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Published November 1, 1999.
We discovered how to get maximum flavor with minimum mess.
Most spiced nuts are made with a heavily sugared syrup that causes the nuts to clump awkwardly and that leaves your hands in a sticky mess.
At holiday parties, even so-so spiced nuts usually disappear faster than the host can replenish the bowl. We wanted to develop a recipe that was both tasty and neat.
We eliminated two popular methods--boiling the nuts in syrup and tossing them in butter--straight off. The former made the nuts sticky, and the latter dulled their flavor. A third method, coating the nuts with an egg white mixture, pretty much overwhelmed them with a candylike coating. What finally worked was a light glaze made from very small amounts of liquid, sugar, and butter, which left the nuts just tacky enough to pick up a coating of dry spices.list of recipes | <urn:uuid:21ef3e45-8458-4dbe-ac92-8ff8bdfd9a6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/print/article.asp?docid=474 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971287 | 188 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Addicted to your cell phone? Tired of paying a fat bill for it each month? Join the club.
Approximately 87 percent of the U.S. population has a mobile phone, according to a recent survey by the Federal Reserve. The average individual's cell phone bill is also up to $71 a month, reports J.D. Power & Associates. And with all of the options available to customers, you're probably having a hard time finding the best plan for your buck.
Fortunately, there are a number of changes you can make to lower your monthly bill. Industry experts offer these tips:
Reduce your data plan. If your data needs are none or minimal but you like to text, a number of phones offer a good feature set, including a physical QWERTY keyboard, without an operating system. "These phones don't require a data plan, so that cost can be eliminated," says Allan Keiter, president of MyRatePlan.com, a website that compares cell phones and rate plans. To determine how much data you'll need, use MyRatePlan.com's data calculator and adjust your plan accordingly. T-Mobile offers data plans for as little as $10 a month, with AT&T's light user Data Plus plan at $20 per month.
"Make sure your phone automatically connects to Wi-Fi at work and at home, so you aren't using mobile data in those locations," advises Sascha Segan, a cell phone analyst at PCMag.com. Segan says there are also apps, like Boingo and Devicescape, which help your phone automatically connect to public Wi-Fi.
Opt for a value plan. T-mobile introduced several value plans earlier this year. These two-year contract plans offer voice and data at a lower price for customers who either pay full price for their T-Mobile phone or who use their own device. For example: An iPhone with an unlimited talk, text, and 3GB data plan with AT&T runs you up to $119.99 a month, but if you get your iPhone unlocked and take it to T-Mobile, you can get unlimited voice, text, and 2GB data for $59.99 a month. "One downside, at least with the iPhone, is that cellular data will be at painfully slow 2G speed, so this probably only makes sense for those who can be on Wi-Fi most of the time," Keiter says.
Use your data plan to cut costs. Download Skype to your phone and use it to bypass the cellular network for some calls. "This can potentially allow someone to move to a voice plan with fewer minutes, which could save $10 or $20 a month," Keiter says. Segan adds that Skype will "give you much lower international rates than your regular cell phone plan." You can also text over the data network. For example, newer versions of Apple's operating system have a feature called iMessage that, if turned on, recognizes other users and essentially bypasses the cellular network to send a text message. Other than the color (a blue bubble instead of green) and the cost (doesn't use one's text bundle or cost per-use), it is indistinguishable from regular text messaging.
Bundle text messaging. Carriers can charge you $0.20 to send or receive a text, so a bundle makes sense for most users. Unfortunately, "AT&T has recently raised the price of messaging by eliminating all but the unlimited bundle," Keiter says. AT&T options are $20 for unlimited texts or $0.20 each. For those whose text needs are less, Keiter recommends Verizon, which charges $10 for 1,000 texts, or Sprint, which has $5 and $10 tiers for non-smartphone users. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon also offer savings opportunities for unlimited text on a family plan. "While beneficial to two users, this would be particularly useful for families with heavy-texting teenagers on the family plan with the parents," Keiter says.
Consider prepaid options. For the heaviest voice users, Keiter says it's cheaper to have an unlimited no-contract plan than a contract with a major carrier. The downside is that the phones aren't subsidized, so the upfront cost could be a couple hundred dollars extra, depending on the phone. Keiter recommends Straight Talk (available at Wal-Mart or online), which offers unlimited voice, text, and data for $45 a month, with a few Android smartphones now available. "This is half or less of what this would cost with the major carriers," he says. Prepaid is also a good option for the lightest users. "The rate per minute tends to be higher, but the cost per month can be lower than monthly-type plans," he says. You can purchase 1,000 minutes for a $100 plan from T-Mobile.
Shop around. Don't just look at the big four--Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. "There's an entire world of smaller carriers," Segan says. These are known as Mobile Virtual Network Operators, or MVNOs, such as Simple Mobile and H20 Wireless. "They don't actually operate their own network. But if you don't demand the latest high-end smartphone, you'll find that the monthly rates will be very competitive," he says. You can also call up your carrier and say you're considering a cheaper plan from a smaller carrier. Segan says, "They may throw you something to keep you."
More From US News & World Report | <urn:uuid:52151b77-f0fa-4c5e-9039-f96e3b56597e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/lower-cell-phone-bill-143448891.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946616 | 1,148 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Originally Posted by Radio_tec
Travel by foot, horse and boat account for all transportation and it is slow. Traveling 15 miles takes 5 hours...
I will agree that the current average walking speed is around 3 mph, but without dependable vehicles it will go back up to ~4.
And for those that push the envelope, 6 mph isn't out of the question. Roman soldiers managed it daily, going 30 miles in 5 hours then building the evening's fortificaitons.
I voted for the depression, only because Americans in general won't change their habits quickly enough. Some of us will, but... | <urn:uuid:110627b1-d404-4c31-b568-af1b002813cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?s=66a7e5e8e911773482ffdaafa95556d4&p=233925 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946787 | 127 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Syracuse, NY – A high pressure system is drawing cold northerly air down through the Syracuse area this morning, pushing temperatures down.
But once that system slides through, warmer weather will be on the way, the National Weather Service said.
The expected high today will be 25 degrees. That's below the average high of 39 degrees for March 5, said Steven Ippoliti, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Binghamton. The average low for this day is 21.
The last time the high was 25 in Syracuse was on Feb. 12.
“It won’t be cold for long, only a day and a half or so and the warm air will move in,” he said.
Tuesday’s temperatures are expected to climb into the 40s, with 50s or even 60 possible by Wednesday, Ippoliti said.
It’s not unusual for temperatures to gyrate at this time of year, he said. However, it is unusual for the highs to reach into the 60s, the meteorologist said.
Today will begin with clouds and a chance of snow showers before 1 p.m., followed by flurries. It will become mostly sunny with a high near 25. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch is possible.
Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low of around 10.
There will be a west wind of between 5 and 11 mph today.
Tuesday’s weather will be partly sunny with a high near 38 and a calm wind of 5 to 8 mph becoming calm. | <urn:uuid:6f565b20-1d64-40e6-882d-2577819a12f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/03/this_mornig.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957071 | 330 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The Jesus Immunity
Note: If you are a Bible-breathing advocate of Jesus Christ as your/our personal savior, then let me tell you from the outset that my column today is not referring to that Jesus.
Respectfully, my Jesus is a speci
al man who, like the Buddha and other spiritual teachers, conveys universal truths—that many are coming to see as especially helpful for fulfilling our human potential. The appreciation of these truths—as a means for breaking thru the major political barrier to human consciousness—is the context for my comments today. — bw
In the beginning there was the nonaggression principle (NaP), and it was good. As we have seen from my first two chapters of the so-called Kindergarten Edition of my book of the same name, human beings are naturally inclined toward adhering to the nonaggression (or natural rights) idea. The belief that we should not assault or rob others, and vice versa, is nearly universal across all communities and creeds; the idea for nonaggressive social behavior jibes with our biological self-interest.
In the SNaP book—the new edition is being written as we speak; indeed, this column is a condensation of Chapter 4—I believe the NaP proof is made successfully through the first two chapters. Then in Chapter 3, I create a graphical scheme for understanding what human characteristics go into the natural progression of society along the "Nonaggression Vector." The figure below is my conception of the direction and magnitude for achieving a human society without coercion... our destiny.
The axes of this "Progress Diagram" are explained as follows:
Quite a bit of thought went into setting up the above architecture, and at least demonstrating a plausibility for the hypothesis that as humans develop psychologically and spiritually, they achieve—as exhibited in the Progress Diagram along the Nonaggression Vector—a society without coercion. That is, a society of freedom and its corollaries: benevolence and abundance.
But the logical question after Chapter 3, where the nonaggression graph is explained, is, "If freedom and humans living in accordance with the nonaggression principle is so natural and inevitable, why doesn't it exist right now?" Not only is that the perfect question, it's an incredibly important question.
Like, "if you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" If the nonaggression principle is so natural to the human species, why, when we look around, even (or especially) at our own country, do we find so much aggression in the world? [In the 20th century alone, governments managed to kill more than 100 million individuals.]
"Houston, we have a problem." Clearly, some impediment or obstacle has been placed in the way of a human destination your grandmother would be proud of. Let me picture the obstacle in the following marked-up Progress Diagram:
We may think of this generic barrier cloud as the longstanding mysterious "something" interfering with the human ideal. So what is the barrier and where does it come from? We know that something has been interrupting the flow of living human energy toward the positive social outcome of the simple NaP. What?
Certainly, we have not yet achieved universal intellectual recognition of the NaP: the libertarians have been making and refining their arguments for decades now... but the reasoning is not penetrating the conventional media and educational institutions to reach the average fellow. [Though welcome signs of change have emerged—consider the Ron Paul phenomenon, the Free State, Hendrickson and others revealing "income" tax truth, even the hundreds of local government victories by big-and-small "L" libertarians.]
The reality of the "media blockade" or the "media barrier" as it serves entrenched interests of the political-economic classes, I believe, provides a hint to what is fundamentally the cause of the obstacle. And in this column, I'll try to give you the mercifully short form of my analysis:
For those of us who have spent nearly a lifetime prosecuting the libertarian cause—and doing so actively and intellectually, that is: by argument, by reading and writing, by protests with signs, by concepts of morality, etc.—I don't need to tell you the level of frustration we feel. The litany of state horrors has only grown longer... and intensified: illegal preemptive wars, torture and rendition, torching of civil liberties, drug prohibition, freedom prohibition, wholesale economic rape and pillage by the political classes of left and right. Don't get me started.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I'm convinced the Barrier Cloud (BC), which I have depicted in the figure above, does not arise primarily from intellectual forces. Hence, while in the long run good ideas will defeat bad ideas, if we seek to break through the BC more imminently we must counter the primary forces that sustain it. I believe these forces are more biological defects than conceptual ones. Briefly:
In the Grand Scheme of the Cosmos, I feel the internal cause is the prime mover in the Barrier Cloud obstacle—because a stunted limbic system function afflicts the overwhelming majority of human beings. My theory is that the external cause—the persons who actually construct and benefit parasitically from the BC—is only possible to the extent that this internal limbic system defect is present: the external cause is a "crime of opportunity." Much as we see in nature in other sophisticated, deceptive parasitic behavior, such as the cuckoo's egg placement strategy.
I have asserted that the external cause of the Barrier Cloud comes from persons of "abnormal" psychology. In the book, I speculate in more detail about the nature and origin of the abnormality, even giving the concept a name: the Alien Space Lizard (ASL) syndrome. For all practical purposes, an individual with the ASL characteristic enjoys—or at least is not repulsed by—the act of coercing other humans, usually for his material benefit.
Such a person has no sensitivity to the pain that his aggression causes to others. You could say the same thing about a common criminal, but what distinguishes an individual suffering from ASL is the intellectual cunning of the strategy. Which sophistication is required to survive and prosper long term via the subordination through coercion of others' lives to one's own. In other words, ASLs exploit politics, where it is easier to portray acts of aggression as socially necessary and desirable... e.g. compulsory schooling, welfare, taxes, war, and so on.
Keep in mind the ASL defect is a parasitic one, as well as antihuman since humans have a practically universal disdain of aggression. For these reasons, the individual ASL-afflicted biological unit must deceive the potential host (humankind) into "executing the ASL code." Thus most of us, who are naturally inclined to ban aggression from society, have to be tricked into thinking that certain acts of aggression that benefit the ASLs are somehow not aggression.
Considering that a lot of normal nonaggressive humans are pretty sharp cookies, for the ASL-afflicted community to attach itself to the host and survive/prosper, they must be extra smart, or, more important, diabolically clever at a deep/high level... particularly in the area of words and language. Further, it would stand to reason that ASL individuals, being few in number, would form coherent, clandestine subsocieties with similarly afflicted individuals to coordinate, not to mention hide, the disposition of vast material wealth obtained from the considerably larger host society.
I'm convinced that in the West today, as the distillation
of a multicentury string of oligarchies, sits a <central dominating entity> focusing the substantial financial resources and control technology of this parasitic class. Rather than hypothesize further, let me refer the reader to a book that documents the specific financial reality and personnel behind the dominant Western central bank: G. Edward Griffin's The Creature from Jekyll Island: A second look at the Federal Reserve. Griffin helps us understand "he who has the gold," and also about the corollary systems of general public deception that thwart the nonaggression principle... thus keeping the gold rolling in to "them" and away from "us."
For my discussion, the most relevant of these corollary systems is the whole structure and symbolism of social authority: that is, who/what properly sets, for the uncritical mass mind, what is true or false, right or wrong, for us or against us. For example, a government that skillfully wraps itself in the Flag and brandishes the Cross can cause huge numbers of normal, nonaggressive Americans to abandon conscientious thought, then accept the dropping of napalm, carpet bombs, and/or depleted uranium on millions of innocent (usually non-Caucasian) civilians—without a care or a tear—for absolutely any fairy-tale reason whatsoever.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. — Voltaire
The false "authority" assumption by the government is specially designed to take advantage of the susceptibility of many human individuals to yield their independent judgment to an external agent... as we will discuss under "Internal Cause" (for the Barrier Cloud) below.
It is important to grasp is that such a government—government of, by, and for "the Unspeakable"—is part of a HUGE, extensive, longstanding system of mind control that serves the <central dominating entity>... i.e. a concealed elite of defective ones (all root ASL-defect carriers) who have no qualms about bashing normal people's heads in and otherwise messing with us.
Breaking down the causation of the Barrier Cloud into external and internal origins helps to distinguish between the types of cures, antidotes, or solutions appropriate to each cause. For the external cause of the BC—aside from simple exposure of the truth in whatever journalistic channels available—the SNaP becomes a dagger to the heart, the ultimate antidote, to the ASL-driven <central dominating entity>.
All the depredations of the Entity—through governments or state-corporations—entail brutal aggression, most of it justified as entirely legal and moral for governments to perform. The SNaP—as a radical no-prohibition, no-compulsion, no-privilege, no-exceptions moral ideal—plays as a trump card to any Entity rationalization of aggressive force. Remember from Gandhi's confrontation with the British Empire in India: when the agency of aggression loses its moral authority, it loses, period... quickly and decisively. The agency then must abandon aggression, its life blood, and die.
But whether or not the Truth and the SNaP materialize politically, the disinfecting of humanity from parasitical aggression will not go smoothly or sustainably unless we address the internal cause of the Barrier Cloud...
Now let's consider the internal source of the Cloud: I've tentatively pictured the barrier as a cloud, as it suggests a lowering of the average person's clarity of thought. But what I've come to see is the internal cause rests with common brain structures and circuitry.
At one stage of human evolution these structures were appropriate to survival, but today are destroying our chances. Specifically, I'm referring to the limbic system, sometimes called the paleomammalian brain. Shown in yellow on the figure. The 'tweener' brain.
The limbic system is to the entire human brain as puberty is to adulthood, especially in terms of how we manage deep urges or emotions... like sex, affection, fear, anxiety, and social acceptability. I've discussed the limbic system before, and originally paid attention to its political relevance when Dr. Barbara Oakley described the structure at some length in her book with the flamboyant subtitle: Evil Genes: Why Rome fell, Hitler rose, Enron failed, and my sister stole my mother's boyfriend.
Aside from being reactive and emotional the limbic system, the "for us or against us" processor, can foster slavish, even ferocious, conformance to authority... which most of us have trouble letting go of. [As evidence, consider that even today a large percentage of Americans believe Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks, an impression carefully cultivated in the mind-control media by the ASL Bush administration in the years leading up to the 2003 Iraq War.]
The diagram below provides a layman's view of the social context of how the limbic system often filters out factual data from rational consideration.
The diagram is actually of a primitive or "atavistic" (stunted) limbic system, i.e. one not suitably managed by the higher-level brain. [Unfortunately, the stunted condition is overwhelmingly the reality today. Thus, it is the fundamental internal cause of the Barrier Cloud... requiring the big fix.] Let's look at the diagrammed process one step at a time:
Note: the critical thinking process requires an individual to have an independent, reality-grounded philosophical foundation. Otherwise, there is no basis for judging what is true or false,
right or wrong.
So that's a short description of how a limbic system (mal)functions when it is not enveloped and directed by the rational, independent mind. And you can see the survival value of that lower-level, primitive functionality to a social organism eons ago: When your little band of hunter-gatherers is out on the African plain, and Team Leader Jimbabwe grunts, "Lion that way, we go this way," the ones that wait a millisecond to validate the data individually verify the data often wind up "unavailable for procreation."
The key issue with continued prevalence of the stunted LSB is it makes humanity highly susceptible to infection by the defective ASL-syndrome carriers. Certainly the history of the West, from domination by the Church of Rome to current domination by the Church of Bank—interrupted briefly by the Enlightenment and the Constitutional-libertarian republic of the United States—, demonstrates the reality and severity of the Barrier Cloud condition.
If the BC persists, the parasitic ASL-afflicted humans "win," and we all go down the toilet. [The ASL syndrome is a type of parasite that kills its host and thus itself. ASL-afflicted humans are incapable of independent survival.] So we desperately need to stop the disease, particularly at the level of the internal cause: we need to help the vast majority of normal, nonaggressively inclined humans become immune to the external ASL threat... through simple reason and spiritual enlightenment.
This is the term I came up with as the best expression for the combination of reason and spiritual growth standing the best chance to cure stunted limbic system processing... and penetrate the Barrier Cloud, one consciousness at a time.
What I had not appreciated until recently is that
the act of asserting one's own understanding and commitment to the truth is a spiritual move: one is stepping up from the emotional-perceptual functioning of an automaton (as in Figure 2 above) into a new world of concepts that breathe life for you as a unique being deserving the joy of self-realization.
Rationality is the original act of creation that embarks a human being on the journey to enlightenment... to the next stage of human evolution. I can't see how one becomes spiritually alive without embracing the rigorous identification of reality, the pursuit of objective truth as a holy mission.
But I've also seen how reason can be twisted through false external authority into another form of spiritual stunting. So it's important to "feel" rationality as the light leading the way toward another enchanting word: atonement... that is, being at one with the divine life force within you. In order to reach that state one must "let loose" a bit from the world of words, let go, in particular, of the need to appear right at the lower level of mind. Instead be right by walking through the door of eternal presence. I know, sounds weird, especially if you're used to hanging out with Objectivists.
The best way I can express my thoughts here is by way of analogy:
Each of us has an infinite internal peace symbolized by the ocean. The ocean, of course, consists of a surface, representing the affairs our daily lives—what Eckhart Tolle would refer to as the world of form—and a great depth of water, representing the vast reality of our souls, as infinite as the universe itself. We are the ocean in its entirety, and sometimes the little waves on the top become bigger waves, but they are insignificant when compared to the Great Depth of us.
I'm a Randian by history, and, indeed, I recently watched and reviewed both Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life and The Passion of Ayn Rand. They both moved me to see the value of natural philosophy and the truth of things as determined by the most sustained effort of honest intellect one can muster. Key word: honest. Rationality is not a word game, it's the first step toward reaching what we were meant to be, that eternity of awareness encapsulated in the Now.
The external source of the Barrier Cloud—namely, the ASL-afflicted humans who sadly know nothing but domination and manipulation—has a well-developed artifice of words and other symbols for manipulation. In some respects, you could say the Entity (a la the Matrix?) is "rational." But it has no soul. All the so-called reasoning justifying aggression—from "(coercive) taxation is the price we pay for civilization" to "we must make the world safe for democracy"—is so much flak composing the Barrier Cloud itself.
That's why I see the best route for disrupting the antihuman carrier frequency of the stunted limbic system as a spiritual awakening. As a practical matter, millions of people see Jesus as the supreme spiritual teacher. so I'm invoking his name to sell spiritual growth in a rational direction, the only direction such growth truly ever goes.
Candidly, gentle readers, I must confess that, at best, I, myself, am only somewhere down the road to spiritual enlightenment... perhaps tantalizingly close, but not there. Thus, I lack certainty that spiritual enlightenment is the dead-solid perfect solution—the cure or the "Jesus Immunity"—for the stunted limbic system, where so many people blindly yield to life-threatening authority and enable a mindless world of aggression.
But I do have a hunch.
I want to end this chapter by drawing from Eckhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now, the many significant references to Jesus' ideas. In each of the sayings or concepts, I feel, lies a kernel pointing to the One Big Truth of All that Is (an infinitely deep ocean that each of us is part of and all of). The enlightenment such musings portend is so powerful that it blows away all the trifling ignorance(s) of our time, just as the SNaP so totally wipes out the ASL external threat.
Note: I'm not going to do a lot of my own writing for these excerpts. Not because I'm lazy—which, of course, I am lazy—but because I want the reader to experience the thought without my noise... with as little mental noise of any kind as possible. As Tolle writes, experience the silence from which the sounds come, the space from which the objects arise, and even the stillness surrounding thoughts. And I would especially appreciate comments or contributions to my blog on these items.
The page numbers are from the book. So that's where I'm leaving you today. I will state that along the lines of spiritual practice, I have become acquainted with Falun Dafa. It's a Chinese way that believes in "truth, compassion, and benevolence." The movement has also been severely persecuted by the Chinese government, thousands of practitioners imprisoned and tortured. From what I can see and do now, Falun Dafa and the freedom movement look like the "beginning of a beautiful friendship."
The Falun practice talks about "attachments" (read addictions, e.g. drink, women, Monday Night Football) and engaging the power of the universe to help the cravings cease and step up to inner peace and health. It's certainly true that as one lets go of false needs, those "authority drivers" in the stunted limbic system brain become diminished. As self-consciousness emerges, we also see the nature of aggression. To know aggression is to end aggression. The SNaP is an integral part of spiritual awakening... and vice versa.
May the SNaP be with you.
Even though human groupings developed in a massively parallel fashion through the ages with the authoritarian model probably taking precedence in the majority of social systems, from our reading of history I believe we see power moves toward total monolithic domination—whether open or hidden. Thus, a steady centralized increase of power, through combination across apparent geopolitical boundaries, would characterize these subsocieties. That is, among the more sophisticated and, therefore, wealthy power elites a "unite to conquer" trend would be natural.
Yes, I'm theorizing as to specific persons or institutions who compose the Entity. But the evidence is considerable and specific for central domination by a European-centered international bank "Matrix." Determining exactly who "they" are is a worthwhile project, but it is not the mission of my book; besides, Griffin's Jekyll Island provides overwhelming justification for the theory.
Another term I've coined to describe the <central dominating entity>, or simply the Entity, is the Kleptocons.
The Coffee Coaster has presented on a regular basis reviews of books, movies, and columns that expose "the Unspeakable" phenomenon: e.g. 9/11 truth, JFK assassination and other major government crimes and coverups, roots of specific wars, nature of the corporation, the Fed, media mind control and so on. Every germ of truth that works its way into the culture's consciousness helps to end the reign of brutality by the Entity.
In keeping with my newfound habit of staying as light as possible, I have not made a point of how horrific and brutal the effects of the ASL syndrome are. I did mention that 100 million people were killed by governments in the previous century, but there are so many horrors, so many centuries, so "not us." It is painful to look at the ASL-disease progression without turning one's head. My mom likens it to the lead-pipe cruel self-destruction of the lions. | <urn:uuid:b4f503c4-63b6-4adf-af07-7795e4d3a37e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brianrwright.com/Coffee_Coaster/01_Columns/2010/100111_Jesus_Immunity.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940299 | 4,683 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Department of Public Safety & Oregon State Police
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In order to have a safe and successful Oregon State University experience, each person must take responsibility to recognize one's own vulnerability to crime and reduce risks through preventive action and cooperation with Oregon State Police and the Department of Public Safety.
Campus Safety - Active Shooter Awareness: Options for Consideration
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New Campus Alert System Implemented. This site keeps the OSU Community apprised of emergency situations related to campus and serves as an entry point to the OSU Alert notification system. To learn more and set up your emergency contact information visit the main Alert site here. For definitions of the OSU Alert Status colors mean visit here.
OSP/Department of Public Safety Security Alert: Registered predatory sex offender who has recently been released from prison and now lives in close proximity to the Oregon State University campus. Click here for specific information.
STOP TAGS/BIKE REGISTRATION: OSU Public Safety will be doing Stop Tags for Laptops, etc. and Bike Registrations on the following dates.
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Cost for the Stop Tags is $12.00 payable by Check or Money order. (No Cash/Debit/Credit Cards) Payable to: OSU Property Management
Bike Registration is free. Please bring your bike for verification.
For more information on Campus Bike Policy and our new Bike Theft Video Click here.
First Aid Supplies
The Oregon State Safety code requires that first aid supplies be available in close proximity to all employees. The required supplies are based upon the intended use and types of injuries that could occur in the work environment. Each department is responsible for determining how many first aid kits are needed for its work areas and the development of a program for maintaining these kits. First aid kits and replacement supplies are available through the Department of Recreational Sports Safety Programs (737-5411). | <urn:uuid:8b7a4207-d3f0-4041-983c-b4999e035d63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oregonstate.edu/dept/security/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936321 | 667 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Hi guys! I've been lurking Craftster for awhile and I finally taught myself how to knit! I've been trying out this pattern
And I have a few questions:
1. What does "Rnd 8: [Kfb, k1] 3 times (9 sts). Place marker." mean? Since there are 18 stitches divided across 3 needles, do I just do that for one needle and knit stitch the rest?
2. How do I get little tail as shown in the link? When I tried making this pattern, I ended up with an open cone... Am I supposed to sew that end shut? I'm so confused!!
Thank you for helping me out, I really appreciate it! | <urn:uuid:43c432e8-06a1-4ba9-b6e5-bf4abd825118> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=300624;sa=showTopics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953335 | 144 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Michael Kalil Endowment for Smart Design
The Michael Kalil Endowment for Smart Design was established in 2001 in memory of designer Michael Kalil at the School of Constructed Environments. The mission of the Endowment is twofold: to foster the understanding of the design intersections between nature and technology and to support a heightened sense of responsibility for increasing the sustainability of built environments. Each year the Endowment awards three Memorial Fellowship Project Grants and sponsors a visit/lecture by an annual Kalil Fellow. The Kalil Fellow is selected from an international community of scholars and practitioners working in the spirit of Michael Kalil.
The Fellowship Grants are awarded to students and faculty of Parsons the New School for Design/New School University as well as to outside scholars and practitioners. Recipients of the grants use their award monies to support a project or course of study that will both increase their understanding of the intersections between nature and technology as well as make a contribution to environmental sustainability. Projects might include: travel, attendance or participation in workshops, conferences, meetings, participation in design competitions, pursuit of an independent course of study, and/or scholarly research and publication.
Three $5000 Fellowship Grants are given annually in up to three categories:
The Student Grant supports an undergraduate or graduate student studying at Parsons The New School for Design.
The Collaborative Student Team Grant supports a group of Parsons students working in collaboration from within or across any of the five Schools of Parsons the New School for Design. The five Schools are: The School of Art and Design History and Theory; The School of Art, Media, and Technology; The School of Fashion; The School of Constructed Environments; The School of Design Strategies.
The Scholar / Practitioner Grant supports a current faculty member or group of faculty members from any New School division; or an outside scholar/practitioner from within any design field. | <urn:uuid:bf5d32e5-92d2-4d29-ae14-08482a83bc09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sce.parsons.edu/labs/michael-kalil/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953194 | 382 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Lightning pushes development through racing and has competed in the TTXGP, on the Isle of Man and the salt of Bonneville.
The “Great White Dyno” spread out before the Lightning Motorcycles
team, the sheet of salt remnants of a lakebed which serves as the proverbial “field of dreams” for those looking to push the boundaries of propulsion. As Race Tech’s Paul Thede
unleashes the potential of the Remy HVH250 electric motor, the “Flying Banana MK II” builds up speed as its motor spools up and begins to wail like a jet turbine. The black and orange quarter-mile markers begin to pass by in a blur as the digital speedo climbs past 100, 150, 200 mph. Before the day is over, Thede, Richard Hatfield, and the team at Lightning Motorcycles become the first to break the 200 mph barrier on an electric motorcycle. They go on to set a mark of 215.960 mph, with a best speed of 218.637 mph, during 2011 SpeedWeek at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Lightning Motorcycles has been at the forefront of electric superbike development since the inception of electric motorcycle racing. Rider Michael Barnes captured the inaugural American TTXGP title in 2010. Lightning has also competed at the Isle of Man in addition to running flat out on the Salt on their way to establishing themselves as the “World’s Fastest Electric Motorcycle.” Better yet, the Lightning Motorcycle team claims it used “only 18 cents of electricity on their record-breaking run and were getting the equivalent of over 50 mpg at over 200 mph.” Welcome to the future.
Lightning offers the public a production version of the land speed record-breaking SuperBike, primed for racing straight out of the factory. Lightning adopts some of the same philosophies as major OEMs with its “Innovation through Competition” mantra, using racing to push technological development and sell bikes. The company also offers another version set up for the street, running an Ener1 battery pack said to be good for over 100 miles of freeway riding and a combined city/highway range of 150 miles. We met Lightning Motorcycle CEO Richard Hatfield at the Love Ride
in LA and recently got an opportunity to discuss the Lightning SuperBike and to talk about the company’s future.
MotoUSA: What inspired you to create an electric motorcycle?
I first got involved with an electric Porsche race car about 15 years ago. A group of friends had built a car to compete with and at the time I was competing in open-wheeled road-racing. They asked me to get involved with the project and at the time we didn’t have really good batteries, but still the car worked pretty well. It was pretty interesting but I thought we needed better batteries. So about six years ago I found a source for some of the early lithium batteries and a friend of mine had a Yamaha R1 race bike without an engine in it. In playing around with the Porsche, we learned lighter was better when dealing with a battery-powered vehicle. So I talked my friend into selling me the R1 race chassis and I bought the batteries and with a motor and controller for it, as far as we know, it was the first high-performance lithium-powered sportbike. It ran pretty close to a 100 mph top speed with 70-80 miles on a charge and acceleration pretty close to a 600 SV-type. It was interesting enough that I started doing “what ifs?” What if we had these batteries and what if we had this motor? That’s almost 20 bikes ago.
What did you do prior to forming Lightning?
Lightning Motorcycles gets ready to take on the Isle of Man. Hatfield said he wants to return to the Isle next year to be the first electric motorcycle to break the 100 mph lap average.
For about 20 years, I ran a company that did revolving lines of credit to emerging companies.
How’d you make such a drastic transition between careers?
I’ve always been into motorcycles and into machines. I had a series of Ducatis when I was growing up, a Norton Dunstall in my early teens, a Kawasaki H2 750. I grew up in the Midwest and every year I did agricultural jobs during the summer and saved my money for a bigger, better bike. I actually still have the H2 which I got when I was 17. I wish I had the Norton.
What are some of the biggest challenges for you producing electric powered vehicles, since there’s really no template to go by and all the technology is revolutionary?
Well, I think that is the big challenge is that there aren’t any templates. There’s quite a bit of testing and trying, and batteries are still a limitation. Getting the kind of power from the motors and controllers that we need for liter-bike type of performance is still a challenge. But you know, we’re getting there.
The biggest questions we keep encountering deal with cutting weight, cutting down re-charge time, and increasing range. Are these the primary challenges you're dealing with?
Batteries are still close to half the weight of the bike. That’s always a challenge. We’re testing new, better batteries. Because we were able to set a land speed record last year, we had some battery companies bring us some new technology to test, which is pretty exciting. Weems and Wade are the big ones, but I think we’re going to see some pretty interesting things over the next few years.
How’d it feel to be the first electric motorcycle to break the 200 mph barrier?
Michael Barnes won the inaugural TTXGP title for the Lightning Motorcycles team.
We were working on that for three years, so it was probably one of the happiest times of my life. The bike, ultimately during that week every time we ran it, it went faster. We went 218.6 and we’re pretty certain that with just a little more tuning, it was picking up speed quite a bit yet, so I don’t think that 230 is unreasonable for that bike.
What are the primary differences between the bike you set the land speed record on and the one used to compete in the TTXGP?
Only two things. We changed the gearing and we put a different fairing on it. The LSR bike had partial streamliner bodywork on it.
Let’s talk about the Lightning SuperBike.
We buy the rotor and stator from Remy. From what I understand it’s the same one that’s in the General Motors’ hybrid SUVs. We buy the rotor and stator there and build everything else around it. We use the electric motor and then we have a motor controller which is based on some very large transistors which switch 415V up to about 600 amps. It’s the kind of power you’d find in a junction box for a large industrial building (laughs).
The bike makes enough power that it doesn’t need a transmission. It’s direct drive right from the motor to the rear wheel. It has one single gear. It makes enough torque it still lifts the wheel going down the front straight. If you’re running 415V, you still have that torque at 200 mph. I don’t know if you’ve watched the video of the bike running at Bonneville, but at 110 mph Paul was able to get the throttle all the way open and I think it’s something like 12 or 13 seconds later he’s at 200.
Let's get ready to rumble! The Lightning SuperBike sits at the ready at Laguna Seca.
Lightning's Richard Hatfield prepares to lead the group out of Glendale during Love Ride 28.
We can charge it from full to empty in about 20 minutes, if we have a large enough supply. So the batteries will really absorb power very rapidly. The real limitation is how much power can you pull out of the wall. At Bonneville, after a run we pretty much had it charged up in 15 minutes or so after we got back and plugged it in.
We’re working on some street fairings right now with headlights, stop lights, turn signals and mirrors and I think it’s a good step closer to improving the aesthetics of the street bike. The race fairings are race fairings but I think the requirement of doing a street bike aesthetics are even that much higher.
Range for the production bike is estimated at 100 miles. When we did the ride with you (Love Ride 28
) from Glendale to Castaic Lake, we used about 30% of the battery pack. I was told that the route we took was somewhere around 40 miles.
What’s the potential of the Lightning SuperBike?
We think without a whole lot of change it will run 230 mph. Virtually every run we went out we were bumping the speed by a few miles-per-hour and we still didn’t have the gearing optimized, there’s still more power in it because we didn’t have it turned up all the way yet. It definitely has more speed in it.
At Bonneville, I’d estimate they had about 15-20% more performance they hadn’t tapped into yet. The motor on a stationary dyno with a large 800V power supply was actually able to make just under 400 hp!
Do you think we’ll see the day when electric motorcycles will be competing against their gas-powered counterparts?
We’re going to have some races this spring against 600s. We have some races tentatively scheduled right now in Phoenix at Firebird and potentially at Chuckwalla.
What’s behind the name of the “Flying Banana MK II?”
It’s from the first electric motorcycle race at Infineon almost three years ago. There was a bike that Higgins was racing which was blue and ours was yellow. The yellow really stood out from all the other colors and at that point we were having some handling issues. We didn’t have the bike dialed in so they would pass us going into the corner, then Michael Barnes would roll on the throttle and catch them and pass them before the next corner. It was pretty good racing considering it was really early stages and both of the bikes needed more development. It was a classic handling vs. horsepower kind of race.
How’s development of the production bike coming along?
We doing dual tracking of it right now. We’re going to make a street and track version available of the SuperBike, basically the same bike we raced at Laguna Seca, the Isle of Man and Bonneville, either with race fairings or street fairings. And then we have a more affordable bike (a sportbike) in the $8000 - $12,000 range depending on the battery pack size that we’re planning on coming out end of the first quarter, beginning of the second quarter next year.
What else has Lightning got in development?
We’ll be starting with the sportbike, but we also have designs for a dual-sport based on the same chassis, something along the lines of a Multistrada. We did two electric dirt track bikes, one we raced at Pike’s Peak and then we did another one Sammy Halbert raced at the Santa Clara indoor race. He’s a great racer. When we asked him about riding the electric bike, he said he had a good time.
What’s next for Lightning? Another run at the TTXGP? Bonneville?
Lightning Motorcyles tackled Pike's Peak on an electric dirt track bike.
Yes. The racing is really a chance to prove the technology and to improve the technology and get everybody really motivated to a deadline, so I think racing’s a really important part of building these bikes and bringing product to market. Next year we’re going to return to the Isle of Man to try and break the 100 mph average for an electric motorcycle. There’s only one chance for a bike to do that the first time, so it’d be nice to be that bike. We also love racing, so I think the best of all worlds is where we can build good bikes that people want to buy and they’ll help fund us to go racing and build better bikes.
With the green movement, does the government subsidize or fund your research in any way?
We haven’t yet. We’ve been really focused on what we’ve been doing and that’s a whole separate job itself. We’d certainly welcome the help.
What are the biggest challenges you see for e-technology?
As you pointed out, it’s really the batteries. As the batteries get better and better, the performance of the bikes gets better. The motors can make a lot of power. The rest of the bike can be made to handle as good as a gas-powered bike. The bottleneck is the batteries. We’re testing batteries that have twice the energy per-pound than the batteries we’re racing with right now have. So if we can cut the weight of the battery pack in half, that’s going to be huge. | <urn:uuid:e3e75931-5c76-4dfa-a98e-f489f2b54322> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/845/11978/Motorcycle-Article/Worlds-Fastest-Electric---Lightning-Motorcycles.aspx | 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 | 0.966417 | 2,819 | 1.5625 | 2 |
By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
As a legal noose appears to be tightening around the Bush/Cheney/Rove inner circle, a shocking government report shows the floor under the legitimacy of their alleged election to the White House is crumbling.
The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the Government Accountability Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage.
The government's lead investigative agency is known for its general incorruptibility and its thorough, in-depth analyses. Its concurrence with assertions widely dismissed as "conspiracy theories" adds crucial new weight to the case that Team Bush has no legitimate business being in the White House.
Nearly a year ago, senior Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers
According to CNN, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee received "more than 57,000 complaints" following Bush's alleged re-election. Many such concerns were memorialized under oath in a series of sworn statements and affidavits in public hearings and investigations conducted in Ohio by the Free Press and other election protection organizations.
The non-partisan GAO report has now found that, "some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes."
The United States is the only major democracy that allows private partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate the votes with proprietary non-transparent software. Rev. Jesse Jackson, among others, has asserted that "public elections must not be conducted on privately-owned machines." The CEO of one of the most crucial suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren O'Dell of Diebold, pledged before the 2004 campaign to deliver Ohio and thus the presidency to George W. Bush.
Bush's official margin of victory in Ohio was just 118,775 votes out of more than 5.6 million cast. Election protection advocates argue that O'Dell's statement still stands as a clear sign of an effort, apparently successful, to steal the White House.
Among other things, the GAO confirms that:
- Some electronic voting machines "did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected." In other words, the GAO now confirms that electronic voting machines provided an open door to flip an entire vote count. More than 800,000 votes were cast in Ohio on electronic voting machines, some seven times Bush's official margin of victory.
- "It was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks and works so that the votes for one candidate could be recorded for a different candidate." Numerous sworn statements and affidavits assert that this did happen in Ohio 2004.
- "Vendors installed uncertified versions of voting system software at the local level." Falsifying election results without leaving any evidence of such an action by using altered memory cards can easily be done, according to the GAO.
- The GAO also confirms that access to the voting network was easily compromised because not all digital recording electronic voting systems (DREs) had supervisory functions password-protected, so access to one machine provided access to the whole network. This critical finding confirms that rigging the 2004 vote did not require a "widespread conspiracy" but rather the cooperation of a very small number of operatives with the power to tap into the networked machines and thus change large numbers of votes at will. With 800,000 votes cast on electronic machines in Ohio, flipping the number needed to give Bush 118,775 could be easily done by just one programmer.
- Access to the voting network was also compromised by repeated use of the same user IDs combined with easily guessed passwords. So even relatively amateur hackers could have gained access to and altered the Ohio vote tallies.
- The locks protecting access to the system were easily picked and keys were simple to copy, meaning, again, getting into the system was an easy matter.
- One DRE model was shown to have been networked in such a rudimentary fashion that a power failure on one machine would cause the entire network to fail, re-emphasizing the fragility of the system on which the Presidency of the United States was decided.
- GAO identified further problems with the security protocols and background screening practices for vendor personnel, confirming still more easy access to the system.
In essence, the GAO study makes it clear that no bank, grocery store or mom & pop chop shop would dare operate its business on a computer system as flimsy, fragile and easily manipulated as the one on which the 2004 election turned.
The GAO findings are particularly damning when set in the context of an election run in Ohio by a Secretary of State simultaneously working as
The GAO documentation flows alongside other crucial realities surrounding the 2004 vote count. For example:
- The exit polls showed Kerry winning in Ohio, until an unexplained last minute shift gave the election to Bush. Similar definitive shifts also occurred in Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico, a virtual statistical impossibility.
- A few weeks prior to the election, an unauthorized former ES&S voting machine company employee, was caught on the ballot-making machine in Auglaize County.
- Election officials in Mahoning County now concede that at least 18 machines visibly transferred votes for Kerry to Bush. Voters who pushed Kerry's name saw Bush's name light up, again and again, all day long. Officials claim the problems were quickly solved, but sworn statements and affidavits say otherwise. They confirm similar problems in Franklin County (Columbus). Kerry's margins in both counties were suspiciously low.
- A voting machine in Mahoning County recorded a negative 25 million votes for Kerry. The problem was allegedly fixed.
- In Gahanna Ward 1B, at a fundamentalist church, a so-called "electronic transfer glitch" gave Bush nearly 4000 extra votes when only 638 people voted at that polling place. The tally was allegedly corrected, but remains infamous as the "loaves and fishes" vote count.
- In Franklin County, dozens of voters swore under oath that their vote for Kerry faded away on the DRE without a paper trail.
- In Miami County, at 1:43am after Election Day, with the county's central tabulator reporting 100% of the vote — 19,000 more votes mysteriously arrived; 13,000 were for Bush at the same percentage as prior to the additional votes, a virtual statistical impossibility.
