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Some issues of a blended family
From Tips and Steps
Looking for more informationType Some issues of a blended family into the search box below.
The blended family must confront a great many issues, what are the most common ones.
Loyalty Conflicts--Parents in remarried families often want to minimise the influence of the absent parent and hope that the children bond to and accept discipline from the stepparent. Children resist being what they may consider "disloyal" to the absent parent and often sabotage the stepparent's efforts to control them.
Jealousy--Jealousy issues abound in the blended family! Children in blended families, for example, often lose the unique positions they occupied in their original family. The baby of the family may become the middle child, or the only girl may become one of several girls. On top of all this, children must adjust to a parent whose time is occupied by a new spouse and new children.
Boundary Issues--Parents often need help in setting and implementing clear boundaries with and among blended family members. A common problem is that of a teenage girl and a new stepfather. The teen's distancing behavior (little conversation with parents, increased time with peer groups, testing new behaviors), though developmentally appropriate, may fly in the face of newly blended parents' attempts at closeness and cohesion. Parents need to understand that slamming doors and storming off in a huff are ways to keep distance that help both teen and stepfather reduce sexual tensions that may be under the surface, unrecognised by either.
Sadness and loss, a history interrupted, changes in residence or schools, fear of the unknown, feeling unheard or misunderstood, anger, and denial are some of the issues and feelings explored in therapy with blended families and individuals within blended families. Family members need to learn and experience the reality that expressing their feelings more often enhances rather than jeopardises these new relationships. They eventually realise that the energy they put into hiding, discounting or inappropriately acting-out their feelings could be better channeled into discussion and relationship-building.
- How to Deal With Your Stepmother When Your Father Dies
- Step families can create wonderful opportunities
- The law and blended families - Tindall Gask Bentley Lawyers - Adelaide, South Australia
- How to Deal With a Jealous Stepdaughter | eHow
- Its Different for Stepmothers
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Phil Cousineau discusses his hew book, The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins (Cleis Press’ Viva Editions) at City Lights, September 13, 2012.
Cousineau, linguistic detective and dictionary delver, is back with a priceless treasury of word stories and literary obscura that will enchant any lover of language. The words themselves range from the commonplace, such as biscuit, a twice-baked cake for Roman soldiers, to loanwords like chaparral, courtesy of Basque shepards who came to the American West; from word-reversals such as silly, which evolved from “holy” to “goofy” in a mere thousand years, and to words well worthy of revival, such as carrytale, a wandering storyteller. Cousineau’s journey through the history and mystery of words will enlighten as it delights.
Phil Cousineau is an award-winning writer and filmmaker, teacher and editor, independent scholar and travel leader, storyteller and TV host. He is the author of numerous books including Wordcatcher
An Odyssey into the World of Weird and Wonderful Words. He lives in San Francisco.
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Shirley Inman, who lives in Boone County—left a good-paying job in Chicago to come home to West Virginia to work in the mines. She did it because of the pension and health care benefits she was promised. She came to Washington, D.C. to discuss the issue with U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)
WASHINGTON, DC – On the heels of hearing gripping accounts last week in Beckley from retired coal miners who were promised lifetime pension and health care benefits for themselves and their families, Senator Jay Rockefeller introduced legislation that would protect those benefits for thousands of retired miners whose livelihoods are in jeopardy. Senator Joe Manchin cosponsored the bill.
The Coalfield Accountability and Retired Employee Act seeks to provide certainty and peace of mind to retirees and their families while holding employers accountable for the commitments they make to their workers. The bill builds on and strengthens similar legislation Rockefeller and U.S. Rep Nick Rahall introduced last Congress.
The new measure comes soon after a roundtable discussion Rockefeller held in Beckley with retired coal miners in which he re-affirmed his commitment to preserving their promised benefits. Rahall and United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts also joined the discussion. Rahall introduced companion legislation in the House, just as he did last Congress.
“Last month, I heard stories that absolutely broke my heart,” Rockefeller said. “One woman—Shirley Inman, who lives in Boone County—left a good-paying job in Chicago to come home to West Virginia to work in the mines. She did it because of the pension and health care benefits she was promised. And now, after years of on-the-job injuries and a bout with cancer, that promise was broken. That’s more than unfair. It’s shameful. And I won’t stand for it.”
“A strong mining industry begins with a strong commitment to our miners,” Senator Manchin said. “Our coal miners are some of the hardest working people in America, and they are proud to do the heavy lifting that keeps this country strong. They are the backbone behinds decades of lighting our cities and heating our homes, and deserve nothing less than the best possible benefits and care. This bill makes sure our brave coal miners receive the benefits they’ve been promised.”
“Every effort must be made to preserve health care benefits for our retired coal miners who worked so hard to produce the coal that powered this Nation,” said Rahall. “This legislation that Senator Rockefeller and I are introducing today keeps faith with the federal commitment that has been made to our coal miners. It ensures that those who participated in the noble but dangerous job of working underground to provide our energy security are secure in the retirement.”
Some retirees are facing uncertainty because the UMWA’s 1974 pension plan is severely underfunded and on the road to insolvency because of the 2008 financial crisis. The 1974 plan covers more than 100,000 mineworkers, including more than 35,000 West Virginians. If the plan becomes insolvent, retirees could see reductions in their monthly pension checks.
In addition, Patriot Coal, which was spun-off from Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, has filed for bankruptcy and could shed its obligations to retirees. This means more than 12,000 retired miners and dependants, including nearly 7,000 West Virginians – the vast majority of whom actually worked for Peabody and Arch –would lose health benefits, and the 1974 pension plan would be further destabilized.
The Coalfield Accountability and Retired Employee Act would:
• Amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act to transfer funds in excess of the amounts needed to meet existing obligations under the Abandoned Mine Land fund to the UMWA 1974 Pension Plan to prevent its insolvency.
• Make Patriot’s union retirees and other union retirees who lose health care benefits following the bankruptcy or insolvency of his or her employer eligible for the 1992 Benefit Plan, which was established under the Coal Act of 1992 to provide health benefits to retired or disabled miners and their families. Companies that originally promised these benefits would be held accountable for the costs and, if needed, additional funding from the Abandoned Mine Land fund would be available.
• Provide that employer contributions under the UMWA Retiree Bonus Trust are not unfairly penalized by the tax code and receive the same tax-exempt treatment as contributions to other pension plans, allowing the full value of employer cash contributions to go to the retirees who earned them. This Retiree Bonus Trust provides modest supplemental pension payments to retired miners.
Rockefeller’s efforts through the Coalfield Accountability and Retired Employee Act build upon a longstanding record of steadfastly pursuing fairness for miners and their loved ones. He engineered passage of the 1992 Coal Act, which preserved health benefits for more than 100,000 retired miners and their widows who had been promised these benefits by both the federal government and their companies, after several companies unfairly stopped providing these benefits. Rockefeller again fought in 2006 to protect the UMWA health care plans by providing them with Abandoned Mine Land funds.
“I was so incredibly motivated by the retirees I heard from in Beckley and so many others who have reached out to me,” Rockefeller said. “Our coal miners work their entire lives, at risk of life and limb, to provide for their families and fuel our nation. We owe them nothing less than to make sure the pledge of lifetime benefits is preserved. It’s so simple: make a promise, keep your promise. That’s what I’m fighting for.”
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FRIDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- For women with a specific type of breast cancer, taking Herceptin for a year after initial treatment is just as effective -- and safer -- than staying on it for a longer period, new research suggests.
Many of the women in the study, who had HER2-postive early stage breast cancer, were cancer-free eight years later and experienced no major heart problems, the international study on Herceptin (trastuzumab) found.
"Giving trastuzumab for [two years] did not improve disease-free or overall survival, compared with one year of trastuzumab treatment," study author Dr. Martine Piccart, president of the European Society for Medical Oncology and chairwoman of the Breast International Group, said in a news release from the American Association for Cancer Research.
The study was run by the Breast International Group and Roche, the maker of Herceptin.
HER2-positive cancers are a particularly aggressive form of the disease and occur in 20 percent of breast cancer diagnoses, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
The new phase 3 trial involved more than 5,000 women from several countries. After completing initial treatment for their early stage HER2-positive breast cancer, the women were randomly assigned to received Herceptin every three weeks for one year, two years or not at all.
Although the two-year treatment was no more effective than one year, heart problems occurred more frequently among the women who received Herceptin for the longer period. Most of the heart problems were reversible when the treatment was stopped, the researchers said.
The study proved "that a significant proportion of patients treated with trastuzumab ... are alive and free of disease recurrence after a median follow-up of eight years," said Piccart, who is chief of the medicine department at the Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels, Belgium.
"It is also reassuring with regard to the low cardiac toxicity of trastuzumab when given after adjuvant chemotherapy," she added. "Finally, it confirms that one year of adjuvant trastuzumab should remain the standard of care in women with HER2-positive early breast cancer."
The research was scheduled for Friday presentation at the 2012 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about breast cancer treatment.
SOURCE: American Association for Cancer Research, news release, Dec. 7, 2012
breast cancer awareness and help
Lower your risk of breast cancer with these breast cancer diet suggestions.
What can you do to protect yourself from breast cancer?
As breast cancer deaths decrease, so does the number of women undergoing regular screening. Is that wise?
Examining the link between cancer and food.
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SAKINA YUSUF KHAN goes mosque hopping in Malaysia and has several interesting encounters
It’s Friday afternoon. The devout are readying for Jume ki namaz (Friday afternoon prayer), obligatory on all Muslims. Seated on colourful jaanimaz or prayer carpets, they are waiting for the khutba, the sermon before the prayer, to begin. The mosque is teeming with men — young, old and fidgety little ones. The jamaat or congregation, has spilled on to the road — rows and rows of namazis squatting on the road in their skull caps under a scorching sun. There are sweets and savouries of all kinds, textiles, trinkets, and cheap knick knacks being peddled on push carts alongside.
This is not outside the Jama Masjid in Delhi, but in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. But the setting is familiar. I could well be in Old Delhi’s Jama Masjid area. But there’s one big difference. The jamaat is extremely disciplined and seems focused inwards; most have a tasbih or rosary, in hand and a prayer on their lips. And no one is affronted by women passing by in shorts and skirts.
Malaysia is Islamic, but extremely cosmopolitan at the same time. Muslim women in hijabs (head scarf) rub shoulders with Chinese and Tamils and Christians in business suits and skirts in offices and commercial establishments.
Braving the crowds, I head straight towards the gate of Masjid Jamek. The word Jamek in Arabic means a congregation place. This is the oldest surviving mosque in Malaysia and occupies a historic location: it was constructed on the first Malay burial ground in Kuala Lumpur. Built in 1907, this remarkable red-brick and marble structure is a beautiful specimen of Mughal architecture. The mosque was designed by a British engineer Arthur Benison Hubback. It encompasses three domes that cover the prayer hall. Its brick walls and arched colonnades are topped by numerous cupolas and minarets. The mosque sits at the confluence of the Sungei Klang and Sungei Gombak rivers.
Masjid Jamek was the city’s principal mosque, until the opening of the National Mosque in 1965. But it’s still the favourite with the Friday devout. No wonder, my taxi driver had looked dismayed. “Jamek on Friday, not good” he had warned in his broken English.
The man at the gate stops me from entering and shouts, “Three, three,” I notice several women in hijabs, waiting outside on the steps. I introduce myself to one of them and ask why we weren’t being allowed in. The pretty young thing says, “We have to wait till the Friday prayer is over. My husband is praying inside and I’m also waiting. She introduces herself as Sherazade, a Malaysian, long-settled in Paris. “I come here to pray whenever I visit my parents in Kuala Lumpur. I was here yesterday, too. You must go inside; it’s stunning; the guide will give you a complete tour of the complex. The best thing about it is that at any given time you can find men and women of different nationalities and diverse backgrounds bowing before the Almighty in a spirit of oneness,” she says.
An elderly woman seated next to her has been giving us dirty looks. “Are you a Muslim,” she asks me curtly. I nod. “Then shouldn’t you know that you are not supposed to talk when the Khutba is on and you haven’t even covered your head,” she admonishes. I make a hasty exit from the rear into the adjoining metro station, her impeccable English still ringing in my ears.
The station is called Masjid Jamek Station. At this hour, it looks more like a masjid with thousands offering namaz on the platform, even as commuters walk in and out without batting an eyelid. The namazis, too, it seems are undisturbed by their movement.
The station affords a vantage point; I rush up its stairs to click pictures. I see a vast sea of humanity below, bowed in sajda in the courtyard and corridors of the masjid. I pause to connect with the Creator. It is an uplifting experience.
My next destination is Masjid Negara or the National Mosque. It is the most modern place of worship in Malaysia; and just round the corner of the oldest mosque. I ask my taxi driver, Saadaat, if he can wait for a few minutes, while I go in and take a quick look before I head for the airport. The Friday jam has already delayed me and I wouldn’t want to miss my flight. “No problem, this mosque very beautiful, you see, I wait one hour,” he says with a smile in his Malayan English.
A Picture In Contrast
The mosque is gorgeous. It’s 73- metre high minaret stands impressively against the skyline. Unlike Jamek, this is a hi-tech mosque with a vast expanse of beautifully landscaped garden. It has a unique star-shaped dome. There are several fountains playing all around giving the complex an ethereal look. I stand mesmerised. But one look at the watch, and I rush up the shiny marble staircase and start capturing its exquisitely designed domes and huge carved pillars in my camera.
Suddenly, I find three angry-looking women charging towards me shouting something in the local language. I realise my faux pas: I had forgotten to wear the long burqa type of robe provided to all women visitors on entry, and worst still, I hadn’t taken off my shoes. There were big boards all over with these instructions, but in my rush, I had missed them.
For a minute, I froze. Then I quickly made amends. I took off my shoes and with footwear in hand, went down on my knees. Their anger just melted away. They smilingly handed me a brochure and some Islamic literature. But I was too embarrassed to linger on. I darted from there and didn’t breathe till I was back in the taxi.
Heading towards the airport, I kept thinking that in this concrete jungle, the tranquil ambience of the mosques must be a great source of solace for the devout.
Situated on a hillock, this mosque has been inspired by Istanbul’s Blue Mosque. It boasts of 22 beautiful domes of various sizes. Its location within a well-manicured garden and surrounded by a moat, makes it a beautiful sight and tourist attraction. The mosque can accommodate 17,000 worshippers at a time. It is located near the Jalan Duta government office complex and stands on a 13 hectare property with 47,000 sq metres of floor area.
Sultan Samad Building
This is a remarkable edifice, built in 1897. Named after the state ruler, it served as the government administration building during the British period. Built in Neo-Saracenic style, it was the largest building, and was said to be the finest in the state. The stately structure consists of an imposing porch, graceful arches, shiny copper domes and a clock tower. It now houses the Malaysian Supreme and High Courts. It makes an impressive landmark when illuminated at night.
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Diet developed to lower blood pressure ranked among best
DASH Diet low in fat, sugar, emphasizes healthy foods
A diet originally developed to lower blood pressure has been ranked the best for your overall health, according to the US News and World Report.
DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and the diet was ranked tops as the best for healthy eating, and it tied for first in preventing and managing diabetes.
The DASH Diet, which is available for free online, is low in fat and sugar and emphasizes fruits, vegetables and lean meats.
The magazine also ranked Weight Watchers as the best diet plan for weight loss.
Link: DASH Diet Eating Plan
Copyright 2013 by WBALTV.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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If you're a breast-feeding mom who hungers to break a record, read this:
Local moms will try to break the record for most women breast-feeding at one time this Friday, Aug. 6.
The event, coined The Big Latch On
, comes at the end of World Breastfeeding Week
and is sponsored in part by the Multnomah County's Women Infants and Children
The program will host the record attempt at its locations
in the county.
“It's a gold standard,” WIC breast-feeding coordinator Mary Wachsmuth says of breast-feeding. She added that the event is meant “to get breast-feeding moms together and to develop a community.”
The event runs from 10 am to 11:30 am, though Wachsmuth said the official count will happen at 10:30 am, when all mothers whose babies are actually “latched on” at that time will be asked to raise their hands.
"We see it as another way to promote and celebrate women who are breast-feeding," Wachsmuth said.
She's not sure what the world record is, and our own Google-icious attempts to determine the mark have found numbers for breast-feeding moms that range from 1,299 in New Zealand to 3,541 in the city of Manila.
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Directed by Dave Fleischer
Produced by Max Fleischer
Voices by Jack Mercer (Popeye)
Mae Questel (Olive Oyl)
Gus Wickie (Bluto)
Music by Sammy Timberg, Sammy Lerner & Bob Rothberg
Animation by Willard Bowsky, George Germanetti, Edward Nolan & Orestes Calpini
Studio Fleischer Studios
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) November 27, 1936
Color process Technicolor
Running time 16 min (two reels)
Today I am going to do something a little different. Instead of watching a feature film I have watched a number of great short films. The first of those is this one from 1936, Popeye The Sailor Meets Sindbad The Sailor.
Now I know what you grown ups will be saying, cartoons are strictly for kids. That is simply rubbish. So many artists worked on this, so many drawings done, for this simply to be something to amuse children.
These Fleischer Popeye cartoons have become my favourites and it is easy to see why. Whilst they were never the best animated cartoons they do have a grittiness about them that is different to what the other studios, notably Disney, were doing.
