224087?category_id=6&list_type=most_viewed&town_id=1&sub_type=stories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976861 | 1,140 | 1.703125 | 2 |
"Honoring the Pink Shawl" is the theme of the Holland Pow Wow, the area's fifth annual traditional pow wow, which will be held at the Hope College DeVos Fieldhouse on Saturday, Oct. 24.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The pow wow will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Highlights will include the Grand Entry at 1 p.m. and a native storyteller, sponsored by the Holland Museum, at 3 p.m.
Presented by the Anishnabek of West Michigan, the pow wow is scheduled in a spirit of reconciliation and is a family event open to attendance by all peoples. The pow wow will feature authentic Native American dancers in regalia, Native singers and drummers, along with Native American-made jewelry and other goods for sale. There will be a concession featuring native food. The event's planning committee anticipates participants from throughout Michigan.
To promote this year's theme of "Honoring the Pink Shawl," there will be informational booths and displays by local health agencies throughout the day. The Pink Shawl Project is a grass-roots movement, initiated originally by Lorraine "Punkin" Shananaquet, a community health representative at the Health Department of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi, Gun Lake Tribe. It is becoming a nationwide movement. The purpose of the pink shawl is to use traditional Native symbols, such as a woman's shawl, to promote breast health awareness.
Native storyteller Larry Plamondon is being sponsored by the HollandMuseum, and will present at 3 p.m. Plamondon, of Cloverdale, is a member of the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians. He is the author of a self-published memoir, "Lost from the Ottawa: The Story of the Journey Back."
Those with leading roles during the pow wow will include George Marting, head veteran; Bill Memberto, master of ceremonies; David Shananaquet, arena director; Kelvin Dan, head male dancer; Punkin Shananaqet, head female dancer; and Sons of the Three Fires, host drum.
Dances presented during the pow wow will include the Northern Traditional Men's Dance, the Northern Traditional Women's Dance, the Traditional Men's Grass Dance, the Traditional Women's Jingle Dance, the Fancy Dance for men, the Fancy Dance for women and intertribal dances for all peoples.
The Native Americans of the area refer to all Indians as Anishnabek people and themselves as the People of the Three Fires, also known as the Ottawa (Odawa), Chippewa (Ojibwe) and Potawatomi (Bodewatomi). The pow wow has been planned by a gathering committee representing members of the West Michigan Native community and other Native Americans living in the area.
Multiple programs at Hope are among the sponsors for the pow wow. In addition to Hope, the pow wow's sponsors include several native tribes of Michigan, the Gannet Foundation, and the city of Holland.
The DeVos Fieldhouse is located at 222 Fairbanks Ave., between Ninth and 11th streets. | <urn:uuid:ee3d0deb-2d7d-430d-b42a-6847cbab9bab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hope.edu/2009/10/15/fifth-annual-pow-wow-highlights-pink-shawl-project | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952646 | 666 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Animation School- Kali is a Good Girl
This is Kali
she is a cartoon student. She does what's right.
She copies artists she likes to find out what techniques they do and how they do them.
And she studies more than just one style, because only copying one style is a sin.
I gave her some paints because I saw her marker pictures and thought to myself "Hmm, I bet she'd be a good painter."
So she took the paints and went right to it like a jackrabbit chasing a doodlebug in fairy shooting season.
First she did some Mel Crawford studies. Very cartoony stuff.
Then she copied a Rojankovsky baboon, that is in a different, more elaborate, hairier style.
Look how great it is! I can't stop staring at this monkey.
If she keeps at this, she will surely be a star and develop her own style one day.
If you are an eager young student of cartoons, do like Kali does. Copy and absorb.Learn real things from the pros first then later worry about your own style. Here's hers so far.
I bet you can't tell a girl did it. Hwa hwa!
Charles Dickens described Eddie to Kali and she channeled Rojankovsy to help her paint the perfect cartoonist. Grow up and be him one day.
If you wanna learn fast, be a good girl like Kali and copy the masters!
And don't forget your Preston Blair lessons! | <urn:uuid:d92ca928-c39c-4ecc-a6af-2f8ad225b878> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/02/animation-school-kali-is-good-girl.html?showComment=1171763520000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962642 | 321 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The more things change … well, that’s it, isn’t it? Things do change, no matter how fervently Lord Grantham and fans of “Downton Abbey” may wish otherwise.
The third season of the justifiably popular British import, created and written by Julian Fellowes, comes to PBS on Jan. 6 with the first of seven new episodes set in 1920.
It is the dawn of a new age, not only for the residents of Downton Abbey, upstairs as well as downstairs, but for England as well. The Great War is over, and society is changing. Women are getting their hair bobbed and wearing their dresses shorter — well, the younger ones anyway: certainly not the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith).
The war has taken an economic toll on the nation, and that includes the Crawley family. For generations, the Crawleys have depended on their tenant farmers for income, and the present Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) was able to realize a cash infusion by marrying Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), an American heiress.
But at every turn, the old ways are being forced to give way to the new. Eldest daughter Mary (Michelle Dockery) is getting ready to marry third-cousin-once-removed Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), but her father is worrying that the family may have to sell the abbey itself unless some financial solution can be found.
Perhaps that solution might be found by hitting up Cora’s visiting mother, Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine), a cross between Dolly Gallagher Levi and Molly Brown, who swans into the Abbey with her rough-hewn ways and a forthrightness that adds an extra inch to the Dowager’s frequently raised eyebrow.
All of this makes for one delight-filled episode after another – very much in spite of weaknesses in the script.
In the past, it’s been easy to overlook other issues, such as the similarities not only between “Downton” and the Robert Altman film “Gosford Park,” whose script was also crafted by Fellowes, but between “Downton” and “Upstairs Downstairs” as well. It would be less easy to overlook the flaws in the scripts for season 3 of “Downton,” were it not for the fact that we already know and love the major characters so well.
But if we allow ourselves some distance, Fellowes gets lazy, particularly in the early episodes of the third season, by occasionally advancing the plot at the expense of characterization.