- In Cleveland, large, entirely implausible vote totals turned up for obscure third party candidates in traditional Democratic African-American wards. Vote counts in neighboring wards showed virtually no votes for those candidates, with 90% going instead for Kerry.
- Prior to one of Blackwell's illegitimate "show recounts," technicians from Triad voting machine company showed up unannounced at the Hocking County Board of Elections and removed the computer hard drive.
- In response to official information requests, Shelby and other counties admit to having discarded key records and equipment before any recount could take place.
- In a conference call with Rev. Jackson, Attorney Cliff Arnebeck, Attorney Bob Fitrakis and others, John Kerry confirmed that he lost every precinct in New Mexico that had a touchscreen voting machine. The losses had no correlation with ethnicity, social class or traditional party affiliation — only with the fact that touchscreen machines were used.
- In a public letter, Rep. Conyers has stated that "by and large, when it comes to a voting machine, the average voter is getting a lemon — the Ford Pinto of voting technology. We must demand better."
But the GAO report now confirms that electronic voting machines as deployed in 2004 were in fact perfectly engineered to allow a very small number of partisans with minimal computer skills and equipment to shift enough votes to put George W. Bush back in the White House.
Given the growing body of evidence, it appears increasingly clear that's exactly what happened.
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of the investigative report, How the GOP Stole Ohio's 2004 Election and is Rigging 2008, available at www.freepress.org. They are co-editors, with Steve Rosenfeld, of What Happened in Ohio?, coming in September from The New Press. Important research for this piece has been conducted by Dr. Richard Hayes Philips, Dr. Norm Robbins and Dr. Victoria Lovegren. | <urn:uuid:22f3c085-0d74-498a-ae9e-7fdf83874997> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bobforohio.com/newsclips/2005/oct/news2005-10-26.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961385 | 1,712 | 1.710938 | 2 |
“The MDA clinics have really been a very positive part of our lives, and they’ve really, truly become a part of our family. I really can’t imagine what it would be like for our son and for us if there weren’t an MDA clinic.” — Sean, father of a child affected by spinal muscular atrophy
MDA maintains a network of 200 specialized clinics across the United States and in Puerto Rico. Most MDA clinics are located in teaching hospitals, and many MDA clinic directors are university medical school professors as well as practicing physicians. MDA clinics are at the forefront of research and treatment methods; some clinics also serve as sites for clinical trials of the latest experimental therapies.
Local MDA staff can direct you to the closest MDA clinic, or you can find a local MDA clinic online at mda.org/locate, or by calling (800) 572-1717. MDA has 42 MDA/ALS centers across the country. MDA distinguishes some clinics as MDA/ALS centers because of the medical team’s particular expertise with the disease and the research taking place there.
MDA has organized 10 of its elite clinics into networks to support and speed clinical trials of promising research. For more information see MDA Clinical Research Network.
Clinics in the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Clinical Research Network
Clinics in the ALS Clinical Research Network
MDA clinics utilize a multidisciplinary team approach, meaning individuals can see knowledgeable health care specialists from a variety of disciplines, all at one location.
Specialists can include:
The MDA health care service coordinator (HCSC) is a central figure at clinic visits. He or she is usually present on clinic days to answer questions, distribute MDA educational materials, coordinate any MDA services you may require and assist with community resource referrals.
“When I was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, we didn’t know where to turn. But the Muscular Dystrophy Association was really there for me and my family. They walked us through what the disease was, what we could expect, how we should work together as a team to tackle this illness and make sure that it didn’t impair me from achieving my dreams.” – Vance, affected by limb-girdle muscular dystrophy
The first step in ensuring that appropriate medical management strategies are implemented is confirming a diagnosis. Neuromuscular diseases can present in a variety of ways and at different ages. Prior to receiving a confirmed diagnosis, your MDA clinic physician will perform diagnostic examinations and recommend specific laboratory tests to ensure that as much information as possible is obtained and other diseases are ruled out.
Following a clinical examination and analysis of laboratory tests, many neuromuscular diseases can be quickly and accurately identified. Some neuromuscular diseases, however, can be more difficult to diagnose. In these cases, the physician will make what is called a “differential diagnosis,” listing two or more diseases that have similar symptoms. A definitive diagnosis may require waiting until the diseases has progressed to a stage that’s unique to that disorder.
With the majority of neuromuscular diseases, the first noticeable symptom is usually a persistent weakness in one or more muscles. Muscles can become weak for many reasons. The first question the MDA clinic physician will seek to answer in trying to establish a diagnosis is whether muscle function is abnormal because there is a disease of muscle itself, or whether muscle function is abnormal because of a disorder that has developed in other tissue (e.g. nerve).
The most common diagnostic and laboratory procedures used to determine why muscle function is abnormal, and ultimately to arrive at a definitive diagnosis, are as follows:
The clinical examination of someone suspected of having a neuromuscular disease focuses on muscle strength. Muscles are examined with special attention given to those of the arms, legs, shoulders and hips. A few neuromuscular diseases affect facial muscles, and these too are examined.
Determining which muscles are not weak is as important as determining which muscles are weak. Each neuromuscular disease typically shows a specific pattern of muscle involvement. A final diagnosis is based in large part on the pattern of muscle involvement detected during the clinical examination.
Many neuromuscular diseases — including all of the muscular dystrophies — are genetic diseases. Knowledge of other individuals in the family who have similar symptoms or have been diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease can help to establish and/or confirm a diagnosis.
Nerve conduction velocity and electromyogram
These two tests are often performed at the same evaluation. The nerve conduction velocity test (NCV) measures the ability of nerves to conduct impulses to muscle; this is an important test when evaluating for disorders such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). It’s done by placing electrodes on the skin at various points on a limb. One electrode delivers a mild electrical impulse to the nerve, stimulating it to generate a response; the other electrodes record the response as it’s conducted through the nerve.
An electromyogram (EMG) measures electrical activity of muscle, making it useful for diagnosing diseases that primarily affect muscle function — including the muscular dystrophies. Weak muscle has an electrical activity characteristically different from that of normal muscle. During an EMG, the doctor inserts a needle-like electrode into a muscle. The electrode records responses when the muscle is at rest and during specific voluntary contractions.
NCVs and EMGs can be valuable tools for physicians, but they can be distressing for the patient. Some find the electrical impulses of the NCV or the needle of the EMG to be uncomfortable or even painful, especially children. Topical anesthetic or other medications can be used to ease discomfort, so talk to your clinic physician beforehand to discuss options.
Serum enzyme tests
Serum enzyme tests measure the amount of muscle proteins present in the blood. Where muscle tissue is healthy, these proteins remain in muscle and the amount present in blood is relatively low.
Many, but not all, neuromuscular diseases that cause muscle deterioration lead to a significant increase in the muscle protein levels found in the blood. Thus, serum enzyme tests can be important aids in the diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases.
The value of these tests typically is greatest at early stages of the disease. At the earliest disease stage, muscle mass is relatively great, and changes in serum protein levels may occur even before symptoms such as weakness become apparent.
At later stages of some diseases, however, muscle mass may be so reduced that serum protein levels may even appear normal.
Creatine kinase (CK): This protein is confined almost exclusively to muscle. A higher-than-normal CK level in blood indicates a leakage from muscle tissue. Determination of the serum CK level is an important laboratory test in the diagnosis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and other muscle diseases.
Other enzymes: Increased levels in blood of aldolase, lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), pyruvate kinase (PK), and several other enzymes also may indicate the presence of a neuromuscular disease.
A small amount of blood can be used to extract DNA from blood cells. This is extremely valuable for diagnosing genetic defects which can cause specific neuromuscular diseases. One of the strengths of these tests is that they reveal the same abnormality regardless of the stage of the disease. Information about genetic-based diagnostic testing is available at the MDA clinic.
In this test, muscle tissue is surgically removed (usually as an outpatient procedure) for microscopic and/or biochemical analysis. For some neuromuscular diseases, a final diagnosis depends on the analysis of a muscle biopsy. The amount of muscle removed is roughly equivalent in size to the tip of a little finger. In some conditions, such as the inflammatory myopathies (polymyositis, dermatomyositis, inclusion-body myositis, and central core disease), the muscle tissue has a characteristic appearance under the microscope.
The muscle tissue can be analyzed for abnormalities in a number of proteins within muscle cells. For example, dystrophin is absent or greatly diminished in muscle cells of those with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It’s present in an abnormally low amount or altered form in the muscle cells of those with Becker muscular dystrophy. Similarly, other muscle proteins may be missing in different types of muscular dystrophy. | <urn:uuid:1bd7b317-eab9-4264-a5ba-a70320bb7401> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://llodde@mdausa.org/services/your-mda-clinic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945463 | 1,777 | 1.6875 | 2 |
On Sunday, Julian Assange made his first public appearance since taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London two months ago. The Wikileaks founder, currently wanted for rape charges, was sporting a new crew cut and a fresh-scrubbed face. How did Assange keep up that healthy glow while living under house arrest?
By running on a treadmill and sitting under a sun lamp, according to news reports.
The base tan and beach body will serve him well in his future home in Ecuador, provided he ever gets there. Ecuador President Rafael Correa granted Assange political asylum, but the British government has said that as soon as he leaves the embassy, Assange will be arrested and extradited to Sweden. Assange believes Sweden will further extradite him to the United States, where he could face espionage charges. | <urn:uuid:ea78d392-400b-45ed-ab7e-12e054a61bc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nymag.com/thecut/2012/08/julian-assange-building-base-tan-for-ecuador.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975006 | 160 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Published June 01, 2012
Consumer advocates have some advice for the growing number of people turning to mobile commerce for faster buying: Slow your roll. Federal consumer protection laws haven't kept up with the emerging payment options available today.
Mobile payment systems have exploded so you no longer have to pull out your wallet to make a purchase. If you have the right gadget, you can buy that new pair of jeans or get through the subway turnstile with a wave or a tap. Handheld gaming devices, iPods, iPads, e-book readers, radio frequency and Near Field Communication-enabled devices, chips embedded in smart phones -- all can spend your money.
But ultimately, a purchasing device has to be tied to a way to pay -- whether it be a credit card or debit account, or a phone bill. A consumer's level of legal protection varies by the type of payment method used. Some enjoy the protection of federal laws, others don't. Although the wireless industry has developed a set of voluntary best practices for mobile financial services providers, those guidelines do not have the force of law, consumer advocates say.
"In the absence of the law, they have to go to the payment provider and ask what they provide," says Mark MacCarthy, a professor in the communication, culture and technology program at Georgetown University and a former senior vice president for Visa Inc. "The good news in the payment card world is that those [credit card] protections are guaranteed by law. You don't have to actually go through the fine print of those contracts to insure that you're protected. That's not the case in the mobile world."
Consumer groups warn that if not set up correctly, mobile payments can leave you unprotected from losses if the mobile device is stolen or used to make unauthorized purchases or when buying defective products. (See the do's and don'ts of mobile payments.)
Different levels of protection
Experts say purchases tied to credit cards offer the best protection against unauthorized uses and disputes with merchants over billing or defective products. When purchasing merchandise and services with credit cards, federal law (the Fair Credit Billing Act) protects card users from losses of more than $50. The payment card networks voluntarily extend the protection to zero liability for cardholders. If you buy a TV or another item that arrives broken or defective, the credit card company can withhold or take back payment from the store or merchant if the issue is not resolved. The same is true for billing disputes.
Debit cards, which are covered under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, offer less protection against losses if the mobile device is stolen and no help for disputes with merchants. Debit card purchases limit customer liability to $500 but could be higher depending on how quickly the cardholder reports the problem.
Prepaid cards offer the least consumer protections
Prepaid cards, which are rising in popularity and may soon be the sole avenue for receiving Social Security and other federal government benefits, are not currently required by law to offer consumer protection against fraud or billing disputes.
Consumers Union, the nonprofit owner of Consumer Reports magazine, and other groups have already asked the Federal Reserve to put prepaid cards on the same level as credit cards for consumers' liability.
"If the mobile payment is tied to a prepaid card, it's neither a debit card nor is it a credit card. Those are going to fall through the cracks," says Michelle Jun, staff attorney at Consumers Union. Consumer advocates want federal regulators to put all forms of payment on the same level when it comes to consumer protection. "Now that mobile payment ventures are emerging in the United States, it's time to harmonize and extend consumer protections for all payment services."
Jun notes that a portion of the U.S. population is unbanked, may have bad credit and may only have access to prepaid cards for online or mobile purchases. Those consumers should "keep track of your transactions as closely as possible and make reports as soon as possible. There really isn't that safety net to hold them if something goes wrong," Jun says.
Mobile commerce is expected to skyrocket in the coming years. Retailers are anxious to take advantage of the many direct marketing and speedy customer service opportunities that can present themselves when, for instance, customers roam stores with GPS-equipped phones that allow wireless interaction with buyers. The National Retail Federation has developed a Mobile Retail Initiative, a 177-page blueprint to help guide retailers into the emerging mobile commerce arena.
ABI Research, a marketing research firm, purchases made via mobile phones in the United States nearly tripled between 2008 and 2009 from $396 million to $1.2 billion. MasterCard, in its 2011 Advanced Payments Report, projects worldwide mobile phone payments will reach $680 billion by 2016. The report says that contactless payments will make up $320 billion of that.
With new mobile payment options announced almost weekly, Jun, the consumer attorney, says it's important for consumers to be aware of the potential risks they face if something goes wrong. However, she adds: "Consumers should not be expected to figure out what protections apply to each competing new payments venture."
Will financial watchdog agency address the problem?
Consumer groups are hoping the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) -- approved as part of the massive Wall Street reform law -- will address mobile payment and card protections when it launches in July 2011. Many details around the agency remain in flux, however. As of April 2011, Harvard law professor and Obama adviser Elizabeth Warren is overseeing the creation of the bureau, but there has been no official nomination of a director for the bureau.
"The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been vested with strong authority to address unfair payment practices," U.S. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the New York congresswoman credited with ushering the credit card reform law through Congress, said in a statement to CreditCards.com. "Consumers Union raises fair points about the flaws in new forms of payment, and I believe the CFPB should look closely at them, and take action if consumers need help."
"Many people are offering new services, and they are trying to link them to utilizing the phone. We're really happy that people are choosing the wireless phone to do this," says Kate Kingberger, director of wireless Internet development for CTIA The Wireless Association, a 300-member group that includes the major U.S. cell phone carriers as well as cell phone manufacturers and tower providers.
Some of the new mobile financial services products can be provided by a number of different players, including financial institutions (offering mobile banking options), software development companies (such as developers of mobile parking meter payment applications) or telecommunications providers (such as a wireless cell phone company that provides its own mobile financial services to its customers). Kingberger says CTIA members who partner with new mobile service providers on new products require them to follow the best practices. She said all of the wireless carriers are "fully compliant to CTIA's best practices."
The association's guidelines call for mobile financial services providers to voluntarily create policies that, at the minimum, limit customer liability. When there is unauthorized use of the mobile device, those policies, according to the wireless association, should mirror the higher standards established by federal law for payment cards: a $50 cap for credit cards and the $500 cap for debit cards.
Wireless guidelines vague on dispute resolution
Although the wireless industry has been proactive and early in drafting best practices, their guidelines still leave the door open for potential problems for consumer who are unsatisfied with the products or services they receive. When it comes to dispute resolution, CTIA's guidelines simply state that mobile financial services providers "should develop reasonable dispute resolution processes for handling disputed payments and transactions." It does not go into specifics about what should be included in those procedures.
MacCarthy, the former Visa executive, says that's not good enough.
"It's not clear if consumers can bring a merchant complaint to a carrier the way they can with a credit card," he says. "It's just not crystal clear that if you go a carrier you get help."
MacCarthy, who co-authored an article on the need for more consumer protections for mobile paymentsthat was published in the banking industry trade publication, American Banker, cites an example of purchasing ringtones for your cell phone.
"Say you sign up for ring tones. You try to reach the ring tone provider and you can't reach them. Can you go to the carrier and say, 'Stop putting the $2.98 charge on my bill every month. I don't want it'? If it were a credit card and you had this problem, they would take it off and try to resolve the problem. It's not clear yet that the carriers have that kind of process in place."
Kingberger, from the wireless association, said customers must go to the merchant with disputes about purchases -- not the cell phone carrier.
"The wireless phone is just a conduit of the information," Kingberger says. She cites the example of someone who has set up a speed pass account by sending $50 to local transit authority. Their wireless phone can allow them to go through toll booths or turnstiles and deduct the toll or fare from their transit account as they drive or pass by.
"If your speed pass or your toll booth account all of sudden came up $20 less, you would call the people to whom you sent the original $50 -- to whomever the service provider was. They have to uphold their consumer protections and handle their issues for unauthorized use," Kingberger says. The toll charge would not appear as a separate item on the cell phone bill. "You would have one more data usage for the month," she adds.
However, some types of mobile transactions are billed directly to cell phone bills, including ring tones and what's known in the industry as "short codes." That's when you send a text that includes a short word or series of numbers -- such as "Haiti" or "REDCROSS." If there is a billing dispute, those are governed only by the wireless industry's voluntary guidelines.
More confusion: Who ya gonna call?
Kingberger acknowledges that many consumers who are taking advantage of the convenient mobile payment options that are emerging may be confused about where to go if there is a problem. Those using their cell phones to make purchases might place their first call for help to their cell phone provider.
"Many people will by default call their phone company first," she says, adding the major cell phone carriers are training their customer service representatives on how to handle these calls to direct customers to the right place. She says the carriers are educating cell phone users via e-mails and other methods.
MacCarthy and Kingberger agree that Asia, Europe and other parts of the world are ahead of the United States in adopting mobile payment technology. In many places across the globe, however, consumer protections lag behind the United States.
Kingsberger predicts the United States will "leapfrog over them in the coming years." She adds: "We have learned a lot from some of their missteps as well."
More from CreditCards.com: | <urn:uuid:9d66f9c1-6123-4469-8464-04ccdfd5f844> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/04/21/going-mobile-link-payments-credit-cards-best-protection/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954515 | 2,271 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Are You Tanorexic?
May 4, 2012 Leave a Comment
Tanning addiction is a rare syndrome where an individual appears to have a physical or psychological addiction to sunbathing or the use of tanning beds.
Serious cases of tanorexia can be considered dangerous because many of the more popular methods of tanning (such as those mentioned above) require prolonged exposure to UV radiation, which is known to be a cause of many negative side effects, including skin cancer!
It has always been hard for me to understand why people would want to risk their health and life to look better. I completely understand that it feels great to be confident with your appearance, but isn’t life more than just your appearance?
Is it really that important to be a shade darker?
Obviously, for some people it is, and it is a growing problem.
I believe that a tanorexic shares the same mental disorder as an anorexic. It is called body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). BDD is a mental disorder in which one is extremely critical of his or her physique or self-image to an obsessive and compulsive degree. People suffering from BDD will do anything to “look better” which eventually leads to them damaging their body.
According to the New York Times, tanning beds are one of the main causes of Melanoma.
“Along with an increase in white-collar workers seeking outdoor recreation on weekends, the use of tanning beds is viewed as a reason that Idaho consistently has one of the highest rates of melanoma deaths in the country.”
Now, however, some state legislators are trying to pass a measure that would ban “children 15 and younger” from using tanning salons. I have to completely agree with this because why does a child 15 or younger need to go tanning?
It is these terrible role models on reality television that influence young children to go tanning, smoke cigarettes and act like morons. Yes, I’m talking about the idiots that hangout at the Jersey Shore.
If a child is tanning at that age, the parent either has mental issues, or they are just a morally pathetic person (See Patricia Krentcil).
So before I share the symptoms of Tanorexia, I wanted to share a few of my opinions concerning all of the women that tan every single day:
- You look better without the fake tan
- You look better naturally
- Your fake tan is obvious and not attractive at all
- You look stupid with a fake tan in the winter
- You look better without skin cancer..
- You look better alive..
So, are you a Tanorexic?
- Anxiety if a session of tanning is missed
- Competition between friends to see who can get darker
- Chronic frustration about skin color
- Thinking your skin color is lighter than it actually is
- Using a tanning bed more than 3 times a week
If you feel that you match these symptoms, there is a good chance that your odds of getting skin cancer have increased. | <urn:uuid:f87abe74-36f6-48d4-bf51-e669b11bb29c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zazenlife.com/2012/05/04/are-you-tanorexic/ | 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 | 0.962951 | 641 | 1.710938 | 2 |
India Struggles To Fulfill its Air Transport Potential
India could emerge as the third largest aviation market by 2029, from a ranking of 12th in 2010, according to a new report from the Airports Council International (ACI) at the recent India Aviation show in Hyderabad. But the country needs a regulatory framework to encourage investment, promote safety and facilitate the development of tourism, according to Rafael Echevarne, the ACI’s director for economics and program development. With budget carriers now selling more than 70 percent of airline seats in India, the country needs more investment in no-frills airports for smaller cities with a growing passenger base, added consultant KPMG during a conference at the show. Indian civil aviation minister Ajit Singh acknowledged his concern that 2012 will prove a challenging year in which “[the government should] encourage the private sector to participate.” But Indian civil aviation policy has languished in indecision for the last four years and, without indicating a timeline for change, Singh would say no more to AIN than, “discussions are ongoing.”
Evidence that the private sector will drive Indian growth emerged with the launch of the new MAS GMR Aero Technic maintenance, repair and overhaul organization, a 50-50 joint-venture partnership between Malaysian Aerospace Engineering and GMR at Hyderabad International Airport. The facility initially will perform engineering and maintenance on single-aisle aircraft. Meanwhile, Airbus has moved to boost training capacity in India by signing an agreement in Hyderabad with CAE Simulator Training, a joint venture between InterGlobe and CAE, to establish a second Indian pilot and maintenance crew training center near Delhi.
Russia’s Irkut also has designs on the Indian market, where it expects to log orders for its new single-aisle MC-21, due to enter service in 2017. A mockup at the show attracted substantial interest in its cockpit, wide fuselage, spacious interior and electronically controlled luggage bins. Irkut vice president Kyrill Budaev said he expects to book orders for at least 100 of the jetliners in India by 2025. But International Air Transport Association director general Tony Tyler expressed less optimism about the outlook for Indian carriers, which have collectively amassed more than $2 billion of debt in just the past year. “Fuel taxes are sucking the lifeblood from the Indian aviation sector,” he said, adding that infrastructure in the country not only lags behind world standards, but cannot keep up with demand in many locations. | <urn:uuid:b2a095a0-5e12-443a-8d0e-24d086d01488> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ain-air-transport-perspective/2012-03-26/india-struggles-fulfill-its-air-transport-potential | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943452 | 515 | 1.554688 | 2 |
CAPE CORAL: Southwest Florida's largest city has a big problem when it comes to its marine ordinance. Many boat owners are upset claiming it's outdated and in some cases unfair. Plans are in the works to change so that boat owners have better ways to protect their investment.
Katherine Holman has a math problem she can't solve on her own - two boats and the ability to only build one canopy to cover them.
"The sun in Florida destroys boats. You want to protect your investment," she explained. "I'm just trying to protect my boat."
So Holman petitioned the Cape Coral Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday. She asked them to make an exception that would allow her to cover the two boats docked behind her home.
"All I'm trying to do is put a canopy over my boat," she said.
And now she can.
The board voted 5 to 2 to allow her to build a canopy over each of her boats. But the case by case approval process isn't sitting well with some Cape residents.
Last December, Cape resident Joe Krutis asked the Planning and Zoning Commission to allow him to add a second canopy.
Currently the city ordinance only allows one and at the time he asked, the commission said no.
"I was denied," he said. "We're supposed to be a boating community. You want to have two boats that look nice so the sun doesn't deteriorate it, and the P&Z denies it, I don't think that's fair."
Cape Coral City Councilman Chris Chulakes-Leetz agrees the marine ordinance needs to be tweaked.
The goal is bringing it into the 21st century," he said.
Chulakes-Leetz is meeting with the city attorney to draft an updated ordinance so that the Planning and Zoning Commission won't have to bare the brunt of making a controversial case-by-case decision.
"The history has created some inconsistencies in our ordinance so that the goal is to bring consistency with good aesthetics to the community," he said. | <urn:uuid:9e3d0e93-c249-463d-a194-2c0610096a70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc-7.com/story/13958203/2011/02/02/city-leaders-working-to-change-cape-marine-ordinance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983281 | 426 | 1.546875 | 2 |
|« Back to Article|
King: Policies discourage investment in people
By Bill King | October 10, 2012 | Updated: October 10, 2012 6:57pm
Last week we looked at how the unemployment rate has been gradually increasing for the last 60 years. It is almost always a mistake to attempt to attribute a particular economic phenomenon to a single cause, especially in a marketplace as complicated as the labor market. There are so many factors affecting it, it is folly to attempt to explain it with a one-dimensional hypothesis.
Nonetheless, it would be unreasonable to conclude that our policies have no effect on a particular market or that we are unable to draw any conclusions about the nature and extent of those effects. And because we intervene so extensively in the labor market, it seems likely that our policies have had a significant impact.
First there is our tax policy. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall remarked in 1835 that the power to tax is the power to destroy. His now famous adage stands for the common sense proposition that if a particular thing is made more expensive by the imposition of a tax, there will likely be less demand for it.
And there are few things that we tax more than employment. The employer and employee must pay both Social Security and Medicare taxes on most wages. The combined rate in recent years has been 15.3 percent. Last year the rate was "temporarily" reduced to 13.3 percent. Nominally, the rate is split evenly between the employer and employee, but the economic reality is that how the payroll tax is allocated is inconsequential. An employer's total cost is the amount paid to the employee plus all taxes paid. That is the cost an employer considers when deciding to hire additional employees. On top of the payroll taxes, the employer must also pay unemployment taxes. Then there are the administration costs associated with withholding these taxes and remitting and reporting them to the government, not to mention the substantial penalties for noncompliance.
By comparison, we lavish tax breaks on companies for investing in capital equipment. Accelerated depreciation and tax credits have been frequently enacted by Congress. Just last year, businesses were allowed to write off 100 percent of their investment in equipment the year it was purchased. And of course, we tax capital gains at less than half the rate on earned income.
We frequently hear that the lower capital gains rate encourages investment and therefore, job creation. But the preferred tax rate is available for any investing activity, whether it actually produces new jobs or not. For example, if I purchase a vacant tract of land, hold it for more than a year and then sell it at a profit, I would get the lower tax rate, even though my investment added no new jobs. Investment in a labor-saving machine may actually eliminate jobs.
But in addition to unfavorable tax treatment, employers also face a bewildering alphabet soup of government agencies regulating employment, including the SSA, OSHA, EEOC, NLRB, FSLA and other state and local entities. We have now also charged our employers with enforcing immigration laws. And, of course, the Affordable Care Act will add yet another level of regulatory overlay. Little wonder most employers gleefully invest in labor-saving equipment instead of adding employees.
On the flip side, investment in capital equipment does improve productivity. But an increase in productivity means, by definition, that goods and services are produced with less labor. While that is a good thing for society in general, it also means that some workers' jobs are eliminated by that increase in productivity.
I am not suggesting that our employment unfriendliness totally explains the apparent gradual worsening of unemployment over the last 60 years. Nor am I implying that we should adopt a Luddite policy that attempts to roll back or even retard technological progress. That is obviously a course that ends up lowering the standard of living for everyone. But perhaps we should ask ourselves if we have overburdened the employment relationship with our tax and regulatory policies. Perhaps we should try to find some ways to make it easier to be an employer instead of constantly making it harder.
Email King at firstname.lastname@example.org and follow him on twitter.com/weking. | <urn:uuid:5460facf-2d6a-454a-a5f6-760e857567a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chron.com/opinion/king/article/King-Policies-discourage-investment-in-people-3937175.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966109 | 851 | 1.578125 | 2 |
(Ms. FUDGE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Mr. Speaker, today I rise to address the need for jobs in this country. On Wednesday, we will have reached 400 days since the Republicans took control of the House without a jobs bill, even though my colleagues and I have been calling for and demanding action.
The President has set forth a jobs plan that would allow Americans to get to work and for us to invest in this great country by focusing on improving our infrastructure, fixing our roads, schools, and bridges; by providing incentives to hire veterans by giving small businesses the support they need to grow and expand; and by cutting payroll taxes for 160 million workers, leaving more money in the pockets of consumers.
The members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority are on the Hill this week to be a voice for the jobless, to ask Congress to do what is in the best interest of Americans still trying to find jobs.
I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting job growth and investment in this Nation now.
- January 12, 2007
In Celebration Of The 74Th Anniversary Of The Columbus Alumnae Chapter Of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.February 7, 2008
- February 4, 2013
- March 26, 2004
A Point-Of-Light For All Americans: The Brooklyn Alumnae Chapter Of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.November 17, 1999
- April 9, 2013
- January 30, 2013
- April 27, 1999
Congratulating The Inkster Alumnae Chapter Of The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. On The Occasion Of Their 50Th AnniversaryDecember 1, 2009
- June 19, 1997 | <urn:uuid:a5086248-804b-413a-a399-1c982690fb8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://capitolwords.org/date/2012/02/07/H521-2_american-jobs/ | 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 | 0.946661 | 358 | 1.789063 | 2 |
A Doctor of Chiropractic has spent four years at an accredited chiropractic institution, receiving more than 4,200 hours of specialized clinical training. The chiropractic curriculum at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, in Toronto, includes studies in anatomy, pathology, biomechanics, chiropractic principles, diagnosis and adjustment techniques. Find out more about your Guelph Chiropractors Dr. Kubert and Dr. Gill here
As primary care practitioners, chiropractors can develop and carry out a comprehensive treatment / management plan, recommend therapeutic exercise and other non-invasive therapies, and provide nutritional, dietary and lifestyle counselling. Chiropractors are one of only five classes of health care professionals in Ontario that are able to use the title Doctor, with its accompanying rights and obligations. Chiropractic is regulated by provincial statute. Each province has a regulatory college, established by legislation in the same manner and with the same structure and similar regulations as the regulatory bodies for other health care professions. Regulatory colleges are responsible for protecting the public, setting standards of practice, assuring quality of care is maintained, evaluating and promoting competency and handling disciplinary issues. Ontario’s chiropractors are regulated and licensed by the College of Chiropractors of Ontario. | <urn:uuid:4c4770ba-c06c-44ad-aa48-43b0980f9f45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clearpathchiropractic.com/faqs/who-are-chiropractors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937287 | 260 | 1.8125 | 2 |
in faith, knowledge
Welcome to South Sound Christian Schools
News & Events
Come join us for an evening of information and fun! Parents will have the opportunity to learn about readiness for kindergarten and will receive some assessment checklists. Details about the TBS kindergarten will be shared: curriculum, schedules, and yearly goals. Potential kindergarteners are welcome and will have an opportunity to create a special project to take home!
No School Friday, May 24th or Monday, May 27th
The TBS Auction was a HUGE success!!
Over 250 people enjoyed a night of fellowship, fun and supporting Christian education.
More than $85,000 income, including several matching gifts, makes this a memorable auction!
We give a heartfelt "thank you" to our parents and friends who procured and donated items, to our employees and volunteers who made it happen, and to those who purchased items so generously.
Most important, all glory goes to GOD for His amazing provision.
In a letter written by Dr. James Dobson in September of 2011, he encouraged parents to be aware of the “river of culture” that is carrying our children downstream like a raging river. Three of his major points follow.
The Younger Years are Important. It is important to introduce children to moral and spiritual values when they are young. As they grow older, the truth they have been taught will strengthen their resolve to do what is right and will carry them through the difficult years ahead.
Teaching Truth is Critical. Boys and girls must be taught to discern the lies of the culture and must have a thorough foundation in the principles of God’s Word so that they do not fall for secular thinking. The misinformation and lies about romance and sexuality must be denounced and God’s plan for purity and modesty taught. Boys need godly men to emulate and girls need spiritually minded women to teach them God’s ways.
God’s Standards Must be Followed. Parents are given the responsibility to raise their children in God’s truth. Children naturally look to parents to be their example, to teach them truth. Quality time and attention is required as parents make the eternal investment into the lives of their children.
At SSCS we stand ready to support the home by providing the Biblically based education you want for your children. Every day, we are teaching each child faith, knowledge and the skills they will need to enjoy a productive and fulfilling life. May God bless us as we partner to achieve His plan for each child’s life. | <urn:uuid:717c6100-54f2-4d90-9293-688c31c7929f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.southsoundchristian.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956935 | 520 | 1.710938 | 2 |
As Americans debate the culpability of Big Oil in the Gulf of Mexico spill that took place two weeks ago — and continues to gush crude oil into Gulf Coast waters — one industry shows promising growth trends and potential solutions to U.S. oil dependency — alternative energy.
“One of the [growth] trends is the technological evolution of alternative energy technologies. This can include more efficient solar cells, more scalable next-generation wind turbines and, further down the road, things like electrical vehicles and so on,” said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst who covers the alternative energy industry for Raymond James & Associates, Inc.
“Certainly as technology improves, these products come down the cost curve. By definition, they are becoming more cost competitive relative to the conventional types of energy, and that presents opportunities to investors. In other words, as alternatives enter the mainstream, the growth curve naturally will improve,” he added.
Molchanov’s favorite clean-technology stock picks include American Superconductor (AMSC), a wind play that offers exposure to China’s growing wind market and turbine producers, and Trina (TSL), a solar company that has maintained high margins and is poised to increase market share significantly this year. | <urn:uuid:0d603af6-cfbe-421a-9528-0034cdeb5dfe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.twst.com/blog/2010/05/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941818 | 256 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The mind is an active beast.
I heard this at a meditation retreat a few weeks ago as I sat cross-legged, attempting to shut off my mind. The room was silent, serene, and lit romantically, with high ceilings and comfortable pads. It was neither too hot nor too cold, and the sky outside was white and misty. In other words, it was an excellent environment to “meditate.”
All I needed to do was turn off my thoughts. I spent the first five minutes dodging thoughts, warding them off as soon as they flew in. I was so focused on shutting off this “active beast” that suddenly the words “don’t think don’t think don’t think” were playing on repeat in my head. It was exhausting, and frankly, very boring.
Eventually a new thought came in; strong enough to overpower the Don’t Think mantra, telling me to resign to the powerful rush of fragmented, disheveled array of thoughts that were pushing so hard to be heard. So I did. I don’t know how long I sat there, and as time became lost, so did I—in my head.
Now, have you ever sat on the edge of the ocean? Some days, you can almost feel the power of the waves as they peak, crest, and fall, surging at you with such ferocity that you don’t think they can possibly be sucked back in, back where they came from. Some days, they are slow moving, softly lapping, purring in and out. But the waves never stop.
Sometimes the same water may get recycled; the same salt particles are whisked to the shore, and then sucked back, for they remain near the surface of the ocean. These particles are connected to other particles, and different combinations of particles are always intertwined, twirling together towards the shore. These particles are what connect the entire ocean to itself: the farther out from shore you go, the deeper it gets. The more time you spend sitting and watching the waves, the greater variety of particles you’re able to see.
The problem is, we don’t spend enough time waiting for the new particles to show up; we’re impatient, busy, distracted by one another. We don’t allow ourselves to the see the depths of our minds, the capacity of these thoughts. Instead we settle into routines, making dinner plans, agonizing over papers, pouring over the thoughts of others.
By the end of the five hours I had spent on the meditation retreat, I felt myself a different person, centered in a way I had not felt before. Yet slowly, as the rest of the day began to play out, as I began to make plans and obligations, the intensity of my thoughts dissipated, and my mind grew number.
In meditation, the point is to turn off that active beast, to not think. Perhaps this is already being done, every day, unknowingly. | <urn:uuid:d1be5684-7725-437a-a4df-f23186da71d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://apps.carleton.edu/carletonian/?story_id=847905§ion_id=490469&issue_id=847886 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974971 | 627 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Haaretz has reported on the publication of a long interview with the Israeli author David Grossman in the French newspaper, Libération, last month (the original article in French is here). The article's headline, David Grossman doubts Arab states' good intentions, is liberal Zionist speak for ‘he agrees they want to push us into the sea’. Read further and the ‘peace camp activist’ chastises Israel too. In what appears to be a gesture of humility, he goes on to acknowledge painful sacrifices must be made on both sides and regrets that "the Israelis and Palestinians are not going to fall in love with each other, but one does not seek love between nations".
Disregarding the fact that this is not a clash between two national movements, but a settler colonial movement intent on the violent displacement of the indigenous inhabitants, he adds that in light of this ill-will of Arab states towards Israelis that constitute a ‘small minority’ of Jews in the Middle East, "We have, therefore, need of a strong army to defend our State". Our state. Our Jewish State, it goes without saying.
The interview with Libération took place on the occasion of the publication in French of To the End of the Land (Une femme fuyant l’annonce), which he was writing when his son Uri – on active military service – was killed during the war on Lebanon in 2006. David Grossman is found by the interviewer to be ‘sometimes serious and intense, also lively, attentive and warm’, as befits a man of peace. As we saw during British writer, Ian McEwan’s and South African artist William Kentridge's boycott-busting visits to Jerusalem, you can demonstrate your own ‘bonne volonté’ or good intentions towards the Jewish Israeli people – and from a safe distance your pity for the Palestinian predicament – just by spending some time in Grossman’s enlightened company. Aware of the 'Grossman Effect', the White House announced that President Obama's vacation reading list includes To the End of the Land.
Early next month, the Israeli author will be in conversation with Alain Finkielkraut, philosopher and professor at the École Polytechnique, during his book tour of France. If you missed the fascinating piece in Tablet Magazine in July, French Jews, confronting anti-Semitism in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair, created the figure of the intellectual. And now, arguing about Israel and Islam, they’re killing it, it provides historical context to the emergence of France’s new philosophers, including Bernard-Henri Lévy and Finkielkraut. While Robert Zaretsky quips that "the contents of Lévy’s shampoo were far richer than the contents of his writing", he explains that in their 2011 book, L'antisémitisme partout - Aujourd'hui en France (The Anti-Semitism everywhere - Today in France), Eric Hazan and Alain Badiou argued Finkielkraut, "was guilty of doing to the Muslims what has once been done to the Jews, transforming the mostly Muslim youths of France’s blighted and blasted suburbs into an irreducibly foreign element in France, portraying them as a violent rabble who, when not whistling derisively during renditions of the Marseillaise, spend their time terrorizing French Jews."
David Grossman will be in safe hands then. Nor can he expect any awkward questions about Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). Alain Finkielkraut and other signatories of the ‘European Jewish Call for Reason’ (JCall) deplore the Knesset's new anti-boycott law precisely because of their 'total opposition' to the BDS movement. Contrary to the objectives of JCall – the protection of Israel – such a law, they argue, principally serves the interests of those who question the democratic character of the Israeli state and hope to see the spread of deligitimisation movements, such as BDS. Here you can see Finkielkraut call BDS 'scandalous’ and ‘politically irresponsible’, during a 2010 TV debate with the indefatigable Stéphane Hessel, at a moment when the former insists ‘anti-Semitism is triumphing’. A conference on boycott in the presence of Hessel, French author of «Indignez-vous!», was scheduled at L’Ecole normale supérieure in January this year, and was cancelled at the last moment. Although Finkielkraut denied any part in it, he admitted he was alarmed by the announcement of this debate and added that it was "no secret that the L’Ecole normale supérieure had become a veritable forum of hate towards Israel, and there was a total prohibition on the expressions of Zionists at the moment".
As I argued in Europe embraces the silences of Aharon Appelfeld, the Palestinian narrative falls victim to the French media’s ‘absurd tone of reverence’ in its encounters with Israeli novelists. If you read the French interview with Grossman in its entirety, this man of peace is keen to absolve the Israeli apartheid state and settler colonial movement of its responsibility for the ongoing dispossession of the Palestinians. Instead he blames "a group of messianic Jews focused on kidnapping the entire state". It is, he maintains, "the mentality of the colonies that have invaded the country", rather than the other way round. | <urn:uuid:1e4a1451-5493-40d0-8cd9-6a34f65397e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mondoweiss.net/2011/08/the-empty-pieties-of-david-grossman.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936817 | 1,178 | 1.71875 | 2 |
On the eve of a two-day summit at Camp David with fellow leaders from some of the world's wealthiest nations, Obama told the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security that the private sector must help give the poor the power to feed themselves.
"There is no reason why Africa cannot feed itself," Obama said.
A new program being unveiled by Obama today in conjunction with African leaders from Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania will parlay more than $3 billion in private assistance into a public-private partnership with an ambitious goal: lifting 50 million people from poverty over 10 years.
"I know there are going to be skeptics. There always are," Obama said. But he vowed, "This will remain our priority as long as I am United States president."
An earlier program unveiled by Obama in Italy in 2009 called on governments to chip in $22 billion over several years. Not all the money has been delivered, but the president vowed, "We're going to speed things up."
Obama cited progress across the developing world in areas such as microfinance, education, vaccines and the battle against HIV/AIDS. The effort to boost agricultural capacity can succeed just as those other efforts have, he said, citing positive examples from Rwanda to Haiti to Bangladesh.
In the audience for his announcement were celebrities involved in international development, including one -- Bono -- who Obama said "was my inspiration for singing at the Apollo." That was a reference to his musical effort at a New York City fundraiser this spring.
David's journalism career spans three decades, including coverage of five presidential elections, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 2000 Florida presidential recount and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has covered the White House for USA TODAY since 2005. His interests include history, politics, books, movies and college football -- not necessarily in that order. More about David | <urn:uuid:4e32aae9-8f8d-474f-b2ed-3d1568081a50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/05/obama-on-food-aid-were-going-to-speed-things-up/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970153 | 374 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Thu December 1, 2011
Branson: It's Time To Re-Think 'Business As Usual'
Richard Branson built a global business empire with the philosophy "have fun and the money will come."
As the founder of Virgin Group, he built a mail-order record company into a major record label and a chain of record stores, started an airline, created a space tourism company, and has been actively involved in humanitarian efforts.
Now, Branson argues that it's time to rethink the way businesses function. You can make money, he says, by doing good. In a new book, he says that businesses can make a profit and also care about people, communities, and the planet at the same time.
NPR's Neal Conan talks with Branson about his new book, Screw Business As Usual.
NEAL CONAN, HOST:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Richard Branson built a global business empire with the philosophy: have fun, and the money will come. The founder of Virgin Group started with a mail-order record company that he built into a chain of record stores and a major label. He started an airline, sells trips into space and did his daredevil best to break a few world records in balloons and high-speed boats. He got a few of them, too.
In a new book, Richard Branson argues that businesses must change their ways and make money by doing good. We want to hear from the entrepreneurs in our audience: Can you do well by doing good? Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email email@example.com. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later in the program, on the 40th anniversary of "American Pie," Don McLean settles the origin issue once and for all. But first, Richard Branson joins us from our bureau in New York. His latest book is "Screw Business As Usual." And it's nice to have you on TALK OF THE NATION today.