I also love the 3D backgrounds that Fleischer used here and in their other cartoons too. This gave them a unique feeling as did the great ad-libbing between Jack Mercer, Mae Questel and Gus Wickie.
It is easy to forget how popular Popeye was and just how important short cartoons were on a film program. In the 1930s, 40s and 50s patrons would often go to the cinema just to see Popeye, Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny rather than the feature length film that the cartoons accompanied.
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National Geographic's Traveler Magazine does a survey every year of the world's most desirable destinations for sustainable travel and little old Vermont ranked #6 in the WORLD for stewardship destinations. Vermont was the only USA destination ranking in the Top Ten:
"More than any American state, Vermont has worked to preserve those qualities that make it unique," such as scenic countryside, lively small towns, historic streetscapes, local businesses. A tourist magnet in summer, it nonetheless "never seems overrun by visitors."
The Vermont Woodlands Association has to take some of the credit for this distinction. I'm just reading their winter newsletter and as usual, I'm impressed and inspired by their tireless work to protect and steward our forests for future generations. Here's one of the many interesting facts presented on the VWA website:
"In Vermont, the net growth of trees has exceeded removal since the first inventory in 1948. About twice as much wood has been grown than was cut or otherwise removed." How's that for sustainable forestry management?
VWA conducts all sorts of forestry workshops, fieldtrips, events and classes. Check out their education schedule.
And Hats off to Put Blodgett, Al Robertson and all of the staff and volunteers at VWA!
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The Great Naruto Bridge (なると大橋, Naruto Ōhashi) is a long and wide bridge that was built and completed in the Land of Waves Arc by Tazuna. He built the bridge to connect the Land of Waves to the Land of Fire, thus freeing his country from Gatō's trade monopoly. After Team 7 helped him complete the bridge by fending off Gatō's assassins, he named the bridge after Naruto Uzumaki for he had played a major part of the reason that the bridge was completed.
In Part II, Sasuke Uchiha, a former member of Team 7, brought Suigetsu to the Land of Waves to retrieve Zabuza's Kubikiribōchō from his grave. When Sasuke saw the bridge, he saw that it was named after Naruto, he briefly smiled thinking about the past then grunted and continued to the grave site.
- The bridge is frequently a selectable battle stage in Part I video games.
- There is an actual bridge named the Great Naruto Bridge (大鳴門橋, Ōnaruto-kyō). It is located between the city of Naruto, Tokushima and Awaji Island and crosses the Naruto strait, famous for its whirlpools (Uzumaki (渦巻き) is a Japanese word for whirlpool).
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What do employers really want from college grads?
Mourya Abbareddy, 21, expects to graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. in the fall.
You hear it all the time. A college degree is pretty much a must these days in the workforce. But employers often complain that today’s college graduates aren’t cutting it. Marketplace teamed up with The Chronicle of Higher Education to find out what exactly employers are looking for from today's grads.
In our survey of about 700 employers around the country, nearly a third said colleges are doing a “fair” to “poor” job of producing “successful employees.” Despite persistently high unemployment, more than half of the employers said they had trouble finding qualified candidates for job openings.
So what gives? We decided to put one of these dissatisfied employers in a room with a soon-to-be college graduate, in a sort of mock job interview.
Our jobseeker is Mourya Abbareddy. He’s a 21-year-old senior at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond – a computer science and economics double major with a B average. He shows up in a jacket and tie.
David Boyes – no tie – runs a technology consulting firm called Sine Nomine Associates. That’s Latin for “without a name.” The company of about 20 full time employees is based in Ashburn, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. It does everything from data-center design to strategic planning for businesses like IBM and Cisco.
“They’ll ask us how do we take this from an idea to something that they can actually build or do,” Boyes says. He typically hires recent college grads as entry-level analysts. They do a lot of the research to bring those ideas to life.
Boyes – one of the employers in our survey, and Abbareddy – our willing victim – take a seat at the conference table and the grilling begins.
“Is there some way where you’ve been asked to work in a team,” Boyes asks. “To take an abstract idea and make it concrete, and if so, how?”
Abbareddy has a ready example, describing a class assignment to design a computer game with a team of students.
So far, so good. Abbareddy seems to be avoiding one pitfall in the job hunt: not being prepared. Two-thirds of employers in our survey with The Chronicle said grads need work on their interviewing skills.
Boyes gets more specific. “How did you kind of develop the idea for the game?” he asks.
“We had requirements on what we had to have in the game, and then from there we just threw around ideas,” Abbareddy says.
That’s not what Boyes wanted to hear. He was hoping for something a little more...thought out.
“We find that a lot of people, and not just new college grads, people that are coming from a career, aren’t getting that skill set,” Boyes says. “How you put an idea forward, and how do you support it, how do you build it, how do you put the facts behind it? All of those things are really critical."
Boyes sounds like a lot of the employers who responded to our survey. More than half of them said they have trouble finding qualified people for job openings. They said recent grads too often don’t know how to communicate effectively. And they have trouble adapting, problem solving and making decisions – things employers say they should have learned in college.
That’s why everyone Boyes hires goes through a year-long training program. “The company puts probably about a quarter of a million dollars into every single new hire,” Boyes says. “But that’s the kind of value that we get out of it.”
The training covers basics – like how to write an effective business document – and throws in some philosophy and history
“We ask people to read Cato the Elder,” Boyes says. “We ask people to read Suetonius.”
Jobseekers, take note: you better brush up on your on your early Roman history.
“We do that because we ask them to look at the process – the abstract process – of organizing ideas,” Boyes says.
Sounds a lot like an argument for liberal arts education, at a time when more students are being told to study science and technology as a path to a career. Maguire Associates, the firm that conducted the survey, says the findings suggest colleges should break down the “false dichotomy of liberal arts and career development,” saying they’re “intrinsically linked.”
Or, as Boyes puts it: “We don’t need mono-focused people. We need well-rounded people.” And that’s from a tech employer.
For his part, Abbareddy says he’s had a well-rounded education at Virginia Commonwealth. Granted there was no Suetonius in the mix, but he took rhetoric along with courses on data structures and algorithm analysis.
And he did something else that employers really go crazy for. “I did an internship,” Abbareddy says.
And that brings us to one of the most surprising things we learned from our survey. In industries across the board, employers viewed an internship as the single most important credential for recent grads – more than where you went to school or what you majored in. Even your grades.
“I learned a lot more from that internship than I did in school,” Abbareddy says. “It’s a different kind of learning.”
After a few more questions, things start looking up for Abbareddy. And what began as a mock interview looks like it could turn into a real job.
“You’ve made a pretty good case, in terms of somebody we’d be interested in talking to more,” Boyes tells him.
Outside, I ask Abbareddy how he thinks it went. Is Boyes is asking too much of someone fresh out of school? Did his university let him down? What he says surprises me.
“I think it’s more up to the student than the university,” Abbareddy says. “The school can’t teach you everything.”
Back inside, David Boyes says he wasn’t just being polite. He might take a chance on a job candidate like Abbareddy.
“We would have to make those investments in him,” he says. “Is he worth it? We’d have to see. But on the other hand I think he has a chance, and certainly if he sends me a resume, I would probably look at it.”
Abbareddy says he will. He graduates in the fall.
See how qualified you are….. try our simulator above and read more.
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Wed, 20 March 2013
"I really need to speak English with a native." "Could I practice with you?" "Do you ever Skype?" These are comments and questions that I have received over the years. I've been thinking about Skyping English lessons. I even have a Skype address ready. I must admit(1), even though I love to teach, I am a bit nervous. So far, I have been a teacher without a face, invisible, anonymous. I'll have to look my best(2) if my students are going to see me. And then there is the question of when(3). We are 8 hours behind London time, so arranging when to Skype with my international listeners will be work. For example, if a person in Beijing wanted to Skype at 1pm, it would be 10 o'clock at night for me. If I wanted to Skype at 10am, it would be 1am the next day in Beijing. Careful arrangements(4) would have to be made. But it would be worth it. I'm excited to meet some of my listeners face to face, and watch them on their journey to fluency. My only question is: should I remain a woman of mystery, and wear a paper bag over my head? That way if I get too famous, the paparazzi won't bother(5) me.....
1. 'I must admit' is the same as 'I must confess' but it sounds more 'every day'.
a. I know he worked really hard on the play, but I must admit, I didn't like it.
b. I've played chess for years, and I must admit that I still get very competitive.
2. 'To look one's best' is to put on your best appearance.
a. At the wedding he looked his best.
b. You must make an effort when your grandmother visits us and look your best.
3. 'And then there is the question of + interrogative/noun' is a shorter and less repetitive way of saying 'And then there is the question of when we should Skype.' This kind of sentence is usually used during planning.
a. And then there is the question of a car. When and where will we hire it?
b. Everyone will arrive at the house in the evening. But then there's the question of beds. Where will they all sleep?
c. We'll ask someone to do the speech. But then there's the question of who?
Arr-ange-ments arr-ange-ments arr-ange-ments arr-ange-ments.
5. 'The paparazzi won't bother me' could be expressed as 'the paparazzi won't disturb me/won't intrude in my life'.
a. He really bothered me when he asked me all of those questions.
b. Does this music bother you?
c. You kids are bothering your grandpa; let him nap in peace.
You're all invited to join me on my FACEBOOK page at Anna Fromacupofenglish. Remember my app is available in iTunes called A Cup Of English. If you're interested in some Skyped lessons with me, I will be posting the hours and days that I'm available on my Facebook page.
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Shedding light on small business access to capitalPUBLISHED: 11 Dec 2012 11:29:00 | UPDATED: 11 Dec 2012 12:02:26PRINT EDITION: 11 Dec 2012
Federal Small Business Minister Brendan O’Connor, seen here at Hanna Coffee and Nuts in St Albans, says the banks have to balance responsible lending criteria when assessing applications from small business. Arsineh Houspian
Council of Small Business of Australia and the Australian Bankers Association will produce an annual report into the state of small business borrowing. COSBOA chief executive Peter Strong is seen here at Smith’s Alternative Bookshop in Canerra. Alex Ellinghausen
COSBOA wants APRA to understand its impact on enterprise. The peak body is also set to launch an annual report of the small business sector’s access to capital. Brendan O’Connor MP says the government is aware of the perennial challenge.
A new joint initiative between the Australian Bankers Association and the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA) will produce an annual report of the small business sector’s access to capital.
“What we keep hearing is that it’s hard to get money from the banks, but we need a lot more information to take into policy discussions,” says COSBOA chief executive Peter Strong.
Parameters of the report are still being completed but it is expected to provide data on small businesses lending trends including: how many enterprises got a loan, the average size of those loans, and a breakdown by access to finance across industries. It will also report on how many businesses were rejected for loans and the reasons why.
A group of senior representatives from the Big Four banks plus Bendigo Bank have formed a working group with the peak body and the first report will be presented at COSBOA’s annual summit in July.
Federal Small Business Minister Brendan O’Connor says the government is aware that access to capital is a perennial challenge for small business.
“I have met with most of the banks and major lending institutions to talk about ensuring small businesses get their chance, providing they have their business in good order and have a good track record,” says O’Connor.
But there is a balancing act between access and responsible lending. “The global financial crisis was precipitated by some getting irresponsible access to credit,” says O’Connor.
“After the GFC banks were slow to provide credit to small businesses but that’s on the improve, I believe partly due to the advocacy of this government on the banks to provide better credit,” he says.
The minister argues good economic management has contributed to a better operating environment and says, “a reduction in the cash rate means it is easier to pay off loans.”
“Things are getting better, with 2.5 million or thereabout small businesses and a competitive market banks will want their share and small businesses will see an increased likelihood of getting access to capital,” he says. “But businesses need to make sure they are ready to take those loans.”
“Loss carry back” tax reforms that take effect next June 30 are intended to provide some relief to small business. Strong counts the change as a Labor win. “It means small businesses will be able to access more cash against the previous year’s losses, so they will have more collateral to put against a loan,” he says.
But Strong is concerned that another government initiative might undo the benefits.
A lack of transparency around a private study being undertaken by Treasury has spurred rumours that National Consumer Credit Protection legislation may be extended to small businesses that would restrict the ability of institutions to lend to small business.
“Consumer protection sounds good but you can’t apply the same lending principles to businesses as individuals,” says Commercial Asset Finance Brokers Association Australia spokesman David Gandolfo. “Small businesses don’t have a fixed income and they want to expand.”
COSBOA is also calling for a comprehensive review of the way the Australian Prudential Regulation Authorty impacts on enterprises access to capital.
“I don’t thing APRA has ever given much though to the impact they have on the banks ability to lend money to small business,” says Strong.
He credits the prudential regulator with, “doing a good job at keeping the local banking system healthy,” but believes it needs to be more aware of the needs of smaller borrowers.
“Many of the requirements APRA places on lenders are linked to the Basel banking reforms but it needs to be more mindful of how the way they interpret the international laws impact local small businesses,” says Strong.
Restricting the banks’ ability to make $20,000, or even $5000, small business loans is an unintended consequence of the international banking reforms designed to avert the future need for bailouts of companies that are “too big to fail” argues Strong.
He is in the process of meeting with APRA to begin a dialogue on the issue.
The Australian Financial Review
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When I was little, I loved to go tramping through the woods around my house to splash in the creek, blaze new trails along the blackberry briars, and see what forest treats I could eat. I knew of two things to look for: wild carrots and wild onions, and I searched diligently for as much of these as I could. I would arrive at the back door while my mom was cooking dinner and proudly present her with my contribution to the evening’s meal. The first couple of times it was probably cute, but after that, the novelty wore off, and, although I have recently been reassured of her occasional use of my foraging treasures, I’m sure lots of onion grass ended up in the compost.
In college I tried to develop a sincere interest in foraging, but my fear of misidentification and eventual pokeweed-induced death kept me from getting out there and harvesting free salad greens. I do remember laughing out loud when I saw dandelion greens packed in bags at the chichi health food store and sold for $4 a pop. Those, I’m not afraid of misidentifying.
Living in Bulgaria has reminded me that I can eat lots of things growing around – wild dock is all over the place, and it’s often used in salads or in place of spinach in banitsa. I’ve made an addictive pesto with wild garlic, and last year a friend presented me with a bagful of pungent mushrooms that she’d collected earlier that day. (Unfortunately they were too pungent for my taste, and I had to put them outside to turn back into humus.) Looking up ideas for dock, I stumbled on Sunny Savage’s website, Wild Food Plants, and I spent a good hour wandering around it. She’s got lots of videos on edible plant identification and methods of cooking, and I’m excited enough that I’m going to make an effort to take some classes on the subject when I get back to the U.S. I’ve really enjoyed discovering these new-to-me foods, and loved learning what I can do with them.
One thing Sunny talked about was making your own superfoods. If you’ve been within 50 feet of a health food store in the past five years, you know that superfoods are strange green powders sold for way too much money in the supplements section. You can make your own for free, simply by drying wild greens and buzzing them up in a spice grinder. I had some powdered nettle on hand (I bought it last year because I didn’t know what the Bulgarian word was on the packet, so I figured I’d drop fifty cents, take it home with me, and look it up in the dictionary. I have acquired a lot of things this way – maybe too many) and I’m still in use-it-don’t-lose-it mode, so I decided to whip together the homemade pasta recipe on her website. Why not? Seriously easy – an hour from measuring to eating, and even though I halved the receipe for myself (the full measurements are given below), I have plenty of pasta drying around my kitchen, for future use. And no, I don’t have a pasta maker. You’ve just got to roll the dough as thin as you can. Even thinner than I did – you can tell in the picture that it’s still on the portly side.
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered nettle or other wild greens
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
In mixing bowl thoroughly mix flour and nettle powder. Make a well in the center and mix in remaining ingredients, working from the center, using your fingers. Knead until dough comes together, adding water by the tablespoon if necessary. Roll into ball and let dough rest, loosely covered, for at least 30 minutes. Roll out dough as thinly as possible and cut into pasta. (I used a pizza cutter.)
If you’re going to cook the pasta now, bring water, olive oil and salt to a rolling boil and submerge pasta for roughly 9 minutes. Strain and serve immediately. (I just tossed it with some butter, black pepper, and parmesan.) If you’re not going to eat it right away, hang it to dry!
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Finding UK theses
Although theses are unpublished works, they represent a piece of original research on a specific subject, and may prove useful to your research. You also don’t want to write about topics that have already been covered by others!
Indicate PhD theses in your reference list as ‘Unpublished doctoral dissertation’ followed by the name of the university, the location and country.
- Index to Theses contains over 550,000 theses, some of which include abstracts.
- The theses come from UK and Irish universities, and search results are always linked to the university that holds the thesis.
- Theses range from the early 17th century to the present.
- You can search by keywords, by university or by subject area. There is also a more complex search option for advanced users.
EThOS offers a single point of access where researchers from any country can access all UK theses online. However, theses that are traced through EThOS may not always be downloadable for free. In that case, you will need to:
- contact the library that holds the thesis, and arrange a visit to read the thesis in person
- request a copy to be digitised for free
- request a copy to be digitised at your own cost
Be aware that some authors or their institutions may have put restrictions on digitisation of theses, and you might be denied a download option. Similarly, it is often not allowed to photocopy any part of a thesis. So if you are planning on visiting another library to consult a thesis, be prepared to spend time reading through the thesis, or parts of it. Finally, digitisation may take some time, so don’t wait till the last minute.