Characters demonstrate questionable inconsistency. Are a particular husband and wife truly devoted to each other and part of an indestructible partnership, or is the wife becoming a bit of a shrew? Is the Dowager a tolerant modernist or a rock-ribbed traditionalist?
On the one hand, our love of the characters makes it more than possible to overlook the sloppiness of the scripts. On the other, though, it’s because we do know these characters so well that we notice the inconsistencies in the way they act in the first place.
Again, none of this detracts significantly from our enjoyment of the series. But since it’s just been renewed for a fourth season, perhaps Fellowes can take more time with future scripts to let events play out more realistically and treat his characters with the respect they’ve earned by virtue of how well they were crafted in the first place. | <urn:uuid:abc075cc-0c7c-4f3f-91be-fc2f93d6677a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kansas.com/2012/12/29/2618768/downton-abbey-delights-in-spite.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96975 | 744 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Aquinnah Building Triggers Controversy
Tribal Officials and Town Leadership Collide Over Construction on Indian Property Without Normal Permits
By COLE LOUISON
A shack beside the shellfish hatchery on the Wampanoag Tribe's property has raised the question of building rights in Aquinnah and sharp objections from some town officials.
The gardener's shack is the first building constructed on tribal property without permission from the town. The structure stands by the shellfish hatchery on Menemsha Pond and is visible from State Road.
Representatives from town and tribal governments debated the issue for more than two hours Tuesday evening at a meeting of the selectmen. The board was split on the actions of the tribe in building a structure without a permit. Town counsel and two of the three selectmen expressed their concern over the tribe's actions, expressing the view that the tribe needs to abide by building regulations in town.
Tribal chairman Beverly Wright was adamant in saying that the tribe needed no such permit from the town.
"We have our own set of building codes, and we're allowed to do this," she told the board. "We feel we do not need a permit."
She argued that the lot on Menemsha Pond is held in the name of the tribe and owned by the federal government and, therefore, the federal government has jurisdiction over the land, not the town of Aquinnah. Under its own bylaws, she explained, the tribe gave itself a permit. The newly implemented bylaws copied those of the town, she said, and in some cases are even more stringent. She noted that the tribe had secured a town building permit for construction of its shellfish hatchery in the fall of 1999 because it had not yet adopted its own regulations.
Most town officials were unconvinced.
"What's wrong with getting a building permit?" asked selectman Karl Burgess. "If you build a building in the town of Aquinnah, you need a building permit."
"Would you allow me as a taxpayer in Aquinnah to get away with that? Clearly, no. I think this is the point where we make a stand."
Town attorney Ron Rappaport supported the actions of building inspector Jerry Wiener, who wrote a cease and desist order after he discovered the shed had been constructed without permission from the town. Mr. Rappaport called Mr. Wiener's conclusion correct, then proceeded to voice his frustration with the tribe's actions, and with the actions that now must be taken by the town.
"I wish that Jerry had been called first, rather than the building just being constructed. Now we're in a position to work backwards. I don't think the awkwardness is on our end," he said.
"This is the second issue we've had in eight weeks," he continued, alluding to the clash between town and tribe government over tribal rangers and firearms. "I don't know where our legal budget stands."
"There's a building there that no one knows the condition of," Mr. Wiener said at the meeting. In the first week of March, while passing Menemsha Pond on State Road, Mr. Wiener noticed the new structure and contacted the tribe. A building permit was needed, he said. Three weeks later, with the aid of Mr. Rappaport, Mr. Wiener drafted a letter to the tribe, stating that the structure had not received proper clearance from the town, and that a cease and desist order would be filed in seven days if no action was made to secure town approval. A cease and desist order followed.
When completed, the building will contain equipment that monitors air quality, and will have electricity but no plumbing. In a telephone conversation with the Gazette, tribal economic development director Jim Fuller said the building is not complete, and that the cease and desist order came when work on the structure was already at a natural hiatus. Ms. Wright was unavailable for further comment.
Selectman Mike Hebert agreed with Mr. Burgess, reiterating his point.
"I can't imagine if I owned property down there, I could build that building; it would have been turned down," he said. "I need to have this settled for my own peace of mind, so in the future we can proceed more smoothly."
Both Mr. Burgess and Mr. Hebert supported the idea of turning to an outside counsel with more expertise in tribal law, but selectman and tribal member Carl Widdiss did not.
"It's an unnecessary expense," he said of Mr. Rappaport's suggestion. "There is enough information out there for Ron and Jerry to make a more educated decision on this issue that needs to be explored."
Mr. Widdiss suggested that once completed, the shed would benefit the public since it would house equipment designed to monitor air quality. He voted nay on the final motion made by Mr. Hebert to allow Mr. Rappaport to proceed with legal action. Mr. Hebert and Mr. Burgess both voted in favor of the motion.
Though Mr. Rappaport will continue to investigate the issue under the approved motion, tensions remain around both the building and the conflicting principles behind its construction.
"In the name of public health and safety, at least get a third party inspector," Mr. Wiener said in a telephone conversation with the Gazette. "All I'm here to do is interpret what the law is, what the legislation is and what the codes are."
"It's as if a homeowner came to me and said: ‘I gave myself a building permit, and don't worry about anything because it's built correctly and safely.' " He said common but dangerous building problems like a loose ground wire could easily be prevented with inspections, but such problems could fester if left unchecked.
"What's important is that there be a clarity about where the town's authority begins and ends and where the tribe's authority begins and ends so we don't have these conflicts," Mr. Rappaport said in a telephone conversation with the Gazette. "The issue is not over the shed, it's whether the tribe needs a building permit."Since the meeting, Mr. Rappaport said he has been in contact with Ms. Wright, who he said has sought the advice of the solicitor's office of the federal Department of the Interior. | <urn:uuid:bb6e5572-859e-470e-a263-4f83ab747859> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2001/04/20/aquinnah-building-triggers-controversy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97753 | 1,311 | 1.765625 | 2 |
With hindsight, it’s obvious that the Velocette Vogue was doomed from the start. Since 1948 the company’s enclosed LE had been available to a largely disinterested public, and it had nearly scuppered the business when it failed to sell in adequate quantities; only surviving by the skin of its teeth when the civil authorities – notably the rural police – purchased something like half of the total number produced. But Velocette’s management had seemingly learnt nothing from the debacle, and 15 years later decided to launch yet another ‘car on two wheels’.