RICHARD BRANSON: Good to be here, thank you.
CONAN: And these are dreary economic times, in Britain as well as the United States. Why are you so relentlessly optimistic?
BRANSON: Well, I've always been an optimist. It's much more fun being an optimist than a pessimist. And I think, you know, if you are an optimist, you can, you know, trade your way out of problems, and I think if we can just try to get as many people as possible to be optimistic, I think we can get on top of the problems that we've all been through the last two or three years.
CONAN: When you talk about doing well by doing good, a lot of people would say wait a minute, you run an airline, a lot of planes in the air spewing a lot of smoke into the air, and yet you've come up with, well, an idea that ameliorate that.
BRANSON: Yes, I mean, I think it's quite a good example. I mean, we have a business that some people feel pollutes, and I happen to agree with them, the amount of carbon that an airline puts out into the air. And so on the basis of trying to do good and, you know, hopefully turn a profit, what we did was we pledged that we'd put all the profits from our airline business into trying to develop clean fuels.
And in the process, we have come up with fuels, algae-based fuels, isobutanol-based fuels and other fuels that we think will power the planes in the future so that, you know, by 2020, I hope that our planes will be powered on fuels that are clean fuels and are not polluting the environment so that we'll have a green airline and an airline that actually has fuels that will be hopefully cheaper than the dirty fuels of the past, so doing good and also turning a profit at the same time.
CONAN: And selling those green fuels to other airlines, presumably.
BRANSON: And very much, hopefully selling the fuels that - the clean fuels to other airlines. I mean, the exciting thing about the breakthrough with clean fuels for the airline industry is there's only 1,700 pumps in the world that fill up the airlines. So unlike having to convert, you know, all the cars' or all the lorries' petrol stations, once you've actually got the clean fuels, it's relatively easy to, you know, get it to the airplanes.
And, you know, we already - well, we've definitely cracked the technology. Now we're just trying to be able to produce the amount of fuels that we need to satisfy our own needs and then other people's needs.
I think it takes a certain idea of scale to say only 1,700 gas stations.
Yes, well, you've got to think big. I mean, the problem of - if you're a believer in global warming, which, you know, I'm not a scientist, but the vast majority of scientists tell us we have a problem, then, you know, then you've got to think big to overcome that problem.
So if we can tick off the airline industry, that pollute about, you know, three percent of the carbon in the Earth's atmosphere, that's certainly a first step in the right direction. We set up other not-for-profit organizations like the Carbon War Room, which is an organization we set up to try to work with the other 24 principle industries that pollute - the shipping industry, the IT industry, you know, the buildings industry, et cetera - to see if we can get a gigaton of carbon out of each of those industries and to come up with entrepreneurial ways to do that.
And it's great fun, very challenging. We've got a great team of people working there, and they've come up with some good ideas.
CONAN: I've read that you used to be, well, not exactly embraced the idea of climate change and that pollution was the cause of climate change and changed your mind once you'd listened what Vice President, former Vice President Al Gore had to say. And it's one of the key lessons that you draw in the book, "Screw Business and Usual": Listen to people.
BRANSON: Yeah, I think listening to people, if you're a good leader, it's absolutely critical to listen to people, and actually that really applies to everybody in life, you know, be a good listener. And yeah, Al Gore banged on my door one day and gave me an "Inconvenient Truth" lecture, which was before he'd actually released his film.
And as a result of listening to him, I contacted other scientists I knew, like James Lovelock and Tim Flannery and got confirmation of what he'd told me. You know, I also listened to skeptics, as well, but, you know, summing it all up felt that, you know, that it looked very likely that we did have a problem and, you know, and even an insurance policy, I thought, you know, it made sense to go out and try and do something about it.
So, you know, one of the first things we did was to put up a $25 million prize to see if anybody could come up with a way of extracting carbon out of the Earth's atmosphere. We found that prizes worked fantastically in the past, the longitude prize many years ago to try to, you know, discover, you know, how to measure longitude, and that saved many ships from sinking.
You know, you had the X Prize, which enabled commercial spaceship travel to come about, which I'm sure we'll talk about, and Virgin Galactic to be born. And so we were hoping that if we could come up with somebody who could extract carbon out of the Earth's atmosphere, then we could actually, you know, balance the Earth's temperature, and, you know, it was worth giving it a shot.
CONAN: Of course, the prize also that inspired Charles Lindbergh to fly across the Atlantic and many others. But as you looked at your career, was there a point where you said I have to make this change? Or was this something that you did all along? Was there a moment when you thought, you know, I need to make more of a difference?
BRANSON: Well, I'd like to think that, you know, ever since I was - you know, I'm a '60s lad, and, you know, I set up an advisory center for kids when I was, you know, 17 years old. You know, I'd like to think that it's happened, you know, since I was quite a young man.
I think being a lad of the '60s, we were out there campaigning against the Vietnamese War, campaigning against injustices. I think that the '60s was a much more understanding group of people. You know, the gay community was something that became accepted in the '60s and minority groups I think generally became much better accepted.
So, you know, I was born into an era, I think, of better understanding that had existed before. And, you know, I suppose that as I've got older, you know, I've got - you know, wealth comes with success. And therefore great responsibility comes with that wealth. You know, I think it's a disproportionate wealth that goes with being a successful businessperson, and therefore a disproportionate responsibility goes with it, as well.
CONAN: We want to hear from the entrepreneurs in our audience, a chance to pick the brains of Richard Branson. Can you do well by doing good? 800-989-8255. Email firstname.lastname@example.org. We'll start with Herb(ph), and Herb's on the line from Toledo.
HERB: How are you doing, sir?
CONAN: Good, thanks.
BRANSON: Nice to talk to you, Herb.
HERB: Well, I've been a truck driver now for almost 20 years. I own my own truck. And if I don't do good, I'm out of business. And I have to constantly evaluate when I roll into a supplier.
Maybe Mr. Branson's ordered me to haul his airplane parts for him. Or anybody, has house parts, you know, construction equipment. If I'm not constantly doing good, I'm out of business. I have to be on time. I have to have my freight damage free. I can't roll up there with a bad attitude or look like I'm three days worth of bad road.
BRANSON: No, that's great. I mean, I've, you know, just come back from Australia. There's a company called Toll that is the biggest truck company in Australia. They've tried to make a difference by taking on 600 ex-convicts to work driving their trucks.
And it's been fascinating. Not one of them have re-offended, which obviously is great news for society, because they're not, you know, breaking and entering into people's houses. And by giving them a second chance, you know, they seem to have really excelled. So, you know, it's all the time trying to think, you know, how can companies make a difference. And I wish you all the best with what you're doing. It sounds great.
HERB: Your customer service is definitely, you know, number one in making a difference. Like you said, if you've got a piss poor attitude when you roll up to a receiver or shipper, you're not coming back to pick up freight. And you're not going to get more customers back.
BRANSON: And Mr. Branson would be a customer of mine, so I have to treat him as a customer. And, you know, while he may not always be right, he's still a customer and I have to treat him with respect. And I have to do that.
CONAN: Some people might say government regulations. That's the kind of thing, Herb, cutting corners is the only way you can squeeze out a profit.
HERB: No, I don't believe that at all. people cutting corners you end up - you end up cutting corners and then you end up cutting your profit margin too thin or you end up with - cutting corners to me would be putting a cheaper brand tire on, you know, letting my service go on my truck or my truck go into disrepair by cutting corners. And then I'm on the side of the road. And then, you know, I end up with late freight. Again, you end up with upset customers.
BRANSON: Well, you sound like you've got a great personality. And that's half the battle, how you deal with people. And, you know, doing your job with a smile. And it must be quite a lonely job, I suspect. So it sounds like when you actually meet people, you're very welcoming, which is, I'm sure, half the battle, isn't it?
HERB: Well, yeah, thank you. It's a pleasure to talk to you, sir. I think I've got great respect for anybody who can get up in a balloon and go so many thousands of feet up into the air has got my respect. I jumped out of airplanes for four years.
BRANSON: All right. Well, maybe one day see you up in one of our spaceships. Look forward to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
HERB: Take care, sir.
BRANSON: Thanks a lot.
CONAN: Herb, good luck to you. Thanks for the call. We're talking with Richard Branson about his life and his career and his new book, "Screw Business As Usual." Entrepreneurs, we'd like to hear from you. Can you do well by doing good? Give us a call: 800-989-8255. E-mail us: Talk@NPR.org. Stay with us. We're going to take a short break. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan. In 1970, Richard Branson founded a small company to sell records by mail and called it Virgin. These days, some 200 companies carry that name. And Richard Branson made a lot of money along the way.
In a new book, he makes the case for a more caring approach to business and says businesses can make money by doing good. The book is titled, "Screw Business As Usual." You can read more about why he wrote it in an excerpt at our website. Go to NPR.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION.
We want to hear from the entrepreneurs in our audience. Can you do well by doing good? Give us a call: 800-989-8255. E-mail us: Talk@NPR.org.
And, Richard Branson, I wanted to ask you. We happened to be talking on what is World AIDS Day. And it's one of the subjects you write about in the book. AIDS, not World AIDS Day specifically. But there's a trip you took to South Africa in 2004. I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about it.
BRANSON: Yes. I mean, it was very eye opening. I went to a hospital. All the way along the street to the hospital there were massive adverts for funeral parlors. That's all you could see. Went into the hospital and the waiting room was just full of dying people waiting for somebody to die in the bed the night before, so they could actually climb into bed, you know, for the last two or three days of their life. And in the wards themselves, there were obviously horribly emasculated people on death's door.
And yet, you know, this was at a time when antiretroviral drugs had been discovered. And, you know, it was a time when these people could've been taking antiretroviral drugs and they could've walked out of the hospital and lived a full life like people do here in America.
And so, you know, I pledged to do something about it. We pledged that, you know, none of our staff would die of AIDS. We would, you know, get out and make sure that they all had antiretroviral drugs. And then we also set up a hospital in the area where, you know, it had a community of about 100,000 people. And we gave them all free antiretroviral drugs and free malaria tablets and free TB tablets. And, you know, became, hopefully, a good citizen of the area.
And then also, you know, started campaigning with the president of South Africa and trying to get him to change his approach.
CONAN: Well, trying to get him to change his approach. You made a speech in which you described his participation in genocide for policies that failed to recognize AIDS for what it actually was.
BRANSON: Yes. I mean, he did not believe that AIDS and HIV were connected. So I thought the only way to try to shake him was to say something pretty powerful. And that was that, you know, that he was overseeing the genocide of millions of his own people. And as a result, you know, he contacted me. We had some good discussions. And we agreed to set up a Center for Disease Control in Africa so that something positive could come out of, you know, out of the negative of, you know, what I'd said publicly. And we are in the process of setting up a Center for Disease Control in Africa, which hopefully will help get on top of these problems.
CONAN: Let's get another caller in on the conversation. Danielle. Danielle joins us from Houston.
DANIELLE: Hi, thank you very much for taking my call. I appreciate it. I am a jeweler and a ceramic artist. And I handcraft everything I make. And I buy fair trade fine silver from Thailand. I buy natural gemstone beads and things like that. And I try and ethically source everything that I can as much as possible.
And I find that a lot of shows that I do, even at farmer's markets and stuff in this area and in Austin, a lot of the booths are imports from China or other places. And the prices are so low that it's really hard for me to make sales, because in a poor economy, people may want to buy, you know, ethically sourced products from the artist, but they go where they can afford something to buy.
So how do you work with your morals and your ethics, because I personally wouldn't buy something that was Chinese slave labor or something like that, and try and sell it to other people? Even though the profits are of such greater possibility, I don't want to sell my soul to make some money.
CONAN: I think we hear you, Danielle. But, Richard Branson.
BRANSON: Wow. That's a difficult question. I mean, you know, for you to be able to do good ultimately, you've got to survive. And therefore, you know, if you're literally being driven to the wall by, you know, by being undercut by, you know, people importing goods from China, yeah, you have a real dilemma.
And it could be that - and this is completely against the - contrary to my book - but it could be that you have to compromise and offer both products and give people a choice. You know, you either buy fair trade or you buy these goods I've imported from China. And then once you've made a bit of money, you know, then, you know, and you've actually survived as a business, you can then try to, you know, try to, you know, do good in other ways.
You know, whatever happens, I don't think you should, you know, go to the wall if other people are undercutting you. Obviously, if they're undercutting you by selling, you know, products from people who are using childhood labor or something like that, then you should definitely not join. But if they're undercutting you just because they're using, you know, the billion and a half people in China to make their goods, you know, then I think maybe you have to join, if life is as difficult as it sounds like it is from you. What do you think?
DANIELLE: (Unintelligible) the CCP anyway. So I'm not going to buy Chinese products. But I...
CONAN: Well, maybe from Vietnam then. Some other place.
DANIELLE: I have a lot of friends, not really friends, but acquaintances, that have, you know, designed something and then they'll go overseas and go to Indonesia or Thailand and they'll have those products made. And they'll try and find, you know, families that can work for them and stuff. But in the end, they come back and try and sell those products as handcrafted by them as an artist. But it's really they had this design concept and then they go and get somebody else to make it.
So I don't really feel - like I want to craft the piece. I sign all my ceramic pieces. So I want it to be, you know, from me to this person and a representation of my artistic...
BRANSON: Well, I have enormous respect for you. And if you feel that strongly, you know, hopefully you'll be able to, you know, get enough goods sold and enough people to believe in what you're trying to do to make a living.
DANIELLE: So where did you get your initial - or where did you find like the money to promote your products? Because I think if people - there's a market for things, but where do you find people to help you promote your product? Like where do you find the capital and things like that for promotion?
BRANSON: Well, look, obviously, if you can come up with an idea that can get some traction in the press. I mean, if you take say TOMS Shoes, which is an example that Blake came up with. I mean, he gives away one pair of, you know, shoes to Africa for every pair of shoes that he sells. And he's had enormous amounts of publicity and promotion because of that. Which I suspect, you know, way pays for the fact that he gives away some shoes.
So, you know, if you can come up with an edge like that where you can get, you know, some marketing traction maybe to try to get on the front page of the papers rather than a little, you know, byline in the back. You know, free publicity's definitely the best way. And the fact that you called into this program. Hopefully you're going to give us the name of your company. So, I...
DANIELLE: It's Fireflower Jewelry. I'm actually driving to Austin right now to do an art walk on South Congress. It's all handcrafted artwork and things like that.
CONAN: Well, Danielle, we wish you...
BRANSON: Well done. You've done great. And I wish you all the best with your company.
CONAN: Thanks very much for your call.
DANIELLE: Thank you so much. I think you're brilliant, sir.
CONAN: Thank you.
BRANSON: Thank you.
CONAN: Thanks very much for the call.
You mentioned earlier. How do you make money selling spaceflights when nobody's taking off yet?
BRANSON: Well, I think it goes back to the beginning. I mean, I've never thought, you know, how can I make lots of money. I've just thought I want to create things that make a difference.
So, you know, my very first venture was a national student magazine to try to campaign against the Vietnamese War. And so I wanted to be an editor. I wanted to bring the magazine out. And in order for the magazine to survive I had to worry about the printing and the paper manufacturing and the distribution. And, you know, I had to try to, at the end of the year, have more money coming in than going out.
And ever since then, you know, have set up businesses basically out of frustration. You know, I mean, I set up Virgin Atlantic with one second-hand 747 because, you know, I hated the experience of flying on other people's airlines. And I thought, you know, I could try to create the kind of airline that I'd like to fly on. And people liked it. And, you know, we've moved on to another one.
With space travel, no different. You know, in 1990 I read the name Virgin Galactic Airways. Loved the name. And set out to try to find an engineer or rocket scientist in the world who could build a safe, reusable rocket that could take people to and from space and we could start a whole new era of commercial space travel.
And I was fortunate enough, after many visits to many wonderful weird people to come across Burt Rutan, who is a genius in the Mojave Desert. And SpaceShipOne was born and had three flights into space that one something called the X Prize. And from there, we're building SpaceShipTwo, which is, you know, what a beautiful spaceship that is very, very, very nearly completed and will be ready from about next Christmas onwards to start taking people into space. And so, you know, it's, you know, we haven't, you know, done our figures and, you know, we just thought let's see if we - if you can create a company that takes people into space and brings them safely back out again, there will be a market for it. And we've had 500 people who've spent a couple hundred thousand dollars for the tickets to go up. They're the pioneers. And they will help us bring the price down so that, hopefully, many people who are listening to this program one day will have the chance to become astronauts and go to space.
CONAN: I can't help but think of the book "The Man Who Sold the Moon." Did you read a lot of science fiction when you were a kid?
BRANSON: I read a fair amount, and, you know, it was certainly inspirational. And it's - I have to pinch myself to think that, you know, we might be able to make some of that come true. And from, you know, small ideas, bigger ideas emerge. So, you know, we're starting with suborbital space flights and, you know, we'll then go into orbital space flights and, you know, maybe one day we'll send people on a one-way voyage into the depths of space as per the science fiction trips. And actually, we did a fun April Fool's thing with Google a couple of years ago, where - which we called it Virgle.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BRANSON: And we looked for volunteers to go on a one-way trip to Mars. And surprisingly, a large number of people who fell out with their partners contacted us, saying that they would love to fly on a Virgle spaceship. But out of April Fool's jokes come real things, and I wouldn't be surprised within the next 50 years that there are one-way trips heading out into space with people on it. Very, you know, it would be very exciting.
CONAN: Katrina(ph) in Tucson sent this email: My husband and three partners run a small medical practice. Every employee is provided with medical insurance, retirement savings and a Christmas bonus every year. Because of this, another small gesture is there's virtually no turnover in staff, thereby saving the company money in hiring and retraining. Each of the partners shows they value their employees. And according to the accountant, they're one of the few medical offices in the city that's making money. They firmly believe that that's due to the good they do for their employees, resulting in hard-working, dedicated staff.
And, again, that's one of the principles you talk about in "Screw Business As Usual." Treat your staff right and they'll treat the customers right.
BRANSON: A hundred percent. I think, you know, they sound like they got it absolutely right. And I think not enough companies think that way. So, you know, and, you know, I think if you - I mean, you sometimes feel that, you know, when a nation goes into the kind of crisis that it - that America and Europe have gone into in the last, you know, couple of years, you know, rather than having, you know, say 10 percent of people out of work and 90 percent of people in work, you know, people should be asking for volunteerism amongst the 90 percent who are in work, you know, who would like to, say, take six months off or take a year off in unpaid leave in order to make room for those people who are out of work.
And I, you know, we've done a bit of market research, and we found like something like 20 percent of people working fulltime in companies would be very happy to job share or would be very happy to go part-time, but they're frightened of saying that because, you know, they're away that the companies will frown on it. But if they were allowed to do that, if they were encouraged to do that and if the government help them do that, then I think we could get back to virtual, you know, full employment. And, you know, even if it meant that, you know, some people just working slightly, less hours than they would like to, full employment, I think, would be good.
CONAN: We're talking with Richard Branson. His book is "Screw Business As Usual." You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. Let's get down on the line. Dal(ph) with us from Nashville.
DAL: Hi. Mr. Branson, it's an honor to speak with you.
BRANSON: Lovely to talk to you too.
DAL: I'm from Alamogordo, New Mexico, which, of course, you know is where a lot of the activities going on as far as getting regular ticket-buying people to get to space, and that's very exciting. I have a small business called Revive Vinyl, and it's funny that one of your first businesses was in the record business. I take those old vinyl records that are scratched up and won't play anymore and turn them into art and jewelry, and so keep them out of the landfills. But still now in this day of MP3, can put vinyl in people's hands. So it's an exciting thing for me. And like I said, I'm a huge fan of yours.
BRANSON: Well, it's a great idea. It shows capitalism at its best. And if you've got any Sex Pistols records that you've turned into art, I'd like to buy one off of you, sir.
DAL: That's great. That's great. Revive Vinyl...
BRANSON: I like - well, I'm sure you got an...
DAL: ...I'll make you a custom piece.
BRANSON: Thank you very much. I look forward to that.
DAL: Thank you.
CONAN: Dal, thanks very much. Good luck.
DAL: Thank you.
CONAN: Here's an email from Kevin(ph) in Portland: Kudos to Richard Branson for all the great works. Doing better is great and essential, but as one small green entrepreneur to a giant, what would it take to scale up environmental entrepreneurism to the level we really need today? A paradigm shift to get 50 percent reduction in our environmental footprint in the next 20 years that the world needs.
BRANSON: Well, I mentioned earlier that we have the Carbon War Room. The Carbon War Room is looking at the 25 sectors that need to get a gigaton of carbon out of each sector. One sector, which is the - which is buildings, if we could actually get on top of that, we could maybe get six or seven gigatons of carbon out. And what the Carbon War Room have done is they've got the mayors of a lot of cities around the world together with finances and said, you know, why are we not greening cities? And the financiers said, we're worried about security. So, in Miami, they've created a scheme whereby the financiers can lend the money to enable buildings and houses and office blocks to completely green the buildings, and they have the security of it going on the rates. I'm not quite sure what you call it in America, but the taxes on the property itself rather than the individuals.
CONAN: Property taxes, yes.
BRANSON: So they - property taxes. So they know they are going to get the money back. Doesn't matter who lives there. And so it's a win-win situation, and that's immediately created 30,000 jobs in Miami, and, you know, and a billion dollars has been lent. And I think that could be - if that could be ratcheted up on a global basis throughout all the cities, you know, that, I think, could make a massive difference. And so people like your caller could maybe step in.
CONAN: Richard Branson, thanks very much for your time, and good luck to you.
BRANSON: Thank you very much.
CONAN: Richard Branson's new book "Screw Business As Usual." He joined us from our bureau in New York. Coming up: Last month, Don McLean put to rest a long-running legend about his anthem "American Pie." He'll join us to explain right after this. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio. | <urn:uuid:401de3b1-d87e-46a0-9da7-8c5933848dd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kasu.org/post/branson-its-time-re-think-business-usual | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978881 | 7,232 | 1.5 | 2 |
The third part of our series on the Pioneer Little Europe movement details a series of recent threats made by longtime neo-Nazi organizer Karl Gharst. This section also provides background information on Gharst and other key PLE activists and reports on the Montana Creators, a PLE-allied branch of the neo-Nazi Creativity Movement whose members have repeatedly been spotted in recent months at gun shows near Kalispell, buying firearms while dressed in clothing displaying their group's neo-Nazi insignia.
Neo-Nazi Karl Gharst has declared Media Matters a
Media Matters for America is under indictment for treason to the white race. So is the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Council of La Raza, the Anti-Defamation League and the Montana Human Rights Network.
This news arrived in a series of bizarre emails sent earlier this year over a six-week period by Karl Gharst, a neo-Nazi organizer who moved to Kalispell, MT as one of the of the most notorious members of the Pioneer Little Europe movement, which encourages white supremacists to form a community in the area. Gharst has a long history of making violent threats.
"I will see justice come to those who lay traps, slander and otherwise persecute good white people for exercising their God given rights," Gharst wrote in his email to Media Matters. "I promise!" Media Matters had previously contacted Gharst for comment on this series.
In the so-called grand jury ruling he emailed to Media Matters in late October, Gharst used arcane language typical of adherents to sovereign citizen ideology, a pseudo-legal system of beliefs, founded upon elaborate conspiracy theories, that is widely popular with members of the antigovernment Patriot movement as well as neo-Nazis and other white supremacists. Sovereign citizens hold themselves above laws; typically the only legal authority they recognize is their own (illegitimate) common law jury system.
The Gharst email declared Media Matters and the other groups "Jewish criminal organizations" and "illegal operations of whom their intent and demonstrated actions are constitutional violations also violating the sovereignty of Montana by working against and contrary to the lawful and rightful citizens of the SState [sic] of Montana."
Gharst singled out by name and threatened several "agents" of Media Matters, the ACLU and an Alabama-based immigration rights organization, citing their "treason to the white race." "I and my appointed/sworn representatives will do all in my/our power...to ensure that [employees of Media Matters, ACLU and the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama] are brought to justice at a time and place of our choosing."
In a different mid-September email to Montana Human Rights Network executive director Travis McAdam, Gharst likewise branded MHRN a Jewish criminal organization and declared, "These people calling themselves 'Jews' are not citizens of the State of Montana in accordance to the Constitution of the State of Montana." Gharst wrote that as a "lawful citizen," meaning white and non-Jewish, "I am giving you proper notice that I am now exercising my duty that I will do all in my power... to see that all MHRN members will stand trial by the lawful citizens of the State of Montana for crimes against the State, and justice returned to lawful citizens."
A month later Gharst announced the trial of McAdams and his associates will take place "before or on June 6th, 2012, at 2:00PM MST" in the Kalispell town square.
What may sound like gobbledygook actually verges on death threats. Gharst is vowing to punish individuals for treason. He recently boasted online that he carries a "razor-sharp" knife at all times, always keeps a gun within reach, and is an expert sniper.
In 2004 Gharst was convicted of threatening the life of a Native American social worker in Montana and served five months in jail. According to a charging document, Gharst told the social worker he was forming a group in Kalispell to "gather up all the lesbians and mongrels and evil people," and that she had only a short time to live.
After being released, however, Gharst moved back to Idaho, where he'd long been a recruiter and organizer for Aryan Nation. Then he resurfaced in Kalispell in 2008 and became active with the Pioneer Little Europe movement by, according to Gharst, arranging construction jobs for skinheads who moved to Kalispell and by organizing the PLE's Holocaust denial film series along with PLE spokesperson April Gaede.
This fall, however, Gharst apparently had a falling out with Gaede. "Karl, you really need to stop smoking crack," Gaede posted in late September on a white supremacist bulletin board. "Or maybe the untreated diseases you got from the filthy Rosebriar whores finally caught up with you and warped your brain." (The Rose Briar Inn is a boarding house in Kalispell.)
Craig Cobb, another prominent Neo-Nazi
Some law enforcement investigators suspect the purported Gharst-Gaede feud is a smokescreen to create a false sense of disorganization and infighting. But it wouldn't be out of character for Gharst, who attacked another high-profile PLE activist, neo-Nazi webmaster Craig Cobb, in a vicious online rant in mid-September. Gharst called Cobb a Jew and accused him of informing on a "politician's son who's part of our movement." Gharst may have been referring to PLE activist Zachariah Harp, a fellow neo-Nazi who grew up in Kalispell and whose father is former Montana legislator John G. Harp, according to a 2010 MHRN report.
Gaede claims the PLE movement has "pro White" supporters who are high up in the Flathead Valley Republican Party. "I cannot say who they are, obviously they would get lots of flack for it, but yes, we do have people who are pro White active in higher places," she posted online in October. Flathead Valley Republican Party Chairwoman Sandy Welch disputes Gaede's claim. "She says they [PLE-supporters in the local Republican party] are keeping their heads down. Well, they must be keeping them really low because there is no obvious racist or pro-white activity in our party. We are not a racist organization and we condemn their positions."
Cobb began living in Kalispell in the summer of 2010 after being kicked out of Estonia and then charged with hate crimes in Canada, where he remains a wanted man. (Cobb has dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship.) In September 2010 Cobb and Harp co-hosted a PLE movie screening of a Holocaust denial film at the Kalispell Public Library.
In addition to their PLE activism, Cobb and Harp are both members of the Creativity Movement, a violent white supremacist organization formerly known as the World Church of the Creator, according to the Montana Human Rights Network and other hate group monitors. There have been WCOTC chapters in Montana for at least 20 years, but just in the last two years, correspondent with the rise of the PLE movement, there has been a significant uptick in Creator activity centered in Kalispell, as well as in Bozeman and Billings.
The Montana Creators, as members of the state chapters refer to themselves, have been shopping at gun shows wearing their black and red uniforms or Creator "RAHOWA" T-shirts, according to three gun dealers who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution. (RAHOWA stands for "Racial Holy War.") Last year one of the leaders of the Montana Creators boasted online that members of his group "take advantage of our state's gun laws."
Members of the Montana Creators, a violent white supremacist
A 2010 report by Legal Community Against Violence, Gun Laws Matter: A Comparison of State Firearms Laws and Statistics, ranked Montana among the 10 states in the country with the weakest firearms laws. Montana, the LCAV found, has enacted few gun violence prevention laws. The state does not require background checks before the transfer of firearms between private parties (enabling the gun show loophole), does not license or regulate firearms dealers, does not limit the number of firearms that can be purchased at one time and does not prohibit the sale or transfer of assault weapons, .50 caliber sniper rifles or high-capacity magazines.
Gaede has repeatedly pointed to Montana's pro-gun culture and loose firearms regulations as one of the fundamental reasons for launching the PLE movement in the Flathead Valley. "You're not going to have any trouble building up a self-defense arsenal around here," she recently informed potential recruits.
In addition to arming themselves, the Montana Creators have also been holding public recruiting drives and leafleting throughout the state.
In late September, for example, many residents of Missoula, Montana, a college town 120 miles south of Kalispell, found Creativity Movement literature on their windshields, and the University of Montana's Native American Center was plastered with Montana Creator stickers reading, "Save the White Race! Earth's Most Endangered Species."
Members of the Creativity Movement have a long record of racially motivated violence. Most notoriously, spree shooter Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, targeted Jews and non-whites in a two-state, three-day drive-by shooting spree in 1999, killing two and wounding nine others.
The Montana Creators website broadcasts militant rhetoric: "Remember that the inferior colored races are our deadly enemies, and that the most dangerous of all is the Jewish race. It is our immediate objective to relentlessly expand the White Race, and keep shrinking our enemies."
Prosecutors accused Allen Goff, a young leader of the Montana
In July 2009, Montana Creators ringleader Allen Goff, then 17, shot a Latino teenager in the knee in what prosecutors alleged was a racially motivated shooting. Goff, who was found in possession of brass knuckles and carrying a swastika-decorated backpack containing a Glock 9mm pistol (fully loaded with a 30-round high capacity magazine) and a knife, was charged with felony assault and hate crime charges.
Earlier that year, however, the Montana legislature had passed the "Shoot to Kill Bill," which codified that Montana residents are legally allowed to use deadly force with a firearm if they are "legally in a place" and feel threatened, whether or not the person by whom they feel threatened is displaying a weapon. The law further declares that its up to prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a shooter's actions were not justified.
Although the young man that Goff shot was unarmed, the neo-Nazi's lawyer argued that his client was justified in using deadly force because he felt threatened. The jury acquitted him.
Last year Goff praised the shooting of an anti-racist activist by skinheads in Portland, Oregon, according to an MHRN report: "They [anti-racists] never get brave here [in Montana]. They know we take advantage of our state's gun laws."
Media Matters extremism reporter David Holthouse can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org
For more on Kalispell from the SPLC, click here. | <urn:uuid:3df7ebb2-c893-4f22-b172-f6e7afc009d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/11/16/high-country-extremism-armed-and-dangerous/183892 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95964 | 2,339 | 1.523438 | 2 |
May 18: College graduates got some sage advice from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at their commencement ceremony Saturday. More
The Federal Reserve's 2013 roster seems to favor the doves over hawks.
The Federal Reserve has moved boldly, even as it debates internally over whether its monetary policy actions help the economy. A guide to the players and the argument -- and an action plan for you.
Most economists believe Bernanke won't get reappointed to a third term, and will be disappointed to see him go.
Federal Reserve officials were largely unaware of the financial crisis brewing in 2007, until they found themselves in the middle of it, transcripts released Friday show.
One thing was blatantly clear when the Fed released its 2007 transcripts: The central bankers didn't see the financial crisis coming. Except for Janet Yellen.
Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said Tuesday that he believes the Fed is still not doing enough to bring the unemployment rate down.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says not raising the debt ceiling is like a family not paying its credit card bills.
Three Federal Reserve officials stressed Friday that moderate economic growth in 2013 may push the central bank to stop its controversial bond buying programs before the end of the year.
The Federal Reserve, along with four other central banks, announced Thursday that it will extend a program that keeps borrowing costs cheap for foreign banks that want to transact in U.S. dollars.
Bond yields continue to remain low, thanks in part to the Fed. But that can't go on forever. Pop!
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke talked about the need for a fiscal cliff deal. The Fed also tweaked its forecasts for the U.S. economy Wednesday, predicting slightly slower GDP growth ahead.
|Latest Report||Next Update|
|Home prices||Aug 28|
|Consumer confidence||Aug 28|
|Manufacturing (ISM)||Sept 4|
|Inflation (CPI)||Sept 14|
|Retail sales||Sept 14|
|Insanely durable smartphone ... from Caterpillar?|
|Stocks slip as Fed sends mixed message|
|New Jersey's "Operation Swill" cracks down on alleged liquor substitution|
|Auto plants skipping summer shutdowns|
|How police can find your deleted text messages| | <urn:uuid:b43eaee5-1bba-49f5-bd85-534ba9e18a40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/fed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943053 | 481 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Zoe choreographed a special dance, "The Dance of the Six Swans," that she would like her friends to perform. She asks everyone to pair up for the 'lift' part of the dance, but they're missing one person, so they ask Alan to join the dancers. He is partnered with Snuffy who says it's been a dream of his to be lifted into the air like a swan. Alan tries to lift Snuffy, but he's just too heavy. Gina says they need to be a little creative and think of ways they can lift Snuffy. As they observe what's around them, Elmo points out that Chris is lifting a piece of pie out of a plate with a spatula. Gina explains that a spatula is a kind of lever, so if they design a bigger lever, they may be able to lift Snuffy. Using a long board and a crate, Snuffy sits on one end, and Alan tries to lift him by pushing the board down from the other side. But the board breaks. Gina suggests thinking of another way they can lift Snuffy. While looking around again, Zoe sees a girl jumping rope and suggests using a rope. The rope is swung over a beam and tied around Snuffy's stomach, but no matter how hard Alan pulls, he can't lift Snuffy. Gordon comes out to help. He looks at their design and notices that they are missing a pulley. Gordon explains that pulleys are great tools to help lift heavy things. He redraws their design to include a pulley at the top and one at the bottom. Now they're ready to try the pulleys and Snuffy asks if they can perform the whole dance. When the 'lift' part comes, Alan is able to lift Snuffy into the air like a swan! The pulleys work and Snuffy gets to live his dream.
Visit the Website: http://www.pbs.org/kids/sesame/
Episode #4321 / Length: 58 minutes | <urn:uuid:5245cea1-62f7-44ff-a9f5-db795ec7d9d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.klru.org/schedule/episode/236829/?M=support | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973234 | 411 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The summer before graduation or right after graduation is a typical time for students to apply for internships in their field of study. My experience is no exception, and this spring I sent out around 15-20 applications for internships all over the United States. I was lucky enough to be hired right here in Minnesota by the Department of Natural Resources! I am absolutely thrilled to be working for Whitewater State Park as one of their 2 Naturalist Corps Interns.
The Naturalist Corps is a government internship program that was created from funds generated by the Legacy Amendment that Minnesotans voted for in 2008. The Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment (aka the Legacy Amendment) to the Minnesota Constitution was a tax increase that is used “to protect drinking water sources; to protect, enhance, and restore wetlands, prairies, forests, and fish, game, and wildlife habitat; to preserve arts and cultural heritage; to support parks and trails; and to protect, enhance, and restore lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater.” I feel compelled to personally thank anyone reading this who is from Minnesota, because you are providing me with this amazing opportunity!
So being a Naturalist is, hands down, the best work experience of my entire life. My normal activities at the office include things like feeding birds and snakes, taking data on the Whitewater River, typing up program schedules and releasing them to the local media, walking the grounds (of oak-savanna bluff land [which harbors the highest concentration of biodiversity in Minnesota[) to deliver and post program schedules and talk to campers, leading educational presentations for local school field trips, campers staying in the State Park, and locals, about topics including fossils, wildflowers, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, wild edibles, invasive species, and local history, creating my own original interpretive program for the park, and any other random, menial things the interns normally do.
And then there’s days like this where our amazing Park Manager sends the interns on adventures. The morning task of the day? Join the crew of the Midwest Peregrine Society up to the nesting site of Whitewater’s pair of Peregrine Falcons to observe the banding of their 3 week old chicks. (!!!!!!!!!)
So, a little back story is in order here before I continue.
Natural History of the Peregrine Falcon
Falco peregrinus, Latin for “wandering falcon”, is a bird found on every single continent, except in polar regions. Peregrines are the fastest species of animal on the planet, being clocked traveling at speeds over 200 mph during a dive!
Sadly, this falcon became an endangered species in many areas around the 1950s and 60s. It was discovered that because of pesticides, specifically DDT, the shells of their eggs thinned, leading to an increase in mortality. A well-known book, “Silent Spring” by biologist Rachel Carson, was written about the topic. This book (along with other classics like Aldo Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac” and Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden Pond”) catalyzed a grassroots environmentalist movement which significantly effected the public opinion of Americans. As a result, national public policy changed; it is credited for spurring the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a ban on DDT and other pesticides in the 1970s.
Which is kind cool in and of itself on another level for me. I’ve got this tattoo on my forearm of a quill writing the word “resilient” across my wrist. The tip of the feather dissipates into birds. I got it to represent my education, so the quill symbolizes scholarship and a passion for knowledge. The birds remind me of Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson was such a badass; a felmale scientist in a male-dominated field, shakin’ up the system, ushering in a new status-quo, all with poetically articulated, evidence-based criticisms of the norm. The woman is an icon for putting environmentalism on the map, and as a female environmentalist, you might say I’d give her mad props. I mean, just check out some quotes:
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
“Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.”
“The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves.”
“As crude a weapon as the cave man’s club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life – a fabric on the one hand delicate and destructible, on the other miraculously tough and resilient, and capable of striking back in unexpected ways. These extraordinary capacities of life have been ignored by the practitioners of chemical control who have brought to their task no “high-minded orientation,” no humility before the vast forces with which they tamper.”
“It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks…the public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road and it can only do so when in full possession of the facts…”
“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road / the one less traveled by / offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.”
So to get to said chicks in said cliff face, there needed to be a rock climber. Most Peregrine bandings involve someone going someplace risky, because that is the preferred habitat of the birds, be it natural places like cliffs (as seen in Whitewater), or man-made places like tall buildings (as seen at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester), or high smoke stack towers (as seen at Xcel Energy along Hwy 52). | <urn:uuid:6808b3ee-d413-4242-a37b-a5faf59cd0a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bluffprairiehollow.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/peregrine-falcons-at-whitewater-state-park/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94457 | 1,321 | 1.5625 | 2 |
No 498 Posted by fw, June 8, 2012
Back on January 31, 2012 I posted a copy of my letter to the editor of the Windsor Star challenging the factual accuracy of an article by Star reporter Chris Vander Doelen. (Windsor Star misleads public over global warming).
Today the Star published another misleading report, this one by Michael Den Tandt of Postmedia News. My letter to the editor appears next followed by Den Tandt’s story. My letter is necessarily abbreviated to comply with the Star’s 250- to 300-word limit.
In response to Blind faith won’t make climate science gaps go away by Michael Den Tandt, Windsor Star, page A8, June 8, 2012 –
The gap Michael Den Tandt speaks of is not in climate science, it is in his misunderstanding of the scientific method and in his choice of biased sources to support his flawed arguments.
“The science isn’t settled” is a popular claim of climate change skeptics. To the extent that this statement is true it is trivial, and to the extent that it is important it is false. No science is ever “settled”; science deals in probabilities, not certainties. When the probability of something approaches 100%, then we can regard the science, colloquially, as “settled”.
Outside of logic and mathematics, we do not live in a world of certainties. Science comes to tentative conclusions based on the balance of evidence. Just because some details are still not well understood should not cast into doubt our understanding of the big picture: humans are causing global warming.
Turning to Den Tandt’s choice of Professors McKitrick of Guelph and Curry of Georgia, SourceWatch, a resource for citizens looking for authoritative documented sources, offers this assessment of their credibility:
“While most of McKitrick’s work in the late 1990′s concentrated on modelling pollution abatement costs and environmental taxes, from 2000 onwards he engaged in efforts to delay action on climate change. His background is as an economist shows no apparent expertise in climate science that would equip him to hold an informed view on global warming.” (Source: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ross_McKitrick)
“Curry’s contrarian-leaning ‘public outreach’ public communication is criticized by prominent climate scientists and other science-aligned climate bloggers for a propensity toward ‘inflammatory language and over-the-top accusations …with the…absence of any concrete evidence and [with] errors in matters of simple fact.’” (Source: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Judith_Curry)
Climate change is a serious matter. Windsorites deserve better than Den Tandt’s misinformed opinions.
Here’s a copy of Den Tandt’s article, Blind faith won’t make climate science gaps go away, Windsor Star, page A8, June 8, 2012
Here’s the irony about Canada’s two-decade, shambolic, inept, half-hearted and contradictory response to the incontrovertible fact that the planet’s surface climate has, over the past 150 years, warmed: It mirrors uncertainty about the predictive ability of climate science. In a way, the chaos of our response epitomizes the gaps in what we know. Our failure is, in fact, a direct consequence of those gaps.
More than that, the uncertain response reflects genuine confusion, among ordinary people but also among policymakers, about what Canadians can or should do about climate change. That extends into the federal Conservative caucus: Environment Minister Peter Kent has fielded questions from his colleagues, including the prime minister, about the reliability of climate science. Derided by environmentalists as an apologist for inaction, Kent within his party has played the role of activist. But he faces an uphill fight, one increasingly reflected in public opinion.
Abacus Data late last month released a poll showing that 55 per cent of Canadians are quite worried about pollution of drinking water, rivers, lakes, reservoirs and contamination of soil by toxic waste. But only a third of those surveyed said they worry a lot about climate change. This reflects a similar trend in the United States, measured by Gallup this past April. It seems we’re really not all that concerned about climate change, after all.
For a politician to utter such heresy in Canada now, as former Alberta premier Ed Stelmach noted following the Alberta provincial election, is fraught with peril. Wildrose leader Danielle Smith lost to Conservative Alison Redford, Stelmach said, because she dared say the scientific debate around climate change is still active. In other words, it’s not entirely settled. In other words, reasonable people can disagree. Unthinkable.
This is now the most fraught economic debate we have. It underlies Ontario’s controversial Green Energy Act. It underlies NDP Leader Tom Mulcair’s strategic decision to hurl thunderbolts at the oilpatch. But what if much of what we generally assume about the discussion were off the mark or incomplete?
There are credible scientists who belong in neither ideological camp. They agree that global warming, certainly over the past century, is incontrovertible. But they disagree on the level of certainty we can have about its causes. And they raise troubling questions about the wisdom of policy remedies based primarily on faith.