Warwick is a member of a number of schemes which allow you to access other university libraries. SCONUL access is the main scheme, and there is a list of participating libraries on the SCONUL access website. In order to use other libraries via this scheme, you need to apply for a SCONUL Access card, which will remain valid until the end of your PhD or research contract. You can pick the application form up at Library reception, or download it.
You can borrow books with SCONUL access, although borrowing rights vary, so always check the library's website before you visit. Generally you can borrow only a small number of books, and you may not be able to take out DVDs. Note also that SCONUL doesn’t always give you access to electronic files.
The British Library is, of course, the best resource for academics both in and outside the UK. It holds the most extensive collection of books, journals and other sources, is centrally located, and easily accessible. There are a few things you must observe if you’re planning a visit:
- To register for a free British Library Reader Pass you will need to bring ID and proof of address ( bank statement or a bill), and possibly a student card.
- You will also need to give details of an item you need to consult. If you don’t have anything specific in mind at the moment of registration, just make something up!
- Book your material in advance: since most items are located at other universities or depositories, it may take up to two days for the material to be ready.
- When you book items online, you will have to indicate the reading room where you want to consult them (for example, Humanities 1 or Social Science), as well as a seat number. Make a note of these, although you will probably change your seat number when you get there. Make sure, though, you give the library staff the right seat number when you pick up the book.
- Try to get there early in the morning: the reading rooms are very busy and if you can’t find a seat, you may not be able to consult the material.
- Only pencils are allowed in the reading rooms, and no food and drink. You will be checked every time you enter and exit the rooms, so don’t try to be clever!
Note that you can never borrow books, and photocopying is very expensive: 22p per A4 page, and you cannot photocopy two (smaller) pages in one go! So take plenty of time to consult the material, and - again - get there early.
Warwick University holds all successfully submitted higher research theses at the Modern Records Centre (MRC). To find a thesis just use the Library Catalogue, but select Warwick theses in the Collections box on the right. You will not be able to request any theses online, though, so you’ll need to email the MRC and make an appointment for consultation. The MRC is located at the other side of the Library building.
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Andrea Hajek received her doctorate in Italian with a dissertation on the public memory of an Italian student movement of the late 1970s. She is the senior editorial assistant for the Sage journal of Memory Studies.
About the author...
Andrea Hajek received her doctorate in Italian with a dissertation on the public memory of an Italian student movement of the late 1970s. She is the senior editorial assistant for the Sage journal of Memory Studies. More…
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We turn to the Scriptures now for our lesson, Luke chapter 10 verses 21 to 24 is the paragraph for us this morning. It is a remarkable paragraph. It is one of those paragraphs that could launch a thousand sermons. It is so rich and deep with truth. I've entitled this section, "Jesus' joy....Jesus' joy."
We are familiar, I think, with the fact that Jesus was a man of sorrows. Most of us who have been in the church have sung the old hymn, "Man of Sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came." We are familiar with the sorrow of Jesus. And I might add, that as we have been moving through the gospel of Luke, we have sensed an increasing sorrow. This is to be expected. After all, it wasn't the hymn writer who coined the name "Man of sorrows," it was none other than Isaiah the prophet, the inspired writer of that great messianic fifty-third chapter in which he said the Messiah would be a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. And certainly it was so. It was John who recorded that at the grave of Lazarus, Jesus seeing the power of death wept. Luke records that when Jesus approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it. Both Matthew and Mark tell us that as Jesus approached the cross, He was filled with such trepidation and such sorrow that He said, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death." So sad that it almost killed Him.
The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews looks at Jesus in anticipation of the cross, suffering there in the garden and sweating, as it were, great drops of blood under the sadness of that experience, and he says of Jesus, "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death." His was a life of sadness.
And the sorrow increased and increased as the months went by and He moved toward the horrific sorrow of the garden and the absolutely unmeasurable sorrow of the separation from the Father in His sin-bearing death on the cross when He cried out the saddest words that ever He uttered, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" His was a life of facing sin as a sinless one, of living and moving with sinners as the perfectly pure one. His was the life of apathy and indifference, as well as rejection and hostility. His was a life of facing sickness and death, rejection, hatred, finally execution. He had a cosmic kind of sorrow, a profound kind of sadness related not only to what He saw in the world but what He knew was the reality of an eternity without God that was the sentence of all those who rejected His gospel. He deserved only to be loved, He deserved only to be honored. He deserved only to be obeyed. He deserved only to be glorified. And yet He received just the opposite. And so He was, as Isaiah said, a Man of profound cosmic sorrow.
We are much less familiar, I think, with His joy. It is true that the Old Testament does indicate to us that God rejoices. In Isaiah 62:5 God rejoices over a future faithful Israel, looking at the time when Israel repents and embraces the Messiah and is restored to God and receives the Kingdom. God has kind of a future joy over the culmination of redemptive history in the glorious Kingdom of His Son. The prophet Zephaniah had a revelation of God's future joy over a restored and regenerated Israel in the Millennial Kingdom yet to come and that prophet wrote, "Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion, shout in triumph, O Israel, rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem, the Lord has taken away His judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst. You will fear disaster no more. In that day it will be said to Jerusalem, 'Do not be afraid, O Zion, do not let your hands fall limp. The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy. He will be quiet in His love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.'"
God anticipates in these passages a future joy over the great Millennial glory of Jesus Christ when He reigns of King of kings and Lord of lords over a redeemed Israel and a redeemed humanity on the earth. That's future joy. Hebrews says that Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. He too living as a Man of sorrows had a future joy, the joy of knowing what His death would produce if He looked ahead to the culmination of redemption.
Our Lord Jesus Himself, as we shall see later in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, tells us that there is joy in heaven every time a sinner repents, every time a lost soul is found, every time a prodigal son returns to the Father, heaven rejoices. And our Lord Jesus in His high priestly prayer in John 17 referred to "My joy," a joy that He possesses in His relationship with the Father and because of that relationship and a joy that He asked to be granted in full to those who belong to Him. So the Bible does talk about joy in heaven when sinners repent, joy in the future when God's redemptive purpose comes to its glorious culmination.
But only in this passage does it ever talk about joy and Jesus rejoicing during His life on earth. Future joy in the Kingdom, joy in heaven, the joy that He had face to face with the Father in eternal glory which one day He will share with those who come to heaven. But only once does it ever say Jesus rejoiced during His earthly life. And only here in this verse 21 of Luke 10 at that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit. We are thus provided with that phrase, that sentence, He rejoiced greatly and in the Holy Spirit, a tremendous insight. And this is the only place we get it. There's something specially sacred about this text. That's why I say, it's a text that could launch a thousand sermons. This is unique treasure. This is a pearl of great price, an inestimable jewel dropped in the middle of this gospel that moves us behind the Man of sorrows with escalating suffering and sadness to see His joy.
I'm glad we finally reached this passage. I cherish this passage. I have a special affection and love for this passage. I'm so glad to see it. Pardon me if I want to stay here for a long time and build booths and live in this passage. I feel this way because I understand the heart of David in Psalm 69 that the reproaches that fall on you fall on me. I feel the pain and I know you do of all the sadness of Jesus. In some small way, some frail human way, but nonetheless a real way I feel the pain when Jesus is ignored. I feel the pain when Jesus is misrepresented, misjudged and mistreated. I feel the pain when Jesus is hated. I feel the pain when Jesus is plotted against, when He is betrayed, when He is taken through a mockery of a trial and when He is mercilessly persecuted. I feel that pain. I feel that pain because I adore Him, because I love Him. Life for Him was incomprehensibly sad. And now getting sadder chapter by chapter by chapter until we come to the profound sorrow of the garden and the cosmic sorrow of the cross. I welcome this insight into Jesus' joy.
He completed a year-plus ministry in Galilee at this time, powerful ministry preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, providing forgiveness of sin for all who repent and believe, telling people all that God had prepared in that Kingdom for those who embraced Him, offering eternal life, and affirming His message and His messiahship and His deity by signs and wonders and miracles that make it irrational to deny that He is in fact God the Messiah and the Savior of the world. The evidence leaves you with only one possible conclusion that He is who He claimed to be. The Twelve have gone through Galilee as well as our Lord, spreading the gospel of the Kingdom, also manifesting His power in signs, wonders and miracles. The seventy, seventy more missionaries have done the same, not in Galilee but in other areas where Jesus was visiting since His ministry in Galilee was finished. They have returned, as verse 17 indicates, to report that the power of Jesus through them was amazing so that the kingdom of darkness was invaded and souls were set free, the power of the gospel.
But in reality, with all this miraculous ministry and there's still months to go with it, including the resurrection of dead people, with all that He has done to demonstrate who He is and demonstrate His message therefore as true, there is a mounting indifference, a mounting apathy, mounting rejection, mounting hostility that ultimately leads to the whole populous screaming for His execution. The Jewish leaders are already plotting His death. Rejection is like a snowball going down a hill, it's getting larger and larger, being aided and abetted by the hatred of the religious leadership. He was in the world, the world was made by Him. The world knew Him not. He came to His own people, His own received Him not. He was the light that was shining in the world but the darkness didn't comprehend it. The early days of amazement, the early days of wonder and fascination about His miracle power, the early days of astonishment at His authoritative teaching are moving away to apathy and indifference, and finally to rejection, opposition, and murder. And as the remaining months move, it gets sadder, sadder and sadder.
This then is a refreshing break in the sadness that necessarily follows the story of Jesus. And it says in verse 21, and it's almost shocking, at that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit. In the midst of all of this there is this exuberant joy on the part of Jesus. And the question that comes to mind immediately is why? Why? I mean, things were going badly from a human viewpoint, from a strategist viewpoint, the thing couldn't be going worse. He wasn't going to change the world, it was very obvious. He wasn't even going to change this nation. He couldn't even win over the leadership. He was, from a human viewpoint, an abysmal failure. He looks like one who has lost all hope for what He had dreamed could happen. It was all going bad and would get a lot worse. And in the midst of it, He rejoiced greatly which then poses the question: what motivated that joy? Why? How? For what reason could He rejoice?
Before we answer that question, let's look at verse 21 and here what Luke records before we hear what Jesus said because Jesus is going to answer the question of why He rejoiced. You're going to find out the source of Jesus' joy from His own words. But begin at the beginning, verse 21, "At that very time..." Well, that's very helpful to us. At that very time would be the time the seventy had just returned, verse 17, "The seventy returned with joy." They had gone out two-by-two to preach the gospel of the Kingdom with the power to heal and to cast out demons delegated to them by Jesus. It was His own power, not theirs. They had powerfully preached and attested to their message by the miracles so that people had responded to the gospel of the Kingdom and had been delivered from the kingdom of darkness, the demons had to release their prisoners. And verse 17 says they returned with joy, even the demons are subject to us in Your name. They came back filled with joy at the power of the gospel.
Well you know the Bible says, "Rejoice with those that rejoice, and weep with those that weep," right? This is a perfect opportunity to enter in to their joy. And so at that very time when they were coming back to filled with joy and Jesus directs their joy in verse 20 to the fact that the real joy is not that the spirits are subject to you, but that your names are recorded in heaven. And so Jesus at that moment takes the heavenly view and He sees beyond the joy of successful ministry to the joy of eternal glory. And as He catches again the reality of heaven, He rejoices greatly because the thought of heaven and the thought of their names being recorded there takes Him from where He is to the culmination, takes Him from the suffering in the present to the glory in the future and the thought of the fact that their names were recorded in heaven from before the foundation of the world and that therefore the plan is on schedule and they'll all arrive is the reason for His consummate joy. He's liberated from the sorrow of time by the joy of eternity, at that very time.
Also, it says He rejoiced greatly, and I want to comment on that. He rejoiced greatly. That's a weak translation, I think. Sometimes I wish that I had been in the translation committees, not a lot but occasionally. This just doesn't do it. "He rejoiced greatly" is just a little too pedantic for me. Agalliasto(?) should be translated, "He was thrilled with joy. He overflowed with joy. He was overjoyed." One scholastic commentator calls this eschatological jubilation. And what he means by that is the kind of jubilation when all that you hope for, all that you dream for is realized. It's not the joy of the process, it's the joy of the end. It's the joy of fulfillment. It's the joy of consummation when the longed for goal is reached. And He could only rejoice greatly when it struck His holy mind that all of these people were a part of eternal plan and their names were all recorded in heaven and they were all headed there. And it was in the reality of that consummation, that eschatology, that last thing, that supreme jubilation exploded in His heart. This was not a temporal. This was not a temporal joy. This was not a temporary joy.
I told you that this was the only time it says Jesus rejoiced, please...this is not the only time He rejoiced. He rejoiced all the time. As always a Man of sorrows, so always a Man of joy. Always sorrowing over the condition of sin and its impact, always rejoicing over the eschatology, the consummate end of everything. I think in a small way I understand that. I go through the world like you do. I go through the world, on the one hand, with a broken heart. People say to me, "You're not as funny as you used to be." Life's not as funny as it used to be. I've been around too long. It's not getting any funnier, either. I mean, you load up with the weight of reality, don't you? Lost souls, eternal judgment, the impact of sin, the disregard of the truth of God, the reproach that falls on Christ, the blasphemies against our God, the corruption of our culture and all cultures in the world due to the fact that whole of humanity goes down the depraved slide, becoming worse and worse...that's enough to make any man sad, let alone somebody who lives for the glory and honor of God.
But, at the same time that there is an ongoing and somewhat increasing sadness, I possess an eschatological jubilation because when I look above the world at the redemptive plan of God from eternity to eternity and understand where it's all going, there's joy. This is the way Jesus lived. Only you have to magnify whatever it is that you identify with that into infinity because no man ever had a fuller understanding of the power and destruction of sin than He did, therefore no man would ever know the level of sorrow that He knew. Nor did anyone ever have the understanding of the glory of eternal riches that He has, therefore His sorrows were deeper than any, and His joys higher than any. And so when in the midst of all the sorrow and the increasing sorrow when you ask the question...how could He rejoice so profoundly? How could He have this kind of jubilation? He gives you three reasons. This is...this is deep insight, I'm so thankful for this passage and I tell you, I can only give you one this morning and kind of cut that a little short. But you'll understand this.
The first thing that caused Jesus to rejoice, this is the only time in the New Testament you have a record that He actually did it out loud, but He had this joy all the time. Reason number one, the sovereign pleasure of the Father....the sovereign pleasure of the Father. Verse 21, "I praise Thee, O Father," out of His joy came praise and here's what He said, "Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes. Yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in Thy sight."
You know what gave Him joy? What was happening pleased the Father. It pleased the Father that He hid it from some and revealed it to others. Our Lord's favorite truth, joy producing truth, was the sovereignty of God...the sovereignty of God. In spite of all the rejection, in spite of all the pain and suffering and sadness and sorrow, in spite of the tears wept at the grave of Lazarus and tears wept over the city of Jerusalem and agonizing grief over the condition of humanity and the horrors of hell, He rejoiced gratefully because what was going on reflected the Father's intention, the Father's purpose, the Father's good pleasure. "I praise Thee, O Father," and then later He says, "Yes, Father," there's passion in that, real passion in His joyful praise as the O and Yes imply.
And when Jesus called God "Father," it was just a footnote we discussed before, He was calling Him Father in the sense that He shared His essence. John 5:18 says the Jews wanted to kill Him because He blasphemed by calling God His Father and thus making Himself equal with God. Well He was equal with God, He is God. But here He's praising His Father, "O Father," there's joy in the "O" there's joy in the "Yes, Father....Yes, Father, it is well pleasing in Your sight, I affirm it, I praise You. This is the way You intended it."
Now He identifies His Father so nobody would mistake it as "Lord of heaven and earth." Now, folks, that is comprehensive. That leaves room for no other deity in heaven or on earth. That simple little phrase was completely Jewish, a traditional Jewish expression, the single supreme and only God of the universe is the true and living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Creator God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no other God. And He joyfully praises His Father who is the sovereign of the universe, Lord means sovereign, who is in charge of everything in the heaven and the earth. That is to say He's in charge of all of it and He is doing whatever is well-pleasing in His sight. That word "well-pleasing" interesting word, eudokiaI, means whatever gives Him pleasure, whatever He purposes, whatever He intends and whatever He desires. It's working exactly the way God desired it to work.