Admittedly, the LE was a delightful little motorcycle when taken on its own terms, but it missed its intended targets by a mile. Besides the fact that existing motorcyclists would never be tempted onto something so puny, it didn’t offer enough protection from the elements to wean drivers out of their cars, and it was too expensive for realistic consideration by either class of potential user.
The LE’s plus points included a sophisticated beam frame that provided excellent handling, and it wasn’t bad looking, apart from its angular leg shields. Its biggest drawback was the engine. A side valve unit had been chosen by designer Charles Udall for the valid reasons that it was compact enough to be used in a vibration-less flat-twin format, and it was simpler to water cool (which added sophistication and mechanical quietness). Unfortunately, the emphasis had been so much focused on the mythical commuting buyer during the ‘Little Engine’s’ development, that it wasn’t economic to increase its capacity above 192cc, even when it became obvious that more power would enhance its sales prospects.
So what did Velocette do with the new Vogue announced in late 1962? The firm kept the poor little engine – the limitations of which were even more glaringly obvious than when it had been introduced all those years earlier – and replaced its pressed steel beam with a new, but arguably less advanced, tubular frame, and cloaked the whole thing in bulkier and weightier bodywork.
My late friend, the Avon fairing company’s Doug Mitchenall, was responsible for the design and production of the new Velocette’s glass-fibre bodywork, and he was brutally frank about its genesis and prospects. “It would never have happened,” he told me, “except that Velocette boss Bertie Goodman and I had a little too much wine at dinner one night. He started chatting about how he’d like to update the LE, so I started doodling on a napkin, and we came up with the outlines of the Vogue.”
I can believe all that, after all, many of us must have discussed our ideal motorcycle over a few glasses of plonk, but – perhaps fortunately – we haven’t had the luxury of seeing what our project would look like in the cold light of day.
The Vogue was first seen at the 1962 Earls Court Show, when it seems to have created more curiosity than enthusiasm. In any case, it didn’t become available for sale until the middle of the following year, by which time many potential buyers may have had second thoughts. The Vogue stayed in production until 1968, but it probably only survived that long because the engine/gearbox unit was still being made for the Police LEs, so it cost little to occasionally fit one in the new frame, while a few sets of the GRP bodywork could be made as and when required.
If all that sounds rather downbeat, I don’t think I’m misrepresenting the situation, or exaggerating the lack of customer interest. During the five years the Vogue was available, well under 400 were sold, and a production rate of about one-and-a-half per week wasn’t going to keep the Velocette boardroom supplied with caviar and champagne, was it? A surprisingly high proportion seem to have survived, judging by the regularity with which they appear in ‘For Sale’ advertisements, and the cynic in me suggests that that might be because few saw enough work to get worn out, and they are no more popular now than when they were being made.
Having said all that, I have to put the other side of the coin, and admit that the archetypical reluctant motorist Bertie Goodman was seeking does actually exist. One local chap – a stalwart of the Velocette flat twin club – has used his Vogue on a daily basis for many years, while his car stays in the garage except when essential to carry heavy loads. But he is the exception that proves the rule and most Vogues remain firmly as curiosities in collections.
So (to pen the sort of link beloved of radio presenters) my curiosity was aroused when I heard that Hampshire-based Velocette fanatic Neil Redley had added a Vogue to his collection, and before I take to the saddle, he runs through the interesting story behind the Vogue’s restoration.
“It’s quite a far-travelled motorcycle,” he tells me, “It was initially bought in December 1963 from Wills Brothers of Kingsbridge in Devon, and the first owner kept it for quite a while before passing it on to another local chap. Its history then gets a bit blurred until it turned up as a basket case in Birmingham, from where it was bought by Velocette Club member Brian Agnew, who is Reader in Thermal Systems at the School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering in Newcastle University.
“Brian was already restoring another Vogue which some previous owner had unaccountably fitted with LE legshields, and which was missing a side panel, so he decided to make use of his new acquisition to aid that project. He made moulds of its legshields and panels in his own time, and then had his pupils lay up new GRP components in them as a class exercise. After making a few more parts for other club members he passed the moulds onto the Velocette Flat Twin Club, so there may be several Vogues on the road that wouldn’t be complete if it hadn’t been for the one I now own.
“Anyway,” Neil continues, “Brian built this one up from the best parts at his disposal, and I brought it back south a year or so ago. It ran all right except for an annoying misfire, which I eventually traced to faulty carburettor parts. The tiny Amal carburettor was unique to this model and currently unavailable, so when I heard that Dell'Orto sold a direct replacement I fitted one and it completely solved the problem. It doesn’t have a tickler, so I’ve connected its cold-start device to a valve lifting lever on the handlebars. The ignition can also cause difficulties with flat twin Velos, but Brian used a Boyer Branson system where only the minimal current needed to trigger the electronics passes though the points, so they keep their adjustment.”
'During its travels, the Vogue had become parted from its original registration number, and now wears a quite presentable Newcastle age-related replacement. Interestingly, the original number didn’t denote the year of sale with an ‘A’ suffix, because this system was initially optional and the Exeter Vehicle Records Office felt it was a bit of bureaucracy they’d ignore as long as they could.'
During its travels, the Vogue had become parted from its original registration number, and now wears a quite presentable Newcastle age-related replacement. Interestingly, the original number didn’t denote the year of sale with an ‘A’ suffix, because this system was initially optional and the Exeter Vehicle Records Office felt it was a bit of bureaucracy they’d ignore as long as they could.