For example: Dr. Ross McKitrick, a University of Guelph professor who has delved into the economics of climate change for more than a decade, says the planet’s surface temperature is indeed gradually heating up — though the rate of warming has slowed in the past 10 years. And he allows the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change may eventually be proven right, in its finding that carbon dioxide emitted due to fossil fuel consumption is the cause. He also says other human activities may be a factor.
McKitrick disagrees profoundly with the notion that the science is settled. More to the point, even if the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is right, he is convinced that all major policy remedies proposed so far would have been ineffective, even if implemented precisely as designed.
“There’s no way of fixing it by tinkering around the edges,” he says. “Windmills are irrelevant. We’re talking about shutting down industry and taking cars off the road.”
The human toll of rolling back development has yet to be carefully considered, McItrick [sic] says.
“Think of the alleviation of suffering that comes when people get electricity, access to motor vehicles, ordinary development. To stop all that from happening, it just seems to me that would be a much heavier human toll than just learning to adapt to climate change as it comes along.”
Dr. Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, agrees.
She posits human causes, but also other possible causes. One of her concerns is regional climate variability. “In some parts of the world, warming would be good,” she says.
Like McKitrick, Curry contends that the cost- benefit analysis — a clear-headed comparison of the benefits of development and better infrastructure, against the benefits of lowering sea levels by perhaps two or three feet, over a century — has yet to be done. And she argues that, rather than developing big global carbon treaties that go nowhere, Western governments ought to put more resources into advancing the science of weather forecasting, to better mitigate the damage caused by hurricanes, floods, droughts and other weatherrelated [sic] disasters, especially in the Third World.
There’s more, but you get the point: Why is it, given that so much of the policy debate in our country now concerns what to do about climate change, that speaking about gaps in the science, which clearly do exist, is taboo? | <urn:uuid:f4dd63bf-0557-40e9-abc6-2c9a18f66d15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/once-again-windsor-star-article-misleads-public-about-climate-change/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945468 | 1,679 | 1.5 | 2 |
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Welcome to Live Well, a Wellness Blog from Catholic Health
Posted by Amy K.
We've created Live Well as a place to discuss living well in Western New York.
As the Catholic Health website states, "a person's health and well-being means more than just treating their physical condition."
For some, living well means being in good health. For others, it includes values like spending time with family and friends, travelling or giving back to the community.
So, while the focus of this blog may be on maintaining or managing your physical health, it will also cover topics that influence your sense of well-being (like overcoming a fear of public speaking).
If you're familiar with the Catholic Health website, you may have read Ask the Expert, our online Q&A in which our healthcare experts respond to your questions. Those articles have been moved over here.
You can now submit comments at the end of each article, either by using a screenname or by commenting anonymously, which allows you to ask follow-up questions while protecting your privacy. We'll do our best to respond to each comment, so feel free to go through the archives and ask what's on your mind.
One thing to note: if you look below the blog post title, you'll see an author's name; this one, for instance, says "Amy K." That means that I wrote the blog post and the opinions are my own.
As the blog grows, we hope to bring others writers on board (expectant moms or caretakers, for example) who want to share their experiences with others. If you know anyone who would be interested, please ask them to email me at email@example.com.
The blog will be updated several times each week, so keep an eye out for new articles, or better yet, subscribe to our RSS feed or email newsletter (just enter your email address in the box to the right). No spamming, promise! | <urn:uuid:df0bda77-952a-4319-be6d-ad13342f8ed7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.chsbuffalo.org/2011/09/welcome-to-live-well-wellness-blog-from.html?showComment=1315416088546 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948626 | 413 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Of a mountain bike. A Marin county (California) mountain biker was found guilty of riding his mountain bike on Wilderness trails (note the initial-cap) and was not only fined for the offense, but also had his bike confiscated and had to walk 25 miles home. In cycling cleats. This despite there being no signs anywhere near the trailhead stating that the trails were closed to mountain bikes.
Read about his day in Federal Court here.
Federal lands designated as "Wilderness" do not allow any mechanical means of conveyance as the law, which was written long before mountain bikes were invented, is currently interpreted. It's my understanding that the original purpose of the law was to keep motorized vehicles off the trails, but the strong hiking lobby has helped officials interpret the law to not only ban dirt bikes and ATVs, but mountain bikes as well. Last I heard, even kayaks aren't allowed in Wilderness areas. I believe they're afraid water molecules may be damaged.
I'm all for conservation. Definitely. Those who know me know how sickened I get at sprawling development and environmental negligence. But I'm also for common sense and believe in reasonable sharing of public lands among all user groups. I have no problem keeping me and my bike off trails that are heavily hiked or ridden by equestrians. After all, riding on a busy trail isn't any fun anyway. And it's dangerous. But every year more and more trails all across the country are shut-out to mountain bikers and other recreationists because of near-sighted bureacracies and outdated regulations.
This is the world mountain bikers live in. No matter how many studies show negligible impact from mountain bikes and no matter how courteous and responsible riders become, there will always be large numbers of ignorant, selfish, trail users who will fight to keep us from enjoying the very same things they do -- wild places. Nevermind the fact that the best weapon conservationists have against development is an increase in the number of recreational users, there are those who would rather have fewer people visiting public lands than risk having to share the trail with someone who chooses to travel by bicycle.
This is why organizations like IMBA.com and local BBTC.org must be supported at all costs. | <urn:uuid:c8644b7d-5d18-4591-a6f6-2cb29639cf1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://randomlygenerated.blogspot.com/2007/11/guilty-of-possession.html | 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 | 0.98163 | 464 | 1.539063 | 2 |
April 2012 - Posts
(Repost from my personal blog.)
This is another post in a series about rebuilding one of my Web sites, which has been around for 12 years. I hope to relaunch soon. More:
If anything generally good for the craft has come out of the rise of ASP.NET MVC, it's that people are more likely to use dependency injection, and loosely couple the pieces parts of their applications. A lot of the emphasis on coding this way has been to facilitate unit testing, and that's awesome. Unit testing makes me feel a lot less like a hack, and a lot more confident in what I'm doing.
Dependency injection is pretty straight forward. It says, "Given an instance of this class, I need instances of other classes, defined not by their concrete implementations, but their interfaces." Probably the first place a developer exercises this in when having a class talk to some kind of data repository. For a very simple example, pretend the FooService has to get some Foo. It looks like this:
public class FooService
public FooService(IFooRepository fooRepo)
_fooRepo = fooRepo;
private readonly IFooRepository _fooRepo;
public Foo GetMeFoo()
When we need the FooService, we ask the dependency container to get it for us. It says, "You'll need an IFooRepository in that, so let me see what that's mapped to, and put it in there for you."
Why is this good for you? It's good because your FooService doesn't know or care about how you get some foo. You can stub out what the methods and properties on a fake IFooRepository might return, and test just the FooService.
I don't want to get too far into unit testing, but it's the most commonly cited reason to use DI containers in MVC. What I wanted to mention is how there's another benefit in a project like mine, where I have to glue together a bunch of stuff. For example, when I have someone sign up for a new account on CoasterBuzz, I'm actually using POP Forums' new account mailer, which composes a bunch of text that includes a link to verify your account. The thing is, I want to use custom text and some other logic that's specific to CoasterBuzz.
To accomplish this, I make a new class that inherits from the forum's NewAccountMailer, and override some stuff. Easy enough. Then I use Ninject, the DI container I'm using, to unbind the forum's implementation, and substitute my own. Ninject uses something called a NinjectModule to bind interfaces to concrete implementations. The forum has its own module, and then the CoasterBuzz module is loaded second. The CB module has two lines of code to swap out the mailer implementation:
Piece of cake! Now, when code asks the DI container for an INewAccountMailer, it gets my custom implementation instead.
This is a lot easier to deal with than some of the alternatives. I could do some copy-paste, but then I'm not using well-tested code from the forum. I could write stuff from scratch, but then I'm throwing away a bunch of logic I've already written (in this case, stuff around e-mail, e-mail settings, mail delivery failures).
There are other places where the DI container comes in handy. For example, CoasterBuzz does a number of custom things with user profiles, and special content for paid members. It uses the forum as the core piece to managing users, so I can ask the container to get me instances of classes that do user lookups, for example, and have zero care about how the forum handles database calls, configuration, etc. What a great world to live in, compared to ten years ago.
Sure, the primary interest in DI is around the "separation of concerns" and facilitating unit testing, but as your library grows and you use more open source, it starts to be the glue that pulls everything together.
For the uninitiated, jQuery Mobile is a sweet little client framework that turns regular HTML into something more touch and mobile friendly. It results in a user interface that has bigger targets, rounded corners and simple skinning capability.
When it was announced that ASP.NET MVC 4 would include support for a mobile-sensitive view engine, offering up alternate views for clients that fit the mobile profile, I was all over that. Combined with jQuery Mobile, it brought a chance to do some experimentation. I blitzed through the views in POP Forums and converted them all to mobile views. (For the curious, this first pass can be found here on CodePlex, while a more recent update that uses RC 2 of jQuery Mobile v1.1.0 is running on the demo site.) Initially, it was kind of a mixed bag.
The jQuery demo site also acts as documentation, and it’s reasonably complete. I had no problem getting up a lot of basic views quickly, splitting out portions of some pages as subpages that they quickly load in. The default behavior in the older version was to slide the pages in, which looked a little weird when you were using a back button. They’ve since changed it so the default transition is a fade in/out. Because you’re dealing with Web pages, I don’t think anyone is really under the illusion that you’re not using a native app, so I don’t know that this matters.
I’ve tested extensively on iPad and Windows Phone, and to be honest, I’ve encountered a lot of issues. On Windows Phone, there is some kind of inconsistency that prevents the proper respect for the viewport settings. The text background on text fields (for labeling) doesn’t work, either. On both platforms, certain in-DOM page navigation links work only half of the time. Is this an issue of user error? Probably, but that’s what’s frustrating about it. Most of what you accomplish with this framework involves decorating various elements with CSS classes. There isn’t any design-time safety to speak of to make sure that you’re doing it right.
I think the issues can be overcome, but there are some trade-offs to consider. The first is download size. Yes, the scripts and CSS do get cached, but that first hit will cost nearly 40k for the mobile parts. That’s still a lot when you’re on some crappy AT&T EDGE network, or hotel Wi-Fi.
Then you have to ask yourself, do you really want your app to look like it’s native to iOS? I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, because consistent UI is good, but you will end up feeling a whole lot of sameness, and maybe you don’t want that. I did some experimentation to try and Metro-ize the jQuery Mobile theme, and it’s kind of a mixed bag. It mostly works, but you get some weirdness on badges and with buttons that I’m not crazy about. It probably just means you need to keep tweaking.
At this point, I’m a little torn about whether or not I’ll use it for POP Forums or one of the sites I’m working on. The benefits are pretty strong, but figuring out where I’m doing it wrong is proving a little time consuming.
This is the third post in a series about rebuilding one of my Web sites, which has been around for 12 years. I hope to relaunch in the next month or two. More:
I finally hit a point in the re-do of CoasterBuzz where I feel like the major pieces are in place... rewritten, ported and what not, so that I can focus now on front-end design and more interesting creative problems. I've been asked on more than one occasion (OK, just twice) what's going on under the covers, so I figure this might be a good time to explain the overall architecture. As it turns out, I'm using a whole lof of the "Web stack of love," as Scott Hanselman likes to refer to it. Oh that Hanselman.
First off, at the center of it all, is BizTalk. Just kidding. That's "enterprise architecture" humor, where every discussion starts with how they'll use BizTalk.
Here are the bigger moving parts:
It's fairly straight forward. A common library lives in a number of Web apps, all of which are (or will be) powered by ASP.NET MVC 4. They all talk to the same database. There is the main Web site, which also has the endpoint for the Silverlight-based Feed app. The cstr.bz site handles redirects, which are generated when news items are published and sent to Twitter. Facebook publishing is handled via the RSS Graffiti Facebook app. The API site handles requests from the Windows Phone app.
The main site depends very heavily on POP Forums, the open source, MVC-based forum I maintain. It serves a number of functions, primarily handling users. These user objects serve in non-forum roles to handle things like news and database contributions, maintaining track records (coaster nerd for "list of rides I've been on") and, perhaps most importantly, paid club memberships.
Before I get into more specifics, note that the "glue" for everything is Ninject, the dependency injection framework. I actually prefer StructureMap these days, but I started with Ninject in POP Forums a long time ago. POP Forums has a static class, PopForumsActivation, that new's up an instance of the container, and you can call it from where ever. The downside is that the forums require Ninject in your MVC app as the default dependency resolver. At some point, I'll decouple it, but for now it's not in the way. In the general sense, the entire set of apps follow a repository-service-controller-view pattern. Repos just do data access, service classes do business logic, controllers compose and route, views view.
The forum also provides Scoring Game functionality. The Scoring Game is a reasonably abstract framework to award users points based on certain actions, and then award achievements when a certain number of point events happen. For example, the forum already awards a point when someone plus-one's a post you made. You can set up an achievement that says, "Give the user an award when they've had 100 posts plus'd." It also does zero-point entries into the ledger, so if you make a post, you could award an achievement based on 100 posts made. Wiring in the scoring game to CoasterBuzz functionality is just a matter of going to the Ninject container and getting an instance of the event publisher, and passing it events.
Forum adapters were introduced into POP Forums a few versions ago, and they can intercept the model generated for forum topic lists and threads and designate an alternate view. These are used to make the "Day in Pictures" forum, where users can upload photos as frame-by-frame photo threads. Another adapter adds an association UI, so users can associate specific amusement parks with their trip report posts.
The Silverlight-based Feed app talks to a simple JSON endpoint in the main app. This uses an underlying library I wrote ages ago, simply called Feeds, that aggregates event information. You inherit from a base class that creates instances of a publisher interface, and then use that class to send it an event type and any number of data fields. Feeds has two publishers: One is to the database, and that's used for the endpoint that talks to the Silverlight app. The second publisher publishes to Twitter, if the event is of the type "news." The wiring is a little strange, because for the new posts and topics events, I'm actually pulling out the forum repository classes from the Ninject container and replacing them with overridden methods to publish. I should probably be doing this at the service class level, but whatever. It's my mess.
cstr.bz doesn't do anything interesting. It looks up the path, and if it has a match, does a 301 redirect to the long URL.
The API site just serves up JSON for the Windows Phone app. The Windows Phone app is Silverlight, of course, and there isn't much to it. It does use the control toolkit, but beyond that, it relies on a simple class that creates a Webclient and calls the server for JSON to deserialize. The same class is now used by the Feed app, which used to use WCF. Simple is better.
Data access in POP Forums is all straight SQL, because a lot of it was ported from the ASP.NET version. Most CoasterBuzz data access is handled by the Entity Framework, using the code-first model. The context class in this case does a lot of work to make sure that the table and key mapping works, since much of it breaks from the normal conventions of EF. One of the more powerful things you can do with EF, once you understand the little gotchas, is split tables by row into different entities. For example, a roller coaster photo has everything in the same row, including the metadata, the thumbnail bytes and the image itself. Obviously, if you want to get a list of photos to iterate over in a view, you don't want to get the image data. The use of navigation properties makes it easier to get just what you want.
The front end includes Razor views in MVC, and jQuery is used for client-side goodness. I'm also using jQuery UI in a few places, for tabs, a dialog box and autocomplete. I'm also, tentatively, using jQuery Mobile. I've already ported most forum views to Mobile, but they need some work as v1.1 isn't finished yet. I'm not sure if I'll ship CoasterBuzz with mobile views or not yet. It's on the radar, but not something in my delivery criteria.
That covers all of the big frameworks in play. Next time I hope to talk more about the front-end experience, which to me is where most of the fun is these days. Hoping to launch in the next month or two. Getting tired of looking at the old site! | <urn:uuid:8bf536cc-0451-4acd-9417-77cbc269eea4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weblogs.asp.net/jeff/archive/2012/04.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946963 | 3,015 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Chinese state media has released shocking footage of a sinkhole swallowing an entire building complex in Guangdong province.
The video embedded below is nothing short of startling. Several residents look on in horror as the ground literally opens up and swallows a handful of multistory buildings. According to Discovery News, the first building reportedly fell in the morning while the other three toppled later that afternoon.
Fortunately for those who call this section of southern China home, nobody was hurt when the buildings collapsed. However, nearly 300 people had to be evacuated from the area as a precaution.
MSN explains the sinkhole was likely the result of underground construction work currently taking place in the region. Officials believe the creation of a subway line had compromised the integrity of the ground beneath the buildings, which ultimately caused them to collapse. Authorities were able to inform others of the problem before the situation turned ugly.
Oddly enough, sinkholes have been popping up all over the place in the past few days. According to The Daytona Beach News-Journal, a sinkhole swallowed an entire tree and part of a fence in Florida on January 24. Although the hole managed to take a few items down with it, a scientist with the agricultural department said he has definitely “seen bigger.”
The sudden appearance of a small sinkhole closed one lane of traffic in Hollywood over the weekend. Although the hole caused a slight hiccup in traffic, workers were soon called out to address and repair the problem. The Sun-Sentinel reports that officials couldn’t say for sure what caused the problem.
Video of the sinkhole in China has been embedded below.
Although officials in China seem to be pointing the finger of blame directly at the subway tunnel, an investigation into what caused the sinkhole to appear is currently underway. | <urn:uuid:5d47911c-6a63-48b9-ad61-b2e7888b911d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.inquisitr.com/500292/sinkhole-swallows-entire-building-in-china-video/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975407 | 366 | 1.78125 | 2 |
FEDERAL MINERAL LEASE BILL CRUISES TO FULL SENATE VOTE
Senator Jean White’s bill to allow the formation of Federal Mineral Lease Districts to receive and distribute federal mineral lease funds has cruised through a senate committee. White says the bill is vital for rural Colorado. She says it will increase the amount of money that districts receive from the federal government. It will also give districts additional flexibility on when to spend the funds, giving them the opportunity to accumulate money for several years for large-scale projects. The hope is that communities receiving federal lease funds will be able to pull themselves out of the economic downturn. White’s bill was passed unanimously by the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee, and is now headed to the full Senate.
FEDS LOOKING FOR COMMENTS ON NEW OIL SHALE DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES
A new federal plan for oil shale development is getting the thumbs up from a sportsmen’s group. Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development says the BLM’s proposal, which would protect many key wildlife areas, is right on track, because the potential impacts of oil shale extraction haven’t been thoroughly assessed. The two species of wildlife expected to benefit most from the action are the sage grouse and the cutthroat trout. The new federal proposal encourages companies to seek leases for research and development projects, allowing them to pursue commercial production after fulfilling terms of the research lease. The plan would open about half a million acres in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming for oil shale development. Public comment is being taken now on the plan. You can see the document by clicking here.
NEW SNOW MEANS NEW WARNINGS OF AVALANCHE DANGER
State officials say more than 3 feet of new snow that’s fallen in the high country has increased the probability of large avalanches. Although much of Northwest Colorado was missed, The Colorado Avalanche Information Center says the storm that moved across the state on Friday and Saturday fell on weak layers of snow. Human-triggered slides would break down into the deep layers, producing large avalanches with significant consequences. The avalanche danger remains considerable in the mountains from Steamboat Springs to Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, and includes the Vail, Aspen and Gunnison areas.
MARIJUANA QUESTION NEEDS MORE SIGNATURES TO BE PLACED ON BALLOT
A proposed initiative to legalize limited possession of marijuana in Colorado needs more signatures to qualify for the ballot. The Colorado Secretary of State’s office announced last week that the campaign still needs about 2,400 of the over 86,000 signatures needed. The campaign has 15 days to collect the remaining signatures. Last month, the campaign turned in more than 160,000 signatures in boxes of petitions. But, after reviewing a sample of those signatures, the Secretary of State’s office could not conclusively project whether there were enough valid signatures on the petitions for the initiative to qualify. That meant the Secretary of State’s office needed to go line-by-line through the petitions, verifying each signature. The initiative, a proposed constitutional amendment, would legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for people 21 and older. It would also allow people to grow a small number of marijuana plants in their homes. The measure would also allow for people to open marijuana retail shops, but it would give communities the ability to ban those businesses. Lastly, it would legalize the growing of industrial hemp. All such activities would remain illegal under federal law.
TWO WESTERN SLOPE MEN HELD ON FEDERAL FRAUD CHARGES
A fraudulent document operation on the Western Slope was shut down over the weekend by authorities in Eagle County. An undercover investigation resulted in the arrest of 2Carbondalemen who were manufacturing and selling fraudulent employment documents for illegal immigrants. Computer equipment was also seized. Illegal documents created included fake social security cards and Resident Alien cards. Both are being held on $5,000 bonds on federal forgery charges. Both also have immigration holds from the U-S Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
COLLEGE FINANCIAL AID SEMINAR TO BE HELD IN CRAIG SATURDAY
College bound students are invited to a free seminar Saturday, to discuss financial aid. Colorado Northwestern Community College will host the seminar in Craig. The seminar is part of College Goal Sunday, a national day for providing financial aid information. Assistance will be available for those wanting to learn how to fill out all the financial aid and scholarship applications. Those who show up need to bring their latest tax records, and have social security information on hand. The seminar will take place Saturday from 1:30 to 3:30 at CNCC in Craig. The contact number for more information is 824-1101.
TICKETS ON SALE FOR ANNUAL VALENTINE’S DAY EVENT AT WYMAN MUSEUM
Tickets are on sale for the Wyman Museum’s 4th Annual Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner. The night will include an all-you-can-eat prime rib and crab dinner, carriage rides, live music from the Moffat County Jazz Band, a silent auction and more. The event takes place on Valentine’s Day. Tickets are $50 a piece and can be bought at the museum. The contact number for more information is 824-6346.
In high school sports:
Over the weekend:
The Hayden girls topped Plateau Valley, then lost to Paonia. The boys fell to Plateau Valley, then beat Paonia.
Moffat County’s girls beat Eagle Valley, while the boys lost. Both teams beat Battle Mountain.
The Little Snake River Valley boys topped Manila and Saint Stephens.
Steamboat’s girls beat Battle Mountain and eagle Valley, while the boys fell to both.
The Soroco girls beat West Grand. The boys lost. Both teams beat North Park.
Steamboat topped Dakota Ridge.
The Moffat County boys host Basalt at 7.
Steamboat welcomes Eagle Valley. The girls play at 6 and the boys at 7:30.
Soroco is home against Vail Christian. The girls tip-off at 6 and the boys at 7:30.
Steamboat is on the road to Columbine at 3. | <urn:uuid:c8f21ab4-c27b-498f-91b9-777504a45a5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://krai.com/2012/02/06/northwest-colorado-news-and-sports-for-monday-february-6th/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932401 | 1,307 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Stockport Market Hall. Photograph by Sarah Norris.
Did you know that the Market Hall -
See some photographs of the Market Hall as it looked during the filming of Yanks here.
The Vintage Village at Stockport Market Hall was developed by Alan of Village Vintage Clothing Ltd and Sarah of TinTrunk in association with Stockport Market Culture and Tourism.
We see this fair as contributing towards efforts to regenerate the beautifully restored and redeveloped Market Hall and Market Place into the thriving trade hub it had been for centuries past.
Its on its way already, with a bustling market on regular trading days, but on Sundays it lay quiet and unused.
So we've been lucky enough to have been given the chance to use the Market Hall on the second Sunday of every month for our fair.
Its an amazing venue in a prime central location, with all the character and charm and heritage - and impeccably modern facilities - that you could hope for.
We want to encourage the establishment of a lively vintage event in the heart of Stockport, to help new and developing small businesses locally and regionally, and to contribute to re-establishing Stockport Market Hall and Market Place as an essential port of call in Greater Manchester for seeking out quality goods and unique items.
There's lots of information on Stockport Council's website about the history of Stockport Market here.
And if you're curious about what else there might be of interest in Stockport, check out the local attractions page. | <urn:uuid:fee474c9-fd4d-4c94-a9ff-3949a42b074a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vintagevillagestockportmarket.co.uk/about-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952651 | 302 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Takeaway: A book everyone should read to remind us that suffering is not a reality show or an abstract discussion.
I have never read any of Elie Wiesel‘s books. I have known of him and basically known that he was a Nobel Peace Prize winner and writer, but not a lot more. I ran across his first book Night, when looking for audiobooks on Overdrive. (Overdrive is a library system that allows you to check out ebooks or audiobooks over the internet just like your regular library books.)
I ran across it months ago and kept putting it off. I knew it was about the holocaust and I just did not want to read a depressing story. Finally, I decided to just go ahead and start it. I was transfixed. I listened in less than 24 hour period.
Night is written in the voice of a 15/16 year old and so often thought of as a young adult book. But it has been masterfully written (and equally masterfully narrated.) I have thought frequently about why I was never asked to read this as a high school or college student. I would strongly recommend that it be part of a high school or college curriculum.
As I listened to Night, I kept reflecting on two books. One, Hunger Games, where a teen girl is sent to fight to the death as entertainment. There were horrible parts about that book. But it was a story, Night was about the real story of thousands of boys and girls sent to their deaths in concentration camps. That is not to complain about Hunger Games, it was a good book with powerful things to say about how we approach entertainment, free will, love and other themes. But seen in contract to the real horror of Night, it seems almost too tame.
The second book I kept thinking about was Rob Bell‘s Love Wins. I haven’t read Bell’s book and I very well may not read it at all. Wiesel recounts a very real hell on earth. And some of the blogging and comments that I have read on Bell’s book make me realize that regardless of where you come down on the book, very few people have a concept of hell that really understand what suffering is all about. We argue and discuss the need for a concept of hell from the comfort of our computers but have not paid attention to the real hell that people commit and endure every day on earth. I know the concepts are not the same. I know that because there is hell on earth does not minimize the reality of hell as a future/current place of torment. But it does seem that many Christians care far more about the idea of hell than the reality of the suffering that is ongoing in this world or the reality of the suffering that many will endure in an actual hell.
If you need a reminder of suffering (and I think we all probably do if we are reading this from the comfort of our American lives) then I think we need to pick up books like Night to remind us, both of the potential for evil and suffering in this life and the eternal consequences of the same. | <urn:uuid:119cdda9-2024-446b-82e0-6f8c67691b53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bookwi.se/night-by-elie-wiesel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979797 | 635 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Everett Scott (November 19, 1892 - November 2, 1960), nicknamed "Deacon", was an American shortstop in Major League Baseball who played for 12 seasons with the Boston Red Sox (1914-1921), New York Yankees (1922-1925), Washington Senators (1925), Chicago White Sox (1926) and Cincinnati Reds (1926). Scott batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Bluffton, Indiana.
Scott compiled a lifetime batting average of .249, hitting 20 home runs with 551 RBI in 1654 games. He led American League shortstops in fielding percentage eight straight seasons (1916-23) and appeared in 1,307 consecutive games from June 20, 1916 until May 6, 1925, setting a record later broken by Lou Gehrig.
Scott was a member of three Boston Red Sox World Series champion teams in 1915-16 and 1918), and also played with the New York Yankees in the 1922 and 1923 Series, winning in 1923.
Scott died in Fort Wayne, Indiana at age 67.
Other MLB Debuts in 1914 Rube Bressler George Burns Red Faber Harry Heilmann Sad Sam Jones Adolfo Luque Babe Ruth Pete Schneider Bill Wambsganss
External links Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis BaseballLibrary.com The Virtual Card Collection | <urn:uuid:a0efec19-a3e5-4f10-81ff-593584dce6ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mysticgames.com/famouspeople/EverettScott.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939786 | 277 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Europe - Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, lies in the Caucasus mountain range in southern Russia and forms a natural boundary between Europe and Asia. As such, the Elbrus region has a complex history and is home to a variety of ethnic groups of people. The Adyrsu Valley is in considered the most beautiful in the Elbrus area. We'll be treated to superb alpine scenery in an area much less developed than elsewhere in Europe.
We'll depart the US on July 10th with one night in Europe, if required, before departing to Moscow on July 11th . We'll make preparations for our expedition in Moscow and fly to Mineralny Vody the following day. From here, we'll drive into the mountains and start our acclimatization.
Over the next seven days, we'll gradually gain height from 3,200m to 4,700m before climbing the east summit of Elbrus. Though not technical, the climb is strenuous and requires willpower to reach the summit. Ice axe and crampons will be used. The end of the schedule accommodates one reserve day (for possible bad weather or the need for further acclimatization) before departures from Moscow to the US. | <urn:uuid:da219239-6a1c-48a8-96d3-317b50057165> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cabaretdiosa.com/exp-mt_elbrus.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953481 | 250 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Teacher: CrochetKim (Kim Guzman), CrochetKim website
Class Cost: $30.00, 2-week class
Registration Dates: Registration is now open. Click here to register.
Class Begins: Friday, March 8, 2013
Skill Level: You should be comfortable with crochet. You should be comfortable in making increases and decreases for garment shaping. You should have a comfortable concept of how garments are constructed.
Description: In this class, I will have a prepared garment spreadsheet. I will walk you through making the changes to size it up to the different sizes required for professional publishing. Although we will focus on YarnStandards sizing, this information will allow you to also size up other garments you may find in magazines or books, as long as a schematic is provided.
The primary goal in this class is learning to use digital spreadsheets for grading patterns. You can use Excel or Open Office (free download). The class will not focus on writing a pattern. It will be solely for garment grading with a spreadsheet.
Grading patterns is a very precise skill. It is not hard. It is simply very time-consuming. You can expect to spend a lot of time concentrating on your spreadsheet and plugging in numbers. You may feel like you've been doing accounting all day long. But I assure you that it is much easier than a paper and pencil. And, the benefit is that you will be able to retain the spreadsheets of your designs on your computer. It makes it easy to check your pattern against your spreadsheet. And, it helps to have that spreadsheet available when customers contact you with questions!
Supplies Needed: There is no actual crocheting in this class. You will only need your computer, paper, pencil and possibly a calculator (although your spreadsheet software is fine for that).
I'm very excited about teaching this class and hope that it will be especially beneficial to new designers and even published designers who would like to go digital with their grading!
Class Policies: Click here to read our Online Class Policies for students. Please read these policies prior to registering for a class.
Minimum Number of Students Required: 8
Maximum Number of Students Accepted: 15
First Day of Class: Friday, March 8, 2013
Last Day to Register: Monday, March 11, 2013 at noon central time
Last Day of Class: Thursday, March 21, 2013
Last Day Class Material Available: Friday, April 5, 2013 | <urn:uuid:c9bb934d-f034-4ba0-9f32-57d8df01204f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crochetville.com/community/topic/144792-pattern-grading-sizing-class-with-kim-guzman-march-2013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938295 | 503 | 1.632813 | 2 |
In a macho culture that some equate with men in dark glasses gallivanting with prostitutes, Julia Pierson has made it to the top. Eleanor Clift on the woman tapped to whip the Secret Service into shape.
The highest-ranking female agent in the U.S. Secret Service, Julia A. Pierson, will be sworn in Wednesday at the White House to head the organization where she has worked for over 30 years. The first woman tapped for the top job, she takes over an agency rocked by a prostitution scandal last year.
Julia Pierson. (US Secret Service via AP)
Pierson has been chief of staff in the director’s office in Washington since 2008, where her main areas of responsibility have been technology and modernization. Over three decades, beginning as a special agent in Miami, she has held a wide variety of protective and investigative assignments and served as deputy assistant director in the Office of Protective Operations.
In announcing her appointment, President Obama said, “Julia is eminently qualified to lead the agency that not only safeguards Americans at major events and secures our financial system, but also protects our leaders and our first families, including my own. Julia has had an exemplary career, and I know these experiences will guide her as she takes on this new challenge to lead the impressive men and women of this important agency.”
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for a case challenging California’s controversial law known as Prop 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Read the full transcript and listen to the courtroom audio here.
As the Supreme Court hears arguments today on California's gay marriage ban, follow along as we collect the smartest court-watchers' latest tweets.
Remember the Obamacare ruling debacle? Pundits read too much into the oral arguments—and got the outcome wrong. Adam Winkler warns against overanalyzing the clues in today’s gay marriage hearings.
In Arthurian legend, the sorceress Morgan Le Fay lured sailors to their death by using magic to create false yet alluring images of fairy castles out at sea. She was said to be capable of enticing even the most experienced ship captain to veer from his course and meet an untimely end. Her mirages offer a valuable lesson for prognosticators and legal commentators weighing every word spoken by the justices in the Supreme Court hearings over gay marriage this week.
People queue to enter the Supreme Court in Washington on March 25, 2013. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty)
Oral argument can be a window into the court and its deliberations. Justices hostile to a lawyer’s argument often reveal their disagreement through penetrating—sometimes devastating—questions, while a friendly justice can offer a struggling advocate a helping hand. Court watchers eager to get an early lead on how the justices will decide the most important questions of the day look to these hints, analyzing each change in tone and expression of frustration.
Even before the beginning of the marriage hearings, people have been reading the clues. On Monday, reports circulated that the lesbian cousin of Chief Justice John Roberts was attending one of the arguments as his guest. Was this is a sign that Roberts will rule in favor of gay rights? The cousin was hopeful: “I believe he sees where the tide is going,” she said. “I absolutely trust that he will go in a good direction.”
The former presidential candidate talks to Howard Kurtz about Republicans in denial, the 2016 race, forging a positive message—and returning to the moon.
Newt Gingrich is talking to me about landing on the moon.
But he’s not being a space cadet; he is building an argument about how Republicans have to get in touch with reality by conjuring up positive plans. Gingrich believes the GOP made huge mistakes in last year’s campaign—he doesn’t exempt himself—by believing its own propaganda.
Newt Gingrich, former presidential candidate and speaker of the House, at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) March 16, 2013 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Pete Marovich/Getty)
“You have a combination of large donors and very clever consultants, neither of whom have any interest in building a healthy party, so they look for nasty ways to have more impact,” Gingrich says. “If it becomes how clever we can be in vilifying Hillary Clinton, that’s a party that will not win in 2016.”
With public opinion shifting at ‘breathtaking’ speed, Republican politicians are finding themselves on the wrong side of gay marriage—but they must also keep their conservative donors happy, reports Eleanor Clift.
On no other public policy issue have attitudes have changed as rapidly as on gay marriage, and Karl Rove, the man George W. Bush dubbed “the architect” of his reelection, epitomizes the shift in the Republican Party. Asked on ABC’s This Week if he could “imagine” a Republican presidential candidate unequivocally backing gay marriage, Rove replied, “I could.”
Karl Rove and moderator Tom Brokaw appear on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C., Sunday, March 14, 2010. Rove, the former Senior Adviser to President Bush was a proponent in trying to pass anti-gay marriage legislation but said on the show over the weekend that he could see the possibility of a republican president who embraces gay marriage in the future. (William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty)
This is the same Karl Rove who in 2004 helped push a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and worked to put similar bans on the ballot in swing states such as Ohio to generate conservative turnout. Once a wedge issue that worked to the advantage of the GOP, gay marriage is now seen as benefiting the Democratic Party.
“This issue has been lost. It’s about time Republicans get over it,” says Ron Haskins, a former Bush White House official who co-directs the Center for Children and Families at the Brookings Institution. “Having hung out with Republicans for many years and knowing Republicans who either themselves were gay or had sons or daughters who were gay, Republicans always were very queasy about this issue,” he says. “Republicans think the less said, the better, but there’s a certain amount of relief. It’s hard to be a consistent conservative and be opposed to gay marriage.”
Forget the legal handicapping, says Michael Tomasky. This Supreme Court is virtually guaranteed to decide same-sex marriage on political—and maybe moral—grounds. Not a comforting thought.
I’ll leave it to the masters of the jurisprudential universe to handicap how the Supreme Court might deal with the two same-sex marriage cases in legal terms. But since this Court is the most nakedly political since at least the New Deal if not ever, I’ll do a little handicapping on political grounds, since it is largely on political grounds that I think the justices (especially the conservatives) decide things. The question, I think, comes down to two factors: how deeply this heavily Catholic conservative majority feels a collective moral antipathy to same-sex marriage; and the role this majority sees the Court playing in the post-2012-election era—what kind of role the Court should play in this alleged redefining of conservatism that’s going on. My hopes, it may not shock you to hear, are not high on either point, but especially the second one.
(L-R) Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan applaud before President Barack Obama's State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 12, 2013. (Charles Dharapak/AP)
Let’s just go over the basics quickly. The Court is hearing two cases today and tomorrow, the Prop 8 case out of California and a challenge to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage federally as being between a man and a woman. Because the DOMA case also deals with issues of states’ rights, it seems to most experts I read that the Court will rule against DOMA. Liberal Scotus blogger Scott Lemieux of The American Prospect told me yesterday that he expects to see a 6-3 decision here against DOMA, or maybe even 7-2, leaving only Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito defending the usual reactionary flank.
The Prop 8 case is more complicated. The legal question here involves whether to uphold a federal court decision from California that Prop 8, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman and passed as a ballot referendum in 2010, is unconstitutional. It can uphold the courts that ruled against Prop 8, in which case same-sex couples can start marrying, perhaps only in California, or perhaps across the nation, depending on how such a decision were to be written. It could strike the California ruling down on narrow grounds in a way that wouldn’t necessarily have much reach beyond California. Or it can say the courts were wrong, the voters were right, Prop 8 stands, and bans on same-sex marriage do not violate the Constitution.
Add the Office of Congressional Ethics to the long list of probes and lawsuits that may be the only enduring legacy of Bachmann’s presidential face-plant. John Avlon exclusively reports.
The Hindenburg. The Titanic. Michele Bachmann.
Eighteen months ago, the Minnesota House member was considered an unlikely but undeniable Republican rising star, winning the Iowa straw poll that unofficially begins the primary season. Today, she is embroiled in a litany of legal proceedings related to her rolling disaster of a presidential campaign—including an Office of Congressional Ethics investigation into campaign improprieties that has not previously been reported.
Michele Bachmann speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference on March 15. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
The Daily Beast has learned that federal investigators are now interviewing former Bachmann campaign staffers nationwide about alleged intentional campaign-finance violations. The investigators are working on behalf of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which probes reported improprieties by House members and their staffs and then can refer cases to the House Ethics Committee.
Can the GOP escape from 1955?
In his new biography of Roger Ailes, Zev Chafets writes that Ailes longs for America when it was “its natural, best self, which he locates, with modest social amendments, somewhere in midwestern America circa 1955.” Chafets does not say what those modest social amendments might be, but it got me thinking about the nature of conservative nostalgia.
Stu McKay, 19, left, Andrew Hornsby, 20, and Taylor Wright, 19, all with the college group Young Americans for Freedom, rolling posters of Ronald Reagan while attending the 40th annual CPAC in National Harbor, MD, March 15, 2013. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Mitt Romney lost in part because his was a vision of Father Knows Best America in a time of Modern Family. Romney, by all accounts a devoted family man, could not seem to wrap his mind around the reality that families today come in a vast variety of configurations. His views on gay rights, women’s rights, and immigration (on which even Newt Gingrich accused him of wanting to divide families by deporting grandmothers who have lived here for decades) seemed hopelessly out of touch rather than charmingly retro. Meanwhile, Barack Obama cruised to reelection on a one-word slogan: Forward.
The Republican National Committee has, commendably, performed an autopsy on the carcass of its 2012 campaign. To its credit, the GOP seems to recognize that it doesn’t just need to moderate, it needs to modernize. You know a party is in trouble when its “celebrities” are has-beens like Hank Williams Jr., Charlie Daniels, and Ted Nugent (who, to be fair, had a big hit—in 1977). As the authors of the GOP report put it: “At our core, Republicans have comfortably remained the Party of Reagan without figuring out what comes next. Ronald Reagan is a Republican hero and role model who was first elected 33 years ago—meaning no one under the age of 51 today was old enough to vote for Reagan when he first ran for President. Our Party knows how to appeal to older voters, but we have lost our way with younger ones. We sound increasingly out of touch.”
Introducing The Daily Beast’s weekly rundown of the wildest ideas being proposed—or passed—by state lawmakers.
North Dakota’s state legislature this week passed what would be the nation’s strictest anti-abortion package, which would ban abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected, which could come as early as six weeks. Arkansas, which currently has the toughest abortion laws in the U.S., bans the procedure after 12 weeks. Republican governor Jack Dalrymple, who’s yet to signal his position, has until Wednesday to either veto or sign the package, which would likely be challenged immediately in court if it becomes law.
South Carolina State Rep. Bill Chumley (R) this week sponsored a bill that would enlist low-level inmates in modern-day chain gangs. The idea was first thought-up by a local sheriff, who said convict labor would shorten prison terms and save money for the state. “You work somebody six days a week, 12 hours a day, they don't have time to sit around and think about how to be stupid anymore," said Wright.
Rev. Matthew Crebbin, who led Newtown’s televised memorial service, tells Joshua DuBois that his community’s grief is only beginning—and that he worries America is making guns into false idols.
When President Obama traveled to Newtown, Connecticut, to console that community and the nation after the massacre that killed 20 children and six adult staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School, it was Rev. Matthew Crebbin of Newtown Congregational Church who led the nationally televised interfaith memorial service. Three months after the tragedy, I emailed with Reverend Crebbin to see how Newtown is still coping, and what’s next for that community. (Our exchange has been slightly condensed and edited.)
Rev. Matthew Crebbin during service at Newtown Congregational Church. (courtesy of Rev. Matthew Crebbin)
1. Rev. Crebbin, you had the task of counseling some of the Newtown families immediately after the massacre. What was that experience like?
It was the most challenging experience of my ministry. One of the more difficult aspects of that time was the waiting that had to be endured—through the process of identification and notification. There were also teachers, staff, and first responders in those early hours who were trying to comprehend the magnitude of the event that had engulfed all of us. In that moment I was trying to help people to hang on in whatever way they could and to let them know that they were being held by God’s sustaining grace.
First it was the ‘left’ turn after the election, then Benghazi cover-up accusations. Activists have a list of demands for the conservative network, which some say is ‘not as fair and balanced as I thought.’
Is Fox News going soft?
That is what a number of Tea Party activists are saying, and they are organizing a boycott to protest the conservative station’s coverage, especially what they view as the network’s relative silence in investigating the attacks on a diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
File photo: Tea Party members in Montgomery, Alabama, 2013; Sean Hannity, 2011. (Dave Martin/AP; John Amis/AP)
“Particularly after the election, Fox keeps turning to the left,” said Stan Hjerlied, 75, of Fort Collins, Colorado, and a participant in the boycott. He pointed to an interview Fox News CEO Roger Ailes gave after the election in which he said that the Republican Party and Fox News need to modernize, especially around immigration. “So we are really losing our only conservative network.”