Somebody might say, "Well, you know, Jesus' mission failed," like the silly people who write books like the Passover Plot and others, how Jesus was a well-intentioned Messiah who couldn't pull it off and died a failure. His mission didn't fail. It was going exactly the way the Father planned it. "I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth," and here's the point, "that You did hide these things from the wise and intelligent and did reveal them to babes." That was Your plan. "These things," mark that, what do you mean these things? That's a key. What's the antecedent of these things? Well the antecedent is all of the elements of the revelation of Himself, all the things related to the Kingdom, with God, the Messiah and salvation, all the truths of His deity, all the truths of His anointing, His messiahship, all the truths of salvation, all the truths of the gospel, all the attesting miracles of nature and physical healings and power over demons and power over death, all of that, all of the truth and power of the Kingdom...let's say it that way. All of the features of His life and ministry, both teaching truth and expressing divine power, all of that that was a part of His mission that was delegated to the Twelve and then delegated to the seventy, all of that. God determined to whom it would be revealed and to whom it would be hidden. "Yes, Father, it was pleasing in Your sight to do it that way." God did what pleased Him, He always does...uninfluenced, unmoved by any, He does what He determines to do for His own pleasure. No matter what seemed to go wrong, no matter how great the rejection, how indifferent, or how hostile the people, no matter how terrible is the wasted privilege and opportunity of having the living Christ in your midst and turning against Him, no matter how horrific is the betrayal of a Judas, no matter how vast the unbelief compared to those who truly believe, Jesus finds joy in the reality that His Father who rules the entire universe and therefore is never overruled is doing exactly what He purposed and planned and desired to do.
And what was that? It was to hide these things from the wise and the intelligent. To hide these things from the wise and intelligent. Now let me tell you what He's saying here. He was glad, listen, that God did not devise a means of salvation accessible only to the wise and intelligent. That's the point. So that only the brilliant, only the esoteric, only the gnostic, only the transcendent could understand it. Now that was what was so popular in the ancient world, wasn't it? The elevated knowledge, the esoteric knowledge, the secret knowledge...this is an explicit condemnation of that, of the elitists who thought spiritual truth was only for the superior minds and the superior souls who could rise above the hoi polloi. God hid it from the wise and intelligent. You can be as wise as worldly wise men get, you can have insights ad infinitum, ad nauseum into human behavior, into the ways of the world and science, you can be intelligent, you can have an IQ off the chart and neither your human wisdom or your human intelligence will lead you to the gospel of salvation...to God. First Corinthians 1, "Man by wisdom knew not God." You don't get there that way.
Now this is especially applicable at this time to the religious elite in Israel, the really smart people who rose through the ranks to become the rabbis, the law scholars, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, all the religious elite who thought that they could come to know God through the function of their own wisdom and intellect. It does not say that God withholds truth from people who are intelligent so that we're a bunch of idiots sitting here. That isn't the point, you know that. It doesn't say that God withholds truth from people who are clever and insightful. What it does say is that by human intelligence and human ingenuity, you can't get there...you can't get there...you can't get to divine truth. And if you think you can, you're the biggest fool of all because the world by wisdom knew not God. Romans 1:22, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became...what?...fools," moraino, morons. Biggest moron in the world is the person who thinks by his own wisdom or by imbibing the wisdom of somebody else or his own intelligence, he has come to know the great truth of the universe. He's the biggest fool of all because you can't get there that way. First of all, God is not accessible. "Eye has not seen, neither has ear heard what God has prepared for those who love Him." It's not discernable empirically. You can't get there.
It doesn't mean that intellectual power is not necessary to understand the gospel, it is. It doesn't mean that thinking clearly and wisely is not important, it is. It's just that those on their own can't get there. A man may be as wise as Solomon, that's not going to get him to God. He may be as intelligent as Einstein, that's not going to get him to God. Intelligence is neither a way nor a barrier, it's irrelevant. Human wisdom is not a way or a barrier, it's irrelevant.
I think I can give you an insight into that. Think of it this way. We look at the intelligent people in our society, and I guess if we were to...this is just the way it plays out in our culture...but the smartest people in our society are scientists, fair enough? I mean, that's sort of generally the way it goes. You know, if you're in high school and you, you know, you knock the lid off the top of the SAT score or you have a high IQ, they want to chase you into the science department. And you get in there and you start doing things that only people who are highly intelligent can do, managing sophisticated data and complexities that the average person can't deal with. And so you become a part of the intellectual elite of the world. And you have to have sufficient power to analyze these intricate complexities.
You want to know the truth? Atoms and molecules and all things material belong to the lowest level in the universe, not the highest, the lowest. That's right. I grant you they're complicated. I grant you that there are many of us who cannot penetrate their secrets. But all it takes is intellect, that's all it takes. A brain that's unusually gifted time and opportunity because physical things are such a low level. You get there by just brain power. That's all.
Let's move up a little higher. Let's go to the level of personhood. Now, you all had professors in your university days who could function at the low level of molecules and atoms, but they couldn't connect with human beings, right? That's a higher level, folks. That's a higher level. And you want to know something? You can bring the professor, the most brilliant professor, you can bring them all, line them up, get all the brightest scientists at all the biggest universities, bring them in a room and ask them to analyze me and I will tell you this, if I don't tell them what's in my mind, they will not be able to discover it. Can't, it's impossible. The only way they could ever understand me is if I disclose myself to them. That's a higher level.
Now go one step above that, where are you? God. Never going to happen. You're never going to know God unless God chooses to disclose Himself to you. You can't find Him with your intellect anymore than those scientists in a room could find my soul by their scientific methodology. It can't be done. That's the lowest level. Religious people think they can rise up through the machinations of their religion and discover God. Not going to happen. Man by wisdom knew not God. Can't get there. Impossible.
It's not a contrast between being educated and uneducated. It's a contrast between being proud and being humble. That's the issue. Getting there now? It's coming to the place where you say I can't get there through my wisdom, I can't get there through my intellect, I submit, I humble myself before the gospel. And like a baby, I confess my inability. And Jesus found joy in the fact that the gospel was not limited to the worldly wise and the intelligent but it was available to anybody whether they were smart or dumb who humbled himself. And that's what He says in verse 21, "You did reveal them to babes." Babes, God can reveal Himself. Go back to that professor you had, nobody could understand the guy. I had some in my background. We had one at the Master's College, he didn't last long. Nobody understood anything he was saying and I couldn't figure out whether he was too intelligent or he didn't know what he was saying so nobody else could figure it out either. But there are those people who are so profound, so intelligent that you just can't connect. But here is God whose intelligence is infinite, the eternal inscrutable limitless mind, the infinite mind of God and He has absolutely no trouble communicating with the simplest soul. So that in fact if you want to know Him, you have to become as a child. You have to be a babe...babe, nepios, sucklings, nursing babies, we're talking about very little infants.
What does that mean? Humble, no achievement, no education, no human intelligence, wisdom, no exposure to the things of the world...you're just like a baby. You come and say, "I bring nothing." Jesus was pleased with this because in the end then all the glory belongs to God. Nobody gets there by human wisdom. Nobody gets there by human intelligence. Everybody gets there by recognizing that they have nothing in themselves that can reach God. And in a broken and contrite heart, they tremble at His Word and they submit to the simple glorious gospel of Christ, like a little suckling baby desperately needing milk and not having the capability to provide it for himself. I mean, that's it. Jesus found His joy in that. I'm so thrilled, Father, that You hid this from those who if finding it through pride and human wisdom would therefore commend themselves...right? Would therefore boast in themselves, would therefore be proud of themselves and You determined that the only people who are ever going to know You are those who humble themselves like a little tiny infant. And then for all eternity, all the glory, all the praise will belong to You. And no man, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, will boast. I rejoice, Father, that in the end You will be alone glorified. The humble, says the psalmist, shall hear and be glad. Proverbs 22:4, "By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life." Isaiah 57:15, "For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place." Well who dwells with you up there? "Him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to give rest to the spirit of the humble, to give rest to the heart of the contrite." Who gets to God? The lowliest of the low, the babies, the helpless, those who can't on their own make it. And nobody can. The natural man, 1 Corinthians 2:14, understands not the things of God no matter how intelligent he may be, no matter how wise he may be. Why? First Corinthians 2:6, "We do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the leaders of this age." It's not available. The wisdom which none of the leaders of this age has understood, it's impossible. It doesn't come by intuition. It doesn't come by empiricism. It comes by revelation, right? You don't know me unless I disclose myself, and you certainly don't know God unless He discloses Himself and in this book He has done that. And if you don't humble yourself before the gospel, you will never know God by your own powers.
So the Son rejoices that the Father has designed a salvation plan by which man must be humbled so that God will be glorified in everything. Isaiah 66:2, "I look to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit who trembles at My Word." So Jesus says, "Father, I'm just saying I'm thrilled as I look past the sadness and the sorrow of the sin-cursed world and I look to the future and I realize that heaven is going to be filled with the babes, filled with the infants, filled with those who were crushed and broken into humble, contrite, penitent believers who cast themselves on the mercy of Your gospel truth so that through all eternity You will be forever glorified. This is the plan." Still to the lonely soul, He doth Himself depart and for His dwelling and His throne chooses the humble heart." Jesus' joy then is motivated by the knowledge that God has sovereignly designed a plan to redeem those who reject all human ability to know God apart from divine revelation. And He sees it played out. He looks at the seventy, they're not many noble, not many mighty. He looks at the Twelve, twelve ordinary men. What did they have in common? Humble hearts before the gospel.
And so, the first reason for Jesus' joy is the sovereign pleasure of the Father. The second reason is the supreme power of the Son. That's for next time.
Father, we do thank You, this morning, for the revelation that this passage is to us. And we can only wish that it was like it used to be when people preached for three hours so you had an hour for every point. But help our dear folks to remember these things so that we can come back next week and as it were, dive again into the depth of this profound text and be enriched by it. How wonderful it is, how unspeakably glorious it is to come to a deeper knowledge of our blessed Christ. Christ is all and in all, He is all that matters, He is all we need. To know Him is the solution to every problem, the victory in every battle, to know Christ...to know Christ. How rich we are as we week in, week out come to know Him better, and that is enough to solve every issue of life. To know Him is to know His mind is to understand time and eternity and Your purpose. And to live in the knowledge of that is the purest and deepest satisfaction. Thank You for the picture of Christ revealed in just this one verse. We share His joy in the midst of our own sorrow as we too wait for the day when all the humble souls shall gather, and we with them, to praise You forever. And these things we bring before You in Christ's name. Amen.
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Thai PM ignores the other side of the coin
by KYAW ZWA MOE, Bangkok Post, Mar 21, 2008
Bangkok, Thailand -- ''Burma is a Buddhist country. Burma's leaders meditate.'' Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej brought that information out of Burma last week after an official goodwill visit. Nothing about his statement is wrong, and I personally believe it's true: the generals do meditate.
But the prime minister failed to answer a key question: What are the generals meditating on? I believe the generals meditate on things that would horrify true Buddhists.
First, the top generals are probably meditating on how to rid themselves of their sins, or bad karma, after having ordered troops to shoot, kill and beat Buddhist monks in the September 2007 uprising.
Second, they meditate on how to rule the country forever, how to pass on power to the next generation of the military.
Actually, Burma's top generals have seriously been in deep meditation since 1988 _ on how to wash away the karma of killing 3,000 innocent people during the country's pro-democracy uprising.
Mr Samak also said, ''They [Burmese leaders] say the country lives in peace.'' If the prime minister and his delegation had been a little more sensitive when they signed their trade agreements (Thailand is Burma's third largest trading partner), they would have seen the spirits and ghosts of Burmese freedom fighters who sacrificed themselves while trying to win freedom for the Burmese people.
The Thai premier also said, ''Killings and suppression are normal there [in Burma], but we have to understand the facts. The general view of this country has always been one-sided, but there are two sides to a coin.''
Is Mr Samak saying killings and suppression should be accepted? He totally ignored the other side of the coin, the side that shows the people's suffering and human rights abuses.
Will the Burmese people now see the Thai government as a good friend of their enemy, the junta? How will they answer the question: Is Thailand a good neighbour?
In terms of foreign policy, it is a strategic mistake to place too much emphasis on friendship and cooperation between two governments at the expense of the people.
Doing the right thing in terms of friendship and cooperation between the people of both countries is more important and long lasting.
The current Thai government's ''neighbourly engagement'' policy needs to be directed not only at Burma's government but also at the Burmese people.
Of course, it's understandable that the Samak government wants to promote friendship, cooperation and strengthen economic ties with neighbouring countries, including Burma. It's also understandable that Thailand needs to do business deals with the junta, especially in the areas of natural gas and hydro energy. But there is a wise way of doing business deals while also promoting human rights.
Thai governments often act as if they have no real power when dealing with Burma. Blindly supporting the military regime only guarantees that serious issues, including refugees and migrant workers, will continue.
Yes, Mr Samak should remember a coin has two sides. He should send a clear message to the Burmese people that Thailand wants to do business deals with Burma, but it is first and foremost a friend of the Burmese people.
The author is managing editor of The Irrawaddy Magazine, based in Chiang Mai.
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Rep. Charlie Gonzalez’s decision to retire at the end of 2012 will end the congressional tenure of a Democratic family whose name has been synonymous with the city of San Antonio for more than half a century.
Gonzalez, who sued the state over a redistricting plan that carved downtown out of his central San Antonio congressional district, said it was not reapportionment, but the need to provide financial stability for his family that’s forcing him to seek a new career.
“I still find the job hugely rewarding, but the demands pull me somewhere else,” said Gonzalez, who will forego an eighth term in office.
“I’ve been in Congress for 14 years and I want to do something else — what that is, I really don’t know. But financially, I would like to be productive and have the resources to make a better life,” Gonzalez said.
His decision not to run for another term ends nearly 50 years of representation by the Gonzalez family.
It also presents a political opportunity for state Rep. Joaquín Castro, twin brother of San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro. The Democrat will seek Gonzalez’s 20th Congressional District seat, his spokesman Cary Clack said.
Former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, another Democrat, is eyeing the newly redrawn 35th district in which Castro originally intended to run.
“It’s about having lived in this district almost my entire life,” said Rodriguez, who previously served in the 28th district before being ousted by Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and in the 23rd district before losing to Rep. Quico Canseco, R-San Antonio.
Gonzalez, 66, succeeded his father, Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, who rose to prominence in the 1950s as a state senator who took to the Senate floor of the state Legislature to filibuster and kill discriminatory education bills.
The elder Gonzalez later was elected to the U.S. House with the help of President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Gonzalez served from 1961 to 1998, when he stepped down due to his health. He died in 2000 at age 84.
Charlie Gonzalez, the third of eight children born to Henry B. and Bertha Gonzalez and all of whom had helped with their father’s political campaigns, received family support to seek the seat.
The Gonzalez family name in San Antonio has been compared to the Kennedy name in Massachusetts.
Gonzalez, a state district judge, won a 1998 special election among a crowded field of Democrats to succeed his father.
The Gonzalez name in San Antonio has been met with loyalty in the city’s Hispanic neighborhoods on the West Side, considered the base of the family’s political support, but also in Anglo neighborhoods north of downtown.
Gonzalez said his decision is “tremendously emotional” because of his ties to the district, his father’s service and his time representing constituents.
“It has been part of my entire life,” Gonzalez said. “People still come up to me and tell me how my father made a difference in their lives.”
The younger Gonzalez also made a name for himself in Congress. He quickly rose through the Democratic ranks and is considered one of the party’s most eloquent spokesmen, particularly on judicial matters, civil rights, education and minority affairs.
He’s currently chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Conservatives have attacked Gonzalez as a liberal, although he’s aligned in the House with the more moderate wing of the party led by Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House Democratic whip.
An effort by conservative Republican Clayton Trotter in 2010 was easily turned back by Gonzalez, who won 64 percent of the vote. Even under the Republican redistricting plan, which pushed him out of central San Antonio, Gonzalez was considered a shoo-in for re-election.
Gonzalez serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a panel with oversight of telecommunications, oil, gas and refining industries important to San Antonio and South Texas.
This year, Gonzalez was one of several Democratic lawmakers who sued the state over a Republican-drawn congressional redistricting map signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry.
The Republican-drawn map faces legal challenges, and a federal court panel in San Antonio has issued an interim map that restores the 20th congressional district to much of its previous boundaries.
Republicans had removed downtown and Gonzalez’s home from his congressional district.
Gonzalez said he was satisfied that the integrity of the congressional district represented by his family has been retained, “which was my chief concern and objective while I mulled what my career decision would be.”
Gonzalez will serve out his current term, which ends next year.
“I am hoping that I find as much satisfaction in whatever new opportunity presents itself,” Gonzalez said. “Serving in the House of Representatives is going to be a hard act to follow.”
Staff Writer Brian Chasnoff contributed to this report.
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ANDRE CAVARO LUCAS brought two strong military traditions to West Point, one American, the other French. His father was a career Army officer who commanded a company in the 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, during WWI. Andre served as an enlisted soldier in the same company before entering West Point. His mother insisted that Andre receive his secondary education in her home town in France, where he was imbued with the glories of French military prowess during the Napoleonic wars. At West Point, his mother was thrilled to watch the Corps of Cadets march to the music “Sombre et Meuse.” For Andre, being a professional army officer was preordained. He never considered any other path.
Late in his Third Class year, Andre met his future wife, Madeleine Miller, fluent in French and of Swiss-French parentage. A strong personality, Madeleine gave him two sons and unflinching support for the rest of his life. The Lucases were famous for their hospitality, good wine and cuisine, and hilarious parties. Never ordinary people, they lived with energy and wonderful imagination. Their two sons, John and William, added to the excitement that always surrounded their home.