Despite owning bigger and faster bikes, Neil really likes the way he can ride his Vogue out for a civilised potter early on a Sunday morning, so when I took it out I was rather hoping that my preconceptions would prove unfounded. It would have been nice to report that 1960s motorcyclists didn’t know a good thing when it was presented to them, but I’m forced to agree with them that this machine – smart and innovative though it is – doesn’t really cut the mustard.
First impressions are hopeful, though, as the combination of semi-electronic ignition and a new carburettor mean a first-kick start, cold or hot. Press-start would actually be a better expression, as the odd internal mechanism inherited from the Little Engine’s original hand-starting lever, plus the proximity of the footboards, mean that the lever has a movement of less than a right angle.
Initial acceleration is encouraging, too, the broad power band and four sensibly spaced gear ratios masking the fact that the side-valve engine produces less power than even the equivalently sized contemporary Villiers unit. But there the good news stops, because this is a seriously weedy motorcycle. If it is more streamlined than the identically powered LE, any benefit is cancelled out by its greater size and weight, and the Vogue’s shortcomings on the open road are emphasised by bodywork that includes indicators and panniers (albeit with awkwardly narrow openings), which give it pretensions towards being a tourer rather than just a ride-to-work commuter.
To put figures on its performance, the Velocette will cruise at 50mph on a level road, but a modest uphill slope, or a headwind, soon puts paid to that, while a combination of the two results in a humiliating drop to third gear and a 30mph grind. At one stage in my test I became surrounded by a posse of police motorcyclists on a training ride-out, and I was seriously concerned that my inability to keep up to a 50mph speed limit might make them suspect I had something to hide.
Comfort for the rider is quite good, although I find the brake and gear levers stop me placing my feet exactly where I would like on the footboards, and find it strange that their design – intended for the original hand-start, hand-gearchange LE – should be perpetuated here.
Thankfully, it doesn’t rain during my ride, but I imagine that weather protection would be pretty effective, as the screen is ideally angled to deflect the wind above my head, despite being low enough to see over. I detect Doug Mitchenall’s expertise here, as he was among the first men, outside factory race teams, to explore the airflow past moving motorcycles while developing his Avon screens and fairings. The Vogue looks good, too, only the fake flutes behind the seat betraying the design’s leanings towards the worst excesses of 1960s car styling.
Effective streamlining puts more strain on the brakes, of course, but those on the Vogue are by no means over-sized or impressively effective. Interestingly, though, the motor’s characteristics of having little flywheel effect, but lots of moving parts, comes to the rider’s defence, and closing the throttle results in a reassuring and surprising amount of engine-braking.
The roadholding is competent on the whole, an initial tendency towards heaviness changing to impressive stability as the speed rises. The effect is rather spoilt, though, by undamped forks that become somewhat pogo-like when encountering a bump in mid-bend. It’s that odd contrast between expectation and delivery again, I suppose. If one was happy to treat the Vogue as a sort of big-wheeled Vespa it would excel in all respects, but its looks and cost (50 per cent greater than even the top of the range Vespa) lead one to expect rather more than it can provide.
The Vogue’s nearest rival was, of course, not the Vespa but the Ariel Leader, and Neil Redley also has one of those I’ll report on separately. It can’t be ignored though, as its initial and spectacular success was doubtless among the factors that persuaded Bertie Goodman there might be some mileage in having another tilt at the ‘motorcycle for everyman’ concept.
He would have done better to study the downside of the Leader’s story, as the first flush of enthusiasm quickly evaporated, and, to maintain sales, the enclosed model had to be supplemented by the more-conventional looking Ariel Arrow within a year or so. Soon there was a general decline in motorcycle sales and by the time the Vogue was announced the Leader was well and truly on the skids. In the circumstances, it’s difficult to find words other than ‘economic suicide’ to describe the launch of a similarly styled motorcycle with a price tag 10 per cent higher and a top speed that was lower by a rather greater margin!
Against all the evidence that most motorcyclists were only interested in Velocette’s roadburners, Bertie Goodman quixotically persisted in his belief that a significant number would warm to the company’s smaller enclosed machines. The test machine first whispered onto the road in December 1963, with a frame number indicating that in almost a year of production only about 100 had been sold, and sadly, that tells you just how wrong he was. | <urn:uuid:aa14c503-eb5e-436e-bb5e-71493925500c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.classicbikersclub.com/articles/2012-11/velocette-vogue | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977156 | 2,801 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The Clinton and Obama campaigns are clashing over the meaning of one of Obama’s answers.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The spat between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is really about calling attention to your opponent's weakness.
In politics, just like in prizefighting, you look for your opponent's weakness and pound away at it. In the debate this week, Obama portrayed himself as new and different - the total opposite of George W. Bush. "The notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them, which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration, is ridiculous," Obama said in the CNN/You Tube debate on Monday.
Clinton portrayed herself as experienced and knowledgeable. "You don't promise a meeting until you know the intentions. I don't want to be used for propaganda," she said.
She was going for Obama's weakness - his lack of experience. She kept hammering away at it the next day. "I thought that was very irresponsible and, frankly, naïve to say you would commit to meeting with Chavez and Castro or others within the first year," she said.
Obama came back punching at Clinton's weakness. "If there is anything irresponsible and naïve it was to authorize George Bush to send 160,000 young American men and women into Iraq apparently without knowing how they where going to get out," Obama said.
Her weakness? That she's cautious and calculating. And perhaps too willing to compromise with people like President Bush.
Actually, it was not Obama but John Edwards who used the "T word." "Do you believe that compromise - triangulation - will bring about big change? I don't," Edwards said in the debate.
Remember, it's a fight for the world heavyweight championship. So there's bound to be some trash talk. "Senator Obama gave an answer that he is regretting today," Clinton said.
Obama’s response: You want to talk about regrets, lady? Or as the Illinois senator put it, "Do you want to talk about irresponsibilities? Look at the vote to authorize George Bush to send our troops into Iraq without an exit plan."