Michael Tomasky rebuts the GOP’s three fiscal lies and calls on Democrats to do the same.
As we immerse ourselves in March Madness this weekend, a thought experiment for you: imagine that a majority of Americans were under the impression that the team that committed fewer fouls won the game. After all, not committing fouls is a good, even salutary, thing. It demonstrates self-discipline. It gives the other team fewer opportunities for what are literally called “free” throws. The propensity not to foul reflects a house in order, a group that plays by the rules, a team rich in inner—nay, even moral—strength. That is all self-evidently preposterous, of course. But it is exactly how we talk about the budget in Washington, such talk being driven by a Republican Party that is way out of the mainstream, saddled with near all-time-low approval ratings, and desperate for a campaign issue with which they can hold on to the House in 2014. How can the public be educated not to buy this nonsense?
Dick Cheney, David Cameron, Paul Ryan. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty, Nick Ansel/WPA Pool/Getty, J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Dick Cheney went a little overboard (as he was wont to do) when he said “deficits don’t matter,” and of course it was quite a hoot coming from a member of the party that has been haranguing us about deficits for half a century now whenever it suited their purposes to do so. But as hypocritical as he was being, he had a point. Today the GOP has completely flipped on this point and is cynically hyping three fictions that will harm the economy—but (maybe) help them electorally.
The first is this canard that we have to balance the budget. Absurd. There is no reason to balance the budget. None. Ever. Oh, it’s nice if it happens—that is, if it happens as a result of an economy that’s shooting skyward like a bottle rocket, as Bill Clinton’s was. That’s something to feel good about. It was an astonishing accomplishment for Clinton, that he brought us into surplus for that brief golden age before George W. Bush and his advisers, those secret agents of world communism, started destroying American capitalism.
The president may be African-American, but the black caucus is upset with his latest Cabinet appointments. Eleanor Clift on what’s driving the complaints.
The numbers are stark: of President Obama’s nine new Cabinet appointments, three are women and one is Hispanic.
President Barack Obama is greeted by Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio upon his arrival at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland, Thursday, June 14, 2012. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
This has prompted African-Americans, who voted for Obama in record numbers, to question whether they are getting their fair share of representation.
Ohio Democrat Marcia Fudge, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, sent Obama a letter last week saying that his appointments “have hardly been reflective of this country’s diversity.” She noted numerous phone calls from constituents to the offices of the CBC’s 42 members “questioning why none of the new appointees will be able to speak to the unique needs of African Americans.”
Republicans’ trumpeted makeover plan has been out only a few days, but it’s already crumbling. Bob Shrum on how Paul Ryan and anti-gay zealots are shooting their party in the foot.
The Republican Nation Committee’s postmortem on 2012 is hardly a guarantee that the party will come back to electoral life in 2014, or even 2016.
And to find out why, look no further than Paul Ryan.
Paul Ryan at CPAC 2013
First, though, the report itself, grandly titled “The Growth and Opportunity Project.”
Eric Nordstrom, who worked at the Benghazi consulate on the day it was attacked, choked up during Wednesday's hearings. 'It matters,' he said, that the committee investigate what happened before, during, and after the siege.
Corry Booker’s the hero mayor of Newark, and, yes, he’s running for Senate. By Lloyd Grove
The president’s push for $9 an hour has the GOP on the defensive. Eleanor Clift on the strategy behind the move. But this push could take the politics out of the perennial argument.
Meet the new Treasury secretary, same as the old Treasury secretary. Lloyd Green on nominee Jack Lew.
For John Kael Weston and other men on the frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan drone strikes raise many uncomfortable questions. He writes on why we need clearer policy and guidelines for these silent killers. | <urn:uuid:cbece7fc-a3d7-4746-984e-4de771cdd27d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/politics.16.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964569 | 4,404 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Labour politician; served on LCC and GLC. Wife of Douglas Jay (President, Board of Trade),. Defender of Hampstead Heath and the town from encroachment (Guardian obit),.
Leader of the Labour Party (1955-63),. Lived many years at 18 Frognal Gardens which, in 1950 when Chancellor of the Exchequer, he preferred to 11 Downing Street. Motto on grave ‘Fortitudo et Integritas’.
Councillor for Town Ward (1927-37),, keen amateur actor and organist.
Barrister and politician. Son of a Russian doctor, and grandson of Ford Madox Brown. Knighted (1945),, made QC and Labour MP for Birkenhead East. Became Attorney General (1951),, Home Secretary (1964-1965),, and Lord Privy Seal (1965),.
Alderman and Mayor of Hampstead (1910-11),.
1st baronet. Barrister, JP, LCC Councillor (1889-1904),, MP for Hampstead (1905-18),, Chairman of Hampstead Board of Guardians (1880-98),. Lived in College Crescent.
British Chess Champion (1912),; Hampstead Borough Councillor (1928-37),. Lived in Wedderburn Road (1890-1939),.
Eva Gore-Booth was an Irish poet and dramatist, but was primarily known as a committed suffragette, social worker and labour activist. She was involved in adult education for women and in the women’s trade union movement. Eva was also a pacifist, and during World War I she argued strongly against persuading young men to join… | <urn:uuid:873bb667-2f4d-463c-b8b1-a98f81830ef0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tombwithaview.org.uk/person_category/politics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935282 | 365 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Defense Distributed's plan is to put the power of guns in the hands of every person with access to the internet and a 3D printer. Until now, however, we'd only seen the Liberator pistol built using an expensive industrial-grade printer -- despite the fact that the blueprints for gun have been downloaded by thousands of people who don't have access to such a high-end machine. One of those folks decided to put the Liberator in the hands of the printing proletariat by making it with a consumer-level Lulzbot A0-101 3D printer, a nail and some common screws.
This new version, called the Lulz Liberator, differs from the original in that it's got a rifled barrel and uses metal hardware to hold it together (as opposed to printed plastic pins). Printing it took around two days and used about $25 worth of generic ABS material, and the pistol produced was fired successfully nine times, but its creator claims it could've shot more. It's still a far cry from a Glock or Beretta, of course, as the gun misfired several times, and removing spent shell casings required the use of a hammer. So, it's not quite ready for prime time, but it's one more bit of proof that the age of printed pistols is officially upon us.
[Image Credit: Michael Guslick] | <urn:uuid:55e89a0f-0636-4d8e-9c21-6ffe3eec8805> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://robots.engadget.com/topics/alt/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97201 | 278 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Mindfulness is paying attention here and now with an open heart and mind. So, how about practicing the art of mindfulness this Valentine’s Day. It seems that Valentine’s Day has become a holiday of great pressure. Those in relationships feel the pressure to deliver the perfect date with the perfect gift while single people feel the pressure of a spotlight on their less than perfect relationship status. Valentine’s Day is the one day where everyone – even the most jaded – secretly wants their life to look and feel like a Hollywood romance. However, like a lot of things in human nature, we miss the point because we fear how we are being perceived. This year I suggest we use Valentine’s Day as a reminder to simply acknowledge the existence and beauty of love in all its forms.
Instead of feeling devastated because you can’t get a reservation at the best restaurant in town, why not just take a moment to think about the person you most love and let them know in a way that is specific and genuine to your relationship with that person. And, yes, this advice applies to single people. In fact, the reality is we are all “single people”, some of us just share space with other single people in closer proximity. We share our lives, not our individual realities, fears, doubts, desires, and dreams. So why not start the day with THAT relationship. If the old adage is true that you can’t love someone else until you love yourself, why not take a moment to do just that. Acknowledge all the things that make you loveable and your life amazing. Give quiet thanks for the gifts you’ve been given, the qualities that bring you the most compliments, the things you can do better than anyone, even if no one yet knows it but you. Open up your mind to the reality of how much love fills your life, if maybe not your bed (at least today).
Perhaps Valentine’s Day doesn’t need to be a reminder of romance but a reminder of kindness, starting with the conscious decision to be nice to yourself. Treat yourself as if you were madly in love with you. Be mindful of yourself and others. Hug somebody. Hold the door. Talk more softly and listen more openly. Give a smile before you give a judgment. Call someone to just say hello. Take the time to really look around at all the things you usually rush by. If you are in a romantic relationship, REALLY look at your partner. See them. Touch them. Thank them. Love them as carefully and passionately as you can. And if you’re spending the day without a date, so what? That doesn’t mean your life lacks love, it just means that the extraordinary one who is looking for you hasn’t found you yet. But you better be ready, because they’re on their way.
That’s how I’ll spend this Valentine’s Day – celebrating the fact that love puts the “awe” in awesome.
Give yourself or your partner the gift of becoming Certified in Love with my online course that includes:
- The 5 Ingredients of Love
- How to Find and Keep Everlasting Love
- How to Love A Woman versus a Man
- The Difference Between Love and Lust | <urn:uuid:c2447296-299c-4a66-9f78-05938feb8595> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dravablog.com/tag/valentines-mindfulness/ | 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 | 0.949622 | 685 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Onward Christian Soldiers!
Posted on Jan 17, 2006
By Larry Gross
Pope Benedict XVI has intervened in the upcoming Italian elections, specifically on the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage—no extra credit for guessing what side he’s on. The topic of same-sex marriage is especially touchy, as Spain, another predominantly Catholic country, recently legalized same-sex marriage despite the Church’s explicit opposition, something the pope seems to have taken as a personal affront. If the same thing were to happen in Italy it would be truly insulting to the newly installed Bishop of Rome and Vicar of Christ.
Speaking to local officials, Benedict stressed that marriage between man and woman was the cornerstone of society and not some “casual sociological construction” that could be replaced. “It’s a serious error to obscure the value and function of the legitimate family founded on matrimony, attributing to other forms of unions improper legal recognition, for which there really is no social need,” he said.
The Roman Catholic bishop of Calgary, Alberta, had a much stronger message for Canadian politicians, as Canada heads into its own election season: They should opt for martyrdom rather than support things that contradict Church doctrine, such as same-sex marriage. Raising the specter of beheadings or possibly burnings at the stake, Bishop Fred Henry decried spiritual schizophrenia and offered spiritual guidance: “All Catholic politicians would do well to imitate the example of St. Thomas More, who by his life and death taught that man cannot be separated from God, nor politics from morality.” More, chancellor to King Henry VIII, was executed in 1535 for refusing to acknowledge the king, rather than the pope, as head of the English church. Previously, Bishop Henry has suggested that then-Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrtien, a Catholic, might well go to hell because of his support for gay marriage. Surely, it seems, martyrdom and possible eventual sainthood would be preferable. | <urn:uuid:894fb975-2da1-4f50-a276-67c9a7ac1f66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.truthdig.com/dig/print/onward_christian_soldiers_20060117/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967778 | 415 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Duvet and cover. A duvet is essentially a soft flat bag filled with down, feathers or a synthetic alternative. It is recommended that duvets are inserted into a removable cover, much like a pillow and pillow case. Duvets and duvet covers are designed to be used alone (with no sheets) because the insert can be removed and the outer "bag" can be laundered, but many people use them with sheets anyway. Many people like duvets because they reduce the complexity of making a bed, as it is a single covering instead of the combination of bed sheets, blankets, quilts and other bed covers. | <urn:uuid:d111a284-c7f4-477b-b253-eaa175b5bdc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.houzz.com/photos/150688/Child-s-Play-modern-kids-san-francisco | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966391 | 129 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Students from the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine School of Pharmacy handed out pink ribbons at the Erie campus Monday to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Day. LECOM students, faculty, and staff members were encouraged to wear pink clothing. At noon, members of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) enlisted their classmates to form a human pink ribbon in the school’s atrium. More than 50 students, wearing pink, formed the ribbon, as members of the local media captured the moment.
Pharmacy students also sold pink paper chain links to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The chain links were connected and fashioned into a large pink ribbon.
Through this effort, LECOM students pitched in $210. The chain of hope was organized by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Student Societies of Health-System Pharmacy (ASHP-SSHP).
The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and LECOM School of Pharmacy offer innovative and affordable education in osteopathic medicine and pharmacy. From campuses in Erie, Pennsylvania, Greensburg, Pennsylvania and Bradenton, Florida, LECOM provides student-centered pathways to prepare the next generation of healthcare professionals. Prepare yourself for medicine as your life’s profession. | <urn:uuid:3fe8670d-9ffd-49b3-97c2-e18a4d7bcad5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lecom.edu/article.php/LECOM-Holds-Breast-Cancer-Awareness-Day/49/2205/647/4631 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942122 | 272 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Members of parliament have blamed poor business environment as the main contributor to the increasing tax exemptions which reached over 1.0trn/- for the year 2011/12, in bid to attract foreign investors.
The lawmakers said that if the government improves the business environment such as roads, reliable power, railways there will be no need for it to provide such a wide range of tax incentives.
They were contributing to the report titled “Tax Competition in East Africa: A race to the Bottom? Presented by Policy Forum to the members of African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC) –Tanzania Chapter in a meeting here yesterday.
Ilemela Member of Parliament Ezekiel Wenje said that poor business environment is one of the main problems that cause tax competition to be stiff among the East African member states.
He said the country’s poor infrastructure such as roads and unreliable power are important factors for investment. He also cited a private airline Precision Air, saying that it purchases jet fuel in Kenya because it is cheaper than in Tanzania.
“If the service industry in Tanzania is improved there will be no need of providing a wide range of tax incentives…sometimes the government decides to provide incentives to business due to poor environment,” Wenje said.
Kigoma- South legislator David Kafulila (NCCR-Mageuzi) said it is high time the country formed a budget committee to increase financial accountability instead of leaving everything to the finance minister, saying the system is applied in other countries.
Kafulila said tax exemption in Kenya and Uganda is 1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, Rwanda 0.4 percent while for Tanzania it ranges between 3 to 4.8 percent.
He urged Policy Forum to establish a system of meeting with the members of finance and economy parliamentary committee to present their findings so that they can be incorporated into the budget.
Busega MP Dr Titus Kimani called on the government to look into the possibility of reducing taxes which caused many to find ways to evade paying them.
He said many investors evade taxes because one business can be associated with payment of taxes to more than one institution discouraging investors from complying.
Igalula legislator Athuman Mfutakamba called for harmonisation of taxes for EAC member states which benefit from Lake Victoria resources so as to enable the country get revenue.
Presenting the report to the MPs, a Lecturer with Mzumbe University –Dar es Salaam branch and Economic Consultant Dr Honest Ngowi said the tax incentives led to revenue losses and may not necessarily be needed to attract and retain Foreign Direct Investments.
He said the presence of tax holidays has enabled a number of firms, notably mining companies, manufacturing and processing firms, hotels and tourist lodges to effectively escape taxation.
He said according to the available estimates revenue losses from all tax exemptions and incentives may be as high as 1.8trn/- in 2008 and that the minimum revenue loss from tax incentives granted to companies alone is 381bn/- a year for the years 2008/09 to 2009/10.
“Due to the exemptions the country is being deprived of the badly needed financial resources for financing public expenditure of goods and services both in the development and recurrent budget. These are resources that if collected could contribute substantially to reduce the number of 36 percent of Tanzanians living below poverty line,” Dr Ngowi said.
The report recommended that the government should remove some tax incentives granted to attract and retain FDIs especially those provided to the mining sector, Export Processing Zones, and Special Economic Zones and be responsible and accountable to the public in all matters related to granting of tax incentives and exemptions. | <urn:uuid:fd6f727e-40ac-4701-846f-1b11b1f2c187> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php/=INSuRT3/media/picture/large/theme/css/function.fopen?l=42729 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954787 | 754 | 1.742188 | 2 |
KLAUS DEININGER, is a Lead Economist in the rural development group of the Development Economics Group. His areas of research focus on income and asset inequality and its relationship to poverty reduction and growth; access to land, land markets and land reform and their impact on household welfare and agricultural productivity; land tenure and its impact on investment, including environmental sustainability: and capacity building (including the use of quantitative and qualitative methods) for policy analysis and evaluation, mainly in the Africa, Central America, and East Asia Regions. He is a German national with a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota, an MA in Agricultural Economics from the University of Berlin, and an MA in theology from the University of Bonn.
The author's works below are drawn from the World Bank's institutional archives. You can also download other documents by this author. | <urn:uuid:bc08e970-7340-4cc3-9e20-60dddfb4a0b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?startIndex=3&theSitePK=469382&piPK=64214942&authorMDK=96410&pagePK=64214821&menuPK=64214916 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948266 | 174 | 1.679688 | 2 |
One of the stars at the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was Kirk Goldsberry, who has applied his knowledge of geography to the ecosystem, or “court space,” of the basketball court. The event drew 2,200 people to Boston earlier this month.
One of the stars at the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, held earlier this month in Boston, was a scholar who has applied his knowledge of geography to the ecosystem, or “court space,” of the basketball court.
Kirk Goldsberry, an assistant professor in the department of geography at Michigan State University and a visiting scholar at Harvard University, made a splash by stepping out of his main field.
“Goldsberry does health care research,” notes Fast Company in “In Relentless Jocks-Nerds War, Hope For Peace Through Analytics.” “He creates maps that reveal a community’s lack of access to fresh produce, and he publishes his findings in academic publications such as the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition. But it’s Goldsberry’s latest research paper — “CourtVision: New Visual and Spatial Analytics for the NBA” — that has thrust him into the sports geek limelight. ‘I woke up yesterday never having been on national TV or in The New York Times and Sports Illustrated or interviewed by the Wall Street Journal,’ he says, incredulous that all those things have since happened.”
The annual conference has become a big event for what’s estimated to be a $400 billion business. It drew over 2,200 people, up from the 60 or so who attended the first conference six years ago. “ESPN, the lead sponsor, brings in more than that many staffers, nearly 100 this year, to use its promotional muscle and savvy to turn an event where much of the action involves presenting academic papers into a high-profile, entertaining affair,” writes Fast Company.
Videos from the conference are available for free at sloansportsconference.com. Among them: this conversation with Sports Data Hub founder Kevin Goodfellow on how Google, Facebook and Yahoo have turned sports analytics upside down:
Goldsberry’s basketball research uses “CourtVision, a new ensemble of analytical techniques designed to quantify, visualize, and communicate spatial aspects” of performance by members of the NBA. His case study: find out “Who is the NBA’s best shooter?”
The analysis works “by ignoring overall field-goal percentage — which turns out not to be very helpful — and instead finding the players who, like [Boston Celtics player] Ray Allen, make the highest percentage of shots from the most locations on the court,” writes the Boston Phoenix. Allen ranked second in Goldsberry’s study, with Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns coming out on top. See the Times summary or Goldsberry’s paper [pdf] for technical details.
It’s been a hot six months for sports analytics. Actor Brad Pitt’s “Moneyball,” about the use of sabermetrics by the baseball team the Oakland As, has done well since its September release, with $75 million in U.S. ticket sales and $35 million in international sales.
True, two years ago, a character on the TV show “The Simpsons,” in an episode about sports analytics, said that “baseball is a game played by the dexterous but only understood by the Poindexterous,” but the mainstreaming is well underway. Goldsberry, for instance, became a sought-after commodity at the conference without even being a speaker. His paper was one of 20 selected to for display at the event, and it was named the runner up in the conference’s research paper showcase. | <urn:uuid:2efba9cf-6662-4980-805c-561938f34294> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/basketball-hot-at-mit-sloan-sports-analytics-conference/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956171 | 803 | 1.546875 | 2 |
91-year-old WWII veteran receives belated medals
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Roland Cain's Medals:
The World War II Victory Medal may be awarded to all members of the armed forces of the United States or of the Government of the Philippine Islands who served on active duty in World ...
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Roland Cain's Medals:
The World War II Victory Medal may be awarded to all members of the armed forces of the United States or of the Government of the Philippine Islands who served on active duty in World War II at any time between 7 December 1941 and 31 December 1946, both dates inclusive.
The European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal was awarded for service within the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater of Operations between 7 December 1941, and 2 March 1946, under any of the following conditions:
On permanent assignment within the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater
For service in a passenger status or on temporary duty status for 30 consecutive days or 60 non-consecutive days
For service in active combat in the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater of Operations against the enemy and awarded a combat decoration or furnished a certificate by the commanding general of a corps, higher unit, or independent confirming actual participation in combat.
The Good Conduct Medal is awarded on a selective basis to a soldier whom while in active Federal Military duty set himself/herself apart from his/her comrades by exemplary conduct, efficiency, and fidelity throughout a set time of uninterrupted enlisted active Federal military service.
The Marksman Badge is presented at the completion of weapons qualification training.
Sources: U.S. Navy Awards Manual, 1953, About.com, eHow.com
PORT LAVACA - Nearly 70 years have passed since 91-year-old Roland Cain served in the U.S. Army during World War II.
For about two-and-a-half years, he was stationed in several European countries including Germany and France before exiting the military with honor and prestigious recognition.
Only, the recognitions that were due Cain - The European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign medal with one silver bar; The World War II Victory medal; The Good Conduct medal, and The Marksman Badge with rifle bar -- never came.
Enter U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.
During a Republican Party fundraiser at the Port Lavaca Heritage Center on Sunday afternoon, the congressman surprised Cain with four neatly framed service medals, and an American flag that had been symbolically flown over the nation's capital.
"It is with great pleasure I present these medals to Roland Cain, which are so long overdue," Paul said.
Wide-eyed and thankful, Cain accepted the gifts and shook Paul's hand while a room of about 150 onlookers stood in ovation.
"It was wonderful to be honored," Cain said.
Paul explained that many former World War II servicemen qualified for medals and never received them after the war.
"At that time, people were just so ready to go home after the war they never followed up on receiving their medals," Paul said. "It was the convenience of my schedule that allowed me to do it."
Russell Cain, Calhoun County's sitting Republican Party Chairman and Roland Cain's son, was responsible for the presentation at Sunday's fundraiser, contacting Paul's office weeks ago to request the favor.
"I'm elated Congressman Paul was able to do it," Russell Cain said. "It was a great honor for him to honor our father and I very much appreciate it."
When asked what he's finally going to do with his long-delayed honors, Cain said laughing, "I'm going to keep them." | <urn:uuid:3b69e1f7-42a8-4250-ae70-fd49c6232559> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2010/aug/29/jp_ronpaul_083010_109195/?counties | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96405 | 759 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Israel Prison Service, the National Detention Organization of the State of Israel, has 32 prison facilities holding 17,500 criminal and security prisoners and detainees, from all walks of society, as well as women and minors – who have been removed from society in accordance with the law, and are serving sentences for a variety of crimes, carrying sentences that range from short periods to life imprisonment.
Israel Prison Service is also responsible for about two thousand prisoners who are carrying out community service work, about one thousand detainees under electronic surveillance and about one thousand sex offenders living in the community.
8,500 members of staff are in command of maintaining these prisoners under legal custody: wardens, officers, and soldiers on regular military duty who serve in a range of functions: security, intelligence, care, rehabilitation, education and headquarters.
The Vision – one of the world’s leading prisons
During the first decade of the new millennium, a national strategic decision was taken in accordance with which the shall serve as the exclusive civilian detention organization in the State of Israel. In order to implement the decision, responsibility for all the police prisons and military detention facilities holding security prisoners was transferred to the Israel Prison Service ( ). This move doubled the number of prisoners they were responsible for, and the number of IPS staff has been increased accordingly.
After realizing this objective, the Prison Service continued looking towards the future, setting a new vision for itself – to be the leading Prison Organization in the world. A new multi-year program has been developed to help achieve this goal. The main areas with which the prison service is involved:
- Safe custody – maximal, effective supervision of inmates inside and outside the prisons, to prevent escape and to secure the perimeters and prevent the facilities from attack.
- Proper custody and internment resources – improvement in the living conditions with the goal of reaching international standards, through optimal utilization of resources and development of alternatives to imprisonment.
- Correction – Maximum utilization of the period of imprisonment to efficiently treat the population of offenders so that they may reintegrate into society productively in the future.
- Crime prevention – minimizing the level of crime within, from and into the prison, as part of the ongoing fight against crime in Israel.
- The human resource – developing the human resource in accordance with the requirements of the job, and its needs in a changing and challenging environment, in the knowledge that the staff is the key to the ’s success.
- Technology – utilizing technology as a support for goal achievement, to improve and optimize the IPS work environment.
The treatment of criminal prisoners
When a person enters prison to serve a sentence, his way of life changes drastically. The separation from his natural environment, his loss of freedom, the harsh living conditions, and an unfamiliar society and environment all make the term of incarceration problematic.
The treatment framework provided inside the prisons aims to assist the prisoner during this period, and to motivate him to amend his criminal background, while guiding him towards other means by which to cope and live his life.
Correction is conducted through a variety of activities undertaken by the Prison Service during the period of incarceration, such as: education, employment, therapy, religion and rehabilitation, with the challenge being to prevent recidivism.
There are some 4,500 security prisoners and detainees incarcerated in the Israel Prison Service, about 50% of whom for crimes “with blood on their hands”. These prisoners include men, women and minors.
Among the security prisoners one finds senior members of Palestinian terrorist organizations, terrorists who were on their way to a suicide mission and were apprehended by the defense forces; dispatchers; attack planners; those responsible for preparing the explosives, etc. As the primary law enforcement agency, the IPS is responsible for the incarceration of these prisoners while addressing and accommodating the prisoners’ basic needs in accordance with the law.
The prison services trains its guards to handle the job in the best and most professional manner, both during routine times and emergencies; working with a populace of dangerous prisoners; protecting the prison staff while preventing any activity or preparation of terrorist activity from within the prison walls.
The IPS, both routinely and during emergency situations, must deal with a variety of threats such as: prisoners escaping from the prison facilities or while they are being escorted outside the prison; physical attacks on the members of staff; taking guards hostage; riots; smuggling of forbidden items, drugs, alcohol, etc.
In order to deal with such scenarios, the organization must be committed to the highest possible level of professionalism, constantly learning and mastering enhanced task performance. In addition to routine training of all the organization’s guards, three special operational units have been established.
This unit transfers prisoners and detainees between prison facilities and the Courts; they also serve as an intervention force and serve as security during riots inside the facilities.
this is the operational control unit of the IPS that operates during complex occurrences that may take place within the detention facilities; they are also involved in locating and apprehending prisoners on the run.
a counter-intelligence drug unit that works to expose caches of drugs, and the smuggling of drugs and other dangerous items into the prison.
Download IPS Prospect (PDF): Israel Prison Service Prospect
Israel Prison Service
Israel Prison Service – Department of Communications and Information | <urn:uuid:67d1e9f7-d76b-450e-bc96-0c691e898390> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://i-hls.com/2013/01/israel-prison-service/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954753 | 1,070 | 1.703125 | 2 |
I guess River Forest hasn’t had enough teardowns yet because the Trustees are pretty uncomfortable with the idea of a preservation ordinance. The proposed ordinance is the typical weenie milquetoast kind that places like Kenilworth or River Forest propose. While it allows designation of landmarks, it requires owner consent, which sort of defeats the purpose. The owners who would consent are not the ones causing the trouble.
What River Forest leaders fear is the idea of a preservation ordinance, not the reality of one. Reality is much more everyday, like the familiar experiences of thousands of communities that have had such ordinances for decades.
You also hear a lot about private property rights. This is an idea too, with no foothold in reality. It is a Karl Rove issue: sounds good; seems important; has absolutely no impact on your daily life.
The purity of the roperty rights idea is abridged the second you allow electricity, gas, water, sewer, telephone or cable lines onto your property. Any law dude will tell you that property is a bundle of rights: the right to use; to buy or sell; mortgage or subdivide; build or demolish. Preservation ordinances often (but not always –there is no always in reality) restrict the last of these, while zoning ordinances restrict the first and third and the market restricts the second. If people were really concerned about their abstract rights, they would get rid of the zoning ordinances that restrict the height and use of their property.
Zoning has, throughout its history, had a much more dramatic impact on property values than preservation. In 1957 Chicago doubled the allowable density downtown and a few years later New York City was zoned for 16 million people. Talk about government largesse.
The market is even wilder. Wicker Park became a National Register district about 1980 and a Chicago Landmark district about 1990, but could not compete with the tripling of real estate values that happened in undesignated Bucktown – just across the street – in 1987.
Preservationists are fond of pointing out that historic districts improve property values, although some could argue that they simply recognize areas where the value has started to increase due to rehabilitation. A bit of a chicken and egg problem.
The real issue in River Forest is that some people have made a killing flipping property and some other people who think they might don’t want to miss their chance. Same thing is happening in Lincoln Park’s Sheffield, and it is getting very ugly there. I mean UGLY.
But windfall property profits are also more idea than reality. The people who actually make a killing are the real estate hustlers, and the current crop has taken a page out of the 1960s blockbusting book. Back then, you bought two houses on a block for twice their value, sold them to African-Americans and then bought every other house on the block for half its value, and then resold it to African-Americans for twice what they paid. White flight was much more profitable than integration, at least for the hustlers.
Teardown mongers do the same thing, without the racial aspect. Overpay for one or two houses on a block, knock them and build some oversized Playmobil Palazzo and sell it for two million to get all of the neighbors thinking: hey, I could make a killing.
By the time half the block is done the ambiance that the original McMansions borrowed their value from is gone, and so are the hustlers, who have taken the money and run to the next town.
The truth about blockbusting and teardowns is that the neighbors never make the killing, only the hustlers. But the IDEA of making money makes the neighbors – and The River Forest Trustees – think preservation is going to take their money.
Who is getting taken here? Who are the professionals?
It is a shame, because River Forest has some gems, and not just the Prairie School and Frank Lloyd Wright but also local luminaries like the Buurma Brothers. Better go look at them soon, because the hustlers are circling.
Tags: River Forest | <urn:uuid:114d97e3-0d86-40fb-91bf-2e82d4145eac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vincemichael.wordpress.com/2006/07/14/river-forest/ | 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 | 0.967924 | 854 | 1.734375 | 2 |
A new state Supreme Court ruling is changing the way court cases are scheduled in South Carolina by taking power away from prosecutors.
The Nov. 21 decision puts judges in control of setting the dockets. Each circuit must start following the new rules by early February.
The high court found that the state law giving prosecutors the exclusive right to determine the order in which cases come to trial violates the U.S. Constitution's separation-of-powers clause. The decision stemmed from a 2008 Edgefield County robbery case, South Carolina vs. Langford.
Advocates for the change such as the S.C. Commission on Indigent Defense praised the new rules, saying it could lead to speedier trials.
"You could have somebody who sits in jail two to three years, and they (prosecutors) will say, 'We're going to call this case that's only nine months old today,' " said Beattie Butler, litigation director for the commission. "Hopefully, the impact of this decision means that won't happen anymore."
But some solicitors say it would not lead to cases being tried faster.
First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe, also the state Solicitor's Association president, called the idea that prosecutors set the docket "a myth."
"It's a shared responsibility with the courts," Pascoe said.
He added that "90 to 99 percent" of trial dates are set by both the defense attorneys and the prosecutors, who flesh out an agreement after considering schedules, witness availability and other factors. If they can't agree, a judge intervenes to set the date, Pascoe said.
Pascoe said the Solicitor's Association is still considering whether to file a motion asking the Supreme Court to reconsider. He declined further comment.
Solicitor Duffie Stone, whose 14th Circuit includes Beaufort County, said his staff is preparing for the shift. Other administrative orders included in the high-court ruling "changes everything we do," Stone said.
For example, his career-criminal prosecution program, which focuses on prosecuting repeat offenders who commit most of the crimes, could be in jeopardy. Stone credits the program with cutting the backlog in General Sessions court. But the new ruling will change the way his office prioritizes those cases, he said.
Stone agreed with the opinion of the Supreme Court's lone dissenter, Justice Costa Pleicones, a former public defender. In his dissent, Pleicones said there are already checks in the current system that give trial judges the last word on when cases are scheduled. He also noted that defendants have recourse if a case drags on too long, such as filing a request for a speedy trial.
Follow reporter Allison Stice at twitter.com/LCBlotter. | <urn:uuid:1f446f0c-2806-4129-96bb-6fb78a58a017> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.islandpacket.com/42542 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960442 | 568 | 1.507813 | 2 |
When the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod inaugurated a national youth gathering in 1980, the sound system included microphones and an amplifier from a teen's bedroom.
Now the event is held in stadiums and employs the latest technology, including laser shows and “anything possible our youth gatherings have found a way to employ,” says Terry Dittmer, who has worked in the LCMS office since 1979. Last year, Dittmer became the director of youth ministry for the St. Louis-based church.
Dittmer has been involved off and on with innovative meeting planning since graduating from seminary in 1974. Employing technology is a way to show the gathering that the “church is not afraid of technology and it can be used to the glory of God,” he says.
Dittmer compares the national youth gatherings to this summer's hit television series “American Idol.” “The energy, the excitement, the special effects part of that show are very much part of our events.”
And, like “American Idol,” the audience plays a role in the outcome. While there's no phone-in voting, “teens themselves have input into the planning,” Dittmer said. The LCMS youth staff works hard to see that attendee demographics are represented in planning the events. For the national event, six teens from across the country serve three years on the planning committee, helping with everything from site visits to post-event evaluations.
It's not just teens who are represented on the planning committees and in the speakers and “up-front” people at the conventions. Work goes into representing all ages, genders, and ethnic groups at the events, Dittmer says. Spreading from its German roots, the Missouri Synod is “serious about the diversity that is part of our society and our culture. We definitely see diversity in our youth population,” Dittmer says.
His staff of four leads 24 steering committee members, and another 30 project-team managers and their teams, for a total of 150 planners. But “audience” involvement doesn't stop there. At the 2001 convention in New Orleans, 1,000 people were involved in an aspect of programming, and another 2,000 volunteered in other capacities.
He needs those volunteers to help run the event — he expects 35,000 people at the 2003 youth gathering in Orlando. Involving the volunteers is “one of the great joys” of the convention, Dittmer says. “The youth gathering is unique in the way we use so many people, and we're able to use people who normally wouldn't have the opportunity to do that in day-to-day work in congregations.”
Those whoor help in any way — even suppliers — are mentioned in the program, which last year required six pages of small type. It's important to him that everyone is recognized. “Everyone is a gift to the gathering and we want them to see that everyone is loved.”
As director, Dittmer says he is more involved in the administrative andaspects of planning. But his various talents are employed as well: He's a writer and composer who has several songs and hymns to his credit, and he tries to write a song for each gathering.
Since becoming an RCMA member in the early 1990s and seeing its value, he now expects all his staff to join.
“RCMA tries to stay abreast of how things are developing in the industry,” he says. The RCMA expo is particularly helpful to his staff, giving them the opportunity to connect with 10 different convention and visitors bureaus without having to fly to 10 cities, and to connect or reconnect with those representatives, he says. At this January's RCMA, Dittmer is serving on a panel for vendors who want to know what religious meeting planning is all about.
“One of the curious things about youth gatherings is that we have no no-shows,” he says. In Atlanta in 1998, 32,000 people were registered; only four did not show up. “We're talking about a youth audience who has spent a huge amount of time getting ready, raising money, and looking forward to it. We don't needclauses because we have no attrition.”
Dittmer has this advice for other planners: “Tap into the skills, abilities, and energies of people in the church. Don't be afraid to be creative. Let your imagination flow. Make use of available technology.
“Enjoy what you do. If you get bogged down in details on a bad day, it can be really bad. That's when volunteers pick you up and give you encouragement.” | <urn:uuid:e27879e7-3602-4d19-8906-b16d67cd05c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://meetingsnet.com/religiousconferencemanager/meetings_youthful_enthusiasm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97286 | 992 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Box of plenty
Published: Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, October 8, 2012 at 7:22 p.m.
To find Emmett Hopkins' 4-acre vegetable patch nestled next to the Russian River, you have to look for a small, “Foggy River Farm” sign on Eastside Road, then follow a gravel road for a half mile through vineyards heavy with fruit.
On a late summer afternoon, there is no trace of fog at the ripening field, where rows of tomatoes and corn, eggplant and peppers are ready to be harvested for the farm's 52-member CSA, or community sponsored agriculture, program.
“This was a really good year for eggplant,” said Hopkins, sporting a sun hat. “There was one hot spell in the spring, which hurt the broccoli and the cauliflower. The trade-off was early tomatoes and summer squash.”
In a CSA program, consumers pay in advance for a weekly supply of produce. That enables farmers to buy seeds and equipment in the spring and ensures a steady demand for their produce in the fall.
“Emotionally, it's really nice to have the produce going to a good home,” Hopkins said of his CSA program. “There's nothing more frustrating than trying to find someone who will at least eat it.”
Hopkins and his wife, Lynda, who met while pursuing five-year master's degrees at Stanford University, have been farming for four years at his family's 200-acre ranch near Forestville, where he grew up.
Hopkins' grandparents bought the property in the 1950s, tearing out hops to plant prunes and pears. In the 1970s, his dad made the transition to grapes.
Now, following in his family's footsteps, Hopkins is finding ways to make the farm sustainable for a new generation through his innovative CSA program.
“We focus on giving great value to our members,” he said. “But we also focus on building a strong community.”
Like other farmers, the couple has diversified, raising heritage turkeys and a flock of chickens for eggs along with vegetables and herbs.
“Through high school and college, I was always interested in growing vegetables,” Hopkins said. “You have in the back of your head, ‘What's going to happen to farming?'”
At Foggy River, most of the CSA members pick up their produce at the barn, which is set up like a farmstand. That fosters more interaction among all parties.
“Farming can be a bit of a lonely endeavor, so we like to bring a social setting right to the farm,” Hopkins said. “Plus, this gives people the social experience that they get at the farmers market.”
A common complaint about CSAs, Hopkins said, is that people often feel overwhelmed by getting too much of one kind of produce.
To remedy this, Foggy River Farm plants less popular vegetables, such as kale and chard, in its U-pick patch, where subscribers are able to pick some of their own produce every week. The U-pick garden also offers a variety of herbs, small tomatoes and hot peppers.
“It's like having your own garden,” Hopkins said. “Kids go really crazy for the cherry tomatoes, and people love to pick basil and make pesto.”
The CSA season lasts 27 weeks, from mid-May through mid-November. Each Wednesday, CSA customers bring their baskets and pick up six to 10 different kinds of produce from the farmstand. A “trade box” provides added flexibility.
“If you have extra eggplant at home, you can put it in the trade box and take something else instead,” Hopkins said. “Or members can pick between two pounds of cucumbers or two pounds of summer squash.”
The farm also surveys its customers twice a year, in order to gauge what to plant during the next cycle.
“We try to do as much broccoli and carrots as we can,” he said. “We cut back a little on beets. Some people love them, and others don't know what to do with them.”
If they can't afford to join the CSA program, which costs $22 to $25 a week, some customers are able to work in the field to reduce the cost.
“That's good if you have more time and less money,” Hopkins said. “Members sign up and put in 20 hours during the season, to subsidize the box.”
The farm, which delivers CSA boxes to pick-up points in Windsor and Healdsburg, also sells vegetables at the Healdsburg and the Wells Fargo farmers markets on Saturdays. In addition to its summer crops, the farm is currently harvesting winter squash and fall root vegetables.
“The thing I like best is probably the connection to place,” said CSA subscriber Lisa Schmitt of Healdsburg. “The fact that I get great food, fun parties and excellent meals is a bonus.”
The following recipes are from Emmett and Lynda Hopkins of Foggy River Farm. Baba Ganoush is a popular, Middle Eastern dip often served with pita.
Baba Ganoush in the Crockpot
Makes 4 to 6 servings as appetizer
1 pound eggplant
2 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
Salt to taste
Wash and pierce eggplant with a fork a few times. Cook on high for 2-3 hours. Optional: add cloves of garlic halfway through to cook.
(Note: Cook time will depend on crock pot size and amount of eggplant you use. Alternatively, you can bake the eggplant in the oven. You want the eggplant to come out soft, with skin crinkled and flesh inside shrunken. If your eggplant is still firm when you check it, just continue cooking longer. With stem on, cook longer. With stem cut off, it needs less time.)
Remove from crock and allow to cool. Eggplant should be soft and mushy. Separate pulp from skin.
Place pulp in a food processor or blender, add remaining ingredients. Add salt to taste.
Pulse until smooth and you're done. You can eat it warm, right out of the bowl, but you may manage to save some in the fridge for the next day.
“This recipe breaks down chile rellenos into several simple steps,” Hopkins said. “Serve with your favorite salsa, beans and rice for a great meal.”
Chiles Rellenos with Anaheim Peppers
Makes 2 to 4 servings
4 large green Anaheim or Poblano chiles, roasted and peeled, with stems on
Cheddar cheese, cut into 4 sticks (or Monterey Jack)
Goat cheese (optional)
Flour, to coat chiles
3 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
— Salsa (optional)
To roast chiles: Place chile peppers on a baking sheet or Pyrex dish. Broil 5 inches from the heat (with electric oven door partially open), 5 minutes on each side, or until chile peppers are blistered.
Place chile peppers in a dish or bowl; cover. Let stand 10 minutes to loosen skins. Peel peppers, leaving stems attached.
To fill chiles: Make a slit in the side of each chile, remove seeds, and stuff with cheese sticks and a dollop of goat cheese.
To fry chiles: Dredge chiles with flour to coat. Beat egg whites until they become stiff and peaks form. Beat yolks with water, 3 tablespoons flour and salt until thick and creamy. Fold the yolks into the whites and dip the chiles in the mixture.
Fry in hot oil until they become golden brown.
These fajitas are no fuss. You can adjust the ingredients to your taste and what you have on hand. The amounts are flexible, depending on how many people you are feeding.
Sizzling Veggie Fajitas
— Bell peppers, cut into strips
— Onion, cut into strips
— Garlic, chopped
— Carrots, cut into thin strips on the diagonal (optional)
— Summer Squash, cut on the diagonal (optional)
— Avocado (optional)
— Cilantro (optional)
— Hot peppers (optional), chopped
— Salt and pepper
Precook the rice and beans.
Saute the onions and garlic until they begin to soften. Add carrots and cook until halfway soft. Add peppers and squash and cook until soft. Season with salt and pepper and other desired spices.
Heat tortillas. Fill tortillas with rice, beans and veggie filling, and top with avocado, cilantro and hot peppers.
You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or email@example.com
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:b32f6348-19db-4a77-a642-a4e21ccdfbda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20121009/LIFESTYLE/121009531/1348/www.pressdemocrat.com?Title=Box-of-plenty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947864 | 1,946 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Project 8 comes to Lake Preston as part of Capital for a Day
FREE child safety seat inspections available
PIERRE, S.D. – Community members at Capital for a Day events in Lake Preston next week are invited to have their child’s safety seat inspected to ensure it is properly installed. Trained technicians will be available in the bus parking lot north of the Lake Preston School on Wednesday, Aug. 25 from 2:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. CDT.