Andre attended Infantry, Airborne, and Ranger Schools and served as an armored infantry platoon leader in Munich, Germany, and a leader of a Special Forces A Team in the 10th Special Forces Group at Bad Toelz, Germany. He returned to the States in 1958 for duty at Ranger School at Eglin AFB in Florida for a year. He then became the aide to the deputy commanding general of Ft. Benning. Next, Andre completed the Infantry Offi cers Advanced Course and served as a tactical offi cer at West Point before going to Viet Nam. There, Andre advised a Vietnamese battalion, earning the first of two Silver Stars. He also prompted combat operational innovations. Surrounded by Viet Cong forces, Lucas radioed to a flight of U.S. helicopters passing overhead. He persuaded the crews to fi re small arms at the besieging Viet Cong forces. This improvised attack, apparently the fi rst of its kind, caused the Viet Cong to withdraw. The episode proved catalytic for the rapid development of helicopter gunships.
Upon return to the States, Andre completed CGSC at Ft. Leavenworth and the French War College in Paris and then served for one and half years on the staff of the European Command in Paris. When de Gaulle expelled U.S. forces from France, Andre served six more months at the command’s new location in Stuttgart, Germany. Next, he commanded the 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment in Germany, and then he returned to Ft. Riley to serve as the G-3 of the 24th Infantry Division. There he made a fateful decision.
Twice promoted ahead of his year group, Andre was one of the most promising Infantry officers in the Army. A decorated combat veteran, he was not slated to return to Viet Nam, but believed that, as a professional officer, he had a duty to command a battalion in combat. Thus, Andre volunteered in the fall of 1969. His clairvoyant wife begged him to go a month later or a month earlier, but not in October. He paid no heed. While commanding the “Currahees” battalion of the 506th Infantry in the 101st Airmobile Division, his battalion was surrounded by a much larger North Vietnamese regular force and fought for three weeks before Andre was allowed to evacuate his unit. Preparing to depart the fire base on the last helicopter out, Andre was hit by rocket fire and lost a leg. He died on 23 July 1970 on Fire Base Ripcord.
The Battle of Ripcord was the last large-scale combat involving U.S. forces in Vietnam. Whether or not his battalion should have been deployed on Ripcord was controversial, but that ambiguity did not weaken Andre’s sense of duty in the face of what he must have known was an ill-fated mission.
It is a painful irony that he brought the American and French military traditions to Viet Nam, the very place where they had been tragically intertwined in the early 1950s. True to both traditions, Andre’s repeated bravery during three weeks of sustained close combat was remarkable. For his actions, he received the Medal of Honor, the only member of the Class of 1954 so honored. A number of other honors have also come his way. In 1993, Andre was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame at Ft. Lewis, WA. At Ft. Campbell, KY, a computerized training field and a state-of-the-art elementary school were named for him. At West Point, the Class of ’54 has established the Andre Lucas Military Heritage Center as the class’s 50th reunion gift to the Military Academy.
In addition to his wife Madeleine and his two sons, John and William, Andre is survived by John’s two sons, Andre Cavaro Lucas II and Ian Lucas.
— William E. Odom ’54
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Last fall, right after Hurricane Sandy slammed into New York, observant Manhattanites may have noticed that odd posters had appeared along some of their city’s streets. Pieces of striped paper, with the stripes precisely spaced, had been posted to walls and billboards around downtown without any explanation. There was no brand name—no text of any kind. Just stripes. One with bright aquamarine and white stripes popped up about a block from this writer’s apartment, on Avenue A near East 14th Street. About a week later, they were gone.
Earlier this week, the striped posters began popping up again. They are the work of 74-year-old French artist Daniel Buren—he calls them affichages sauvages (savage postings)—and he’s been installing them around various cities for nearly five decades. The stripes are always the same size, exactly 8.7 centimeters across. The posters in November were timed to coincide with a two-gallery show at Bortolami and Petzel in Chelsea, which was scuttled by Sandy. Two months later, that show is finally coming to fruition.
Late last Friday afternoon, just as it was starting to get dark out, Mr, Buren was standing in Petzel, watching as two young women attempted to install some of that paper 20 feet high on a wall.
It was not going well.
The sheets of green and white striped paper that they were pasting to the wall were sucking up the glue and expanding, so that when they dried, they cracked. The women tore off the sheets and started again with a new kind of adhesive. There was a large stack of fresh striped paper on the floor.
“Amazing,” Mr. Buren said, eying a large stack of fresh striped paper that sat, ready, on the floor. He looked a bit surprised; this had never happened before.
“You know, paper’s pretty powerful stuff!” one of the women called down, and he nodded, not looking particularly concerned. A compact man with a solid head of white hair, he looks a bit like you would expect a celebrated avant-gardist to look—dressed in all black with a serious mien, but he’s warm and exuberant when he gets excited about an idea, which happens frequently.
The show at Petzel, which opens on Thursday, Jan. 10, along with a show of other new works at Bortolami, includes a number of such installations made with striped paper. Here’s the part you might not be expecting from storm-ravaged Chelsea galleries just recovering from Sandy’s flooding and with bills to pay: when the exhibition closes on Feb. 16, all of the paper will simply be thrown out. They are what Mr. Buren calls in situ pieces, works designed for a specific location. Once the papers are taken off the wall, their short lives as artworks are over. Collectors aiming to acquire such works must have them fitted for a given place, which makes them tough sells.
“You can give me your house, and I will do that in your house, and I will be very happy,” Mr. Buren said during an interview with The Observer at Bortolami. His French accent lends a piquancy to his more radical statements. “You will pay me for the cost of the thing, and it will be difficult to resell,” he continued. “That is the only problem. That is a good problem.”
Even as he approaches his sixth decade as an artist, perhaps the most decorated artist of his generation in France (he has been in the world’s most prestigious exhibition, the Venice Biennale, 10 times, and won its top prize in 1986), he still carries himself with the air of the charismatic and opinionated enfant terrible who took Paris by storm in the mid 1960s. He had a gang then, having joined with three other artists, Olivier Mosset, Michel Parmentier and Niele Toroni, to form a group called BMPT. Each of them adopted a single abstract motif and repeated it. Mr. Mosset offered up nothing but basic shapes on canvas, Mr. Toroni just single dabs of a brush, spaced equally across each of his canvases, and Mr. Buren those 8.7-centimeter stripes, a design that he found printed on fabric in a Parisian market.
“My painting, at the limit, can only signify itself,” Mr. Buren told an interviewer in 1968, as the group was gaining attention. “It is. So much so, and so well, that anyone can make it and claim it.” What meaning, after all, can one ascribe to ready-made stripes, repeated ad infinitum? “Perhaps the only thing that one can do after having seen a canvas like ours is total revolution,” he declared back then.
The artists signed each other’s canvases, painted each other’s works (sometimes in public) and issued manifestos that made clear that they sought to eject all content from their paintings, killing off the medium and starting over from the beginning. One from January 1967 declared, “Because to paint is to give aesthetic value to flowers, women, eroticism, the daily environment, art, dadaism, psychoanalysis and the war in Vietnam, we are not painters.” And then, 10 months later: “Art is the illusion of disorientation, the illusion of liberty, the illusion of presence, the illusion of the sacred, the illusion of Nature … Not the painting of Buren, Mosset, Parmentier or Toroni. Art is a distraction, art is false. Painting begins with Buren, Mosset, Parmentier, Toroni.”
Beginning in the mid 1960s, Mr. Buren began to design his work for specific locations, and in 1968 he ventured out onto Paris’s streets, pasting his stripes around the city. In 1970, he spent about 10 days giving New York the stripe treatment, sending out a card informing people that they could call a telephone number to find out his pieces’ locations. He was what some might now call a “street artist.” Those in the know were lured to examine new parts of the city; those who were unaware were merely baffled. “They would say, ‘What is that?!’” Mr. Buren recalled. “‘It’s intriguing’ or ‘It’s stupid’ or whatsoever.”
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Building & Planning
The Arcata Community Development Department is composed of three branches whose primary purpose is to ensure development within the City complies with state, federal, and local laws. The three divisions of Community Development are: 1) Building, 2), Planning, and 3) Redevelopment Agency.
The Building Division ensures the health and welfare of the residents of Arcata by regulating the construction, use, and occupancy of buildings and other alterations through the application of standardized model building codes. The Arcata Building Division ensures that the standards set by these codes for construction are met through plan review, permit issuance and on-site inspections.
The Planning Division is responsible for long- and short-range planning and implementation, development review and permitting, environmental review, economic development, processing of annexations, housing, and grant applications and administration.
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Chuck Close (American b. 1940), Self-Portrait, 2004-2005. 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, 20 x 25 in.
We are innately drawn to the human face; that must explain why Chuck Close's many portraits are irrestible. Working from a photograph of his subject, Close puts a grid on the photo and on the canvas and then carefully applies color, cell by cell. Over the years, the grid has evolved from a near-invisible aid for transferring the image to a bold compositional element. Abstract up close, his portraits are dazzling mosaics of iridescent color that we are hard-wired to discern as a nose, a mouth, eyes, and other features.
Click here to learn more about this exhibition.
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- Reviewed in:
- Review Date:
Bestselling author (2005's The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke, etc.) and host of her own CNBC show, Orman encourages women to "give to yourself as much as you give of yourself" in her ninth financial advice book, sure to resonate with legions of readers who will appreciate her straightforward advice and supportive tone. Aiming squarely for a female audience, Orman guides readers through the very basics of finances. She explores why women have dysfunctional relationships with money and notes the ways they undervalue themselves or "treat themselves as a commodity whose price is set by others," while also sharing the story of her own evolving relationship with her finances. Though her explanation of the "8 qualities of a wealthy woman" (harmony, balance, courage, etc.) is more inspirational than practical, she also presents a concrete five-month "save yourself plan" for financial repair, starting with setting aside checking and savings accounts, fixing one's credit rating, saving for retirement, setting up a will and purchasing home insurance. This encouraging guide will not intimidate women who are foundering financially. (Feb.)Correction: Due to the publisher's error, we misidentified Sidney Wanzer in our review of his book, To Die Well (Reviews, Feb. 18). He the former head of the Harvard Law School Health Services.
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The primary goal of using behavioral finance principles in your practice is to “positively manipulate behavior on a subconscious level,” Darrin Farrow said on Monday at the 2011 Center for Due Diligence conference in Chicago.
Farrow, principal at Rehmann Financial, used questionnaires as an example of where advisors can improve their behavioral finance process. Most questionnaires are written above the average client’s level of understanding; investors would rather do nothing than something they don’t understand, Farrow said.
Dorann Cafaro, general partner and principal at Cafaro Greenleaf, hinted that participants’ responses may not always be reliable anyway. Their behaviors are driven by the moment, she said. Even if they say they want to save, when the time comes for action, they’ll hesitate.
For example, if you offer them a chocolate bar and an apple, she suggested, many will take the chocolate bar right away. However, if you ask them whether they’d prefer an apple or a chocolate bar, most will say they would eat the apple.
Data from Diversified Investment Advisors seems to support the conclusion that what participants say they will do and what they ultimately do are not always the same.
Patricia Advaney, senior vice president of participant strategy at Diversified, said that in a survey by Diversified, 69% of participants said they would stay in a retirement plan after auto-enrollment and increase their savings. However, just 18% followed through. Likewise, while just 25% said they would stay in the plan at the automatic 3% deferral rate, 68% did so.
Automatic enrollment, Advaney argued, may solve low participation rates, but wondered if it actually improves outcomes for participants. “It’s a plan solution, not an individual solution,” she said. Investors are still saving too little and, often, the participants with the greatest need
To optimize automatic enrollment, Advaney said, plans should adopt the highest deferral rate possible combined with automatic escalation to move participants to a higher rate as they get older. This strategy should be adopted for existing participants as well as new ones, she said.
Simplifying participants’ options is also beneficial. Offering just a few carefully chosen options instead of a full menu of choices is a more effective strategy to engage participants; in fact, engagement levels off at around 10 to 20 options. Advaney suggested creating a mental picture of what participants’ contributions are doing. Charitable organizations have utilized this strategy to great advantage, she said, by describing what dollar amounts provide in concrete terms. For example, a $50 dollar contribution might feed four families, Advaney suggested.
Advisors can help direct their clients’ decisions toward more positive outcomes by framing their questions differently, Cafaro said. When asked to choose between three risk allocations—conservative, moderate or aggressive—most investors chose to invest in moderate risk vehicles, Cafaro said. However, when their options were limited to simply conservative or aggressive, most investors chose to invest aggressively.
This evidence may lead some advisors to ask, “Why do we expect people to manage their own money at all?”
The best plan design is a hybrid between participant-directed investments and professionally managed plans, Farrow said.
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A delegation from Gaza was in Egypt Monday to hash out more details of a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel, less than a week after the truce ended an eight-day conflict.
The continued talks are a key part of the agreement, which called for "total cessation of all hostile activity" and discussion of topics such as opening border crossings and easing Israel's economic blockade in Gaza.
While new negotiations were under way in Egypt Monday, there were reports of violence along the Gaza-Israel border.
Hamas police and ambulance operators said Israeli soldiers injured two civilians when they fired at Palestinian homes east of Rafah City in Gaza. An Israeli military spokesman said the soldiers fired warning shots in the air and later shot toward the legs of "Palestinian rioters" who were damaging a security fence at the border and trying to enter Israel.
The Israeli military said earlier that it was investigating a stabbing Monday near the border. Israeli soldiers killed a man who infiltrated the village of Sde Avraham from Gaza and stabbed a woman, who was lightly injured, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The fragile truce between Israel and Hamas has appeared to hold up despite such flareups.
On Friday, there were reports that Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man near the border. Fighting also was recorded Thursday, a day after the cease-fire was declared.
Egypt and the United States helped broker the cease-fire last week after Israel launched a series of military strikes on Gaza with the stated goal of halting Israel-bound rocket attacks from militants in the Palestinian territory.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy helped forge the cease-fire as Israeli forces gathered near the Gaza border for a possible ground invasion.
On Monday, Morsy was facing a political crisis in his own country, with some protesters calling him a dictator and judges striking nationwide in protest of the president's announcement last week that Egyptian courts cannot overturn the decisions or decrees he's made since taking office in June.
It was unclear whether the turmoil in Egypt would affect the cease-fire talks.
The Gaza-Israel conflict left more than 160 Palestinians dead, many of whom were civilians.
The brother of BBC journalist Jihad Misharawi, whose 11-month-old son was killed in an Israeli airstrike, died from wounds suffered in the strike, medical sources said Monday.
Six Israelis also have died during the conflict, including civilians and soldiers.
The ongoing talks over the cease-fire deal come as Palestinian Authority leaders plan to make a pitch this week to become a non-member observer state at the United Nations.
"All the Palestinian factions are behind us as we go ... to the United Nations," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told supporters Sunday.
Hamas added its support Monday, an apparent change in position after stating a day earlier that there was "no truth" to reports that Haniyeh's office "has blessed the move to go to the United Nations."
The shift followed a phone call between Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal and Abbas, according to the Hamas website.
The Gaza-based Hamas has long opposed the gambit that Abbas launched last year.
A vote on the Palestinian status is expected at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.
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This is the tutorial for the fondant pumpkins I used on my Halloween cake.
I used Wilton gum paste. I knew that these would just end up in the trash, so I didn’t bother with making them edible (I know that gum paste is technically edible, but I could never eat it). Last year I used this Marshmallow Fondant for the pumpkins and although I didn’t eat them, other people said they were good. All that I cared about was that it made nice pumpkins. The fondant is kind of a pain to make, but the results were really nice.
Please excuse the dirty hands below. It’s just powdered sugar. If your fondant seems to wet at any point, you can just add a little powdered sugar. And I don’t actually have great grandma hands. That’s just how they look after an entire day of cake and pumpkin making followed by another two hours of dishes.
Color most your fondant or gum paste however orange you like. Be clever, unlike me, and color it the same color as your orange icing! If you have disposable gloves, you might want to use those, but I didn’t and it was fine. You’ll need some brown and green fondant later, so leave a little uncolored for now. Keep the fondant covered when not using it or it might dry out. Roll a chunk of the orange fondant into a little ball.
Press the pumpkin down a little bit so that it’s not a perfect sphere. Make a small indentation for the stem. I don’t know what that thing is I used. I know it’s for doing stuff to fondant, but I don’t use fondant, so I call it my pumpkin-indentation-maker.
Using the back of a knife, make some lines so that your pumpkin actually looks like a pumpkin.
Don’t worry if it looks uneven. People won’t notice.
Color some of your leftover fondant green and roll it into a thin snake and swirl it around a toothpick.
Very lightly wet the bottom of the vine and put it in the indentation on the top of the pumpkin. Color a little fondant brown and make a small stem that’ll fit in your pumpkins. Then wet the brown stem (again very lightly!) and place on the vine. Make sure it’s in there good! You don’t want them falling out later.
Mine were much too dry and cracked after a while. I didn’t have this issue using the above marshmallow fondant recipe. You should also probably draw cute faces on them, but I have no drawing skills. I used a Wilton Foodwriter, which by the way, I just read should be refrigerated after opening. Mine’s been open for two years… whoops.
These would be great to put on top of pumpkin cupcakes or other Halloween goodies. I hope this helps!
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PATNA: Observing that the Bihar has continued to remain a 'BIMARU' state even 64 years after the country attained freedom, the NCP on Saturday lashed out at the politicians and political parties for the prevailing backwardness of the state and its people.