Here we are, only a couple of rounds into this fight, and there's already blood on the floor.
–CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider | <urn:uuid:9e412562-836c-47ea-9dbf-b4aeeab3c3c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/07/25/analysis-blood-on-the-floor-already-in-clinton-vs-obama-spat/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984027 | 467 | 1.5625 | 2 |
As another answerer already mentioned of course, decibel level is of concern - you don't want your kids listening to music that is so loud, you will actually hurt their hearing.
Outside of that, as shared by this poster some studies on music and toddlers have shown that there can be some impact on intelligence, while still others seem to indicate that is a load of hooey, or that the impact is miniscule. Even the criteria that music not be too chaotic or discordant, is a tough one, because the assertion is often then made that classical is the way to go. However, there is plenty of classical music (or romantic or modern era "concert music" which are also often referred to as "classical") that is "chaotic and discordant" Beethoven's second or Fire Bird or Rite of Spring by Stravinsky for example.
As someone with a lot of training in child development and experience in both the two's and three's classroom in preschools, I decided not to worry about "researched" aspects of music choices for my own child too much. Instead of focusing on a specific type of music as "okay" or "not okay" I focus on the music itself. As teacher and parent, I pay attention to:
Is there language in the lyrics (particularly in the repetitious portions) that would be embarrassing to my child, myself, or teachers and other parents with whom she interacts regularly, or are there lyrics that are overly educational about inappropriate topics for her age group (explicit sexual references, topics on death, suicide, crime etc. - my allowances or lack thereof for these types of topics change as she grows and changes and is more ready for certain things). I try to think, if she repeated any of the lyrics in mixed company or to a little friend would I feel bad about having let her learn the song? (If so, I avoid it when still with lyrics). If you have some favorites of yours that contain such lyrics, you might try Lullaby renditions of. . . or see if the Vitamin String Quartet has covered what you like without the lyrics)
Does my kid or do my students respond to the music and what kind of a response is it? Music does impact mood - if I notice that a particular piece of music - or genre of music seems to create grumpiness, I nix the music. Of course if a piece of music you get out startles your child, it would also fall into this category. Conversely, if my child seems soothed by a certain piece of music I put it in the "soothing" playlist, OR, if a song is upbeat and makes her want to dance and laugh etc. (Or in the case of nine-month old, giggle and clap), I put it in the "play time" playlist. - You get the idea. One play through with a piece that has a negative impact is not going to do lasting damage. As they get older and more communicative, they can talk to you about their perceptions in this realm more and more too. In regard to this one, at nine months, I presented what I liked and fit with Criteria number 1.
As annoying and repetitive, as children's music (and some pop) can be, kids learn from repetition and some of it is really pretty good. I would include some honest to gosh "children's music" in your repertoire. Songs like, "Jim along Josie" and Animal Action songs are great for teaching different types of movement. There are songs that teach days of the week, numbers, etc. Even songs like, "I like to eat a apples and banaynays" can be really useful because of the teaching behind them (this one teaches the vowels). Songs that include fine and gross motor skills all help even with language development as well as rhythmic development and aquiring musical appreciation. At nine months, songs like, "teddy bear's picnic" and "Animal Crackers in my Soup." are fun and capture imagination.
Do I like the song At ALL If listening to the song over and over again is going to put me in a bad mood because I just can't even tune it out because it sounds so awful to me (for example, anything by Lady GaGa), it is not in my child's best interest to have it playing because I will eventually be in a bad mood over it - not conducive to constructive interactions with my child.
Outside of those considerations, As my child grew into toddler-hood and beyond, I have tried to give her variety. To me, filling the house with a variety of genres keeps things fresh and my daughter informed as to the musical options out there. At the preschool we were required to play a variety of genres and even had a rotating featured genre each month that was required we play. The director spoke as though she had learned about benefits of a variety through some of her training, though I cannot think of any specific study I have ever read or heard about in this regard. Doing searches for "Top Tens" and then a genre will often yield songs you can preview and choose amongst. Many times you can find one or two that fit the above four criteria (and if you don't find something you like, don't worry about it). This article provides a list of a variety of resources for finding great music that is also great for kids such as those given in the links in the first criteria I listed and might be of particular interest to you right now for finding songs from a variety of genres that might work for you. One of the best resources listed in the article for achieving variety is baby loves music.
I have written a few articles about music and kids on my blog that you might find interesting if your child really takes a liking to music and you want to give your child a musical education/enrichment experience. My blog is pinchxeverthing.blogspot.com.
While this question is designed to ask about what music is good for babies still in the womb. Many of the same concepts apply, so if you have not done so already, I'd check it out too.
In regard to the criteria you offer, I'd disagree unless you are thinking specifically for music in the "soothing" category. My daughter loves (and has long loved) "Ride of the Valkyrie" by Wagner. "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is another favorite even though it is fairly loud at the end. She also loves "1812 Overture" by Tchaikovsky (Loud Timpani, Cannons . . .). Sometimes big changes or dramatic shifts in musical dynamics can be really fun for kids as well as teach them vocabulary like loud and soft (or forte and piano in musical terms) by setting up the example for you to discuss. Have fun! | <urn:uuid:874288dc-101a-4e93-b871-613066264798> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/7025/which-music-is-suited-infants-and-toddlers/7035 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9745 | 1,403 | 1.804688 | 2 |
- On Air Program Guide
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6-25-12: "Crooked Lines"
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This conversation first aired August 10, 2011.
Ann Hall Marshall has had a busy life in Emmitsburg raising ten children and building a career as supervisor of Adult Education in Frederick County. Along the way she’s done quite a bit of writing–press releases, education manuals, and a newspaper column. For years, the idea of a novel was also simmering in the background.
She finally wrote that novel and published it last fall–a few months before her 90th birthday.
Today Sheilah talks to Ann Hall Marshall about the novel, Crooked Lines.