“This is a great opportunity to educate parents, guardians and child-care providers and to also ensure that all child safety seats are installed properly,” said Deb Bowman, Secretary for the Department of Social Services. “Trained child passenger safety technicians will be on hand to provide free child safety seat inspections for all who would like them.”
Project 8: Governor’s Car Seat Program began in July 2005 to promote proper child seat use and installation. In 2009, 87 percent of the child safety seats inspected in South Dakota were improperly installed.
The purpose of Project 8 is to remind all parents, child-care providers, and other guardians to use the proper restraint system for each child’s height and weight. Once a child reaches 40 pounds, a booster seat should be used until the child is at least eight years old. By then, most children reach the proper height and weight requirements (4 feet, 9 inches tall and more than 80 pounds) to be safely fastened in seatbelts.
Project 8 also distributes infant seats, toddler seats, and booster seats to income-eligible families across South Dakota. In 2009, Project 8 distributed 5,057 seats to eligible families in need of them. From January through June of this year, 2,426 seats have been given away.
Child safety is important to Gov. Mike Rounds and the citizens of South Dakota. Additional steps must be taken to educate and train parents and guardians about proper child seat use and installation. Through education, training and outreach, South Dakota parents and caregivers learn proper techniques to keep children safe while riding in vehicles.
To learn more about Project 8 and the free child safety seat inspections throughout the state, please visit the program’s website at http://www.state.sd.us/project8/default.htm. | <urn:uuid:a043b8dc-c454-483f-9fb6-81183bbaae23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dss.sd.gov/news/2010/Project8LakePreston.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948805 | 477 | 1.734375 | 2 |
THE SUFI'S SPIRITUAL COURSE
by Syed Mohamed Zauqi Shah (r.a.)
It is not intended to carry the reader here into complicated
technicalities on the subject and tire him with information
that may prove dry and uninteresting to a lay mind;
but in order to help him to catch a glimpse of what
Sufi's work is like, and what sort of attainment he
aspires to, a summary account of suluk, a Sufi's Course
will now be given.
As already stated, to begin with, you need the service
of one who knows, a teacher, a Shaikh, or a Murshid,
call him by whatever name you please. The initiative
must come from him. He initiates you into the Unseen
within you into harmony with the Unseen without. He
keeps a constant watch over you and saves you from slips
He acts as a medium between the high and the low, between
the Deity and humanity, between where you are and where
you ought to be, or in plainer language, between you
and your God. So the Shaikh or Murshid is an indispensable
necessity in the spiritual emancipation of man.
We spend a good deal of the earlier portion of our
life in physical bondage. Our libraries and laboratories
only tighten the bonds. Even independent thinking creates
fresh chains for us. The moment we come in contact with
the Shaikh, we enter upon a new era of liberation.
The ties are loosened, the chains are broken and the
journey begins. From the Seen we gradually move on to
the Unseen and after plunging into the fathomless depths
of the Unseen, we have to come back to the Seen to complete
our course. The following diagram will clearly illustrate
the beginning and the end of a spiritual wayfarer called
The Spiritual Course
In the diagram at left (Figure 1), B
is the starting point for the beginner. The arrows indicate
the direction of the course. B-C-A
is the upward journey which finishes at A.
You then make a further progress by coming down to B
via A-D-B. When you complete
the circle, you finish your spiritual courses and attain
It will be observed that B
is the point which is the first and the last, the point
where you start and finish. To a superficial observer,
you appear in the end what you were in the beginning,
but, as a matter of fact, you and others who know you
inwardly find in you a wonderful change.
At the start you know nothing about the circle and
nothing about your real self. At the end, you find that
you have traversed the entire circuit and have found
yourself; that you have personally been through all
the different gradations of life; that you have directly
known (of course, according to your personal capacities)
all the various forces of nature that move the universe.
You discover that all these forces are, in a way, centred
in you and ultimately, you realise that at point B,
you are in a comprehensible form from what you were
at point A, an incomprehensible
In short, you realise the sense, the force and the
significance of the religious phraseology that you are
God's Image or God's Lieutenant on earth and you understand
better the meaning and sense of the following passages
in the Qur'an:
"And thus did We show unto
Abraham the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth (high and low)
that he might become one of those who believe firmly"
"Hereafter We will show them
Our signs around them and within them, until it becomes
manifest unto them that it is the truth"
"And not without purpose did
We create the heaven and the earth and whatever is in
between them" [38:27]
"And verily, He hath created
you in diverse stages (i.e. He has brought you to your
present stage through a variety of conditions and states)."
"Unto thy Lord is the Ultimate
goal of it (i.e. of everything in the universe and of
knowledge about the time of such termination)"
"Such is God, your Nourisher
and Maintainer, there is no god but He, the Creator
of all things, worship Him (i.e. obey Him with love)
for He supervises everything and takes care of it."
At this stage, the powers of observation in a Sufi
and his perceptions help him considerably to realise
passages like the following:
"We are nearer to him (man)
than his jugular vein." [50:16]
"We are nigher unto him than
ye are, but ye perceive not." [55:85]
"And He is with you wheresoever
you be." [57:4]
is no secret conference of three but He is their fourth,
nor of five but He is their sixth, nor of less than
or more but He is with them wheresoever they may be."
"He is the First and the Last,
and the Manifest and the Hidden; and He knoweth all
"See ye not how Allah hath
brought under your subjugation and control whatever
is in heavens and earth (in the higher and the lower
planes) and hath abundantly poured upon you His favours
both visible and invisible." [31:20]
To return to Figure 1, the upward march, B-C-A
is a difficult and uphill task. The downward move, A-D-B
is comparatively easy. As a matter of fact B-C-A
passes through exactly the same fields as A-D-B.
In other words, you can observe during the upward march
what you do observe during the downward move, but your
observations during the upward journey are bound to
be misleading. You cannot understand properly anything
below point A, unless you
once reach the point A.
Unless you grasp the root properly, you cannot make
the branches your own. So the best teachers prefer to
carry their pupils up through B-C-A,
with closed eyes, as it were. They do not allow them
observation on their upward march. It saves time and
labour and prevents mistakes resulting from partial
and incomplete knowledge. The "eyes" are,
however, utilised when the downward course A-D-B
is traversed. This is the safest and the shortest way
All the various hard and fast rules laid down for the
completion of the spiritual course are necessary during
the first round only. When you complete the course and
finish, for the first time, the rounds B-C-A
and A-D-B, you are liberated.
You are now at liberty to go up and down as many times
as you like without observing the rules of procedure
you observed during your first round. You may go up
either way and come down likewise; you may go up half
way and return; or you may stop, for any length of time,
at any of the intermediate stages.
There have been people who have preferred to remain
permanently at point A, and have refused to climb down.
The luxury at the point A
is called Lazzat-i-uluhiyat,
which means Luxury of Divinity and is so great that
no earthly pleasure, whatsoever, can match it and everyone
is tempted to remain there for good; but human greatness
really depends upon descending to point B,
and faithfully fulfilling the functions of Perfect Man,
so long as the physical body retains the power of sustaining
the soul within.
Methods of Approaching the Goal
There are innumerable methods of approaching the goal,
but they may be divided broadly into the following three:
- Leading a strictly pure and religious life, provided
that the religion is correctly understood, properly
handled and duly observed. It is a lengthy and comparatively
dry course, but is generally recommended to the masses
because, though lengthy and dry, it is all the same
- Extra hard work, both physical and spiritual; i.e.
doing a great deal more than the irreducible minimum
prescribed by the shariat. It is shorter and more
interesting than the first, but more difficult. It
leads to better results.
- Cultivating and developing Love of God. It is the
shortest, the sweetest and the most interesting path,
leading to the best and the most valuable results;
but it is not within the reach of everyone and is
not always safe for those who are not meant for it.
There are people who combine in them the first two,
or the last two, or all the three methods, in different
Attraction and Work
Ordinarily, every worker in the field of spirituality
needs two things, attraction and work. He is attracted
towards the higher regions and he has to work to reach
the goal. Some are first attracted inwardly and then
commence work. Others start work and find subsequently,
that they are being attracted inwardly. In both the
cases, however, one of the two predominates.
Attraction is jadhb and the attracted is majdhub. Work
is suluk and the one who works and keeps on moving forward
is salik. So every practical student of Sufism is a
majdhub and salik at the same time. The difference in
names only signifies the predominance of one feature
over the other. The one who is strong and steady in
work and is not overcome by jadhb is called a salik;
while the other who is weak and unsteady in work and
is overpowered by jadhb is called majdhub.
The response to jadhb in a majdhub is so great that
he finds himself powerless to make further progress
in his work. His senses are affected, his self control
gone and not being able to move on, he remains stuck
to the point where the overdose of jadhb overtook him.
A beginner, at a later stage, is met now and then by
attractions in different forms. At this stage, he is
called a salik-majdhub.
In a more advanced stage, he remains constantly surrounded
by attractions of a superb nature, in a variety of conceivable
and inconceivable forms and feeling and yet he does
not allow himself to be deluded and overpowered by them
and does not allow the consequent 'intoxication' to
interfere with the necessary work. He is called a majdhub-salik.
He is a man of very superior sufi and always rewarded
with very high attainments.
The above description may help to throw some light
on the real Sufi and his work and may dispel, to a certain
extent, the mist that surrounds him. The poor Sufi has,
unfortunately, been the victim of various attacks levelled
against him from ill-informed quarters.
Sufism is the Life and Soul of Islam
It is wrongly supposed that Sufism has nothing to do
with Islam. In fact, it is the life and soul of Islam.
It is really Islam in its higher and practical aspects.
It is action and the consequent realisation. It is a
process of purification of the soul.
It is not an idle and unproductive philosophy. It is
not a set of fresh beliefs in any way different from
the teachings of Islam. It is not a series of secretive
teachings of any fantastic nature. It is work on proper
lines and, as a result of such work and consequent purification
of the soul; it is enlightenment and realisation.
With this improved outlook, wider knowledge and better
understanding, the Sufi becomes capable of higher flights
and better comprehension of Islamic teachings; and his
interpretation of Islam is necessarily more to the point.
His interpretations are not properly understood by those
who lack the proper insight.
It usually happens that the Sufi finds it difficult
to express himself in an ordinary language. The language
of miscellaneous humanity is not coined to give expression
to the higher subjects of Divine purity. He has therefore,
to express himself in his own special language which
can only be understood by those conversant with proper
Sufism and for whom his writings are really meant.
Limitation of language, sometimes compel him to use
ordinary human expressions to indicate extraordinary
discoveries in the domains of Divinity. For example,
in the description of the diagram given before (Figure
1), the following expressions have been used:
"...and, ultimately, you realise that at point
B, you are in a comprehensible
form from what you were at point A,
an incomprehensible formlessness."
This very important part of the explanation of the
diagram, is quite capable of misinterpretation and can
never be understood correctly by those who are ignorant
of the subject and who have not been personally through
Since most non-Sufis are not fully conversant with
the expressions and language of the Sufis, the Sufistic
writings are generally misunderstood and misinterpreted,
not only by ordinary people, but by those who are learned
in the subjects other than tasawwuf.
On certain points, it is true, the Sufi arrives at
results vastly differing from those arrived at by others.
Such divergence is due, not to a differing source of
information but to his cultivation of better powers
of understanding and to the acquirement of greater light
and wider horizon. | <urn:uuid:a985cece-65fb-441d-a72d-6b19e8900cc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moonovermedina.com/more_on_sufism/sufis_s_course.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94655 | 2,922 | 1.78125 | 2 |
|Uploaded:||October 8, 2009|
|Updated:||October 9, 2009|
This is going to be a wicked fun tutorial for some of you all. What I will be giving you a lesson on next is a simple guide to teach you “how to shade step by step”. I do a lot of drawing tutorials and almost all of my art has some form of shading to accentuate the person, place or object that I am drawing or just drew. I get a lot of e-mails that ask me how I shade the way I do and all I can say is practice and a lot of reading from art technique books that I constantly buy once every month. I have read so many different books to teach myself how to draw, shade, color, and sketch. I have not yet perfected any of these techniques yet, though I am pretty close to being at the level I want to be when it comes to coloring. I think my coloring skills are pretty good and the more days that go by, the better I become. I am always coloring every single lesson I create and layout. That is another tutorial that I will submit in the near future because I think that everyone needs to learn "how to color the right way". What I can teach you guys from my tutorials, would take someone many days, months, hours, minutes, and seconds to achieve and learn on their own without books. I love drawing and I am very pleased to take my skills and put some use to what I love to do. This lesson will show you different types of shading techniques on three different objects. I do hope you learn something new from this lesson that will teach you “how to shade step by step”. There is nothing better than shading in a drawing the right way especially when that drawing took you a long time to finish. Well time for me to go, and it’s time for you to get shading. I will be joining you guys later with two more lessons. Peace out and happy drawing, I mean shading! | <urn:uuid:9df761d1-2548-4d3d-8892-f7828fb401e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/3210/1/1/how-to-shade.htm?cmID=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962815 | 416 | 1.6875 | 2 |
LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:
David Orr has written a new book, which he says is a guide to modern poetry. "Beautiful and Pointless" is the name of the book and, we assume, a comment on modern poetry as well. David Orr was trained as a lawyer, but the trade he practices is poetry criticism. He writes for the New York Times Book Review.
This book is a slender volume, like many of the books of modern poetry he critiques. It is tough going in places, requiring the reader to back up and try again. There are lots of funny bits and clever parenthetical observations, and there are lots of poems, good ones and bad ones, quoted to help us along.
David Orr joins us from Cornell University.
Welcome to our program.
Mr. DAVID ORR (Author, "Beautiful and Pointless"): Hi. Thanks for having me.
WERTHEIMER: Now, you arrange your slender vol in six chapters, and the last is called Why Bother? But to proceed in order, the first is called The Personal; the second chapter is called The Political. I completely got The Political, but The Personal was harder. Could you just help me out here?
Mr. ORR: I think it really goes to the center of what a lot of people think about modern poetry, which is that it is expressive, that it is personal. And as you know, the chapter begins with an anecdote about me going to a party and being introduced to someone who asks what I do.
And so, you know, I say, well, actually, I'm a poetry critic. I review contemporary collections of poetry. And the smile just falls off of her face. And she says, you mean you criticize people's poetry?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. ORR: And it's, you know, it's a response that you get, because people view poetry as being some sort of unfiltered expression of the poets in her life.
And so what I've tried to do in that chapter is talk about that perception that I think a lot of general readers have and explain why it is, in some sense, mistaken, but is also, in a sense, accurate. And then there's the persistence of just the romantic idea of poetry as emotion recollected in tranquility. It's actually never been - I mean, even when we're just talking about emotion being recollected in tranquility, he didn't mean: I'm just going to write down what I feel. He was suggesting that there's a lot of mediation that art does between the emotion that you feel and then the recollection in tranquility.
WERTHEIMER: You also write about form and suggest that there - at one point, you raise the question that you think readers of modern poetry still really want answered, which is, is it still okay to like sonnets or what? So is it?
Mr. ORR: Right. I think that it is. I should say first, form is one of the things that poets like to argue about. And we have a lot of confusion about what we're talking about when we talk about form. And the confusion leads to these arguments about whether or not we should be writing in particular forms or whether a form has rules and things like that.
WERTHEIMER: Whether a form is dead or alive?
Mr. ORR: Exactly. Exactly. And I think a poet's duty is just to be interesting. And one of the mechanisms that we use to be interesting is form. It could be the form like a sonnet, it could be a form like an erasure, in which a poet is taking somebody else's text and just removing words from it. It could be form like meter.
WERTHEIMER: You make the point that modern poetry, when it isn't a sonnet or some other rhymed form that we feel most certainly be a poem, that we can't always tell a poem from a bunch of broken lines or perhaps a little collection of prose. And I want to ask you to read a couple of examples. On page 70 is a part of the very beautiful poem, "The Drowned Children."
Mr. ORR: Sure.
(Reading) You see they have no judgment, so it is natural that they should drown. First, the ice taking them in, and then all winter, their wool scarves floating behind them as they sink, until at last they are quiet, and the pond lifts them in its manifold, dark arms.
WERTHEIMER: The poet is Louise Gluck. Now, why did you pick that one?
Mr. ORR: Well, first I picked it because I liked it. And it seemed like a nice way to put an example in of writing that isn't exactly formal, but that is also very good.
WERTHEIMER: It isn't exactly formal in that it doesn't have a form. It doesn't have a rhyme.
Mr. ORR: That's right.
WERTHEIMER: It has no meter.
Mr. ORR: Right. It has what you might call a shape, but it doesn't have a separate form.
WERTHEIMER: Now, mostly for me in this, I would like you to read Hart Seely's offering called "Happenings" on page 72. And maybe you could explain what it is.
Mr. ORR: Okay.
(Reading) You're going to be told lots of things. You get told things every day that don't happen. It doesn't seem to bother people. They don't. It's printed in the press. The world thinks all these things happen. They never happened. All I can tell you is it hasn't happened; it's going to happen.
(Soundbite of laughter
WERTHEIMER: Yes. Now, of course, I know what the joke is, so you tell us.
Mr. ORR: So all of the lines there are taken from a press conference of Donald Rumsfeld's in 2003. What's so funny about them - what's so great about that as a poem, as a parody, is that it sounds just like a kind of free verse modern poem.
WERTHEIMER: Well, now, your last chapter, you called it "Why Bother?" So David Orr, give us your best shot. Why bother?
Mr. ORR: Well, I don't know that people ought to bother. I think that poetry is one of those choices that you make in life that doesn't really - it's not really susceptible to reasoning or arguments.
You know, people say things like, oh, poetry is the most distilled form of language, but, you know, you can actually think of a lot of other forms of language that are vastly more distilled. Or people will say poetry has this special relationship to people's inner lives, but then a lot of other things have special relationships to people's inner lives.
None of those reasons are actually the reason that I read poetry. I read poetry because it's just one of the things that helps me to negotiate the world around me and helps me to understand my own feelings about things, and also frankly, it's just something that entertains me.
I think a better way to approach the question of why bother is not really to answer it, but rather just to say that if you do bother, it can be worthwhile.
HANSEN: David Orr. His book on modern poetry is called "Beautiful and Pointless." For an excerpt, you could check out our website, npr.org.
David Orr, thank you.
Mr. ORR: Thank you so much.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio. | <urn:uuid:d73ddfc7-a88a-442c-b453-6357f931035e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=135217933 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974227 | 1,672 | 1.570313 | 2 |
By PBN Staff
(Updated, 11:20 a.m.)
PROVIDENCE – For the fourth year, the Rhode Island Foundation has awarded year-end emergency grants to assist people who are struggling with basic needs such as food, heating and housing.
The grants come as more first-time clients are seeking assistance for heating and shelter, and more than 14 percent of the state’s population is “insecure” about getting food on the table, the foundation’s news release said.
The Rhode Island Community Food Bank, Rhode Island Good Neighbor Energy Fund at the Salvation Army and the Rhode Island Emergency Winter Shelter Task Force were granted $100,000 each.
The winter shelter task force includes the following shelters, with a capacity of 272 beds, which was made possible by the grant:
“These funds will be used in conjunction with other resources, assuring that persons and families experiencing homelessness in Rhode Island have adequate shelter during the harsh winter months,” said Michael Tondra, Chief-Office of Housing and Community Development, Rhode Island.
“We assist families who do not qualify for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and last year nearly 1,400 households reached out to us for assistance,” said Lt. John Luby, Providence County Coordinator of the Salvation Army, which oversees the Good Neighbor Fund. “Unfortunately, we anticipate requests to increase this winter and this emergency grant will enable us to help approximately 300 families this winter.”
“This major gift from the Rhode Island Foundation comes at a critical time and will help us provide nutritious food to our neighbors in need,” said Andrew Schiff, CEO of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. “Every dollar donated to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank enables us to acquire more than three pounds of healthy food.”
“The Foundation’s grantmaking typically focuses on long-term solutions to the challenges facing Rhode Island. In this extended time of great need, however, our board felt it was important to provide emergency funds to help keep people healthy, safe and warm this winter thereby preventing additional problems,” said Neil Steinberg, president and CEO of The Rhode Island Foundation. | <urn:uuid:263b562b-7101-41d9-807f-eac7a277ca05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbn.com/RI-Foundation-awards-300K-in-emergency-grants,63220?category_id=145&sub_type=stories,packages | 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 | 0.947592 | 454 | 1.679688 | 2 |
In a statement sent to Autocar, Henrik Fisker cited "major disagreements" with "executive management on the business strategy." In its own statement, the carmaker said its strategy has not changed, and that Fisker's departure should not impact its partnerships or financing.
Whatever the details, it is another troubling sign for the hybrid automaker, which is seeking new financing after vastly underperforming growth expectations from September 2009, when it received a $528.7-million conditional loan from the Department of Energy.
For the White House, Fisker has the making of another green loan going bad.
A Troubled History
The $528.7 million loan was part of the DOE's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, created by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act to allocate $25 billion to fund highly fuel-efficient vehicles.
Fisker was expected to save or create at least 5,000 jobs and build a manufacturing plant in Delaware that would produce as many as 100,000 cars annually.
More than three years later, however, Fisker has sold only around 2,000 of its high-end Karma model, a car riddled with problems.
Since the $110,000 Karma first reached customers in 2011, it has been recalled three times, and its 54 mpg is considered lackluster for a plug-in hybrid. Consumer Reports gave it a failing grade.
Just as fellow electric carmaker Tesla followed its Roadster with the more practical and affordable Model S, Fisker means to build on the Karma with the Atlantic.
The mid-size sedan was originally meant to go into production in 2012, and sell for around $50,000.
In October, Fisker delayed production of the Atlantic to late 2014.
On a conference call discussing the delay, Posawatz confirmed the importance of the new model: "The Atlantic is really the volume car that begins to build growth."
That same day, A123 Systems, which provided the lithium ion batteries used by Fisker, filed for bankruptcy. Before the end of November, Fisker halted production of the Karma, due to a lack of new batteries.
(A123 has been purchased by Wanxiang, China's largest auto part maker, with US government approval, and courts are now dealing with A123's bankruptcy payment plan, according to Fox Business. It's still not clear if it will continue to provide batteries to Fisker.)
Meanwhile Fisker has a history of leadership issues, going through three CEOs in a bit more than a year. Former Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda took over for Henrik Fisker in February 2012. He was replaced by GM veteran Tony Posawatz in August, according to Autoblog, who is still at the helm.
Fisker has not had access to federal cash since May 2011, when the Department of Energy froze its loan due to Fisker's failure to meet certain deadlines.
A Department of Energy spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider the loan is still frozen, but said the Department will continue to work with Fisker moving forward, and that the automaker could see its access to the money renewed at some point.
The automaker had already spent $193 million, a bit more than the portion of the loan set aside for investing in the Karma.
The loss of that money was a major blow for Fisker, which counted on the remaining $335 million for getting the Delaware plant up and running.
"We need financing or a partner," spokesman Russel Datz told USA Today in January, a month after Fisker announced it had hired investment bank Evercore Partners to help if find potential buyers and investors, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Travis Okulski / Business Insider
Questions from elected officials began months ago: In October, the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wrote a letter to DOE Secretary Steven Chu, accusing the Department of mishandling the Solyndra case, and of "withholding important documents regarding" the Fisker loan.
If Fisker does not find financing from an American source — and the Journal reports Fisker is looking for investors primarily in China and Europe — those accusations will have merit.
As it stands, Fisker's best bet for financing may be from China's Geely Automobile, Forbes reported. That may save the company, but it will mean that a foreign automaker will have a majority stake in a company on which the American people spent nearly $200 million.
Unless Fisker pulls out a miracle, the loan will go down as another mistake for the White House. | <urn:uuid:64ecbf32-2e0d-4611-8e17-10884573ff64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessinsider.com/fisker-could-be-the-next-solyndra-2013-3 | 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 | 0.962648 | 952 | 1.601563 | 2 |
A world-class prop with outstanding ability both in setpiece and open-field play, McLauchlan toured twice with the Lions during a golden period for British and Irish rugby.
The Jordanhill star was the cornerstone of the Lions scrum during the victorious 1971 and 1974 tours when the tourists created history, first in New Zealand and then in South Africa.
McLauchlan played 30 times for the Lions, including all eight Tests on those famous tours.
He became revered throughout the rugby playing world for his powerful scrimmaging and can lay claim to scoring one of the most famous Lions Test tries of all time.
McLauchlan was the only tryscorer in a 9-3 first-Test win over the All Blacks that set the Lions on their way to their only series victory over the All Blacks to date some 39 years ago.
He won his first Scotland cap in 1969 and went on playing international rugby until he reached 38-years of age a decade later. In total, he represented his country on 43 occasions and will now hope to have a similar impact from Board level after being nominated unopposed by the Scottish clubs for the presidential role.
"My aim will be to strengthen rugby in Scotland and assist in any way I can to help the clubs to build, the pro-teams to build and the national team to build," said McLauchlan. | <urn:uuid:a8d77e32-308c-47ac-9270-855986f15178> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lionsrugby.com/news/3755.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977575 | 286 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Center opening in Elkhart to help autistic children learn
Posted: 01/08/2012 at 1:15 am
By: Marlys Weaver-Stoesz
Click here to view in a gallery.
$PHOTOCREDIT_ON$Wes Pierce drinks as he watches his father, Chet Pierce, count on Saturday. The younger Pierce is only allowed to drink for about three seconds at a time because he has a difficult time swallowing.$PHOTOCREDIT_OFF$
Truth Photo By J. Tyler Klassen
Nine year-old Wes Pierce smiles as his father, Chet Pierce, hands his a cup 1/7/2012. The Pierce family uses sign language to communicate with Wes, who is autistic. (Truth Photo By J. Tyler Klassen)
Wes Pierce eats supper with the help of his mother, Kathryn Pierce 1/7/2012. Wes Pierce is autistic and communicates with his family through sign language. (Truth Photo By J. Tyler Klassen)
Nine year-old Wes Pierce signs for the cookie his father, Chet Pierce, is holding 1/7/2012. The Pierce family uses sign language to communicate with Wes, who is autistic. (Truth Photo By J. Tyler Klassen)
The Behavior Analysis Center for Autism (BACA) has three branches in the Indianapolis area and works to teach language, social, self-help, academic, daily living and life skills to children with autism spectrum disorders and related disorders using applied behavior analysis, according to the center’s website.
Dr. Carl T. Sundberg, clinical director and founder of the centers, will speak about behavior analysis next Saturday and also introduce the Elkhart branch of the center.
Sundberg’s program is from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Knights of Columbus, 112 E. Lexington Ave., Elkhart. Afterwards, the audience may join Sundberg in a tour of the new BACA center, scheduled to open Jan. 16. The presentation will be aimed at parents of children on the autistic spectrum and professionals working with those children.
Kathryn Pierce, a Wakarusa mother of two sons, one with autism, helped bring the BACA to Elkhart and will work as an administrative and clinical assistant.
The center will open at 53633 C.R. 7, Elkhart, with four trained therapists, an interim clinical director and board-certified behavior analysts, Pierce said. Four clients are already enrolled, she said, and at this time, all clients must be 10 years old or younger.
“The facility hopes to grow and serve 15 children by the end of the first year,” she said.
Pierce and her husband, Chet, wanted to expand the BACA to northern Indiana after the success they saw with their son at the Fishers center.
Their 9-year-old son, Wesley, is very low-functioning, Pierce said. Commuting frequently to central Indiana took a toll on the family’s time and money. Whichever parent traveled with Wesley was then also apart from the other parent and their other son.
“The only thing that kept me going was Wesley making progress,” Pierce said.
For example, Pierce said that asking her youngest son what he wanted and having him respond in sign language that he wanted a drink was an incredible step forward for the family.
“We had gotten to the point where we didn’t know if our son could learn because he was so low functioning,” she said.
“It’s like he’s a different child,” Pierce said.
The travel was taking a toll on the family, though, so Pierce talked with Sundberg and his wife, Devon Sundberg.
Pierce expected the Sundbergs to help her develop a home program, she said, but instead they discussed expanding the center.
She’s excited to have a local resource for other families.
“The purpose is to provide early intervention and to prepare them to be integrated into public schools,” she said, though noting that her son is low-functioning enough that he does require a specialized education program.
Pierce explained that the applied behavior analysis includes having children working one-on-one with a therapist and bonding together. It includes lots of repetition and therapists using a combination of motivational practices and teaching, she said.
Sundberg, who founded the BACA in 2009, has worked in the mental health field for more than 25 years. He began specializing in early intervention with children with autism and other developmental disabilities 15 years ago.
Since 1996, Sundberg has assessed and worked with more than 400 children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and has personally worked with over 200 families, according to the BACA. Sundberg also works with schools districts, along with private consulting.
For more information, people can visit BACA’s web page at www.thebaca.com | <urn:uuid:93dc56c4-746e-474b-ab29-071c562fb70f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elkharttruth.com/article/20120108/NEWS01/701089939 | 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 | 0.960334 | 1,036 | 1.75 | 2 |
Very true. Just look, for example at Dropbox. A free service that hosts your data and ensured security. Then we find out later that they de-dupe your data, which essentially is not secure since a single copy of duplicate files is stored for all users. So I can only imagine that for storage savings-purposes, other cloud vendors do the same.
Your points here regarding what Citibanks CIO should be doing now had me wondering-
"I would be having tough discussions with the providers and operators of the system and all the high-tech companies that supplied the hardware and software.
I would also be much more careful when selecting the next service provider, and I would put the onus for preventing future attacks on that provider. Perhaps I would also get the provider to sign a contractual clause promising to indemnify my company against blames, if an attack were to happen in future, and provide financial compensation for lost money, time, and productivity."
Should'nt all this have been part of the Contingency planning in advance itself?
What about all the clawbacks that are in place in most Security contracts today?
I find it hard to believe that a major Financial System like Citibank does'nt have some form of Clawback similar to this which I visualised here.The IT system suffers a breach because of your products drawbacks-Pay Up.
What about Cyber Insurance?It is today one of the fastest growing industries in America.Does'nt Citibank have some form of Liability insurance here?Why should shareholders take such a direct and immediate hit?
i have the same opinion as the rest that making IT 100% safe may not be possible and the advancement of technology might make it more difficult. It is surprizing with the case of citibank that hacker took only 3 million and not more. Is there any reasoning why not more money? Only those incident of high profile account hacking come to news.
I think most companies tend to follow the 'cure' model as opposed to 'prevention' model whereby they only react to security incidents after an actual attack or a data breach has taken place. Given the recent attacks on high-tech companies such as Sony, there's an absolute need for most organizations to firstly check the security of their systems against all kinds of attacks and fill in the loopholes before it's too late. The hackers are progressing faster than developments in cyber security are.
Wecannothave100%securityinsoftwaresystems. Even in the latest security program willbeabackdoororabuginsecuritypolicies.Evenamilitarybasecanbeviolated.
Hacking and crackingisonestepfrontfromtoday'ssecurityprograms.Ibelieveonlywithmonitoringwecanregulatethehacker'sattacks.AndmanycompaniesunderestimatetheneedofhavingITsecuritydepartmentandsecuritypolicies.
I'm sure the ISP will have something to say about that. They should be able to limit content, traffic or some other aspect of the communication but with the whole issue of net neutrality, they will not be allowed to do that.
The problem with making them responsible is that they can't control a user's behavior. They can have the firewall set up but that might not be enough.
EBN Dialogue enables and encourages you to participate in live chats with notable leaders and luminaries. Not only editors and journalists, but the entire EBN community is able to comment and ask questions. Listed below are upcoming and archived chats.
Thailand Stages a Comeback Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Microsoft Surface: Potential Winners & Losers What are the implications for the electronics industry supply chain of Microsoft Corp.'s decision to launch its own tablet PC? Join industry veteran and EE Times' systems and OEM expert Rick Merritt on Tuesday, July 3, at 12:00 pm EDT for a Live Chat on this subject.
Join EBN contributor Jennifer Baljko on Thursday August 23, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. EST for a live chat on how electronic manufacturers in Thailand have shored up their supply chain to reduce the impact of future natural disasters.
Peter Drucker famously said "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window." Yet in the razor's-edge world of electronics—with a lean supply chain and just-in-time demands—the need to know the future is vital.
While no one really can accurately predict the future, we can take guidance from another Drucker saying which is the best way to predict the future is to create it.
You've heard the saying "the No. 1 supply chain risk is your people." That hasn't always been the case. But today's complex global supply chain requires a new type of multitalented employee. It's one who understands, finance, marketing, economics, is savvy with technology, graceful with relationships and can think analytically.
Where are these people? Are universities properly preparing the next generation supply chain professionals? How do train your existing workforce for these new, demanding positions?
Brian Fuller, editor-in-chief of EBN, will lead a 60-minute Avnet Velocity panel discussion that will ask and answer these and other questions swirling around today's supply-chain talent challenges. | <urn:uuid:85d45c39-bace-42db-91dc-9f3a34efc71d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ebnonline.com/messages.asp?piddl_msgthreadid=239530&piddl_msgid=410390 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941897 | 1,148 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Super Bowl Half Time Show: Sumerian Symbols
I know this sounds bat-s%*t crazy to most people, but, for the people who research ancient civilizations, it is not. I watched one of the best Super Bowls of my life. I was sitting on the edge of my seat 3 feet from the flat screen. I watched the half time show and Madonna came out dressed like a Sumerian Goddess. I sat up in my seat and wanted to see what else would stand out. I did notice a symbol connected to the Sumerian or Fallen Angel age. Also, images saluting the Sumerian Bee Goddess! More about the bees here
The last image you see, is Ea, also known as Enki, in the Sumerian culture. He is a “God” who descended from space with other Gods, who setup shop in Mesopotamia. There is also a connection with these Gods to Fallen Angels. This image is alive and well in our generation; obviously supported by artist in the music business. If you asked me to be a back-up singer and wear a T-Shirt with “666″ on it, I would tell you to go piss up a rope.
This is exactly what drives all of this Illuminati conspiracy theory talk with Madonna and many other artist. Why would she have this symbol above the stage for all to see? What is the purpose of this? Why would a symbol or the image of the God of Fallen Angels be shown to millions of viewers?
As you can see this creates more questions than answers! It is very bizarre for this to be the theme of the Super Bowl Half Time Show. You will also notice they incorporated space into the show as well. At one point the whole stage turns to space with stars and everything. It did look cool. All of these themes point to the Heavens or a Sky God, also known as the Prince of the Air.
There were also Egyptian costumes worn by Nicki Manaj and M.I.A. Again, selecting another civilization who worshiped many Gods. The same corrupt civilization where Moses had to free his people from physical and spiritual bondage. At least the next time you are by the water cooler and you hear this. You will know what’s up. In the end, all that really matters to me is that the Giants won!!!
PS: See how many other ancient symbols you see in the Half Time Show besides the “All Seeing Eye”. I have counted over five already. Leave a comment if you see more! | <urn:uuid:81992ac2-08d9-46cb-9f6b-2695510f27c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://revelationnow.net/2012/02/05/super-bowl-half-time-show-pagan-symbols/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973755 | 528 | 1.679688 | 2 |
- Special Sections
- Public Notices
Oh-Bama, what a thing to say!
Turns out our president—you know the Harvard Law-educated, self-proclaimed constitutional scholar—has some, er, misgivings about the Supreme Court and its role in shaping law.
I guess Barack Obama missed the day Harvard law professors went over Marbury v. Madison, which was mostly likely the first year, if not the first week of law school.
We know the president doesn’t like those who oppose him, anything he says or anything he does. Remember the State of Union speech two years ago when he berated the justices like they were naughty school children in front of the entire country?
That was embarrassing.
But now that those same justices will decide the fate of his baby—Obamacare, that is—the gloves are off.
So, here’s what our constitutional scholar president said about the justices’ audacity to consider the constitutionality of his healthcare law:
“Ultimately, I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” Obama proclaimed.
Forget Marbury v. Madison in law school. Where was Obama in his first-grade social studies class, you know the class where you first learned about the three branches of the federal government and their powers?
Marbury v. Madison came down to this: On his last night as president, John Adams made all these late-night appointments of his buddies to posts like circuit judges and justices of the peace, things of that nature.
I doubt it was all that unheard of. But when his successor, Thomas Jefferson, took office, he was none too happy about the sweeping midnight appointments.
Adams and Co. made the 58 appointments under what was called the Organic Act, which was nothing more really than an attempt by the Federalists to take control of the federal judiciary before Jefferson took office.
But the commissions were not delivered before Adams’ term as president expired and, not surprisingly, Jefferson refused to honor the judicial appointments, arguing they were invalid because they were not delivered before the expiration of Adams’ term.
So, then we have our protagonist, William Marbury, who was an intended recipient of one of the justice of the peace commissions. He applied directly to the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to compel secretary of state James Madison to deliver the commissions, which the court has the jurisdiction to do.
So, one of the key questions that had to be answered by the Supreme Court was if they, in fact, had the legal authority to overturn acts of Congress if they are determined to be unconstitutional.
Lo and behold, the answer was yes, and with that, the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison established judicial review.
Truly, I don’t know if it’s more astonishing that a Harvard-educated, self-proclaimed Constitutional scholar doesn’t know this, or that our President doesn’t know this.
Recently a federal judge, rightfully alarmed at our president’s lack of knowledge or blatant disregard about judicial review and the role of the Supreme Court, issued a homework assignment of sorts to the Obama Administration Justice Department, seeking clarification on what the DOJ sees as the court’s role in judicial review.
Of course, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder obliged, writing a response to the judge’s request, but let’s face it, at least on this round it’s POTUS: 0, SCOTUS 1.
I’ll tell you what. I know a few judges and one thing’s for sure, Mr. President, payback’s a bench.
Caroline Curran is a staff writer and columnist at The Brunswick Beacon. Reach her at 754-6890 or email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter at @cgcurran. | <urn:uuid:70df1a69-70c5-4a0b-bb79-35e974aa7ed1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brunswickbeacon.com/content/it%E2%80%99s-potus-v-scotus-marbury-v-madison-and-judicial-review?quicktabs_2=1&mini=calendar-date%2F2012-12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96962 | 839 | 1.65625 | 2 |
As the possibility of a bigger deficit-cutting deal fades away, the status quo will be upheld -- and nobody should be surprised
The congressional "supercommittee" is looking pretty lame. Its failure approaches as the group of twelve Republicans and Democrats tasked with reducing the deficit can't come to an agreement. The divide that they cannot overcome stems from mostly what you would expect: the right wants bigger spending and entitlement cuts, while the left wants to raise taxes. Neither side will budge, so the so-called "trigger" will be pulled instead, which will automatically cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next 10 years. Will the market react with a nod, a frown, or a shrug?
The Market Shouldn't Be Surprised
In fact, the market should be unfazed: it should have expected precisely this outcome. The supercommittee was essentially designed to fail. What we have come to know about Congress is that it waits until the absolute last second to act when it absolutely must. In this case, however, it wasn't under any real pressure to act. Even its failure to compromise would result in an action that neither party liked, but each would likely see as better than making political concessions.
Think about the political ramifications of an agreement being reached. For that to occur, either Republicans or Democrats (or both) would need to compromise their principles. And for what? Even if they don't agree to a compromise, cuts will happen anyway. As you may recall, even when the nation was on the verge of a default due to hitting the debt limit in August, Congress barely managed to avoid catastrophe. Can anyone reasonably expect a broad, aggressive compromise when politicians are under so little pressure?
The Status Quo Upheld
By now, the market should understand this. It should have priced in a supercomittee failure. But from the market's perspective, that failure might not look all that different from success: either way, little more than $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts would have occurred. Even if a compromise was reached, almost no one expected cuts to much exceed $1.5 trillion. So success and failure should have looked approximately the same from the market's standpoint anyway.
On some level, the market might even be relieved. After all, Congress could have done something stupid instead. If the supercommitte had felt really aggressive about deficit reduction, it could have cut too deeply too quickly and endangered the already weak economy. Slicing a mere $1.2 trillion off of the budget over 10 years starting in 2013 isn't likely to reverse whatever modest recovery might be taking place in the U.S.
And really, at this time, the market doesn't appear to be calling for anything much more aggressive. Treasury yields remain ridiculously low. At the end of last week, 10-year Treasury yields dipped below 2%. At this time last year, they were near 3%. A decade ago, they were around 5%. Despite the U.S.'s unsustainable debt path, investors remain very, very comfortable with Treasuries. Can you really blame them? Compared to Europe, the U.S. looks like a pretty great place to park your money.
What Could Upset the Market
Of course, Congress could still screw things up. Some politicians have been threatening to reverse some of the $1.2 trillion in cuts. After all, if Congress agrees to cut less, then it can -- no law is immutable. While this might not have any tangible short-term consequences, it could worry some investors. If Congress can't even allow this very modest amount of spending cuts that result in relatively similar pain for both parties, then how can the deficit ever be cut more aggressively?
What the market probably thinks, rightly or not, is that eventually Congress will get its act together. Frankly, now isn't the time for austerity. Demand for U.S. debt is extremely strong. The U.S. economy remains fragile, with employment improving only mildly as far too many Americans remain jobless. While the market doesn't view immediate spending cuts or tax hikes as necessary, the path of U.S. debt is clearly unsustainable. At some point, a longer-term, more aggressive deficit reduction plan must be put in place. If the trigger disintegrates, then this could be a sobering signal about the dysfunctional nature of Congress.
That would certainly worry the rating agencies too. If the trigger is reversed, then Moody's and Fitch might have to think more seriously about joining S&P in downgrading U.S. debt. This action would demonstrate a pretty clear unwillingness on the part of Congress to take even slight measures to reduce deficits.
Assuming that the trigger is pulled, the only sticking point that could concern the market has to do with short-term tax policy. Without a new agreement in place, a payroll tax cut extension and a patch for the alternative minimum tax may both fail to materialize. If Congress doesn't take action in December, then taxes will rise for some Americans, which the market may worry could have a negative impact on the U.S. recovery.
As far as broader deficit reduction implications are concerned, we'll have to see how the political terrain looks in 2013. If the trigger remains intact, then the market should expect Congress to take little additional action on the deficit until then. During a presidential election year, few in Congress will be willing to take a stand or compromise.
What happens in 2013 hinges on the 2012 election results. If one party sweeps next November, then the flavor of deficit cutting should be pretty clear. If President Obama wins a second term, Democrats take back the House and increase their majority in the Senate, then taxes will rise. If Republicans take the Senate and win the White House, then we will likely see more aggressive entitlement reform and deeper budget cuts. As long as gridlock remains in place, however, little deficit reduction will occur.