"Bihar has lagged behind other states in terms of development even more than six decades since the independence which speaks volume of the failure of the political class to deliver the goods," the NCP national general secretary Tariq Anwar said at at symposium held on the occasion of 127th birth anniversary of the first president Rajendra Prasad.
The political parties and the politicians could not escape responsibility for the morass in which the state finds itself today as the industrial development has continued to elude it and other avenues for development to bring employment opportunities and prosperity to the people, he said.
Today's Bihar was not only known as economically backward state, but also for being the biggest producer of labour force who routinely migrate to the nook and corners of the country in search of work to earn livelihood for themselves and their dependents, Anwar said.
The senior NCP leader also rubbished the tall claims being made by the NDA government headed by the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar about development of the state over the past six years and asked the latter to prove his point on the basis of industrial development, quantum of private investment and concrete yardsticks.
Contrary to whatever the Chief Minister says about development of Bihar, there has been no no investment of private capital nor many industrial units set up for employment generation and the flight of labour force from the state was significant even today, Anwar said.
Rejecting the state government's contention about improvement of the law and order situation in Bihar, he said that the private investors were still scared to commit their money in the state and they were not sure when they will be haunded by the criminals and extortionists and forced to flee.
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The Administrative Court’s (as yet unreported) judgment in R (on the application of N) v a Local Authority in December 2010 saw the quashing of a decision to withdraw a licence to be in contact with children. The case concerned the familiar public law principles of judicial review and human rights, but from an information law perspective, the point of interests is this: in reaching its decision to withdraw the individual’s licence, the local authority compiled information on that individual, including the allegations made against him (namely, that he was a paedophile with a history of sexual offences) as well as its meetings with the individual. Ockleton J not only overturned the local authority’s decision, but also directed it to keep a copy of the judgment with its records relating to the matter, so that its records on this individual were full and accurate. Otherwise, he ruled, the local authority’s file on this individual was potentially misleading to anyone subsequently accessing it.
The European Court of Human Rights handed down a significant judgment today in Kennedy v. UK (application no. 26839/05).
A warrant under s. 8(1) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 permits the interception of the communications of a particular person (or particular set of premises). Mr Kennedy sought to challenge the Art. 8 compatibility of the s. 8(1) warrant regime, and in particular sought to criticise its foreseeability. The Court unanimously rejected his challenge and, in a relatively detailed judgment, upheld the compatibility of the domestic law.
The case is also interesting for the Court’s analysis of Mr Kennedy’s Art. 6 complaint. Mr Kennedy had brought domestic proceedings in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which had resulted in two public decisions on legal issues, together with a final ruling that no determination had been made in his favour (i.e. that there had either been no interception, or that any interception that had taken place had been lawful). In Strasbourg, Mr Kennedy complained that the restrictive procedures of the Tribunal had breached Art. 6. In its judgment, the Court avoided deciding whether Art. 6 applied to such proceedings, but went on to confirm that if Art. 6 did apply then the Tribunal’s procedures satisfied its requirements.
On Tuesday of this week, the Court of Appeal handed down three important judgments on the question of how, in the context of civil litigation, courts should approach cases where the State is seeking to advance part of its case through a closed material procedure. The closed material procedure effectively operates to allow the State to put evidence and arguments before the court in closed session, which is to say in the absence of the other parties and their representatives. The excluded parties and their representatives will not be given access to any closed evidence or arguments. The procedure typically entails arrangements whereby the excluded parties will be represented in the closed session by a special advocate. All three appeals were decided by the same panel of judges, namely: Lord Neuberger MR, Maurice Kay LJ, Sullivan LJ. The following is a summary of the judgments:
HOME OFFICE v TARIQ EWCA Civ 462 – T had been employed by the Home office as an immigration officer. T’s brother and cousin had been arrested in relation to alleged terrorist offences. The cousin was convicted and the brother released without charge. T was suspended from duty due to national security concerns. T, who was a Muslim of Asian/Pakistani origin, went on to bring claims in the employment tribunal of race and religious discrimination. The tribunal held that it had statutory powers under the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2004 to hear certain evidence relating to the claims in closed session, albeit that T would be represented in that session by a special advocate. The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the decision to hear evidence in closed session was not unlawful but that T and his representatives should be informed of the gist of the closed material which was to be heard in the closed session. The Secretary of State appealed the decision that T should be told the gist of the closed material. T cross-appealed on the grounds that the convening of a closed session was itself unlawful under the European Directives from which his right to claim discrimination was derived and, further, under Art. 6 ECHR. The Court of Appeal, upholding the EAT’s judgment, held that: (a) the closed materials procedure, which entailed the use of a special advocate to represent T’s interests, did not contravene either the Directives or Art. 6 of the Convention; and (b) following Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF (No.3) UKHL 28, 3 WLR 74, T was entitled to know the gist of the closed material so that he could fairly and effectively pursue his claims.
BANK MELLAT v HM TREASURY EWCA Civ 483 – B was a bank which had been made subject to a direction under the Financial Restrictions (Iran) Order 2009. The order had been made pursuant to the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008. The Direction prohibited all persons operating in the financial sector from entering or participating in any transaction or business relationship with B. The basis of the Direction was that M ‘continued to engage in a pattern of conduct which supported and facilitated Iran’s proliferation-sensitive activities, that nuclear-related companies received funds from B, and that a company with alleged connections with other nuclear-related companies conducted business using B’. B sought to challenge the Direction under CPR 79. CPR 79 contains provisions allowing for a closed materials procedure to be adopted. T wished to treat certain evidence as closed evidence under the closed material procedure. B challenged T’s attempt to withhold the closed evidence from it. The High Court held that T was obliged under Art 6 of the Convention to afford B sufficient disclosure to enable it to give effective instructions about the essential allegations made against it. HELD: The Court of Appeal held that, where disclosure of evidence might be contrary to the public interest, Art 6 permitted a balancing exercise to be undertaken. However, in line with Tariq v Home Office, B should be given the gist of the information being withheld so that he could give effective instructions in relation to the case being put against him. The information provided to B had to be sufficient to enable B to give sufficient instructions not merely to deny, but actually to refute the essential allegations relied on by T.
BISHER AL RAWI & 5 ORS v SECURITY SERVICE & Ors EWCA Civ 482 – The appellants (X) appealed against a decision of the High Court that, as a matter of principle, it was open to the court to order a closed material procedure in the context of a civil claim for damages. X were former Guantanamo detainees. They had made various claims against the respondents (Y) including claims for damages for false imprisonment, trespass to the person, torture and negligence. Y invited the court to apply a closed material procedure which would enable them to rely on pleadings and evidence which would not be disclosed to X or their representatives, albeit that it would be disclosed to a special advocate representing X’s interests. Y argued that this approach was necessary in the public interest. X’s position was that it was not open to Y to use a closed material procedure and that its only option was to rely on the public interest immunity (PII) procedure. Under that procedure, any evidence which was subject to PII would be excluded altogether from the litigation process, which meant that neither party could rely upon it. Y argued that the closed material approach was preferable because the court would be more likely to arrive at a fair result if it could see the relevant material. HELD: The Court of Appeal, overturning the High Court’s judgment, held that it was not open to the court to order a closed material procedure in relation to the trial of an ordinary civil claim. The principle that a litigant should be able to see and hear all the evidence seen and heard by the court determining his case was so fundamental that, in the absence of parliamentary authority, no judge should override it in relation to an ordinary civil claim. The Court commented obiter that different considerations might apply where the proceedings did not only concern the interests of the parties but also had a significant effect on a vulnerable third party or the wider public interest. However, those considerations did not apply in the instant proceedings where the judge would be called upon to sit purely as an arbiter between the parties and no “triangulation of interests” would be involved.
What these judgments show collectively is just how difficult it is to strike a fair balance between the important public interest in protecting the basic rights of individuals to know what case is being put against them and the need to avoid disclosures which would themselves damage the public interest, for example, by jeopardizing national security. They also confirm that a distinction is to be drawn between those cases where there is a specific statutory or Parliamentary authority for a closed material procedure to be adopted (Tariq and Bank Mellat) and those cases where no such authority exists (Al Rawi). In respect of the latter cases, the Court of Appeal has effectively held that: (a) in general, the only procedural course available to the State is to make an application for evidence to be excluded under the PII procedure; although (b) there may be cases where exceptionally third party interests or the public interest warrant a different approach being adopted.
In an earlier post this month on the Al Rawi litigation, I reflected upon recent developments concerning the use of secret evidence in civil litigation. Yesterday, the House of Lords and House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights published its latest report on the human rights implications of UK counter-terrorism measures: Counter-Terrorism Policy and Human Rights (Seventeenth Report): Bringing Human Rights Back In. In its report, the JCHR expressed serious concerns about the growth in the use of secret evidence procedures within the judicial system and the Government’s apparent failure to apply the restrictive principles outlined in the Article 6 cases of A v UK 49 EHRR and Secretary of State v AF UKHL 28. The following paragraphs of the report are particularly worthy of note:
62. The Government’s response to the A and AF judgments suggest that it considers itself free to press on with the use of secret evidence and special advocates in the other contexts in which they are used, without pausing to take stock of the wider implications of these significant rulings. Although the Government says that it is considering whether changes to the Parole Board’s procedures are needed, we have not seen any evidence to suggest that the Government has in fact considered the implications of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in A v UK for all the other contexts in which special advocates and secret evidence are used. We recommend that the Government urgently conduct a comprehensive review of the use of secret evidence and special advocates, in all contexts in which they are used, in light of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the House of Lords, to ascertain how often they are used and whether their use is compatible with the minimum requirements of the right to a fair hearing as interpreted in those judgments, and to report to Parliament on the outcome of that review.
64. We are not satisfied that the Minister’s answer meets the special advocates’ concerns about the difficulty of distilling the relevant principles from closed judgments, or about the necessary accessibility of the law. We recommend that the Government include arrangements for law reporting in the review of the use of secret evidence that we have recommended above.
Employment vetting is of great interest to information lawyers. Any vetting scheme depends on the systematic sharing of information about individuals. Such schemes will always give rise to difficult questions about fairness. An important recent decision of the Court of Appeal explores some of these issues, in the context of article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Governors of X School v Queen on the application of G EWCA 1 concerned a teaching assistant at X school (“the employee”), who was accused of having sexual contact with a 15 year old boy on work experience at the school. The school governors conducted a disciplinary hearing, and dismissed the employee. The employee brought judicial review proceedings to challenge the governors’ decisions not to allow him legal representation at the disciplinary hearing or at a forthcoming appeal hearing. He argued that these decisions violated his right to a fair hearing, under article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The employee’s claim succeeded at first instance. The Court of Appeal upheld that decision, rejecting the governors’ appeal.
The basis of the employee’s claim was that an adverse finding in the disciplinary proceedings would expose him to statutory procedures that would prevent him from working with children. The Court of Appeal summarised the relevant procedures, by reference to three phases in the employment vetting regime: (i) the “list 99” procedure, under section 142 of the Education Act 2002, prohibiting certain individuals from working in education; (ii) the transitional regime, under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (“the 2006 Act”), whereby after 20th January 2009 certain cases under section 142 were referred to the new Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA); and (iii) the substantive regime under the 2006 Act, whereby list 99 was replaced with effect from 12th October 2009 by the “children’s barred list”, established under section 2(1)(a) of the 2006 Act.
The Court of Appeal considered whether the school disciplinary proceedings were a determinant of the employee’s civil right to practise his profession as a teaching assistant, so as to engage article 6 of the ECHR. Dismissal by the governors would not itself preclude the employee from practising his profession. A decision to include the employee on a statutory barring list would, however, have that effect. The question was whether the disciplinary proceedings had a substantial influence or effect on the barring proceedings, and therefore on the determination of the employee’s civil right to practise his profession. The answer was yes: therefore, the disciplinary proceedings engaged article 6.
The Court went on to consider whether article 6 required that the employee should be entitled to legal representation in the disciplinary proceedings. Article 6 did not entail a right to legal representation in every case: but in this case there was such a right, given the seriousness of what was at stake for the employee, and given the potential for legal representation to make a difference to the outcome.
The above analysis assumed that the case was to be treated as civil rather than criminal for the purposes of article 6. The employee argued that the case ought to be treated as criminal: given its other conclusions, the Court of Appeal did not need to decide this point.
The governors were a public authority under the Human Rights Act 1998, and therefore subject to the duty under section 6(1) of that Act, not to act incompatibly with Convention rights. The implications of the Court of Appeal’s decisions for private sector employers are uncertain. Such employers are not subject to the section 6(1) duty, and are not susceptible to judicial review. But in an unfair dismissal claim against a private sector employer, the employee might well rely on Governors of X School in order to argue that a failure to permit legal representation would render any dismissal unfair.
The case is of very considerable importance. It illustrates the wide consequences of the vetting scheme introduced by the 2006 Act. The scheme will give rise to a host of difficult legal issues: the Courts are only just beginning to explore them.
Yesterday, the High Court handed down a controversial judgment on the use of ‘the closed material procedure’ (CMP) in civil litigation: Al-Rawi & Ors v The Security Service & Ors (judge – Silber J). The background to the judgment is that a number of individuals who had been detained at Guantanamo Bay had brought claims for damages against the defendants on the basis that they had caused or contributed to the claimants’ unlawful detention and ill-treatment by foreign governments. A preliminary issue then arose in these cases as to whether the defendants could put evidence before the court using the CMP. The CMP, in effect, allows defendants to put documents in evidence before the court whilst at the same time withholding them from the claimants. The only way in which the claimants have any say on the closed material is through the use of special advocates appointed to act on their behalf. However, the role of special advocates is heavily circumscribed, not least because they cannot convey to their clients the content of the closed material.
The CMP has formerly been used in the context of deportation appeals heard by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC). However, the CMP has not previously been a feature of civil litigation. Instead, in the context of civil litigation, if the government was concerned that the disclosure of particular information would be contrary to the public interest, the best it could hope for was to rely on the public interest immunity (PII) procedure. The crucial difference between the PII procedure and the CMP is that the former procedure operates so as to ensure that the PII material is not put before the court at all, whereas the latter procedure allows the government to put the closed material before the judge whilst at the same time not disclosing that material to the other side. Thus, there is an inherent asymmetry present in the CMP which is not present in the PII procedure.
In a controversial judgment, Silber J decided as a preliminary issue that use of the CMP was permissible in a civil claim for damages, albeit only in exceptional cases. In reaching this conclusion, Silber J rejected arguments that the High Court had no jurisdiction to permit the use of the CMP; that use of the CMP was inconsistent with the requirements of the CPR and that it was otherwise at odds with the established PII procedure. It is highly likely that this judgment will go on appeal. 11KBW’s Karen Steyn acted on behalf of the defendants.
Information law overlaps with employment law in two main ways, in relation to employment vetting and employment monitoring. Broadly speaking vetting is about the enquiries that an employer can make before recruitment, and monitoring is about checking on the performance and behavior of existing employees.
The legal framework for employment vetting is changing radically, as the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 is brought into force. The Act implements the Bichard Report, which followed an inquiry into the notorious 2002 Soham murders. It establishes a new vetting and barring scheme for those working with children or vulnerable adults, to be operated by a statutory body called the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).
With effect from 20th January 2009, the ISA was given responsibility for decision-making under the 3 existing employment barring lists: the education list, (popularly known as “List 99″), the PoCA list (for those working with children) and the PoVa list (for those working with vulnerable adults). As from 12th October 2009 these 3 lists will be replaced by two new lists introduced by section 2 of the 2006 Act and maintained by the ISA - the children’s barred list and the adults’ barred list. Employers, social services and professional regulators will have a duty to share information with the ISA. From July 2010, new entrants to roles working with vulnerable groups and those switching jobs within the sector will be able to register with the ISA, and employers will be able to check registration status online. The legal requirement for new entrants and those moving jobs to register with the ISA, and for employers to check on their status, will come into force by November 2010. The intention is to bring the whole of the existing workforce into the scheme by 2015.
I will be delivering a paper about employment vetting at the Local Government Group conference on 29th April, and the paper will be available on 11KBW’s website after the conference. For consideration of whether the existing PoVA list is compatible with articles 6 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, see R (ota Wright) v Secretary of State UKHL 3. For the timetable for implementing the 2006 Act, see here and here.
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Health care reform is a hot topic in political races across the country this year. Having a cardiologist, a neurosurgeon and a dentist in the race leading up to Georgia's 9th District special election Tuesday only pushes the topic more to the forefront.
Dr. Lee Hawkins, Dr. Chris Cates and Dr. Bert Loftman all have touted their experience in the medical field, but other candidates also have brought their ideas to the discussion around the district.
Six Republicans, a Democrat and an independent will be on the ballot Tuesday to replace former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, who resigned to run for governor. All the Republicans and the independent want the recently passed health care package repealed completely.
Gainesville dentist Dr. Hawkins, who has been criticized in television ads for not signing the Club for Growth's Repeal It pledge to rescind the national health care law, said the recently passed health care legislation has "too many wormholes" and needs to be repealed.
He said the bill sets up too many people managing health care and not enough people delivering it. He also faults the legislation's price tag, saying the finances don't add up.
"It doesn't take a financial expert to figure that out," Dr. Hawkins said.