Ann Hall Marshall has published a second novel, Full Measure of Love. | <urn:uuid:41b074fb-ea73-456b-8852-a0141374b3e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wypr.org/podcast/6-25-12-crooked-lines?quicktabs_1=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93942 | 270 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Winston-Salem Journal takes to its editorial page today with its support for an independent redistricting commission. And good for them. It's a subject that needs to be discussed, but just isn't as sexy as taxes or smoking or filling $2 billion budget holes.
honorable endeavor it could undertake to restore public confidence in
government. Legislators could hand redistricting duties to an
The best road back to competitive elections for both the U.S.
Congress and the two houses of the General Assembly is independent
redistricting. A nonpartisan commission would draw maps according to
redistricting standards laid out in a state Supreme Court ruling. Only
voter registration and demographic data that had been stripped of party
references would go into the computer programs.
It's not too late to implement such a system. If legislation were
approved this year, the commission's structure could be outlined in a
constitutional amendment and put before the state's voters in 2010. The
commission could draw the maps in 2011, and they'd be in use during the
We can hope that this will get some traction this session, but somehow I doubt it will happen. It would involve the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate thinking beyond protecting their own majorities and doing something in the best interest of the state. | <urn:uuid:bfba6eec-b8b2-466a-8e00-8b76383399d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.civitasreview.com/elections-campaigns/for-a-redistricting-commission/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958093 | 267 | 1.789063 | 2 |
A youth hunting event sponsored by SC Department of Natural Resources, Quality Deer Management Association, Southern Pines, Pioneer, Healing Springs, and Tree Top Hunting Clubs of Bamberg County was held on October 7, 2006. The event included both morning and evening hunts at the hunting clubs and mid day festivities at Collin’s Deer Processing in Sweden, SC with 49 youth and approximately 150 adults from across the state participating.
Twelve young hunters participated last year, but this year the number grew to 49. A total of 14 deer were harvested by the youth and for many it was their first deer.
The Take One Make One (TOMO) program, operated through the SC Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Law Enforcement Division, specifically targets youth and young adults who have not experienced a previous shooting or hunting activity, but welcomes any participants. Participants are paired with volunteer hunting club members and private landowners who sponsor and actively participate in a year-round hunting, fishing, and shooting sports mentorship program. For more information on TOMO, to enroll as a student, or for information on how to become an adult sponsor and mentor visit http://www.dnr.sc.gov/education/tomo/index.html or call (803) 734-3995 in Columbia or toll free 800-922-4301.
The event was coordinated by Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA). Organizer Bruce Compton of Pelion was pleased with this year’s turnout, “I wanted to implement a youth day at Southern Pines Hunting Club, where I am the vice president. Last year we combined with Pioneer Hunting Club and QDMA and this year Tree Top and Healing Springs Hunting Clubs joined us so the youth would not have to pay anything. Adult members went out of their way to pick up needy and special needs children from all across the state and bring them down for a good day of fellowship, fun and good instruction in safety and hunting ethics.”
DNR Sgt. Lynwood Kearse coordinates the TOMO program, “I have seen both parents’ and students’ faces light up as they learn about and enjoy the natural resources that our state has to offer,” said Kearse. “I am just happy to be a part of the learning process.”
Everyone met at Collin’s Deer Processing located on the Charleston - Augusta Highway in Sweden for a grilled dinner. QDMA officials spoke about hunting safety and deer management along with providing brochures and other hunting information. DNR also conducted a hunter education course.
Special thanks to the following for providing food and prizes free of charge in support of the event: Collin’s Deer Processing, QDMA, SCDNR, Enterprise Bank of Denmark, Ace Hardware of Lexington and West Columbia, Golden State Foods Foundation, McDonalds of Denmark, Terry Sandifer Farms of Blackville, Southern Pines, Pioneer, Healing Springs, and Tree Top Hunting Clubs of Bamberg County. | <urn:uuid:969852aa-a578-4728-ab11-60a44901b8d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dnr.sc.gov/news/Yr2006/nov6/nov6_youth.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947368 | 615 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Students rally in favor of same-sex marriage
Dozens gather at University of Maryland, College Park
Same-sex marriage supporters rallied at the University of Maryland, College Park, on Thursday, less than one month before voters will decide whether to approve same-sex marriage in Maryland.
The rally drew a crowd of several dozen supporters.
A handful of Maryland legislators talked about the importance of getting registered to vote and the effect that young voters can make in the election.
Young voters tipped the numbers in President Barack Obama's favor in 2008, and supporters said they hope they can do the same for same-sex marriage in Maryland.
"We've registered over 2,000 students over the past couple of weeks, and polls show that an overwhelming majority of students support marriage equality. So, the first step is getting them registered, and the second step is making sure they know which way to vote on the issue," said student government spokesman Matt Arnstine.
"We know that young voters overwhelmingly support marriage equality because Question 6 is really about equality and fairness," said Sultan Shakir of the group Maryland for Marriage Equality.
Same-sex marriage is one of seven ballot questions Marylanders will get to vote on in November.
Copyright 2012 by WBALTV.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:4221e143-d084-4cc9-8d07-78e0f5af14ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbaltv.com/news/politics/Students-rally-in-favor-of-same-sex-marriage/-/9379266/16961558/-/format/rsss_2.0/view/print/-/f94itv/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94465 | 274 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Make toilets "cool and sexy": World Toilet Day call
WASHUnited & Quicksand launched the campaign titled "Toilets Are Beautiful" in partnership with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to eradicate the menace of open defecation in the country.
The organisers have opened a Facebook account to promote the campaign launched as part of The Nirmal Bharat Yatra, a sanitation and hygiene awareness and behaviour change programme conceptualized and implemented by WASH United & Quicksand--an NGO from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Western-style and Indian squat toilet seats will be placed at both Dilli Haat and then Connaught Place and volunteers will sit or squat on these toilet seats (in rotation) 24 x 7 ¿ till the Facebook record is broken within a few days, they said.