Image Credit: REUTERS/Mike Theiler
This article available online at: | <urn:uuid:16f453cb-bbe2-425b-915c-8634c8b8a771> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlantic.com/business/print/2011/11/the-market-should-shrug-off-the-supercommittees-failure/248818/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963799 | 1,226 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Martin Rees: 'There is a dearth of good science teachers in our state schools'
He's the Queen's astronomer who has clashed with Richard Dawkins. Now Martin Rees is planning a new battle – to make students more scientifically literate. Richard Garner reports
Richard Garner has been Education Editor of The Independent for 12 years and writing about the subject for 34 years. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a disc jockey in London pubs and clubs and for a hospital radio station. His main hobbies are cricket (watching these days) and theatre. On his days off, he is most likelt to be found at Lord’s or the King’s Head Theatre Club.
Sunday 30 December 2012
Martin Rees was content to be described as an "unbeliever" in the wake of the controversy over his acceptance of the richest scientific prize on the planet – the £1m Templeton prize awarded by a religious foundation. "I'm not myself religious but have no wish to insult or denigrate those who are," he says.
However, he now has bigger fish to fry as he dons the mantle of the president of the Association for Science Education from tomorrow as the organisation celebrates its 50th anniversary.
In his presidential address to be delivered on Friday, he intends to make out the case for ensuring that a knowledge of science is accessible to everyone – "part of their culture".
It is a difficult task, he acknowledges, because of the "dearth of good science teachers in our state schools". That has been a factor behind universities being forced to put on remedial classes for their science undergraduates – they are not developing a deep enough understanding of the subject during their school years.
Lord Rees of Ludlow, to give him his full title, is a sprightly 70-year-old who still has fingers in many pies. He is the Queen's astronomer – a largely titular role – and still has many connections with Trinity College, Cambridge, from where he recently retired as master. He enjoys the 25-minute walk along the river bank from the converted farmhouse he now lives in to the Cambridge college. He hopes that now he has given up his administrative role at the college he may have more time to devote to the House of Lords.
As he talks of the Templeton award – the money he received from it, he says, was spent on "nothing special" – he is quite dismissive of the controversy that followed winning the prize in 2011. Some of his fellow scientists – including Professor Richard Dawkins – criticised him for giving credence to the religious foundation that gave the award. The prize is given to those who have made "exceptional contributions to affirming life's spiritual dimension".
"The media just rang two or three of the usual suspects and they said what they thought they would say," he says.
In fact, his lasting memory of the saga is an email he received from a former winner of the award – Freeman Dyson, the British-born American physicist – who said it made him feel less guilty about the little effort he himself had put into receiving the award.
That is all behind him now, though. Rees spent the Christmas break preparing his presidential address for the ASE, whose conference begins at Reading University on Thursday. He will be talking about the challenges of the 21st century, the main one of which, he says, "is preparing food, energy and health for a growing population". It will require the "best science", he argues, with a scientifically literate generation encouraged to develop an understanding of the subject through their schooling.
To achieve that, though, will not be easy. "As we know, there is a long-standing shortage of enthusiastic science teachers in this country, and the sad thing is that many pupils never get exposed to a good science teacher. For the small fraction who are going on to do science at university, this is a handicap." As a result, many universities have to put on remedial classes for science undergraduates, to make sure, in particular, that they have enough knowledge of maths to start their degree courses.
Rees is critical of the sixth-form curriculum in schools as he assesses whether Britain can achieve the goal he is setting it. "It's too narrow," he says. "I'd like to see it be something more like the International Baccalaureate. There have been two attempts to widen the curriculum – the Higginson committee 25 years ago [which suggested pupils should take five A-levels] which was shot down by Margaret Thatcher on the altar of threatening the gold standard of A-level; and the Tomlinson committee [which recommended equal weight for academic and vocational studies] which was shot down for electoral reasons, too." That happened during the Blair era.
He would like to see the UK copying Finland, where teaching is one the most prestigious professions and top graduates are fighting to get jobs in the classroom. That will not happen, though, he argues, with the Government's plan to scrap annual incremental pay rises for teachers, making them dependent in future on their performance as assessed by their headteacher. We are talking on the day some people believed the world was going to end – indeed, according to the Mayan calendar, it should have ended 15 minutes into the interview. It does not. He has just turned down two radio interviews on the subject. "I refused because I think people who talk about the subject tend to be thought of as idiotic," he says. "Even the Mayans didn't really believe it would end," he says. "They just think we are entering a new age. It's like a car registering 100,000 miles on the clock and then going back to zero again."
It brings us on to discussing the real threats to the planet and one of the themes of his conference speech emerges again. "If you look 50 or 100 years ahead, the thing that comes up much more clearly as a threat is the growing population being much more demanding of energy and resources to sustain life," he says.
"It's that and the growing number of individuals or small groups who have access to new forms of technology." That, he argues, will not make the world a safer place. Far from it as the threat of terrorism continues.
Lord Rees is a cross-bencher in the House of Lords – one of the so-called "People's Peers" nominated by the public under the Blair government – even though he is in fact a member of the Labour party.
He tells of an exchange he had once with Nick Hillman, University Secretary David Willetts' special adviser. Hillman was seeking to become MP for Cambridge and came canvassing to the converted farmhouse in which Lord Rees now lives. He was sent away wih the words, "We're all Labour here!" ringing in his ears.
Nevertheless, Rees says he has immense respect for Mr Willetts, who he believes has the interests of the higher education community at heart. "I'm glad they didn't reshuffle him," he said. "I can't think of anybody else in this present government I'd like to see in his place. We're surely fortunate to have a minister for science and universities so energetically committed to his brief."
One thing he would like to see adopted here, though, is a scheme similar to that operating in universities in the US, where the elite keep some places for those who have shown promise at less highly ranked universities so they can then transfer.
It would, he argues, grant a second chance to those who have missed out on top science teaching at their secondary schools.
This life: Martin Rees
Martin Rees was born in 1942 the son of two Shropshire teachers. He studied mathematics at Cambridge University before moving into astrophysics in the 1960s
His breakthrough study of the distribution of quasars helped discredit the Steady State theory of the universe. The alternative to the Big Bang theory had proposed that the universe was constantly expanding with new matter continually created. Rees's observations in the mid-1960s pointed to a Big Bang beginning of a universe with a finite age.
He was the first to propose in the 1980s that enormous black holes at the core of quasars power the energy sources which can be as bright as 100,000 Milky Way galaxies.
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£95 - £175 per day: Randstad Education Nottingham: We are currently recruiting... | <urn:uuid:b3e06f2c-71c4-48ad-94de-e0518a88f083> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/martin-rees-there-is-a-dearth-of-good-science-teachers-in-our-state-schools-8433633.html | 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 | 0.976875 | 2,062 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Alex Wong / Getty Images
President Barack Obama makes remarks about the Department of Homeland Security's recent announcement about deportation of illegal immigrants in the Rose Garden at the White House June 15, 2012 in Washington, D.C.
Updated 4:18 p.m. ET - The Obama administration announced on Friday that it would no longer seek the deportation of most young illegal immigrants, and would instead allow them to apply for work permits, a significant policy shift with potentially major electoral implications.
The Department of Homeland Security said that, effective immediately, the government would no longer seek the deportation of illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, and would allow them to apply for work permits if they meet certain criteria.
The decision was intended to make America's immigration system "more fair, more efficient and more just," President Barack Obama said in an afternoon statement in the Rose Garden.
"They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants, and oftentimes had no idea they were undocumented until they applied for a job," the president said. "They are Americans in their hearts, in their minds ... in every single way but one: on paper."
President Obama announces that the Department of Homeland Security will no longer seek the deportation of many young illegal immigrants.
A senior administration official said in a conference call with reporters that as many as 800,000 undocumented immigrants stand to benefit from this change.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the shift represented neither immunity nor amnesty -- buzzwords for conservatives who oppose illegal immigration -- but instead represented an instance of "prosecutorial discretion" in which the government had re-evaluated its priorities in enforcing the law.
"This is not amnesty; this is not immunity; this is not a path to citizenship," Obama said, calling today's move a "temporary fix."
The shift essentially accomplishes many of the legislative intentions of the DREAM Act, an immigration reform bill that had stalled in Congress due to Republican objections. President Barack Obama favors the legislation, while presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has said he would veto that law.
The new rule comes amid a bruising election year fight between Obama and Romney, in which the Latino vote could be decisive. Obama enjoys a strong advantage with Latino voters, winning 61 percent of Latinos vs. 27 percent for Romney in a mid-May NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll.
Romney, speaking to reporters in New Hampshire, said he thought that the status of children who were brought to the United States illegally is important to resolve, but only on a long-term basis.
"I think the action that the president took today makes it more difficult to reach that long term solution because an executive order is, of course, just a short term matter. It can be reversed by subsequent presidents," Romney said. He didn't say whether he would seek the new rule's reversal.
"If I'm president, we'll do our very best to have that kind of long term solution that provides certainty and clarity for the people who come into this country through no fault of their own by virtue of the actions of their parents," the former Massachusetts governor added.
The Hispanic vote is of particular importance in swing states like Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida, among others. Those states could swing the election toward Obama or Romney, elevating the importance of the margin between the two candidates with Latino voters.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
Immigration activists gather in front of the White House to celebrate the Obama Administration's announcement about deportation of illegal immigrants June 15, 2012 in Washington, D.C.
Obama's biggest challenge, though, has involved motivating Latino voters to turn out for him with the same strength they had in 2008. The president had faced lingering complaints stemming from his inability to advance the comprehensive immigration reform he had promised as a candidate in 2008.
The president tweaked Republicans in Congress for blocking the legislation, saying that he continued to favor both the full DREAM Act as well as a broader comprehensive immigration reform package that would allow a pathway to citizenship.
"There's no reason that we can't come together and get this done. And as long as I'm president, I will not give up on this issue," Obama said.
In a memorandum to immigration enforcement officials, Napolitano wrote that immigrants who were illegally brought to the United States as children "lacked the intent to violate the law," and pose few national security risks.
The memo said the government would not pursue immigrants who met five criteria. Individuals must:
- Have come to the United States under the age of 16,
- Be no older than 30,
- Be currently enrolled in school, have graduated high school or served in the military,
- Have been in the country for five continuous years, and
- Have a clean criminal record.
A senior administration official noted that the new rules were not permanent, though, and conceded that a different administration with a different policy could conceivably choose to withdraw this regulation.
"The executive can always change its mind about how to exercise discretion," said the official.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer responds to President Obama's immigration policy announcement on Friday.
The policy shift presents a challenge for Romney, who ran to the right of some of his opponents on the issue of immigration during the Republican primary. He had opposed the DREAM Act, and explained during a debate that his immigration policy involved "self-deportation."
That hard-line stance prompted handwringing among Republicans who have long worried about the long-term political fallout associated with alienating Latino voters. Florda Gov. Jeb Bush suggested earlier this week that much of the Republican rhetoric surrounding immigration had been "insulting."
"Change the tone would be the first thing," he said of his advice to Republicans. "Second, on immigration, I think we need to have a broader approach."
Ironically, the Obama administration's new rule would accomplish many of the same goals of a limited version of the DREAM Act proposed by Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, which stops short of offering young illegal immigrants citizenship, but gives them a type of legal status. Romney said he was considering the proposal from Rubio, a popular choice of conservatives to round out the Republican ticket as a vice presidential nominee.
In a statement, Rubio straddled praise and criticism for the move.
"Today’s announcement will be welcome news for many of these kids desperate for an answer, but it is a short term answer to a long term problem," he said. "And by once again ignoring the Constitution and going around Congress, this short term policy will make it harder to find a balanced and responsible long term one."
Romney said of Rubio: "I'd like to see legislation that deals with this issue and I happen to agree with Marco Rubio as he considers this issue. He said that this is an important matter, we have to find a long term solution but the president's action makes reaching a long term solution more difficult." | <urn:uuid:f78573af-528f-442d-9339-d577985f1b00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/homeland-security | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978517 | 1,432 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The following is an informal preliminary transcript of the "ISP Subscribers' Privacy Rights" panel from the Fordham IP Law Conference which took place on March 28, 2008.
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
SIXTEENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
INTERNATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
LAW & POLICY
Friday, March 28, 2008
SESSION X — COPYRIGHT LAW
Part C: The Role, Effectiveness and Issues in Infringement Actions against Individual P2P
Downloaders; Recent Legislative Initiatives
Aimed at Downloaders
3. What role should privacy play in learning the identities of downloaders? A look at recent case law in the United States and the European Union
(e.g., Promusicae in ECJ)
Prof. Hugh C. Hansen
Fordham University School of Law, New York
Dr. Volker Kitz
Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property,
Vandenberg & Feliu LLP
Howrey LLP, Free University of Brussels
International Affairs Director, Electronic
Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, CA
Principal Administrator, Copyright and Knowledge-Based
Economy, DG Internal Market and Services,
European Commission, Brussels
Deputy Managing Director, VP & General Counsel Europe,
Music Publishers Association, European Office, Brussels
PROF. HANSEN: We are going start the last session. This is privacy. We have Dr. Volker Kitz from Max Planck and from practice in Germany. We have an outstanding panel. Let’s get going.
[SUBSTITUTE PAPER FOR KITZ ORAL REMARKS]
PROF. HANSEN: Thank you. You get a gold star for ending early. A nice presentation of the issue.
We have a bunch of people on our panel: Ray is back; Fabienne Brison, Howrey and the Free University of Brussels; Eddan Katz, the International Affairs Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco; Barbara Norcross-Amilhat, the Principal Administrator, Copyright and Knowledge-Based Economy, Copyright Unit of the Commission; and finally, Ted Shapiro.
Richard Pfohl had to leave, but he did say that Canada has a similar statutory damages scheme to the United States and I should pass that on. And he hates Australia.
Who would like to go first?
MS. NORCROSS-AMILHAT: In fact, I was very relieved to hear what the gentleman to my left was saying. I was always a bit worried. We’ve been attacked so much, because I was very much involved in the Enforcement Directive, which has been greatly criticized, and the right of information was terrible because we were trying to allow people to get the identities of infringers on the Internet.
When this Promusicae case that he has been referring to came up, we all thought: “Oh no, here we are, this is it.” We had, I have to admit, internally within the Commission discussions with the data protection people. I won’t go into the details of the law. We don’t have time.
In fact, the end result of this Promusicae case is actually quite a good thing. The judge was very reasonable. I think right holders can benefit from it. In fact, the judges said they don’t have to provide data, allow IP addresses to go out, identity, etc., but they say you have to think about a fair a balance and you have to, when you are interpreting your law, also think about fundamental rights and proportionality. So basically they are saying yes, there is actually a balance between IP rights and data privacy.
Now, what I would say is it has also brought the whole problem out into the air. The good thing is that in the Commission we now have a telecom package going through. This telecom package is updating telecom directives. There are about four of them. In those two directives, in a similar way that was in the Enforcement Directive, there is now a reference to the Enforcement Directive in the telecom package, plus the Copyright in the Information Society Directive, referring specifically to the articles that allow injunctions for right holders against intermediaries.
I think people will be going through the European Parliament to perhaps put more things in, in a similar vein that was in the Enforcement Directive, which said we have to look out for data privacy. There will perhaps be things coming in there saying we have to be careful of IP rights. So I think that is a good opportunity.
I think there would have been perhaps not so much movement in the telecom package if people had not had the opportunity to discuss the Promusicae case.
Now, in fact it is not finished, because there is a new preliminary ruling gone to the Court of Justice now very recently, in fact in December. I will give you the number, C-55707. This is from an Austrian court, where at first instance and on appeal the Internet identity was given out. Here they are asking the ECJ now: Is the court not allowed in civil cases to give out the name? So in fact, it is a question coming from the other way around from the Spanish case. It will be interesting to see what the Court does. It will give it another opportunity to follow up on what it has already said.
But I think now it’s all out in the open. We have a new unit in the Commission specifically on enforcement because they have realized that the big issue is piracy. So we have this new unit. They are going to have hearings and things. They want to put ISPs together with right holders, the usual sort of thing, to get together and talk. I think that is probably the best way, is to get them talking and trying to agree on something.
But certainly it is out in the open. From a copyright point of view, I think it is good, because it was like an abscess that had to be burst. I think it is probably going to go in the right direction finally, after a bit of difficulty.
PROF. HANSEN: Thanks.
Fabienne, you wanted to comment?
MS. BRISON: Yes, thank you.
One thing. There is nothing anymore like absolute rights and we need to seek a balance, that’s for sure. So I am particularly interested in that criterion of proportionality.
Now, as Barbara mentioned, the Promusicae ECJ case law might be a good thing. But I think the abscess is still there. I think it is, frankly, a rather disappointing judgment. Why? Because they do not apply the test of proportionality in this case.
Now, we might like it or dislike it, but I prefer to read something like the conclusions of Advocate-General Kokott, who at least tries to do something.
I am going to skip all the national case law.
In the Promusicae decision, the ECJ actually rephrased the conflict between copyright and data protection as a conflict between the right of protection to property and the right to privacy.
I am personally much more charmed by the case law of the European Convention of Human Rights that we also have in Europe. I would like that we might just have a look to the case law, which is very interesting, very dynamic, and much more courageous than the ECJ case law so far. The European Court of Human Rights is experienced in trying to find balances. You look to Article 8 on the right of privacy, you look to Article 10 on the freedom of expression. They just try to find the right balance. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but I think it is more courageous and I prefer that.
PROF. HANSEN: Ted?
MR. SHAPIRO: Privacy and the rights and freedoms of others, this is what it is all about. It is quite clear from the Court’s decision.
There is no question that privacy is essentially in a democratic society, but there are a lot of other rights and freedoms out there that need to be balanced.
And there is a broader context to this. What about civil enforcement overall on the Internet? What about online fraud, defamation, pfishing, identity theft? What if the criminal authorities aren’t interested in going after someone? What if someone defames you in a chat room and you lose your livelihood, you lose millions, and you want to sue that person; you want to have civil redress, but you can’t find out who it is? There is no way to redress civil wrongs if taken to the extreme in this case, and that’s part of the problem.
In the copyright sector, this lack of balance can permit infringers to get away — and I’m not just talking about end-users. From the film perspective, we haven’t been going against end-users. But we are worried about the impact of such decisions on cases against facilitators and another form of the graduated response different than the one that was just presented.
I do agree with Barbara that the decision is an invitation to the legislators to look at this issue once again.
I would note also that filtering does not necessarily equal monitoring, and perhaps the Belgian Court of Appeal in Brussels will tell us more about that in 2009.
PROF. HANSEN: Are you going to speak on the United States or international?
DR. KATZ: On the issue of right and wrong, perhaps. I think that actually some of the decision really illuminates that we do need some sort of proportionality. If we are going to apply a harsh judgment, it should be within the criminal context, within the kind of due process allowed there. I think going beyond that actually begins to tilt the imbalance towards those who are trying to intimidate users in a disproportionate way.
PROF. HANSEN: Ray?
MR. BECKERMAN: The two foreign nations that I am familiar with are Canada and The Netherlands. They do not have the cases against individual alleged file sharers that we have in the United States because, at the first stage, when they tried to get subscriber information, the courts actually evaluated the quality of the evidence that the recording industry was presenting and came to the conclusion that the evidence was defective, that proper safeguards had not been taken that would be normal for an anti-piracy investigation, and that the information, at best, would lead to the person who paid for an Internet access account, but that none of the possible error rates and other things were taken into account.
The United States has not been so discriminating. The thing is, in the United States it just hasn’t been litigated.
The problem is that there are important privacy statutes out there involving the three classes of ISPs that I can think of. You have the cable companies, which are under the Telecommunications Act, and arguably it’s illegal for them to be providing this information. You have similar laws involving the telephone companies that are ISPs. You also have laws regarding colleges and universities that are ISPs disclosing the identity of their students.
The thing is these issues are not really getting litigated. The recording industry embarked on a procedure of doing these cases ex parte. No one receives notice. The ISP receives no notice and the people whose privacy rights are at stake receive no notice. The only time they ever learn of it is after the case was commenced, after a motion was made, after the motion was granted and the judge signed an order. Even then, they usually receive only a few days’ notice that the subpoena is about to be complied with and they receive none of the underlying documents, so that they couldn’t even get legal counsel as to whether they have a right to vacate the ex parte order or to quash the subpoena.
Now, at least in one jurisdiction the college issue is being litigated right now, which is in Oregon. In Oregon they went in, they made their ex parte application, and the judge signed the order, but the Oregon Attorney General, on behalf of the University of Oregon, has made a motion to quash the subpoena and to vacate the ex parte order.
Among other things, they point out that the record industry’s investigation tactics are illegal in themselves on several grounds: (1) that the investigators they use do not have a license to investigate; (2) it appears that they actually invaded the privacy of people’s computers by actually accessing their hard drives remotely; and (3) they also point out that the university would be violating laws protecting the privacy of college students were it to comply with the order.
So at least we have one jurisdiction. Of course they have an uphill fight because the judge already signed the order. Every litigator knows it is much harder to get a judge to undo something they have done. It requires them to admit they weren’t discriminating and they weren’t careful and they hadn’t really thought about all the possibilities. So we’ll see how that turns out.
But generally it is not being litigated in the United States. I am hopeful that the courts will be more vigilant.
In the Eastern District of Virginia, in Interscope v. Does 1–7, the judge took the ex parte application and said: “Whoa. I’m reading the statutes. I just don’t see it.” The judge just denied the application and said, “They have no right to this kind of discovery; there is no law that authorizes them to get this information.” This involved students at the College of William and Mary. The judge said, “There is no law that authorizes them to get this information,” and denied their motion.
In New Mexico, the University of New Mexico case, the judge said, “Well, why is this being done ex parte? At least give notice to the university and at least make sure that the students get forty days to deal with this motion after it is done.”
In Rhode Island, the judge said, “I don’t see why this is being done ex parte. Let’s have a conference and make sure that the College of Rhode Island is brought into it.”
So I am hopeful that the issues will get litigated in a proper forum so that we’ll find out what the law really is in the United States. But I can say generally that there is a general attitude in the U.S. courts, and it has a constitutional dimension and it’s also common law, that if you are seeking identification of an anonymous person, you have to prove that you have a cause of action against that person and you have to do it by competent evidence that would be admissible at trial. That’s the general rule, and it will probably wind up being the rule here as well.
PROF. HANSEN: Ted, do you want to say something?
MR. SHAPIRO: Even if that comes to pass, that will not mean that the RIAA can’t necessarily do what they are doing. They will merely have to alter their tactics, if you will.
What we are talking about in Europe is not even being able to do anything to redress certain civil wrongs. Whether the way that the RIAA actually may or may not be violating the very limited data privacy rules in the States is another matter. They won’t be stopped from bringing their actions, they will just have to do it in a different way, because there are no limitations along the lines that were outlined in the ECJ that have to be balanced against different fundamental rights.
PROF. HANSEN: Ted, what do you predict about what’s going to eventually happen in Europe?
MR. SHAPIRO: There is going to be a huge debate, as Barbara suggested, in the European Parliament about whether or not the E-Privacy Directive, which is part of the telecoms package, needs to be amended to do something about clarifying the situation following the ECJ decision.
The decision is good and is relatively welcomed by rights holders. The problem is — and it is a bit strange to hear it from the Commission, but I understand where you are coming from — that the harmonizing directive now leads to twenty-seven different results. So they may have to amend it to repair that.
PROF. HANSEN: Let’s look to the audience. Are there any thoughts or comments, other than the usual troublemakers? I guess we just have the usual troublemakers. I’m reluctant to call on Howard, but go ahead.
QUESTION [Howard Knopf, Macera & Jarzyna LLP, Ottawa]: Further to what Ted said and Ray said, Ray I think pretty well described quite accurately what is happening in Canada, and Ted’s follow-up.
We have been there and we have done this four years ago in Canada. I fought this case. We have a strong privacy statute in Canada. The Canadian counterpart of the RIAA, CRIA, lost that case quite badly. They lost it on appeal, although they were given a very specific roadmap by the court of appeal. The court of appeal said, “If you’ve got a bona fide case and you can bring good admissible evidence, then we’ll give you the names.” But they never did come back, because the evidence, frankly, was terrible. They were either unwilling or unable, or both, to come forward with the kind of evidence that any decent court, any intelligent judge, would accept. They never did do it.
The other dimension to this is — it’s not just bad enough that maybe somebody’s name will be handed over and they’ll end up losing their house, like Jammie Thomas — is that once that name is handed over — and I’m sure Ray can tell us more — the hard drive is going to be handed over and everything that is on the hard drive, from somebody’s income taxes to pictures of their girlfriend and their dog and their cat and whatever, is going to be in the hands of some unlicensed RIAA investigator and a bunch of lawyers gawking around at it. It’s a pretty gruesome thing. Judges are right to be protective.
PROF. HANSEN: Thanks, Howard.
QUESTION [Prof. Brian Fitzgerald]: In Australia, the recording industry hasn’t pursued smaller individuals. We’ve had three major cases in which the evidence has been collected. I think the court has felt that the evidence-gathering in those cases has been pretty good. There were the KaZaA case, the Cooper case, and another one against universities that didn’t go further. I think that the evidence-gathering in those bigger cases was done very professionally and largely to the court’s liking, although privacy interests in one of the cases was a significant issue.
I still am wondering whether pursuing the smaller individuals, hearing all of this discussion, is the viable alternative or whether the bigger parties or the new business models really are the way to get the better solutions out of this. It seems to me that on this panel and the panel before there is a lot of angst over chasing these very small individual players, and people seem to be very upset that they are penalized to such a large extent.
PROF. HANSEN: Any final comments?
Thank you, panel, very much.
Keywords: digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property | <urn:uuid:3ccc84f9-9856-40c1-94bd-0130bf734546> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.jp/2008/05/transcript-of-march-28th-fordham-law_8569.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970919 | 4,134 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Lhotse for Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Ralf Dujmovits
It's summit time in the Himalaya, summits with a truly important specific weight. On 20/05/2009 Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner from Austria reached the summit of Lhotse, her 12th 8000m peak, together Ralf Dujmovits and David Gottlie from Germany and Hiro Takeuchi from Japan.
At present there are no great details about the ascent, apart from the fact that after a nerve wracking 14 day wait the four mountaineers finally left Base Camp on 17 May. Fighting against the intense cold they reached the summit at 11.00am on Wednesday 20 May and confirmed their success back at Camp 4 at 7850m later that day. On Thursday all four reached the safety of Base Camp, according to Gerlinde "tired but over the moon."
As mentioned above, with the summit of Lhotse the 1970 Austrian born mountaineer has now climbed twelve 8000m peaks, all without supplementary oxygen. For her husband Ralf Dujmovits the summit marks the end of a long journey, or rather, the 14 highest mountains in the world. In truth Dujmovits, the first German to complete the grand tour, has announced that he will accompany Gerlinde up Everest next year, seeing that in 1992 he had reached the highest point on earth with the help of supplementary oxygen.
Whilst on the theme of female summits: Edurne Pasaban descended to Kanchenjunga Base Camp late on Wednesday after having reached the summit on 18 May. According to the official expedition website, the Spanish mountaineer - who reached Camp 4 after the summit with extreme difficulty and the help of her companions - reached Base Camp exhausted and with signs of frostbite. Shortly after 6.00am on Thursday morning a helicopter flew her to Kathmandu, where she took a flight back to Spain. While we wish her a fast road to recovery, we suggest you look at this video which shows Pasaban's final difficult steps to the summit. Note that the final meter remains untouched: climbers do not ascend this, out of respect for the mountain Gods. | <urn:uuid:a862f184-b51d-463a-a762-e51b1c8737b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=36777 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950708 | 461 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The baby, who has not been named, was found by police officers in the Shishan township of Nan'an city in February, but this is the first time pictures of the little girl have emerged.
She was sent to a local welfare home when she was found abandoned as a newborn, and was brought to a children's hospital in Quanzhou, China to be examined by doctors.
Doctors have said the redundant leg - which could be part of a parasitic twin which didn't develop properly - should be amputated, but they need to wait until she is at least six months old.
His dad, Imran Shaikh, said at the time of the operation: "We are a poor family. I am thankful to the government and doctors for helping us."
You can see the little boy's amazing operation in our gallery below.
We wish the little girl in China lots of luck with her operation and hope she finds loving parents to look after her soon. | <urn:uuid:36b64043-2ffe-4eaf-a741-8bddb43b25d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2012/05/16/three-legged-baby-born-in-china/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989406 | 197 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Today HuffPost Live asked me to join an on-air panel discussion about food safety and food-borne illness. They wanted me to talk about my son Weston's 2004 bout with salmonella, an experience that forever changed the way I look at the food my family eats.
The discussion covered the FDA's role in keeping our food supply safe; how to encourage food companies to adhere to best practices in food safety; and what we as consumers can do to protect ourselves and our families.
I encourage you all to watch the segment. Food-borne illness causes about 3,000 deaths a year in the U.S., and that number is not going down. Salmonella infections are actually on the rise. Something must be done. | <urn:uuid:8cce7d97-0fa8-4471-b3ef-2e511e2324cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.inerikaskitchen.com/2012/12/huffpost-live-discussion-food-safety.html?showComment=1354750443341 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954842 | 149 | 1.710938 | 2 |
In July of this year, the DC Council voted in favor of renaming the haphazard stretch between the new MLK Memorial on the Tidal Basin and Anacostia "Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive." Not Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, which already exists in Anacostia and elsewhere in Ward 8, but Martin Luther King Drive.
at the corner of MLK Ave/Drive and Good Hope Road
at the corner of 13th/onramp and Good Hope Road/MLK Drive..?
But as you can see above, where exactly MLK Avenue ends and MLK Drive begins is a bit confusing. Are there sections of MLK Avenue that are also MLK Drive? Are there parts of Good Hope Road, a street that intersects with MLK Avenue, also now MLK Drive? Confusing! (and redundant...) | <urn:uuid:b1d0d225-ce38-4acb-94f3-9ca3e162f060> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anacostianow.com/2011/09/mlk-avedrive-confusion.html | 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 | 0.945493 | 178 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Dexter Van Zile reported this week, that a week after PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad addressed CATC, the PA informed Palestinian church leader Stephen Khoury that his church “lacked the authority to function”, as a religious institution in the PA.
The church can still gather to pray, for now, but the PA’s decision conveyed on Saturday will have a real impact on the members of First Baptist, which endured numerous bomb attacks during the First Intifada.
“They said that our legitimacy as a church from a governmental point of view is not approved,” said Khoury’s son, Steven, who serves as an assistant pastor at First Baptist. “They said they will not recognize any legal paper work from our church. That includes birth certificates, wedding certificates and death certificates. Children are not even considered to be legitimate if they don’t have recognized paperwork.”
The irony, Steven said, is that the PA’s announcement comes right after the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference.
Many people have picked up on this irony, as the PA’s Prime Minister Salam Fayyad himself addressed CATC, just days before this decision came to light. Bear in mind, CATC was organised by Bethlehem Bible College, which is an evangelical Bible college. Indeed, last month Eastern Orthodox Christians on a web forum belittled CATC for being evangelical and not Orthodox, and therefore not truly representing Palestinian Christianity.
In response, CATC organisers Porter Speakman and Munther Isaac have written an article to the concerns raised about CATC and the timing of the decision about Khoury’s church.
Speakman and Isaac write:
Unlike traditional churches like the Greek Orthodox and Catholics, Evangelical churches in the Palestinian Territories are not officially recognized and therefore things like marriage documents are not considered legitimate by government authorities. They have the freedom to worship, but are not “official.”
For the last few years, there have been many discussions between Evangelical church leaders, including those who organized and spoke at the Christ at the Checkpoint, and officials from the PA.
If the PA and CATC leadership have been in discussion, it has not born any fruit. The PA does not consider Palestinian evangelical Christians to be legitimate at all.
However, it appears that both parties consciously decided to oppose pro-Zionist theology in public.
This would explain why Salam Fayyad was not publicly challenged at all by anyone at CATC, as he gave his address to the conference.
This is Munther Isaac’s introduction to Fayyad:
“Palestinian Christians have always enjoyed the support of the Palestinian leaders. We worship with freedom and exercise our rights like all Palestinians. To emphasise this, we are deeply honoured to have the support of prime minsiter of the Palestinian Authority, Dr Salam Fayyad. Since 2007, Dr Salam has worked so hard to prepare Palestine for statehood, and his efforts in building the Palestinian economy and institutions have been described as ‘absolutely first-class, professional, courageous and intelligent’. Above all, Dr Fayyad is a man of vision, and his vision is one of prosperity and peace for the Palestinian people. And it is only fitting that his name in Arabic literally means ‘among them peace’. It is my privilege and honour to invite to us here, to the stage to speak to us, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Dr Salam Fayyad.
So Munther Isaac does not mention the PA discrimination against evangelical Christians, despite being a Palestinian evangelical at a Palestinian evangelical conference.
Consequentially, the attitude of the CATC towards Fayyad was deferential:
Speakman and Isaac further write in their article, about Palestinian churches:
The recognition does not depend entirely on the PA, and the input of the churches already recognized is as equally important. In addition, the congregational nature of the Evangelical churches and the absence of a recognized hierarchy complicate things.
This seems odd. If the recognition does not depend entirely on the PA, then who else does it depend on? Surely it does depend on the PA. It appears as if Speakman and Isaac are trying to play down the responsibilty of the PA, in the issue of church recognition. Here is their rationalisation, for inviting Salam Fayyad to CATC:
This is why efforts by Christ at the Checkpoint to highlight the Evangelical Palestinian church are so important. Having Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad come for the second time in as many conferences to speak and to see first hand what the Bethlehem Bible College and local churches are doing helps, not hinders, the churches efforts for recognition. In addition, the issue of seeking recognition for Evangelical churches in Palestine and in Israel was openly discussed during the conference.
It ought to say something, though, that Salam Fayyad has already been invited to CATC back in 2010, he then met with CATC organisers and Palestinian evangelicals, and nothing changed regarding recognition of evangelical churches. Two years later, Fayyad again is invited, and no progress has been made on the issue.
One of the stated CATC conference goals in English was to “[e]mpower and encourage the Palestinian church”. In order to do so, CATC will need to speak up for the rights of Palestinian Christians.
If they can link this to criticism of the Israeli government, then they will do so. However, if speaking up for the rights of Palestinian evangelical believers requires open criticism of the PA and of Salam Fayyad’s leadership, then will CATC provide this criticism?
Criticising the PA would be awkward for CATC’s image. Doing so may mean that others will accuse them of being Zionists. Sooner or later, CATC will have to decide which is more important – their anti-Zionist theology and image, or their care for the plight of the Palestinian church. | <urn:uuid:e30767cf-741a-4711-b0d1-e48d447a7668> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://roshpinaproject.com/2012/03/18/how-does-catc2012-respond-to-pa-treatment-of-palestinian-christians/ | 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 | 0.968168 | 1,239 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Union County Comp Plan Talking Points
How to make Union County more sustainable and more locally self-sufficient. Where to begin...
The Union County Comprehensive Plan is in its fact-gathering stage. That means it needs all of us to speak up and help guide it. So it's time to gather our thoughts. If you want to put in a good word for a sustainable future built on principles of relocalization, here are a few possible angles to take. You don't have to hit them all of course. Just keep them in mind.
OVERVIEW: Sustainability and Relocalization.
Union County should be moving toward sustainability every chance it gets. That means, as a community, we should be looking to optimize our ability to meet our current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to also meet their own needs. This is good for our health, our economic outlook, and our local resources. A strong, liveable, local community will be built on a viable local food system, a truly local business network or economy, and a locally-scaled, locally-determined, locally-controlled arrangement for local power production and use.
ENERGY: Planning Now for Uncertain Times
Fuel uncertainty and the sure knowledge of rising costs suggest careful planning now to take into consideration the community's exposure to risk. Both at the county level and in terms of providing direction and guidance to the municipalities, it's time to implement assessment teams to look at the security of water, food, emergency services and basic municipal functions in light of rising energy costs. These costs will be borne by everyone in multiple ways, both from direct expenses as well as rising tax burdens (for school or municipality expenses) and indirect risks (to the continuing provision of clean water, waste collection and waste water treatment). Beyond these fundamentals, the county should guide the community to think of ways to minimize its dependence on problematic fuel sources to secure its food supply and local business vitality. Along these lines, the I-80 toll issue should be an opportunity to rethink basic business models and market-sheds.
TRANSPORTATION: New Options for the Future.
Transportation in Union County currently means driving, with minor exceptions. It's time for that to change. Can the plan encourage, if not shape, a future with many different viable transportation options for the County, from walking to biking to carpooling to mini-transit? It's time to stop building anything that is only accessible by car and start retrofitting our existing neighborhoods and communities for safe, convenient, practical, and fun walking and biking. A rail trail would be a fantastic showcase feature and recreation/exercise focus, but beyond that we need a secure network that lets daily life be carried on safely without a car. "Transit-Oriented Development" may not be possible at the current or projected density of the county, but multi-modal options, workable alternatives to single-occupant motor vehicles, are. The best, cheapest and most sensible response to the cost of building and maintaining road infrastructure is to increase sustainable transportation and decrease standard traffic.
LAND USE: Stop Sprawl and Build Smart.
We need to maintain the rural character of our county through ag preservation and the promotion of sustainable agriculture. We need to reinforce our core communities and make sure they remain viable and functional places to live, providing a full range of services and functions for residents as well as visitors. Orienting toward highway strip development is a self-fulfilling prophecy with known bad consequences. Let's build on our strengths instead. Don't orient to Route 15 or Route 45, orient to our towns, our farmland and our wilds. Mixed use, mixed income, pedestrian-scaled communities are part of our past and are the key to our future. Rural and wild parts of the landscape are integral to the success of walkable towns. A functional agricultural and ecologically diverse and restorative landscape is not compatible with large-lot, dispersed single-family development. Where additional housing is needed outside the core communties, cluster development, preserving open space, greenways, wildlife corridors and valuable ecologies like forest and wetlands and maintaining non-car connections to the larger community, is essential. Rural farmland should be preserved from development and the feasibility of farming as a full-time pursuit should be bolstered at every opportunity, through the encouragement of sustainable agriculture niche marketing, community supported agriculture (CSA) operations, and support for the creation of local farm/market links.
RESOURCES/ENVIRONMENT: Saving the Environment Means Saving Ourselves.
Our forests, watersheds, and energy resources have been largely misused in the past. We should reorient to understand how the community benefits financially, health-wise and ecologically from healthy environmental systems. We should be looking to husband these resources rather than selling them to the highest bidder or undercutting them through neglect, especially since we end up paying the price with compromised water supplies, ever more flood prone communities, and fuel and food insecurity in the midst of the potential for plenty. Sustainable forest management, aggressive watershed restoration and a sensible policy on renewable agricultural energy sources are all interrelated. Sustainable agriculture and innovative water treatment and bioremediation can also contribute in this area, as can public education on the benefits of conservation, efficiency and waste reduction (solid and otherwise).
ECONOMY: It's the Local Economy, Stupid.
Local business should not mean business at any cost. It should mean a building block of a local, liveable economy. In other words, Union County would be made stronger with more businesses serving local needs, rather than expecting to attract storage/transfer or micro-market opportunism from outside.
KEYS TO IMPLEMENTATION:
Education/outreach, and high-impact, low-effort flagship projects.
GRAB BAG TOPICS:
Green building is good for the local economy (building local expertise and capacity), good for the environment (using resources wisely), and good for residents (both in their physical and fiscal health). Anything the county can do to promote it will also promote historic preservation, town revitalization, and rural character.
Making long-range planning and local self-determination part of the ongoing practice of the community can empower residents and provide answers to tricky problems (like teen disengagement or neighborhood maintenance issues or filling the need for non-commercial public space).
Once you're got your favorite issues lined up, you can send them in by snail mail, or online, or in person at one of the public fora. The public forum may not work for your schedule, but if it does, please also consider that it's a good way to get ideas about sustainability into view for others who may attend. So you'll be saying your piece and doing a bit of education/outreach at the same time. | <urn:uuid:0cc3df26-dcfb-4dff-98fc-ad46644f9c43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.localactionpa.org/blog/union-county-comp-plan-talking-points | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941741 | 1,399 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Five Insights From Faith Leaders on ‘Evil’ & ‘Free Will’ in Light of the Newtown Shooting Massacre
In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, there are still many questions being asked among startled and grieving Americans. One of the most pertinent, of course, surrounds evil and the reasons a loving God would allow such a horrific massacre to take place — especially one that took the lives of so many innocent children.
Today, we’re looking at some of the insights that faith leaders have had about the very real presence of evil in our world. The difficult subject is frequently tackled by preachers, rabbis and other religious leaders, but questions tend to intensify following tragedy. So, we’ve assembled five of the most interesting recent responses and commentaries. Here they are:
Pastor Rick Warren: “Free Will Is a Blessing & Curse”
First, there’s Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forrest, Calif. In his view, evil is sometimes the unfortunate result of free will — the ability that God has given human beings to make decisions for themselves. In freedom, Warren argues, pain and poor decision-making may arise, thus leading to occasional evil that can be inflicted upon others.
In speaking on-air with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto last week, he said:
“Our greatest blessing is our greatest curse. God could have made us puppets, where none of us did anything wrong, we prayed all of the time, we always did what’s right. But God wanted us to choose to love Him, and in giving us this choice, I often make bad choices, and so do other people, in fact everyone does – the Bible calls it sin. Because of that, the world is broken.”
As for mourning and grieving in the wake of tragedy, “The Purpose-Driven Life” author also had some other important insights:
“The deeper the grief, the fewer words are needed. A lot of folks are looking for wisdom, or the right word, and are asking ‘what do you say?’ – but there is nothing to say. You just need to be there. You need to show up. And when people are grieving, they don’t need a lecture, and they don’t need an explanation. Explanations don’t comfort us.”
“What comforts us is the presence of others, the presence of God, and the first thing we have to do is we have to learn how to release our grief and we need to do that right now.”
Pastor Doug Posey: “The Slaughter of Innocence”
Pastor Doug Posey of Living Oaks Community Church in Newbury Park, Calif., reflected upon the tragedy, like Warren, by discussing free will and its prime role in yielding good and evil.
“That’s the big question…Where was God in all of this?” Posey said, according to the Ventura County Star. “God has given us free will, and when there is free will there has to be a choice between good and evil…One day he will do away with all evil, but until he does, evil will happen.”
The preacher also mentioned a Bible story that is capturing quite a bit of attention following the Sandy Hook shooting — King Herod and his “slaughter of innocence.”