Creating more competition is the key, said the former state senator. Insurance should be sold across state lines, he said, and people should be able to buy policies through groups such as churches or Rotary Clubs.
Dr. Cates, a cardiologist from Blairsville, agreed that more competition is needed. He said insurance needs to be portable, with people owning their own policy rather than tied through employment. Businesses should be allowed to pool together to get a better rate, and insurance needs to be sold across state lines, said Dr. Cates, who brought a copy of the bill in two wide binders to candidate forums.
He also said patients need to have more of a financial stake in their treatment. He said if patients had to pay a higher percentage on the cost of prescriptions, they would be more likely to look for generics or discount drugs rather than letting insurance cover expensive brands without a second thought.
The other doctor in the race, Dr. Loftman, said the U.S. Constitution doesn't give the federal government any authority to perform the duties outlined in health care reform, which he calls Obamacare. He said the entire package needs to be repealed and other measures installed to make the insurance industry more competitive.
He said patients need more choice and echoed Dr. Cates, saying patients need more of a financial stake in their care. Competition between doctors when patients start shopping around would drive prices down, he said.
Sticking with his platform on other issues, Dr. Loftman said the country's current tax code is anti-savings and should be reformed to give people more incentive to save for medical emergencies.
But not all of the candidates want to repeal the bill. Mike Freeman, the lone Democrat in the race, said there's work to be done to the health care bill, but repealing the whole package would be a shame.
"It is not perfect by any means, and it needs a lot of work," said Mr. Freeman, a former Episcopal minister from Oakwood, Ga. "There are no simple answers once you get away from the Republican solution, which is to get rid of it."
He said the reform does such good things as giving more people coverage, closing the "doughnut hole" in drug coverage and giving older college students coverage through their parents.
He admitted that Congress needs to "tighten it up a good bit" and that some of the system's cost projections are "overly optimistic."
That cost, as well as the intrusiveness of the reform, worries Bill Stephens, a candidate from Cumming.
"It would take quite a bit of surgery to extract all of the bad parts of this bill," said Mr. Stephens, a former state Senate majority leader.
He pointed at the problems in health care for veterans as an example of how the federal government handles medicine.
Mr. Stephens, the president of a communications firm and former banker, said reform is necessary and it should do something about pre-existing conditions and put an emphasis on preventative care. He also said lawsuit reform is necessary.
Ranger real estate developer Tom Graves claims to be the third person in the United States to sign the Club for Growth's Repeal It pledge, which now features signatures from more than 300 candidates.
He said part of the solution involves cracking down on illegal immigration because illegal aliens drive up the cost of health care by using services but not paying taxes. He also said individuals need the same tax deals corporations get in terms of insurance.
"There are plenty of solutions out there that don't involve a government takeover," Mr. Graves said.
He criticized the three candidates with medical backgrounds, saying they may know health care but said they're "one-dimensional" on other topics.
Chickamauga resident Steve Tarvin echoed the sentiments of other candidates, saying doctors and patients need to be in more of a "buyer-seller relationship" because that would promote competition.
As a business owner, he said the new system could save his company $500,000 per year but employees' coverage wouldn't be as good.
He said he objects to the reform because it oversteps the government's duties.
"The federal government has no power to tell people to buy anything," he said.
Independent Eugene Moon agreed, saying the federal government should only exist to protect life and liberty. He said each citizen is responsible for himself and family and there should not be any federal rules in regards to health care.
Continue reading by following these links to related stories:
Andy began working at the Times Free Press in July 2008 as a general assignment reporter before focusing on Northwest Georgia and Georgia politics in May of 2009. Before coming to the Times Free Press, Andy worked for the Anniston Star, the Rome News Tribune and the Campus Carrier at Berry College, where he graduated with a communications degree in 2006. He is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Tennessee ...
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In case you haven’t heard, Indiana sportsmen are closer to having a Constitutional right to fish and hunt.
Wait a minute, you say; don’t we already have that right?
The Indiana Senate passed SJR 0007 by a 38-10 vote this week, sending the proposed amendment to the House for its approval. If passed, Hoosiers will vote on it in next year’s state election.
It likely will pass. The same proposal sailed through the General Assembly two years ago. Under law, a Constitutional amendment must be approved by two separate Legislatures before going on a statewide ballot.
The proposed amendment “Provides that the people have a right to hunt, fish, harvest game, or engage in the agricultural or commercial production of meat, fish, poultry, or dairy products, which is a valued part of our heritage and shall be forever preserved for the public good, subject to laws prescribed by the general assembly and rules prescribed by virtue of the authority of the general assembly. Provides that hunting and fishing are the preferred means of managing and controlling wildlife. Provides that this constitutional amendment does not limit the application of any laws relating to trespass or property rights.”
If successful, Indiana would join 17 states that have added similar constitutional amendments in recent years.
Oddly enough, Michigan, one of the nation’s most popular hunting and fishing states, isn’t one of them.
Bill sponsor Senator Brent Steele, R-Bedford, said the amendment would protect Indiana’s $8 billion a year in agricultural products sold, and more than 950,000 residents who hunt or fish each year, from animal-rights groups trying to impose more limits. The amendment continues to give authority to state agencies to regulate hunting and fishing.
“You think (anti-groups) haven’t spread their tentacles?” Steele said in an Associated Press story this week. “I merely ask you to go to your computers and look them up.”
If the referendum goes public, expect heavily financed anti-groups to bombard the state with a media campaign filled with misconceptions to sway votes of those who don’t fish and hunt.
Antis spent millions a few years ago when a dove hunting referendum was defeated on Michigan ballot.
License changes coming?
Southwest Michigan wildlife biologist Steve Chadwick hinted at some major license changes coming.
In a media note this week, Chadwick said Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s new budget proposal calls for a change in the state’s license structure and fees.
“Currently we have over 200 license types for hunters and anglers to navigate and the governor has asked us to bring that to 31,” said Chadwick. “Secondly, some fees will change which is expected to bring an additional $18 million in DNR coffers.”
Although specific details have yet to be ironed out, it’s likely there will be one license to cover both inland and trout and salmon. Of course, that means that inland anglers who don’t fish trout and salmon will be expected to pay considerably more.
Hunters might see similar changes, such as they will buy a basic hunting license and add whatever tags – deer, turkey, bear, etc. – on top of that.
Fee increases, Chadwick noted, will boost the state’s matching dollars for federal funding. The Wildlife Restoration act and the Sport Fish Restoration Act returns $3 in federal money to states for every $1 they put up.
Both of those funds are derived from federal excise taxes applied on sporting equipment at the retail level. Those excise tax collections are then allocated to states based upon their respective number of paid licenses.
The funds must be dedicated to fish and wildlife projects, including research, surveys and public access development.
“With the increase in gun and ammunition sales this year, we expect more money being made available to the states next year,” Chadwick said.
Before a state can claim its allotment on a project, it must cover one third of the costs from its own money. For simplicity sake, if say Michigan is offered $9 million in Wildlife Restoration Act funds, it must ante $3 million of its own.
Increasing license revenue will make that more feasible.
There may be a glitch, however.
Chadwick says if Congress allows the Federal Budget Control Act “Sequester” to go through in a couple of weeks, all of that excise money will be lost.
Don’t you just love politics?
The general public can begin signing up Monday for next summer’s annual Lunker’s Bass tournament on Eagle/Juno lakes.
The tournament will be held Aug. 3. Entry fee is $110 per team. Starting position is based upon the order entries are received. Call Lunkers, 269-663-3745, for details.
Beef O’ Brady’s will host its 5th annual Bassmaster Classic Party next Sunday at the Granger restaurant. Live coverage of bass fishing’s world championship finals will be streamed from Bassmaster.com onto the big screen TV in the restaurant. The weigh-in will start at approximately 5:30 p.m., South Bend time.
Bassmaster Classic competition starts Friday on Grand Lake O’ Cherokees, some 90 miles from Tulsa, Okla., where the indoor weigh-ins will be conducted at BOK Center.
Beef O’ Brady’s will provide free chips and salsa while supplies last. Anglers are encouraged to bring tournament schedules to share with others, fishing photos to post on a braggin’ board, and any used bass fishing tackle they might want to trade or sell.
For more information, call Rick Kedik, 269-240-4917.
Wild game dinner
The Dowagiac Conservation Club will host its annual Wild Game Dinner next Saturday from noon to 3 p.m.
Adult meals consisting of venison, rabbit, elk, pheasant, squirrel, goose and other game meats prepared by club members will be served for an $8 donation or $4 for children. Beef and pork will be available as well as salads, side dishes and desserts.
Proceeds go to the club’s Youth Education Fund. For information, call Andy Parmley, 269-782-5046.
The club is located north of Dowagiac on M-51.
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CHOP offers a one-year pediatric Neuroradiology Fellowship, which can be completed along two separate possible tracks, as follows:
The goals and objectives are to provide clinical training in the performance and interpretation of diagnostic neuroradiology imaging studies that pertain to fetuses, neonates, infants, children and adolescents. The anatomic parts examined include the brain, skull, eyes, ears, head and neck, spine and spinal cord. Techniques include all of those required to perform state-of-the-art diagnosis including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance angiography and spectroscopy, as well as functional MRI and MEG.
One-on-one training during interpretation of studies is the major method by which information is imparted. Didactic lectures are given by the eight Neuroradiology staff throughout the year as formal conferences. A pediatric neuroradiology case review conference is given every week on Monday, 8 A.M. to 9 A.M., with the fellows presenting the interesting cases. Neurology, Neurosurgery and Pathology comment on the active cases during this multidisciplinary conference. Pediatric ENT conference is held monthly in conjunction with the Ear, Nose and Throat surgeons and trainees. Brain cutting with Pediatric Neuropathology is held every week, in which interesting cases which have gone to Autopsy are reviewed and presented by a senior Neuropathologist at CHOP. All fellows are encouraged to attend the multidisciplinary and multimodality fetal conference held weekly, in conjunction with Fetal Surgery, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Genetics, Pediatric Neurology, Neuroradiology and Obstetrical Sonography. In addition, a weekly Stroke conference is held in which interesting vascular cases are reviewed with pediatric neurologists sub-specializing in pediatric neurovascular diseases.
Robert Zimmerman, M.D. is the Director of the Neuroradiology Fellowship Program.
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Top 10 Lesser-Known Folk Musicians
In college, I took a course called American Roots Music. One genre we discussed was folk music. A portion of the class had to give a presentation on any folk musician they wanted. Of the 15 or so people who presented, I kid you not, all but one of those students presented on either Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, or Woody Guthrie. Over and over again we had to listen to the same material – the same bullet points of life and career highlights that defined the significance of these three musicians. They each are, of course, great musicians. My fondness for folk music – and the fact that I presented in this genre for that class – led me to discover some really great, lesser-known folk musicians. When researching for my project, I wanted to make sure I found someone no one else would talk about. You’ll have to read the list to find out who I did my project on…
Paul Baribeau is placed at the ten position because he is the only contemporary folk musician on this list. His style might be described as folk-punk or anti-folk. If you know him, it is likely because of his friendship with the more popular Kimya Dawson. Aside from his relative obscurity, I think Paul belongs on this list because of the passion, pain, and sincerity that come through in his bare performances.
Above is a video of Paul, Paul’s beard, and Paul performing one of his fan favorite songs.
I’m still trying to get my hands on more of Patrick Sky’s music. Ironically, I found the easiest album of his to acquire was also his most controversial – Songs that Made America Famous. Patrick Sky was a contemporary of Bob Dylan in the Greenwich Village folk scene. He played with some other, better known musicians (including number 3 on this list). He became disillusioned with the music business and his politics became radical which led him to record the controversial and satirical 1973 album named above. Just take a look at some of the song titles off the album: “Vatican Caskets,” “Child Molestation Blues,” and “Our Baby Die.” He also, of course, had some great, non-controversial songs.
Above is one of the first Patrick Sky songs I heard. He is performing it on a short-lived television show called Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest.
Sandy Denny was an English folk musician who, aside from a solo career, sang for the bands Fairport Convention, The Strawbs, and Fotheringay. She was also the only guest vocalist to appear on a Led Zeppelin studio album when she sang a duet with Robert Plant on the song “The Battle for Evermore.” Her best known song is perhaps “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” which has been covered by Judy Collins, Nina Simone, and Cat Power.
Denny had many substance abuse issues. She apparently drank and took cocaine while pregnant. A friend claimed that the child was premature and that Denny would crash her car and leave the baby in the pub and “all sorts of stuff.” She died at the age of 31 only a month after having suffered a fall down a staircase which resulted in her hitting her head against concrete.
During her lifetime, she only developed a cult-following. Posthumously, however, she has had a growing reputation. She has been called, “the pre-eminent British folk rock singer,” for instance. She might also be noted for having had a romantic involvement with the musician listed at number one on this list, whose songs she covered.
Peter La Farge was a Native American folk singer from the Greenwich Village scene of the 1960s. He was also son to Pulitzer Prize winning author Oliver La Farge. Peter is perhaps best known for having an association with Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. La Farge wrote a song, “As Long As the Grass Shall Grow” about the then current violation of a Native American treaty with the building of Kinzua Dam on the land of the Seneca tribe. Dylan wrote the music to this song while La Farge wrote the lyrics. Dylan never recorded the song but he did perform it live at Carnegie Hall in 1962. La Farge recorded the song which was later covered by Johnny Cash on his Native American themed album Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian.
Another one of La Farge’s best known songs is “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.” The song tells the story of the Pima Indian who was one of the five U.S. Marines to raise the American flag on Iwo Jima, but who when returning to the U.S. experienced prejudice and became an alcoholic. This song, too, was covered by Johnny Cash on the Bitter Tears album.
Although these are probably La Farge’s best known songs, he also recorded several songs about love, blues, and cowboys. What stands out to me about La Farge’s music is the way he often talks rather than sings on verses. The guitar also seems to take a backseat to his voice. Above is a video of Johnny Cash performing “As Long As the Grass Shall Grow” on Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest.
Linda Perhacs is regarded as a psych-folk singer. She has only ever released one album, Parallelograms. It was first released in 1970 with little commercial success. Discouraged with the lack of sales and poor promotion from her label, Perhacs returned to her job as a dental technician. Over the next 30 years, the album gained a cult following thanks in large part to the internet and young listeners who valued the subtle instrumentation and delicate harmonies.
It took Folk label Wild Places two years to locate Perhacs. Once they did, they used tapes from her personal collection to re-release the album with an improved sound quality and several previously unreleased demos and tracks. Her song “If You Were My Man” was featured in Daft Punk’s film Electroma. She also sang on the song “Freely” by Devendra Banhart.
Vashti Bunyan’s first album, Just Another Diamond Day, was written while traveling the English countryside in a horse drawn carriage with her partner. After the album’s poor sales, Vashti Bunyan abandoned her musical career until a rediscovery in the 2000s. Her resurgence is at least partly due to the interest contemporary musicians have had in her music. Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom are two such fans. She has even been featured in Banhart’s song, “Rejoicing in the Hands” as well as a few songs by Animal Collective. After a 35 year absence, her second album Lookaftering was finally released in 2005.
What stands out to me, is her unique and elegant voice and her simplistic lyrics. My favorite song is the rough sounding demo song “Winter is Blue” with its heartbreaking tone and lyrics.
Kath Bloom started to record music in 1976 when she met Loren MazzaCane Conners. Their collaboration and subsequently Kath Bloom’s musical recording ended in 1984 with the small release of their final album, Moonlight. Only 300 copies were pressed. A period of financial hardship followed for Bloom. As a single mother, she focused on raising her children instead of her music although she would sometimes play shows in her hometown of New Haven.
Luckily, like many of the artists on this list, Kath Bloom’s music has experienced a bit of a resurgence or rediscovery. Director Richard Linklater featured Bloom’s song “Come Here” in his film Before Sunrise with Ethan Hawke. As a result, Bloom started writing music again. She recorded her first album in over ten years, Come Here: The Florida Years, in 1999. Since then, a tribute album was released with various artists covering Bloom’s songs, including covers by Devendra Banhart, Mark Kozelek, Bill Callahan, and The Dodos.
Her beautifully sad voice often accompanies simple folk melodies. I love the quivering emotion of her singing in the song “Come Here.” Every time I listen to it, I swear it must be the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. It is above, featured in a scene from Linklater’s great film Before Sunrise.
Buffy Sainte-Marie has quite the list of accomplishments: recorded songs later covered by Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, and Donovan, won an Oscar for Best Original Song, and was a cast member on Sesame Street. For those reasons, I assume she is the most well-known artist on this list. Yet whenever I’ve mentioned her to my musically-inclined friends, they have never heard the name before. While the term “obscure” might not apply to her, she is certainly a less-known and under-appreciated musician from the Greenwich Village scene. If you haven’t heard of this great Native American musician until now, you likely know at least one of her songs.
Perhaps you know her famous song “Up Where We Belong” recorded by Joe Cocker for the film An Officer and a Gentleman, for which she won an Oscar. Or her love song “Until It’s Time For You To Go” covered by the likes of Elvis Presley. Or her anti-war song of the 1960s, “Universal Soldier,” made popular by the English folk musician Donovan.