"For long, toilets and shit have remained taboo words even though their use provide protection against diarrhoea and thousands of lives saved every day. Time is now ripe to make toilets cool and sexy. Please join the 'Toilets Are Beautiful' campaign as we set out to achieve this goal and get every 'poo' in the loo", said Nirat Bhatnagar, Principal, Quicksand.
Stressing on the need to enhance the purview of the campaign, Pankaj Jain, Joint Secretary, Drinking and Sanitation Ministry said "this campaign should be spread to urban India as well not and just restrict it to villages because it is a stark fact that 60 million urban population still defecates in open."
Passersby will also be invited to sit on these toilet seats placed next to a specially-designed backdrop and record personal messages in support of sanitation campaign, they said.
Be the first to comment. | <urn:uuid:489e5356-d0c3-456e-a00b-c8b276354481> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.financialexpress.com/news/make-toilets-cool-and-sexy-world-toilet-day-call/1033199/0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93202 | 362 | 1.5 | 2 |
Since the launch of iOS 6, Apple Maps have been getting a lot of attention. Users and industry professionals are frustrated by Apple Maps. They are claiming that Maps have not exceeded, let alone met, their expectations. In some cases, Apple Maps is even being referred to as “Mapplegate.”
In light of the frenzy created by Apple Maps, we took a look at something industry experts and iPhone users have not yet considered: Is it possible that Apple Maps is actually better for iPhone users? Is the app more data efficient? Will using Apple Maps actually help users save their precious and limited megabytes, as well as being more responsive and faster to operate?
The answer to this series of questions is an enthusiastic YES!
Apple Maps are Maptastic!
Onavo’s team of data experts set out to compare the data consumed by Apple Maps on iOS 6 to that of the Google-based iOS 5 Maps app. We compared a number of scenarios and investigated how both apps use data over the cellular network. The data we evaluated proved: Apple Maps is up to five times more data efficient than Google Maps.
Standard Map View
In Standard Map view, every time you search for or open a new location, such as a restaurant or the address of your next meeting, your maps app has to download the street map data you see on the screen. If you pan or zoom in or out, that data needs to be downloaded as well.
Our data experts performed an identical series of activities on Google Maps and Apple Maps that included searching for several US cities, addresses and airports and zooming in and out to locate specific locations. On Google Maps, the average data loaded from the cellular network for each step was 1.3MB. Apple Maps came in at 271KB – that’s approximately 80% less data! On some actions, such as zooming in to see a particular intersection, Apple Maps’ efficiency advantage edged close to 7X.
Apple Maps’ overwhelming data advantage in Standard Map views is because of Apple’s use of vector graphics. Instead of downloading map tile images every time users zoom in or out of a map view, Apple’s vector graphics approach resizes dynamically, resulting in the drastically reduced data usage we observed, as well as smooth resizing and fast responsiveness.
However, it seems that even in Satellite View, Apple has considered data usage. Our tests found Apple Maps uses only half as much data as Google Maps for the same Satellite searches and views (an average of 930KB for a single page load on Google Maps vs. 428KB for Apple Maps).
Why this matters
Maps, a staple of iOS since the very first iPhone, is also one of the most popular apps on the device. According to our data, a whopping 70% of iPhone users use the Maps app. Furthermore, the Maps app alone is responsible for 5% of the iPhone data traffic on mobile networks today. Apple’s drastic improvement in data efficiency will be welcome news both for consumers watching their megabytes, but also for the mobile networks that are transferring all those megabytes.
So while iPhone users and industry experts may still be waiting for the perfect map app, at Onavo, we recognize that Apple Maps brings something needed and fantastic to iPhone users: a map app built to make it faster, more inexpensive and more efficient for users to get around. And that is pretty Maptastic! | <urn:uuid:466bfc2a-17d0-47d1-82c9-df2f1b7ed4ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.onavo.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941415 | 703 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The Austin Chronicle has set up a new Twitter account devoted exclusively to digging up old stories on the shenanigans of Texas Gov. Rick Perry. They’ve pulled up some good stuff, including this story from last year on the governor’s involvement in shutting a planned student production of a controversial play at Texas’ Tarleton State University.
The play in question was Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi, which provoked a furor from Religious Right groups when it was first released in 1998 because of its depiction of a gay Christ. The production was canceled after the playwright and theater staff received death threats, but it was later reinstated – with metal detectors at the door. People For the American Way Foundation was among the groups defending the right of the play to be put on in peace at the time, staging "A Quiet Walk for the First Amendment" in front of the theater on opening night.
How times have not changed. When a student at Tarleton State started working on a production of Corpus Christi last year, he ran up against opposition from none other than Texas’ Lieutenant Governor, David Dewhurst. Dewhurst issued a press release attacking the student production as a “lewd display” and “morally reprehensible to the vast majority of Americans.” The backlash unleashed by Dewhurst’s statement was so strong that the professor in charge of the show ultimately decided to cancel it and three other student productions because of “safety and security concerns for the students.”
While Perry’s deputy was the public face of the opposition to the show, the Chronicle dug up a tidbit from the Texas GOP website that made it clear that the governor himself was not only aware of but also involved in the censorship effort:
In a "thank you" note on the Texas GOP Vote website, Conservative Republicans of Texas President Steve Hotze gives credit (a-hem) to Dewhurst for his moment of censoriousness, but then adds this interesting little factoid:
We also owe a debt of gratitude to Governor Perry for his behind the scenes work to stop the play at Tarleton State. Ray Sullivan, the Governor’s Chief of Staff, was notified of the play on Thursday and after discussing it with the Governor, the necessary steps were taken to ensure that its performance was canceled.
This all brings to mind the GOP’s latest successful censorship attempt, targeting a recent exhibition about gays and lesbians in American Art at the National Portrait Gallery. Like the criticism of Corpus Christi, the criticism of the exhibit centered on both its acknowledgement of gay people and on a depiction of Christ that some on the Religious Right found objectionable. The groups targeting the exhibit were led by the far-right Catholic League, which also, not coincidently, was a leader in the fight against the original production of Corpus Christi.