“When the wise men came looking for Jesus, they wound up going to Bethlehem. When Herod found out, he had all the boys killed who were 2 years old and under,” he said. “There is and always will be loss associated with Christmastime. Herod was an evil guy, and he had free will, just like this shooter.”
Rabbi Aryeh Spero: ‘God Mostly Does Not Interfere’
Rabbi Aryeh Spero, president of Caucus For America and the author of “Push Back: Reclaiming the American Judeo-Christian Spirit”, also contends that God affords human beings free will and the power for personal decision-making.
“So as to allow us continued free will and, more or less, control our own destiny, God mostly does not interfere,” he recently told TheBlaze. “We learn lessons and grow, as individuals and as a society, by living with the results of what we do and don’t do.”
And unfortunately, these “results” and negative choices can be monumentally damaging. Notice, though, that the rabbi said that God “mostly” leaves free will to its own devices. Spero also noted, though, that at times God does intervene but that the reasons for this protection are a “mystery.”
“Occasionally God spares us from impending doom, and sometimes He even performs the extraordinary in our behalf,” he added. Moses wanted to know precisely this: What is God’s yardstick? But it is not mathematics; and man, not being God, does not know all the whys and whats of God.”
Spero believes that pain is a part of life and the human condition and that, regardless of how hard we seek out an answer, obtaining a complete one will never be possible. Some people are certainly uncomfortable with this notion — not knowing why an all-loving God would permit such intense horror.
Pastor Miles McPherson: “Pray Against Evil”
In a reflective article published in the North County Times, Pastor Miles McPherson of the Rock Church in San Diego, Calif., addressed Sandy Hook, by presenting a dialogue he imagines having with God. Here’s a portion of that discussion:
Whenever tragedies like this happen, everyone wants to know, “Where was God when all of this took place? If God is so loving and good, how could He have allowed something like this to happen?”
I have a suggestion: Why don’t you ask God?
He might answer:
“I’m so happy you have looked to me in prayer expecting comfort, wisdom and protection. But what I want to know is, why did you wait until after the tragedy to pray to me? If I am the first person you pray to when tragedy strikes, why are there so many controls exerted by your culture to prevent my little ones from learning about me?
“If you truly believe prayer can bring hope, why don’t you focus on teaching my little ones to pray against evil in advance of tragedy?
The piece goes on to show God lamenting that both he and guns have been banned from schools, while also providing what McPherson assumes the Lord would say to those questioning why he didn’t step in to prevent the attack:
“My heart breaks for these little ones and their families more than you can imagine, and in the end, justice will be served. That’s why it is especially offensive to me that some of you would go so far as to blame me for not stopping this evil act. I did not create you as robots, but have given all of you the same freedom to choose to obey me or not. Murderers obviously choose not to obey me, but what about you? The freedom you are exercising to blame me for these killings is the same freedom people abuse when they commit a crime.”
Pastor Joel Osteen: “God Is Good & God Is for Us”
Another familiar face in the American evangelical scene is Joel Osteen. The preacher, like Warren, appeared in media following the tragic shooting, speaking out about the need to comfort those in need, while also addressing the presence of evil.
“God gave us all our own free will. He gives us freedom of choice, He didn’t make us his robots,” Osteen recently told “Today’s” Matt Lauer. ”Unfortunately, some people choose to do evil, and we don’t always understand it, but I still believe that God is good and God is for us, but He doesn’t make us do what’s right.”
Osteen reiterated the importance of faith in the face of evil and tragedy: Watch his comments, below.
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- Richard Carrion declares IOC presidential bid | <urn:uuid:1ed98463-4151-42ee-9323-09ee5e9f8cd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/12/25/5-insights-from-faith-leaders-on-evil-free-will-in-light-of-the-newtown-shooting-massacre/ | 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 | 0.931751 | 2,402 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Hello, my name is Mike Loughery and I am Director, Corporate Marketing Communications for CertainTeed Corporation.
We’ve seen tremendous promotion by all types of companies about how “green” they are. The “greenest this” and the “most environmentally friendly that.” It’s easy to get caught up in it all. We see consumers jumping on the bandwagon and we all follow right along, hoping to tap into what we think is an insatiable appetite for green and sustainable products.
And here we are, several years later and what have we accomplished? At CertainTeed, we have reached inside our core selves and found that a lot of what gets credit for being “green” these days already existed as very aggressive cost-savings initiatives—efforts that existed long before the green discussion started. Our position is simple: we strive to be the industry leader in the development of sustainable building products and the environmentally friendly operation of our facilities.
However, promoting “green” means only promoting what you can back up. We don’t buy into the “greener than green itself” mentality which dilutes the message and impact of the overall green movement. Unfortunately, there is so much overhyped green speak out there that the hard-working efforts of those who really want to make a difference in the world of sustainability are being hindered. Everywhere you look there’s so much green–who knows what to believe? Now, the focus becomes whether it’s “green washing” or the efforts are truly legitimate.
I hear it from architects and even the media—this idea of “green fatigue.” So much so, that serious questions are being raised as to the legitimacy or believability of manufacturers’ claims in their advertising and marketing materials.
I believe the appetite for green is still there, but maybe it’s time to do a gut check. We all know that Green is here to stay. Now, the challenge for all of us is to responsibly represent ourselves to preserve the integrity of what the green movement is all about. Does it mean going low-key while letting our actions speak for themselves? Maybe.
We have a responsibility to promote and also educate about the true sustainable advantages of our products—energy efficiency, indoor air quality, moisture and mold resistance, recyclability, recycled content and so on. All the other stuff is cheap window dressing.
If you’re green, great, promote it—but do so responsibly. Back up those words with proof. Consumers want the truth. I’d be interested in your thoughts. Where is this green movement going? How can we promote green legitimately without causing distrust in the marketplace? | <urn:uuid:fc5eb713-e558-4e0d-b765-23d6c0df1ce6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.certainteed.com/tag/cost-efficient/ | 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 | 0.957994 | 571 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Washington, July 10 (IANS) US consumer credit increased at an annual rate of 8 percent in May as consumers stepped up their borrowing, the US Federal Reserve reported.
Total consumer borrowing rose by $17.1 billion to $2.573 trillion in May, a much faster growth pace than the previous month, the central bank said in a report.
Revolving debt, the category which includes credit cards, jumped $8 billion to $870.2 billion in May. The borrowing in the non-revolving category that includes auto loans rose $9.1 billion to $1,702.6 billion, reported Xinhua.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the overall US economic activity, is the major engine of US economic growth.
The Daily News Post India (tdnpost) | <urn:uuid:6fd3539b-b6ad-4603-b001-0caf9d09d50d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tdnpost.com/news/latest-posts/us-consumer-credit-goes-up-56201.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955426 | 167 | 1.796875 | 2 |
seriously. what has our educational system become. i’ve tried to think of whether our generation is just too lazy, too dramatic, etc but i honestly think we are being over worked and have too high of expectations for our age and for how we are treated. we are told to eat 3 meals a day, get 8 hours of sleep, get to school on time, be in clubs, do sports, finish all of our homework etc. not to mention house work, jobs to pay for college (which is a complete other rant in itself) and still have time to spend unwinding. what many adults fail to understand is that when they were in school they didn’t have advanced placement classes (AP/college courses in high school), they didn’t have honors classes. these more advanced classes are undeniably required if you plan on getting into a good college. it all adds to the stress level of teenagers today. they always say that we have it easier because they didn’t have nearly as advanced technology as we do but it goes both ways. the more technology advances the more we are required to learn. and to be quite honest, the teenagers (with everything else that is going on in their lives) can only handle so much. they wonder why crime rates are going up, they wonder why more and more teenagers are depressed, committing suicide, etc. the problem is right under their nose.
for example: an athlete cannot be overworked by a coach, otherwise they crack under pressure and injuries are more and more common. the same goes for school. another thing i would like to point out is (where i live at least) many elementary schools have cut cursive writing out of the school curriculum. many people think this is outrageous since it has been something children were required to know and “would use for the rest of their lives” for SO long now but it just comes to prove how many things kids in just the 2nd grade must learn! you have youngsters learning long division 2 years earlier than i did when i was in elementary school. it’s crazy! now there’s nothing wrong with improvement, but there comes a time when it gets to be too much for people to handle.
i suppose what i am trying to say is that the human mind is a delicate thing, and people need to be reminded that memorizing all of this information can become unnecessary. there is a fine line between exposing students to certain material, and forcing them to memorize something they have no interest in majoring in. maybe there needs to be a few changes in our school systems today.
okay that’s my rant. sorry it’s soo long and sorry if it doesn’t make sense. it’s 12:30 am and i’m stressed out and i needed to get that off my mind so that i could continue to study for final exams tomorrow.
worth the read
one time when i was younger i had some of that no tears shampoo and i wanted to see if it was legit so when i was in the shower i squirted it into my eye and i think i went blind for like three days
i think you may be a bit retarded because no tears meant like no tears in your hair; no tangles….
Please tell me I’m not the only one who thought no tears as in crying too
MY LIFE IS A LIE | <urn:uuid:f8fad78b-1200-4fb2-908e-7030080e939b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://natinthehat.tumblr.com/page/14 | 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 | 0.981438 | 700 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Example: How do I keep my daughter from rubbing medicine off of her face?
My 4 month old daughter has a rash on her face around her mouth and chin. Her ped gave me a cream to put on it but she is drooling.and putting her hands in her mouth and using a pacifier so much she rubs it off almost immediately. The rash isnt getting any better. What can i do to.keep the cream on her face?
Posted: 12/09/2012 by shorton1020
Answer this question | <urn:uuid:f899bb62-e689-4a5b-beb0-3ed5907f9521> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.babycenter.com/400_example-how-do-i-keep-my-daughter-from-rubbing-medicine-off_13607782_872.bc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975335 | 110 | 1.726563 | 2 |
ARC count: Fayette growth slows
It has been no surprise that the lingering affects of the recession have impacted population growth in the 10-county Atlanta Regional Commission area. Population estimates around the ARC area for the two-year period from 2010-2012 showed that growth is slowing across the region. In Fayette County, the population increased by an estimated 934 residents, the second lowest population increase in the ARC.
Fayette County’s 2010 population was 106,567. Over the two succeeding years that number grew to 107,501, a difference of approximately 467 residents per year, according to ARC.
ARC’s Mike Carnathan said the population data was compiled using a variety of available data such as building permits, birth and death records, postal service records, census data and, to a lesser extent, school enrollment figures.
The desire to maintain its rural character notwithstanding, Fayette has attained its relative affluence in conjunction with the significant growth it has seen over the past four decades, long before most people living here called Fayette home.
Fayette County in 1970 recorded a population of 11,364. By 1980 the population had swelled by 155 percent to 29,043 and by 1990 the county grew by another 115 percent to 62,415 residents. Growth slowed during the next decade, with Fayette reaching a population of 91,263 by 2000, an increase of 46 percent. But by 2010 the population had increased by only 17 percent, to 106,567 residents. The estimate for the 2010-2012 time frame, doubtless affected by the recession, shows the addition of only 933 residents.
As for the population of the remaining nine ARC counties, the data indicated that Gwinnett County showed the greatest growth, adding 17,780 residents. Gwinnett was followed in descending order by Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Cherokee.
The least growth in the 10-county region was seen in Rockdale County where a net growth of 886 residents was seen over the two-year period.
In terms of building permits issued in Fayette County, ARC compared the number of permits issued 53 months before the recession began in December 2007 to the number issued 53 months after the recession began. The numbers are telling. Fayette County issued 3,443 building permits prior to the beginning o the recession and 439 during the same period since the recession began, a decrease of 87.3 percent. Similar large decreases in building permits have been seen around the 10-county area.
The 10-county ARC region includes Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties. | <urn:uuid:dcf1e1ce-2960-4da8-bf06-14ff2e778a18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecitizen.com/articles/08-28-2012/arc-count-fayette-growth-slows | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955707 | 548 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Guest blog post by Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank
I am back in my home state of Missouri today, so it is even more of a treat to witness firsthand the resurgence in American manufacturing. I visited two manufacturers today—the A. Zahner Company, in Kansas City, and Environmental Dynamics International (EDI), in Columbia—and had the chance to talk to some remarkable local businesses leaders and entrepreneurs in both cities.
Under President Obama’s leadership, and with the hard work of businesses and workers like those here in Missouri, our private sector has now seen 28 straight months of job growth—4.4 million jobs. Of course, there is more work to be done, but we are making progress in critical areas. Over the last two and one-half years, we’ve seen the strongest growth in manufacturing jobs since the 1990s. Missouri alone has gained nearly 9,000 new manufacturing jobs since 2010.
On top of that, manufacturers in states like Missouri are realizing that investing here at home is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. Many businesses—both here and abroad—are deciding to keep jobs here, bring jobs back to the U.S., or to set up operations here for the first time—a trend called “insourcing.”
We need to do everything possible to support businesses in places like Missouri that are thinking about insourcing. The Obama administration will continue to call on Congress to pass legislation to give our companies a tax break if they move operations and jobs back.
Of course, a globally competitive economy also requires a globally competitive workforce. That’s why this administration is focused on increasing the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates. Over the past decade, growth in STEM jobs was three times as fast as non-STEM jobs, and these jobs pay about 25 percent more than others, providing greater economic security for working families. STEM workers also help ensure that our businesses can develop innovative, cutting-edge products, helping America stay competitive in a global economy.
In recent years, however, only about 13 percent of U.S. college graduates got degrees in the STEM fields, compared to 25 percent of students in competitor countries like Korea and Germany. Clearly, we have some work to do. That’s why the president’s 2013 budget invests $3 billion across the federal government in programs that promote STEM education, a three percent increase.
We are continuing to move forward with other efforts that build a strong environment for innovation and manufacturing in the U.S. For example, last September, the Commerce Department awarded this region nearly $2 million as seed money to help expand a cluster of businesses in advanced manufacturing and information technology. Meanwhile, our SelectUSA initiative is providing information needed to encourage foreign companies to choose America when deciding where to build their next factory and hire their next workers.
The continued strength of American manufacturing is vital to ensuring that our economy is built to last. We want more good, quality products stamped with Made in America, and we want more Americans proudly getting up each day to go to work at good jobs. In short, we want to see America retain its place as the most competitive leader in a global economy. At the Department of Commerce and throughout the administration, we are focused on helping American business and workers build it here and sell it everywhere. | <urn:uuid:cc4f0a47-7fc0-488e-afb1-957bca68c001> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commerce.gov/blog/2012/07/23/american-resurgence-manufacturing-happening-kansas-city-and-columbia-missouri | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95799 | 685 | 1.71875 | 2 |
June 4 – Happy Birthday Tony Pena
I was an oversized kid. My first little league baseball coach kept asking me if I wanted to try catching. We already had a kid on the team doing the catching and I believe his name was John Malec. John had a tendency to get lazy back there and he would sometimes sit instead of squat in in his crouch at which point our coach would scream, “Get your damn rump off the ground Malec. If you’re tired go home!”
Young Malec was not alone. That same phrase or words very similar could be heard shouted to boys dressed in oversized catcher’s gear by coaches and parents at thousands of baseball fields across our country. It was against protocol and considered taboo for a catcher to let his buttocks come in contact with the dirt when assuming the catchers’ crouch position to await the next pitch. So every time Coach Aldi would ask me if I wanted to catch, I would quickly say no because I did not want to have anybody yelling at me to keep my rump off the ground.
Now if today’s Pinstripe Birthday Celebrant had started his Major League career in 1960 instead of 1980, either John Malec would be walking around with a lot fewer emotional scars or I myself might have even given the tools of ignorance a shot. Why? Because Tony Pena gave every lazy kid catcher an automatic retort to the phrase ”Get your damn rump off the ground catcher.”
Pena sat on his rump (see photo) waiting to receive every pitch thrown to him during his eighteen-year career as a big league catcher. He sat down back there during his seven years catching for the Pirates, his three seasons as a Cardinal, the four summers he caught in Cleveland and during his eighteenth and final year split between Chicago and Houston. He sat down back there for 1,950 games, the fourth most by any big league catcher in history. | <urn:uuid:741d02cd-8489-4a55-890b-b185f725a5d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pinstripebirthdays.mlblogs.com/2012/06/04/june-4-happy-birthday-tony-pena/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=72a7b014e3 | 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 | 0.987349 | 405 | 1.742188 | 2 |
WASHINGTON, DC – On the eve of the most important presidential election in years, the Chaos Cloud has descended upon the nation’s capitol.
Following stops in crucial swing states such as Ohio and Florida, thought to be monitoring the election to prevent the turmoil seen in 2000 and 2004, it is now thought that the Chaos Cloud is going to monitor the final days of the Bush Administration in Washington DC.
President Bill Clinton was widely criticized for 11th hour pardons and judicial appointments made in December 2000 and January 2001 just days before leaving office. While there have been no negative long-term effects of those decisions, Clinton left office under very different national and international conditions.
Bush will leave the White House with the nation in a recession, the military still embattled in Iraq and with an every deepening national debt. It is widely feared what Bush might do in the 11th hour of his second term.
DNC Chairman, Howard Dean told reporters, “The presence of the Chaos Cloud, while an ominous portent for the year 2014, provides at least some comfort for the final days of the most harmful and hubris-inspired administration in this nation’s history.” | <urn:uuid:c96f26bf-967f-40ca-b175-11147708df82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weeklyworldnews.com/mutants/3657/chaos-cloud-appears-in-washington-dc/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=744caefc44 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951783 | 240 | 1.6875 | 2 |
We are researching the following surnames =
Buchner of N. J., Ontario, Iowa, Calif. 1753 - 1900 The original Buchner was John Buchner who arrived in the US in 1753 and settled in New Jersey. His sons were Loyalists that went to Canada after the American Revolutionary War. We are especially interested in finding an unknown Buchner that went to California, probably from Ontario or Iowa, around the mid 1800s and died there before 1899.
Kline of Penn, Mich, Kan 1800 - 1900 My oldest Kline family member that is known is John Peter Kline who is buried in Beavertown, PA. We need his ealier families.
McDonald of Penn, Mo, Kan. 1780s - 1900 The first McDonald we have is Agustus, whom we believe was born in PA about 1818, His father may have been James born in Ireland.
Newcomer of Penn, Ill, Kan. 1730s - 1900 We have this family pretty well traced out and are just filling out the family branches.
Rathbun of Rhd Isl, N York, Ohio, Ind, Mo, Kan. 1654 - 1900 This family we have pretty much in detail from the original John that arrived here around 1653 or 54.
Wooley of KY, MO. 1780s - 1900 Our first member is Levi Wooley of KY. We are trying to trace the line on back from there.
Henderson of Ireland, PA, IL, KS & NE. Our first member is Stuart (Stewart) Henderson 1774 - 1839. We are fairly sure he came to America around 1797 or 98. We are looking for his parents. We also want to learn more of two sons, Samuel and John, by his first marriage and his brother, Samuel. We have quite a bit of information on his descendants. | <urn:uuid:558997c9-1270-45d6-b72f-e15f14272129> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/r/a/t/William-E-Rathbun/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984014 | 390 | 1.773438 | 2 |
July 1, 2007
Your emerging-market fund might have climbed 50 percent during the last 12 months, but that doesn't mean it will be immune from the interest rate worries, housing woes and subprime mortgage angst that have tainted U.S. stocks recently.
Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe may seem a long distance from the "for sale" signs in your neighborhood and Wall Street's jitters over subprime mortgage fallout, but many analysts say they are not.
The low interest rates, and easy loan terms, that caused Americans to speculate on homes the last few years also drove an investment boom in the far corners of the globe. And with interest rates rising and lenders more wary about the ability of borrowers to repay loans, conditions are changing from the cul-de-sac to the rain forest.
Citigroup Inc. emerging-market analyst Andrew Howell warned in a recent report that the cost of borrowing money is rising in foreign markets. And because investors have pushed emerging-market stock prices to such high levels, they are not positioned to absorb the strains that higher borrowing costs can cause.
Of course, that means emerging-market funds can no longer be expected to climb 51 percent, as the average fund tracked by Lipper Inc. did the last 12 months. And Howell is suggesting they very well could fall.
The cost of capital is rising both globally and in certain emerging-market countries, Howell said. And that pressure combined with high stock prices "makes for a more challenging picture" in many emerging markets. "This is a cause for concern, especially for markets that looked stretched" with stocks priced near peak levels.
When companies need to spend more to borrow money, the costs can constrain profits the same way higher mortgage costs pressure the family budget. And because investors buy stocks so they can partake in the profits, stocks can fall if earnings don't measure up to expectations.
Howell is particularly concerned about South Africa, but less so about Russia and Israel, which have lower interest rates and more reasonable stock valuations.
Rather than moving money into emerging markets now, he would wait. Although he said it's difficult to predict when stock market turbulence will hit the developing economies, "near term we do see a vulnerability to a more serious market setback."
Howell follows markets in Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and says "interest rates in a number of countries are now considerably above their lows of the past few years. Only in Israel and Egypt are interbank rates close to recent lows."
The rising rate environment has added about 1.5 percentage points to the cost of capital, he said. And while yields and borrowing costs remain low compared to the past, "it is important to realize that the environment of 2001-05, during which monetary easing has been the dominating influence, is largely over."
Before a recent pullback, the surge in global markets -- fueled in part by easy money -- was tremendous. Since March 2003, the Morgan Stanley Capital International All Country World index has climbed about 113 percent, and emerging markets -- measured by the MSCI Emerging Market index -- have jumped about 181 percent. Since the late 1990s, emerging markets have climbed about 214 percent, far surpassing gains in developed areas of Europe, Japan and Asia-Pacific, as well as U.S. stocks.
As investors worry about rising bond yields and borrowing costs, Citigroup global strategist Robert Buckland thinks the most volatile markets will be those that have risen most since 2003 -- especially the Asia-Pacific area. Latin America is also a concern, after climbing about 80 percent during the last 12 months. Citigroup Latin America strategist Geoff Dennis has said that area could drop 15 percent to 20 percent in the near term.
Still, while the U.S. and Europe might be safer markets now, Buckland says the globe's longer-term bull market is not yet done, and investors should not pull away completely from emerging-market investments.
Gail MarksJarvis is a Your Money columnist. Contact her at gmarksjarvis @tribune.com. | <urn:uuid:dd4563d2-6e0b-4491-a0e2-e69fe3398033> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kwch.com/business/chi-ym-marksjarvis-0701jul01,0,4662557,print.column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955547 | 829 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Not sure why your vacuum has lost its suction? The problem is usually due to one of five reasons, and in this video Helen explains with a modern Hoover upright vacuum cleaner.
Hi, I'm Helen from eSpares.
If you're experiencing a loss of suction in your Hoover upright vacuum cleaner, then it'll be due to one of five reasons:
- Gaps in the air flow
- The motor
So let's start with bags. It's going to sound obvious, but the first thing to check is if the bag's full because if it is it will be causing a loss of suction. Also check for any rips or tears in the bag. When you're replacing the bag, always try and get genuine Hoover bags rather than the cheaper, non-branded alternatives like these ones because the genuine ones will be better quality. Now if you have a bagless Hoover upright, always make sure that you empty the dust container regularly.
Now moving onto filters. This has two filters: this pre-motor filter here at the bottom, and then on the back, we have the post-motor filter. Now these are really good examples of what your filters shouldn't look like, because they should be kept clean. These ones are washable - you just rinse them under warm water and then leave to dry for about 24 hours, but I would definitely replace these ones.
Next is blockages - it's very easy for something to get trapped in the hose or ducting, for example coins, so if you just give the hose and any ducting a check to make sure that there's nothing trapped. You also want to check the brushroll area and make sure that there's nothing blocking the movement brushroll and that it's moving freely. You can replace the brushroll if it's damaged.
Next up is gaps in the air flow. This hose is in pretty good condition, but over time the plastic can degrade and rub against parts of the machine and you can end up with something looking like this. Now this is a pretty extreme example, but even the smallest of holes can cause a loss of suction.
Lastly, if you've tried all of the above and you're still experiencing a loss of suction, it's probably due to the motor. Now you can replace the motor - it's not the easiest of jobs but it's certainly do-able and you may find that you don't need to replace the whole motor, just the carbon brushes in the motor.
Bags, filters, hoses, motors and carbon brushes for all models of Hoover are available on the eSpares website.
Thanks for watching. | <urn:uuid:e1b6baf8-8ad6-4823-99fd-fff1d026d4a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.espares.co.uk/advice/vacuum-cleaners/a/4/1417/how-to-fix-loss-of-suction-in-a-vacuum-hoover.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958621 | 544 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Description: The story of a 7-year-old boy growing up in 1930s Liverpool. Liam's father works at the local shipyard, while his mother keeps the household afloat, pinching pennies, yet keeping spirits high. Life takes a terrible turn when the shipyard closes and Dad loses his job. Humiliated by the fact that his teenage daughter, Teresa, must work as a maid in a wealthy Jewish household, and that his eldest son is the family's major breadwinner, Dad loses his self-respect and becomes disillusioned. A Jewish pawnbroker buys their family trinkets for cash. Their Jewish landlord harasses them for rent. And Teresa's Jewish employer, the owner of the shipyard, is responsible for Dad's unemployment. Desperate for someone to blame for his misfortunes, Dad finds comfort and a sense of community with a group of Fascists who encourage him to blame the Jews for all of his troubles. Meanwhile, Teresa and Liam face their own crises of conscience and faith, as their mother hopes that the Church can hold the family together.
Movie summaries and listings powered by Cinema-Source
Related Content on Movies from Infoplease: | <urn:uuid:bc186c3b-224e-49c5-8edd-22325081d8f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoplease.com/movies/liam/30474 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976206 | 241 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Local administrators and business leaders gathered in Gettysburg Friday to hear the governor talk about his proposed education initiative and issues regarding its funding.
Gov. Tom Corbett reiterated his plan to use revenue from privatizing state liquor stores - an estimated $1 billion - toward his proposed Passport to Learning Block Grant during the press conference.
The funds would be divided among the state's 500 school districts over the course of four years and would focus on four areas: school safety, individualized learning programs for science, technology, engineering and mathematics - also known as STEM - and two enhanced early education programs for reading and math.
The proposal would separate the state from liquor sales - a business the governor said it should never have been involved with in the first place - and at the same time, benefit the students of Pennsylvania through the funding of educational programming.
"Selling liquor is not a core function of government," Corbett said. "Education is."
Dave Taylor, executive director of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, said he supported the governor's plan because it would help educate students in the areas necessary to be considered employable in today's job market.
Taylor said there are more than 6,000 manufacturing jobs in the state that can not be filled because applicants do not have the required math and science skills.
"This is unacceptable," Taylor said.
Redding mentioned several safety-related initiatives that could be funded by the grant, including teacher training, security improvements for school buildings, and programs that would help identify students with emotional issues.
He did not give an opinion on whether or not he thought it was appropriate to fund the grant with the revenue gained by privatizing liquor sales.
In the past, local administrators have acknowledged the initiative is a step in the right direction, but many are fearful about starting new programs without assured long-term funding.
Corbett, however, said the grant would fund a trial period for the proposed Passport to Learning programs, which would allow administrators a chance to decide if they wanted to use their own resources to continue funding the initiatives when the grant ends after four years.
"This is one time only money," he said. "We understand that."
The governor referenced programs such as D.A.R.E., which encourages students to stay away from drugs, as an example of previous block grant initiatives schools continued to finance after state funding was no longer available.
Corbett acknowledged the good things the proposed block grant has to offer regarding educating the children of Pennsylvania.
"We really have a chance here."
Estimated grant funds for local districts
Numbers reflect the total amount each district would receive over the course of four years.
Hanover Public: $831,220
Bermudian Springs: $1,278,295
Conewago Valley: $2,409,235
Fairfield Area: $568,655
Gettysburg Area: $1,014,670
Littlestown Area: $1,152,465
Upper Adams: $$1,133,955
South Western: $1,952,140
Spring Grove: $2,056,945
Local leaders in attendance
Dr. Larry Redding, superintendent, Gettysburg Area School District
Dr. Rebecca Harbaugh, superintendent, Conewago Valley School District
Dr. Shane Hotchkiss, superintendent, Bermudian Springs School District
Dr. Mike Lawrence, business manager, Upper Adams School District
Caroline Dean, business manager, Fairfield School District
Wayne Wismar, business manager, Littlestown Area School District. | <urn:uuid:8ea15543-3349-4384-b19f-cf69d6e8dbc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eveningsun.com/news/ci_22749144/governor-addressed-local-school-officials-gettysburg?source=most_viewed | 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 | 0.957679 | 736 | 1.84375 | 2 |
1-19 Torrington Place
9th and 10th Floors
London WC1E 7HB
Tel: +44 020 7679 1843
Managing Stress at Work - Appendix 2
Check List to Assist in the Identification and Management of Workplace Issues that Might Have an Adverse Effect on Health and Work Performance
UCL has a duty of care towards its staff and a legal obligation to provide a safe working environment. This checklist (Word doc) is designed to provide UCL managers and staff with guidance on the practical steps they can take to avoid or address workplace issues that might have an adverse effect on health and performance. The checklist aims to support managers in the implementation of UCL’s employment policies.
The checklist can be used to
- Identify workplace issues that might have an adverse effect on health and work performance
- Identify reasonable adjustments that could be implemented to reduce the risk of adverse effects
- Identify sources of practical and emotional support at work
Sources of information, support and guidance to help in this process are available here. | <urn:uuid:d59f42fe-0bb8-4c66-9f52-26aa6b901d45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/docs/stress_apdx2.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944791 | 218 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Eggs spread treats, Easter messagePublished 1:39am Sunday, April 24, 2011
From the early days of Christianity, the egg has served as a symbol for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now, children will gather with anticipation of hunting out the eggs that can contain anything from chocolate to money.
In Dallas County, several area churches and organizations held their own egg hunts, including Salem Primitive Baptist Church in Orrville.
“We have been doing it for about 16 years,” Salem’s pastor Lee Green said. “Each year it seems to get bigger and bigger and more enjoyable. We have it down to a T. This kids come here to look for the golden egg and just have a real good time with it. It’s not just for the church members either, we encourage the community to come out and have fun.”
Quintrell Simmons, from Orrville, said he enjoyed his time at the hunt.
“It was real fun,” Harris said. “We come out here every year and do this. It’s just a whole lot of fun trying to find the golden egg and get $40.”
Money and prizes are not the only reasons for the Easter egg hunt said Green.
“We try to make sure the kids remember what Easter is all about, which is the true resurrection of Jesus,” Green said. “It’s not about the eggs they find or the hot dogs we give away. We want these kids to leave with the knowledge that Jesus died and rose again. We want to have them with their families learning that, because I firmly believe that the family that prays together, stays together.” | <urn:uuid:c752f925-920a-4f4a-983f-a9849df641ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/2011/04/24/eggs-spread-treats-easter-message/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979987 | 361 | 1.78125 | 2 |
An error that is known how to solve it, I was the victim today with it and when I started the SSMS, I saw that error. I’m telling you here how to fix it as fast info and references from MS.
This error usually comes when your DB no longer exists or it is in suspect mode or has been detached or offline etc, and you will have the pop-up message with error description and the number 4064:
Ok, as you can see the user Blue cannot connect in the default database and the login failed!
Fixing this error is really easy, so you can try again to login with that user but first before to Connect, you must go to the Options that is in right corner below and you will be asked for the Connection Properties on the second tab of the login dialog box and you must enter the master database in the drop-down box, see the fig below and hit Connect:
Now you will be able to connect in your SQL Server. So what’s next!? As I said, some of the reason why it happened are described above, so now you can check for the correct DB that must be as default DB of that user. After that to be sure for the next connection you need to change the default DB via T-SQL or GUI:
GUI: Open the SSMS on the right, you have object Explorer, go to Security > Logins > Find your login and right click > Properties. You will have the dialog box like shown in the fig below.
Or you can use the T-SQL script:
ALTER LOGIN [Blue] WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[TESTING2];
For more info about this error, you can check here. | <urn:uuid:73f8d344-a730-4181-a95a-fada1cf31517> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/dugi/2013/02/11/fixing-sql-server-error-4064-/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932378 | 358 | 1.75 | 2 |
The technology of gaming and browsersPUBLISHED: 27 Mar 2012 00:04:41 | UPDATED: 27 Mar 2012 00:31:45PUBLISHED: 27 Mar 2012 PRINT EDITION: 27 Mar 2012
Mass Effect 3 was billed as the final in a much-loved series, and has sold almost 2.5 million copies since its release.
According to StatCounter’s CEO, when users are at home they prefer Chrome, but are forced back to Explorer at work.
We keep hearing reports of the video game industry usurping movies, as the thrill of participating in increasingly cinematic experiences brings in millions of new gamers each year.
But news coming from developers of the wildly popular Mass Effect 3 shows a previously unconsidered advantage that gamers have over cinema goers. If you hate the ending of a great movie, you’re stuck with it – not so with games.
Mass Effect 3 was billed as the final in a much-loved series, and has sold almost 2.5 million copies since it was released earlier this month. But, without giving the ending away, it was not a happy one, and more than 50,000 fans took to social networks to campaign for a new ending. At the weekend, news emerged that they had succeeded.
“Our first instinct is to defend our work and point to the high ratings offered by critics – but out of respect to our fans, we need to accept the criticism and feedback with humility,” game publisher BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka said in a blog post announcing that a new ending would be released.
It’s hard to imagine a similar note from George Lucas, no matter how bad those Star Wars prequels were.
Anyone who remembers the name Netscape will know that in the internet’s relatively short history, Microsoft has seen off all comers when it comes to web browsers, or programs which allow you to surf the web. Last week, however, for one day only, Microsoft’s greatest foe, Google, ruled the roost.
On Sunday 18, figures from web analytics firm StatCounter, showed that Google’s Chrome was used for 32.7 per cent of all browsing, while Microsoft’s Internet Explorer had 32.5 per cent. While it was a fleeting victory, it showed, according to StatCounter’s CEO, that when users are at home they prefer Chrome, but are forced back to Explorer at work.
Chrome’s monthly market share is 31 per cent, Explorer’s 35 per cent. Firefox, the third most popular browser, has about 25 per cent.
The Australian Financial Review | <urn:uuid:b3741b5c-be03-48e8-b7dc-8ed0ad509fd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.afr.com/p/technology/the_technology_of_gaming_and_browsers_B6Zx25ECnvYBSuO2F9Pi3L | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957162 | 552 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Connect to share and comment
With diplomatic relations stalled, Ankara and Yerevan should focus on the less controversial parts of their agreement.
The Turkish government decided that it could not ignore Azeri pressure and with difficult negotiations going on concerning constitutional reform, it does not want to pick a fight over border opening with the nationalist opposition in parliament. There is little chance that the twin protocols can move until after the next round of Turkish elections in 2011, or until Azerbaijan and Armenia sign the long-awaited agreement on basic principles on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution.
Armenian President Serzh Sarkissian is also under pressure. Even though a quick ratification in Armenia would firmly put the ball in Turkey’s court and give Yerevan credit internationally, domestic opposition is strong.
The decade of confidence-building that preceded the Turkey-Armenian protocol signing could now be lost unless there is progress soon. The best step now would be for Ankara and Yerevan to temporarily put aside the most difficult aspects of the protocols and move ahead with the less controversial parts. Despite current troubles, they could proceed with the establishment of diplomatic ties and recognition of their mutual border. These need no parliamentary approval, are purely about bilateral relations and are not linked to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkey and Armenia have a mounting number of bilateral issues to address requiring simple consular services. There are up to 40,000 Armenian citizens living in Turkey, tens of thousands of Armenian tourists visit the Turkish Riviera every year and countless Turkish truck drivers and small businesses operating in Armenia.
There are easy opportunities to develop many other cross-border activities. But currently none of them can get effective support from their home country while abroad.
For such basic practical matters, Obama’s speech is really a distraction. Even in the current difficult diplomatic climate, the leaders of Turkey and Armenia can and should take these initial steps to ensure their people can build up a prosperous future and help them come to terms with their shared traumatic history.
Sabine Freizer is Crisis Group's Europe Program Director. | <urn:uuid:2c038ff1-06de-43fd-ae79-7b79d824cd77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100420/turkey-armenia-diplomacy?page=0,1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944175 | 421 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Choir and orchestra
Chor und Orchester
The Choir and Orchestra of the J. S. Bach Foundation was founded by Rudolf Lutz in 2006. The ensemble consists of professional musicians from the whole of Switzerland, southern Germany and Austria. All its members are experienced in historical performance practices and relish the challenge of exploring a contemporary and vital interpretation of Bach's cantatas. The Choir and Orchestra consists of regular members, with extra musicians being engaged according to the demands of the work performed. The choir's size varies in the range of up to 40 voices, and is made up of young professional singers. Individual members receive the opportunity to take on solo roles from time to time.
Conducted by Rudolf Lutz, the Choir and Orchestra has been performing Bach’s cantatas in a monthly concert cycle since October 2006. Throughout the ongoing work of this project, it has continually developed and matured. Today, the ensemble is distinguished by its homogenous, yet flexible sound and its wealth of experience in the interpretation of Bach’s works. The quality and of vitality of its performances have garnered the group notable critical acclaim. In recent years, the Choir and Orchestra has ventured beyond its home concert hall in Trogen, Switzerland, and now gives regular concerts both nationally and internationally. | <urn:uuid:4337c60b-1116-4357-bb5f-0bd39a608790> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bachstiftung.ch/en/artists/choir-and-orchestra/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966303 | 267 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Martin Handford is the illustrator and creator of those Waldo books that you used to lay on the floor and stare at until you had the texture of the carpet tattooed onto your elbows. He just put this illustration (below) into one of his books. Do you recognize it? If not, you don’t know who Melanie Coles is, and you somehow didn’t hear about her amazing art project: Where On Earth Is Waldo?
The project is so fabulous it is entitled to two images before the “more” button (amazing, I know). Melanie’s graduate project was to turn Google maps into a giant page from a Where’s Waldo book. She and her cohorts painted a giant Waldo and placed it on the top of an unknown building in Vancouver and waited for it to be photographed by Google’s satellite. | <urn:uuid:bbb170f3-a271-42c4-8031-8ccbec39f7b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.booooooom.com/tag/where-on-earth-is-waldo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960847 | 181 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Mar 6 2013
Britain is to supply armoured vehicles and body armour to Syrian opposition forces as it steps up efforts to end a humanitarian crisis of "catastrophic proportions", William Hague has said.
The Foreign Secretary said he had ordered "more active efforts" after securing a relaxation of an EU arms embargo to allow the provision of non-lethal military equipment to protect civilians.
Testing equipment to provide evidence of any use of chemical weapons by the regime and training for armed groups in international human rights and legal standards is also being provided.
He said £3 million had been allocated this month for the work with another £10 million to follow - urging other countries to do the same.
"The Cabinet is in no doubt that this is a necessary, proportionate and lawful response to a situation of extreme humanitarian suffering, and that there is no practicable alternative," he said.
"All our assistance will be carefully calibrated and monitored as well as legal, and will be aimed at saving life, alleviating this human catastrophe and supporting moderate groups."
It came as the number of refugees fleeing the country reached what he called the "sad milestone" of one million refugees.
The UK is also taking advantage of the embargo relaxation to provide assistance, advice and training to the Syrian National Coalition. Equipment for search and rescue operations and communications will also be sent along with incinerators, rubbish collection and water purification kit to prevent the spread of disease.
Mr Hague said the UK had fought hard to secure the changes to preserve an EU-wide approach but cautioned: "We will have to be ready to move further, and we should not rule out any option for saving lives."
It came as the chief of staff of the rebel army in Syria was in Brussels, urging the international community to supply it with arms and ammunition to help fight the regime of President Bashar Assad. At least 10,000 people have been killed in the brutal civil war in the last two months, Mr Hague said - more than in the whole of the first year since uprisings were brutally suppressed in 2011. | <urn:uuid:1b5705ce-8f95-43aa-91f6-c0278492f2bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.osadvertiser.co.uk/news/west-lancashire-breaking-news/2013/03/06/hague-steps-up-uk-s-syria-efforts-80904-32934961/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969532 | 418 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Jul 27, 2006 (03:07 PM EDT)
Ozzie Predicts Customer Cost Savings In Web-Based Software
Read the Original Article at InformationWeek
Microsoft is planning Internet services that enhance the value of its desktop software and that potentially encourage consumers to replace older PCs or buy additional ones.
Speaking at a meeting with financial analysts in Redmond, Wash., on Thursday, chief software architect Ray Ozzie said Microsoft's software-as-service effort, called "Live software," will include development tools that let programmers build Web applications that scale to many users. Microsoft also intends to measure in new ways how Internet people consume online software.
"Some may view what we're doing here as a big, bold bet, but it's a very natural bet for us as a platform company," said Ozzie, who assumed the chief software architect title after chairman Bill Gates split his technical responsibilities between two deputies last month. Gates said he would leave his daily role at the company in two years.
Microsoft may bring to market online software that lets Outlook users publish their calendars to the Web so other PC users can view them, and a version of its OneNote note-taking application that uses Web components to let users take notes with a handheld computer, then transfer them to a PC. Such online tools would "make Office a more valuable product" and could even encourage consumers to buy new PCs and devices capable of supporting the new services, said Ozzie.
Online software should be "largely additive" to Microsoft's traditional PC and server software, not compete with them, he said. For businesses, CIOs will need to make choices about "cost vs. control" when deciding whether to use Microsoft's Web products. Over time, however, the cost benefits of Web-based software may be difficult to ignore, Ozzie added.
"This is more of an additive model than it is a replacement," said Ozzie. "I do not believe the Web is the be-all and end-all of experience delivery." As part of its online effort, Microsoft will start tracking more data about consumption of online software, in a way that respects PC users' privacy, Ozzie said.
Other Microsoft executives discussed plans for additional Internet software. Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, said the company will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the newly hatched Zune digital music player and Internet music store over the next three to five years. Zune will launch as a single product in the United States this fall, with the company expanding into additional markets and related products next year.
Kevin Johnson, co-president of Microsoft's platforms and services division, discussed how Microsoft is serving more ads into its Xbox Live Internet service, including from Coca-Cola and The Progressive Corp. He also showed prototype software developed in Microsoft's research labs that involved moving a mouse over the actress Sarah Jessica Parker's outfit in a video clip from "Sex And The City," displaying the name of the clothing manufacturer and how much it cost.
Microsoft's online services business will grow by 7% to 11% in the current fiscal year which began July 1, to $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion in revenues, Johnson said. | <urn:uuid:15e40fef-57db-4e68-baa6-9faa922c9812> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techweb.com/news/191502749/ozzie-predicts-customer-cost-savings-in-web-based-software.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956446 | 659 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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