The success of Religious Right censorship campaigns depends, in a large part, on the willingness of elected officials to play along. In the 1980s and 1990s, Jesse Helms took on the role of censorship champion. In the most recent Smithsonian scandal, John Boehner and Eric Cantor were more than willing to echo the complaints of far-right groups like the Catholic League. And if Perry’s involvement in the Tarleton Corpus Christi incident is any indication, if he were president he would be happy to lend his hand to similar efforts. | <urn:uuid:1db18da4-802e-4ca6-88a6-239e7172bc6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.pfaw.org/category/organizations/smithsonian | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970395 | 692 | 1.617188 | 2 |
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: As car makers introduce features such as engine start/stop to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions, STMicroelectronics is pioneering a new generation of chips that allow in-car entertainment equipment to operate without interruption as the engine is turned off and restarted.
The first of these is the TDA7850LV, a 4x50W audio power amplifier that is the very first start/stop-compatible IC of its kind in production.
Some manufacturers estimate that start/stop and other technologies such as high-efficiency engine management programs could be a big contributor to reducing energy usage, cutting fuel consumption by as much as 20 percent in certain models over the coming years.
The system shuts down the engine when the vehicle is stopped, for example at traffic lights, and restarts as the driver prepares to move off. According to market analyst Strategy Analytics, annual demand for vehicles featuring start/stop is expected to reach almost 20 million units by 2015, initially led by customer demand in Europe.
In cars fitted with start/stop, the supply voltage for on-board electrical equipment can fall to as low as 6V when the engine is turned off and restarted and only the battery is supplying electrical power. In addition, switching between battery power and alternator power can generate 'pop and click' noise.
Left unaddressed, these effects can cause noticeable distortion in the audio system's output. Hybrid-electric vehicles present similar challenges to electronic equipment designers.
Discrete components external to the audio power amplifier can be used to build circuitry to regulate the supply voltage and suppress pop and click noises. However, these circuits complicate design and add significantly to bill-of-materials costs. ST's TDA7850LV audio power amplifier makes the use of all these components unnecessary and therefore simplifies design, reduces cost, and saves pc-board space.
ST is building a complete family of start/stop audio power amplifiers that will include entry-level class-AB amplifiers, complex digital devices with diagnostic features, and an automotive class-D family offering outstanding power efficiency.
"This emerging family of devices, beginning with the TDA7850LV, combines advanced start/stop capability with the hi-fi audio quality and outstanding ruggedness that have always distinguished ST's audio power ICs and ensured our strong market leadership," said Fabio Marchio, Automotive Product Group Vice-President and General Manager of ST's Automotive Infotainment Division.
"We call this new wave of products 'green power,' meaning that we are totally committed to design ICs that can help our customers implement environment-friendly systems. We now aim to build on our leadership as demands for start/stop and hybrid technologies continue to ramp up."
In addition to its start/stop compatibility and high audio performance, the TDA7850LV delivers the advantages of ST's Flexiwatt power package, now the de-facto standard for car audio ICs. A variety of configurations are available, including vertically or horizontally mounted packages. In addition, a unique new surface-mount variant now allows car-audio makers to take advantage of high-speed fully automated assembly enabling increased throughput and production quality.
The TDA7850LV is currently ramping-up mass production, priced at $5.30 for orders of 1000 pieces. Alternative pricing options are available for larger volumes. | <urn:uuid:ff1b5a2c-1dd0-4fd6-96aa-e828e04dd7c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pcsemicon.blogspot.com/2010/09/st-first-in-production-with-enhanced.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932493 | 691 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Eases Valley Truss Installation, Increases Uplift Capacity
Erecting or retrofitting valley trusses just got faster and easier for roof framers and truss installers with the introduction the Simpson Strong-Tie® VTCR valley truss connector. Installed on top of roof sheathing, or directly to the framing below, this single-sided valley truss clip eliminates the need to add a support wedge under the valley truss or to bevel the bottom chord to match the supporting roof pitch.
The VTCR connector installs after the valley truss has been set, a time-saving benefit for new construction as well as for retrofits in high-wind areas. The connector conveniently installs from one side with nails or with Simpson Strong-Tie Strong-Drive® SD structural connector screws, the latter resulting in a nearly 30 percent increase in uplift capacity.
"With the introduction of the VTCR, Simpson Strong-Tie has addressed the need for a valley truss connector that doesn't install under the valley frame as well as one that only requires front-side fastening," explained Stan Sias, Simpson Strong-Tie national manager for the Plated Truss Industry. "The VTCR also has a wider pitch range and uses fewer fasteners than its predecessor, and it has been load rated for Simpson Strong-Tie SD-9 screws as well as for nails."
The VTCR can be installed on either beveled or non-beveled bottom chords and is clearly marked for fast setup of pitches from 0:12 to 12:12. For more information about the VTCR truss connector, visit www.strongtie.com. | <urn:uuid:91423488-c411-4a4f-b809-8cf69afe13e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.contractorsupplymagazine.com/pages/Spre/Simpson-VTCR-valley-truss-connector.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936906 | 349 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Theodore Johnston and Matilda
Posted by mikegen48 on January 30, 2007
Theodore Johnston was born in 1791 in Georgia. He died on 18 Jun 1855 in Warren County, Ohio.
Theodore married Matilda in 1812 in Liberty County, Georgia. Matilda was born in 1792 in Georgia. She died during 1824 in Warren County, Ohio.
They had the following children:
Caroline Johnston was born in 1814 in Kentucky. She died on 18 Jun 1877 in Tennessee.
Edwin Johnston was born about 1818 in Casey County, Kentucky. He died in 1870 in Kentucky.
Leonard Johnston was born circa 1821 in Kentucky. He died in 1877 in Kentucky. | <urn:uuid:c1ff210d-b358-482e-885d-8d6281cd94d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mikegen48.wordpress.com/2007/01/30/theodore-johnston-and-matilda/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=79631356d4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.994262 | 150 | 1.671875 | 2 |
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