In my opinion, some of her best songs are also the ones least likely to ever broadcast over radio airwaves. These are her songs about Native American issues and concerns. “My Country Tis of Thy People You’re Dying” isn’t a catchy song you’ll ever get stuck in your head, but you just can’t beat the anger and bitterness that comes across in her shaky voice and passionate lyrics.
Above is a video clip of her performing that song on Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest. I played the first half of this video during my college presentation.
Although a close friend of Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley never got much recognition himself in his lifetime. Some of his songs did become famous, but only when covered by others. Merle Haggard made “If I Could Only Fly” a hit. John Prine covered “Clay Pigeons,” Lyle Lovett covered “Election Day” and Lucinda Williams supposedly wrote her song “Drunken Angel” about him.
Blaze seemed to have everything against him in getting a studio album released. The master tapes of his first album were confiscated by the DEA when the executive producer was caught in a drug bust. Another album disappeared from the station wagon Foley lived in when it was broken into. His third studio album, Wanted More Dead Than Alive, was thought to be lost until after Blaze died and a friend found it while cleaning out his car. He does, thankfully, have a few live albums which still perfectly capture his beautiful, smooth voice and emotional lyrics.
A memoir written by one of Foley’s former lovers titled Living in the Woods in a Tree is a great source for learning more about this artist and his struggle to fulfill his dreams.
Jackson C. Frank belongs at the top of this list because of his tragically short career which seems undeserving given his incredible songwriting talent. Bert Jansch, leading figure of the 1960s’ British folk scene, referred to Jackson as, “an absolute genius.” He even credits Jackson with having a large influence on the music of that period and the songwriting of today. Jackson’s most popular song that no doubt influenced the folk musicians of that time is “Blues Run the Game.”
As a child, the furnace at Jackson’s school exploded killing several of his classmates and injuring him. While in the hospital, he learned to play the guitar. By the time he was sixteen, Jackson was playing covers in the States. But he heard that London was the place to be for folk music so he traveled there, eventually meeting and playing for Paul Simon. Simon offered to produce Jackson’s record, which would become Jackson’s first and only record – a self-titled release in 1965.
Sadly, after this initial release, Jackson struggled with money, writer’s block, and nervousness about performing. Years later, Jackson took off in search of his old friend, Paul Simon, only to end up homeless in New York. He was in and out of mental institutions and on various meds that left him bloated, dazed, and confused while continuing to live on the streets. A fan and friend of a friend named Jim Abbott found Jackson despite his lack of a resemblance to his old album cover. Jim helped Jackson find shelter and medical care. He sorted out a backlog of royalties and got Jackson a guitar so he could write songs again. His nineties career consisted of some home-recordings and open-mic work at coffee shops.
I love Jackson’s downbeat melancholia that feels as though it truly comes from a man who has lived through the emotional pain and defeat he sings about. I highly recommend the two-disc CD anthology Blues Run the Game which includes essentially everything Jackson ever recorded including several songs from the 1990s. His songs have been covered by Simon & Garfunkel, Counting Crows, John Mayer, Laura Marling, and Bert Jansch. They have also been featured in the films Electroma and Brown Bunny.
Above is Jackson’s song “Dialogue” as it appears in Daft Punk’s Electroma.
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I thought the term is more commonly known, but it seems it isn't. Vectorballs were a funny thing to make graphics demos. They are mentioned in several old demos and you can also google the term and will find results from the demo scene.
A little mention:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_%28demo%29
Basically vectorballs are glorified particles. They have been used because they are very simple to compute and efficient to move. In the demos they were used to shape more complex objects out of points, and have funky looking transitions between the shapes.
I guess it's once again a technique of the past, and I missed the point when it was superseeded with something better.
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Cuts spur new New York subway map
New York is getting a new subway map.
Budget cuts have led to the consolidation of several lines, such as the W and Q and, most interestingly, the V and M, which is turning the M from brown to orange and giving riders from parts of Brooklyn a one-seat ride to Midtown.
But, as the New York Times explains, the MTA has also taken the opportunity to tweak its map to add some information, delete some other distracting information, and make Manhattan far wider than in reality while making Staten Island much smaller.
Second Avenue Sagas juxtaposed several parts of the map with their previous incarnations to illustrate some of the most meaningful changes.
- Bikeshare is a gateway to private biking, not competition
- Judge denies injunction against closing schools
- Short-term Washingtonians deserve a voice, too
- Long-term closures: A solution to single-tracking?
- Public land deals have both benefits and pitfalls
- Metro policy for refunds after delays falls short, riders say
- PG planners propose bold new smart growth future
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Obama Announces Troop Withdrawal From Iraq
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
All U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of December. President Obama made the announcement today. After nearly nine years, he said, the war will be over. The president spoke after a video conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The White House says the two men agreed this is the best way forward for both countries.
NPR's Scott Horsley begins our coverage.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: President Obama was a critic of the Iraq War from the very beginning. Ending it fulfills a campaign promise he made more than four years ago. The U.S. has already withdrawn more than 100,000 troops from Iraq. Mr. Obama says the last 40,000 will be leaving by the end of the year.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Across America, our servicemen and women will be reunited with their families. Today, I can say that our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays.
HORSLEY: That timetable was originally negotiated back in 2008 by former President George Bush. The U.S. and Iraq had been negotiating about keeping several thousand troops in the country beyond the end of the year, but they were unable to reach agreement on those troops' legal immunity.
Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough says the U.S. will continue to provide military trainers to Iraq, as it does to other countries, though the numbers are uncertain. But he says President Obama envisions a more normal relationship with Iraq, one built on trade and diplomacy.
DENIS MCDONOUGH: He said what we're looking for is an Iraq that's secure, stable and self-reliant. And that's exactly what we got here, so there's no question this is a success.
HORSLEY: President Obama is also planning a troop drawdown in Afghanistan and says by year's end, there will be half as many Americans in the two war zones as there were when he took office. Mr. Obama is increasingly relying on more targeted military operations - like the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, or the NATO campaign that toppled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
OBAMA: The end of war in Iraq reflects a larger transition. The tide of war is receding.
HORSLEY: So far, Mr. Obama has drawn little political advantage from his foreign policy successes. His approval rating jumped briefly after bin Laden was killed, but slumped again over the summer. Aides say that's understandable, given the country's preoccupation with domestic economic problems. Mr. Obama acknowledged as much in his announcement today.
OBAMA: After a decade of war, the nation that we need to build, and the nation that we will build, is our own - an America that sees its economic strength restored, just as we restored our leadership around the globe.
HORSLEY: Mr. Obama knows some of the troops coming home from Iraq this winter will soon be looking for jobs.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.
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.
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Before she lost her job last November as a full-time health department caseworker in Aurora, Ill., Amy Valle was making $23 an hour. Now she's paid $10 an hour as a part-time assistant coordinator in an after-school program.
"From here on out, it will be a struggle," says Valle, 32, whose husband lost his $50,000 government job and still is out of work after a year. "I don't feel like there's any place we can go to get what we were getting paid."
While the unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent in January, from a two-decade peak of 10.1 percent in October 2009, many of the jobs people are now taking don't match the pay, the hours, or the benefits of the 8.75 million positions that vanished in the recession, according to Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.
This may restrain wage and salary growth, limiting gains in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy. The good jobs that would trigger a solid boost in spending just don't seem to be there.
"In the last recovery we were adding management jobs at this point, and this time it's disappointing," says Ashworth, who published a report on Jan. 27 about pre- and post-slump employment based on U.S. Labor Dept. data. "The very best jobs, we're still losing those."
Projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reinforce his pessimism. While the number of openings for food preparation and serving workers will grow by 394,000 in the decade ending in 2018, the average wage is only $16,430 including tips, based on 2008 data. Meanwhile, the number of posts for financial examiners, who work at financial-services firms to ensure regulatory compliance, will expand by just 11,100. The average pay for examiners is $70,930.
Lowe's, the second-largest U.S. home improvement retailer, typifies the reshuffling of the U.S. workforce. The chain, based in Mooresville, N.C., said on Jan. 25 it is eliminating 1,700 managers responsible for store operations, sales, and administration as profit growth trails that of the larger Home Depot chain. Meanwhile, Lowe's said it will add 8,000 to 10,000 weekend sales positions and is creating a new assistant store manager position.
The trend is troubling for the country's long-term prospects, says Edmund Phelps, who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2006 and directs the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University in New York. Businesses aren't innovating as much, so companies "just don't seem to require all those relatively high-paid workers they once did," he says.
The health-care industry is one example, the BLS said in a December report on the occupational outlook. As costs continue to rise, "tasks that were previously performed by doctors, nurses, dentists, or other health-care professionals increasingly are being performed by physician assistants, medical assistants, dental hygienists, and physical therapist aides."
Michael Greenstone, a former staff member for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, says it's "premature to make too much of where the particular job creation is occurring," because the "immediate issue is that there are too many people" out of work. "I'm not in favor of ditch-digging, but the first thing is to get more people employed," says Greenstone, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Unemployment is a scourge of society right now, and it has to be the front-and-center issue."
Job hunters are adapting, with 60 percent prepared to settle for a full-time position they don't really want or one they're not qualified for, says Dennis Jacobe, chief economist for Washington-based Gallup, based on a survey he conducted last month.
Ken Niswonger, 51, a machine builder by training, spent five months looking for work after losing his job in October 2009. Unable to find anything in his field, he enrolled in a college computer security program to learn new skills. "I'm hoping I can find something entry-level," he says, adding that he'll have to begin his search for an information technology job before he finishes his program. "I'm well aware I might not get what I used to make," he says. "Who knows? Might get a job at $12 to $14 an hour. That's not even $30,000 a year."
The bottom line: Newly created jobs tend to be lower-paying than those they replaced. That will constrain consumer spending and economic growth.
Copyright © 2012 Bloomberg L.P.All rights reserved.
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Biting is like kissing except there's a winner
This tag belongs to the Additional Tags Category.
Parent tags (more general):
This tag has not been marked common and can't be filtered on (yet).
Works which have used it as a tag:
23 Jun 2012
It’s all freezing and burning at the same time.
Illyria watches the way Loki moves. Twisting and contorting his body into the throws he makes; shooting streams of sparks out of his hands as if this is a game.
Maybe it is.
Loki and Illyria, because they're similar in many ways. Illyria also has so much in common with each of the Avengers. It's an interesting dynamic so long as Illyria isn't smashing windows, or sneaking around, or questioning the existence of a Norse deity.
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About Tamada TalesCountries throughout Eurasia lay claim to the tamada (toastmaster) tradition, but in few places is the role of tamada as celebrated -- or as formalized -- as in the South Caucasus. It requires a keen sense of timing and of presentation; a sense of humor as well as of tragedy, and an ability to draw forth an audience with words that stir the emotions. It is not just about making toasts. Rather, it is the ultimate piece of interactive theater. In a region known for its endless news dramas, EurasiaNet's news tamada will help readers make sense of them all.
About The AuthorGiorgi Lomsadze is a freelance reporter for EurasiaNet.org who lives in Tbilisi, an ancient stronghold of the tamada tradition. He has a lifetime of experience both attending tamada-hosted supras (traditional Georgian feasts) and acting as tamada.
We would like to hear your opinion about the new site. Tell us what you like, and what you don't like in an email and send it to: email@example.com
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The American Federation of Teachers yesterday announced its next Innovation Fund grantees, and they'll be tackling everything from curricula to performance pay. I apologize for being a bit late to get you the news; yesterday was gangbusters at the AFT.
Without further ado:
• The Anchorage Council of Education, in Alaska, will help at-risk students earn diplomas by training "graduation coaches" in high schools.
• The Boston Teachers Union will work to increase students' engagement in lessons by creating prototypes of high-quality instructional units that can be distributed online.
• Education Austin, in Texas, will work with Austin Interfaith, a coalition of religious congregations, schools, and civic organizations, to convert several schools to "in-district charters."
• The Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, in Tampa, Fla., will use social networking to connect teachers and support them through the changes in pay, evaluation, and career possibilities under way in the district as part of its Gates Foundation grant.
• The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers will tap into teachers' desire to create high-performing schools by seeking to become an authorizer of charter schools under Minnesota law.
• The Toledo Federation of Teachers, in Ohio, will create a group performance-pay program for teams of math teachers in grades 4-8 in four high-needs schools.
• The United Federation of Teachers, in New York City, will help thousands of family child-care providers understand and teach early literacy development using a curriculum that includes an adaptation of the PBS television show "Between the Lions."
• Last, but not least, the Volusia Teachers Organization, in Daytona Beach, Fla., will develop a model for using evidence of student learning in a teacher-development and -evaluation system.
The new batch of grants totals $1.21 million.
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Posted by kareem on 16 Sep 2008
I'm having a problem trying to get a basic form to look reasonably well on a couple of different devices.
I'm targeting blackberry and windows mobile devices. Here's the issue.
I have a simple textbox and a select and I want them to be 100% the width of the screen.
Windows Mobile devices render the select properly, but only render the textbox about 80% of the width no matter what I try. From 100% to 500px it still renders the same.
That I can live with, but the real issue is blackberries.
They seem to completely ignore any width properties and just render out however they want.
Textboxes seem to always render the same size regardless of content, and select render out to match the largest item in the list.
I've tried setting the width attribute, the style attribute and using separate stylesheet. Nothing seems to work.
The only thing that has any effect on the blackberry rendering is using the size attribute, but I can't use that because I don't know the width of the various screens and how many characters that would be.
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Many of you have probably read a wonderful blog called The Greening of Gavin, written by an Australian father of 4 who watched "An Inconvenient Truth," in 2006, and decided to lessen his carbon footprint. This is his short profile at the top of his home page:
An Ordinary Australian Man Who Has A Green Epiphany Whilst Watching A Documentary, Gets a Hybrid Car, Plants A Large Organic Vegetable Garden, Goes Totally Solar, Lowers Consumption, Feeds Composts Bins and Worms, Harvests Rainwater. All In The Effort To Reduce Our Family's Carbon Footprint So We Can Start Making A Difference For Our Children and Future Generations To Come.
Gavin began making cheese toward the end of 2008, and in 2009, he made 12 different kinds of cheese. He told me our book, Home Cheese Making was the first book he bought after taking a course in Australia. In his blog, there are great articles about each of the cheeses he made and about his wine refrigerator which he converted to an aging "cave."
I picked one of his cheeses to publish here, with his permission, of course. I added links to our products and I converted some of the measurements from metrics. Otherwise, this is Gavin's simple recipe for a very popular cheese:
Recipe and Method
Recipe and Method
Over the last few weeks I have had four requests for the cheese recipe I use for Wensleydale. So here it is. Just make sure you have at least 9 hours up your sleeve and don't start making it at 7pm and end up finishing at 3am like I did a few weeks ago!
Makes about 2 pounds (850 gm)
2 gallons (8 litres) whole milk
1/4 teaspoon direct set Mesophilic culture (C101)
1/2 tsp. (2.5 ml) rennet (R7 or others)
mixed with 5 tsp. (25 ml) non-chlorinated water
1/2 tsp. (3 ml) calcium chloride (C14)
if using homogenized milk
3 teaspoons non-iodized salt (S1)
Sterilize all equipment. I put a quart (litre) of water into the pot, put all utensils in it, cover and boil for 15 minutes. Anything that may melt, I wipe down with vinegar and a boiled cloth. If I handle the milk/curds or finished cheese, I spray vinegar on my hands from a spray bottle and rub together until dry. That way the milk will not get infected by any wild yeasts or molds that are maybe on my hands.
Using a double boiler, heat the milk to 86F (30C). If using homogenized milk, add calcium chloride to 2 tablespoons water and mix to the milk gently. Add Mesophilic starter, mix well for a minute, cover and allow milk to ripen for 45 minutes.
Add rennet whilst stirring and stir bottom to top for 2 minutes. Cover and allow to stand for 45 minutes until the curd sets, maintaining the temperature. Test with your finger for a clean break in the curds, then cut the curd into 1/2 in (13 mm) cubes and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
Stir the curds and whey for 10 minutes, then let rest for 15 minutes. Stir the curd again as you raise the temperature to 90F (32C). Maintain this temperature, and stir the curd as often as necessary to stop the curd knitting together. Do this for 2 hours.
Drain the whey off and ladle the curd into a colander lined with cheesecloth. Tie in a bundle and for 2 hours, open every 15 minutes to break the curd into small pieces.
After the two hours break up the curd for one final time and apply the salt. Mix the curds and salt well.
Place half the curd into a cheesecloth lined 2 qt (1 kg) cheese basket and apply a layer of sterilized sage leaves (sterilize on clean oven tray at 250F (120C) for 10 minutes), pressing down well.
Fill with remainder of curd and press at 10 pounds (5kg) for 15 minutes. Carefully remove cheese from cloth, turn over and press at 50 pounds (25kg) for 12 hours.
Remove from press and cheesecloth. Place on a board and allow to dry for 2 days. Apply wax and store at 55-59F (13-15C) at 80-85% humidity. Can be eaten in 3 weeks or aged for up to 3 months.
This is a wonderful cheese, and I have never been able to find Wensleydale in the local grocery store. There is no equal as far as I am concerned and beats the store bought tasty cheddar any day. However my opinion may change when I try my Pepperjack when it matures!
For more great recipes, check out Gavin's blog- www.greeningofgavin.com.
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Perhaps most notable among several key new features in Linux 3.6 is "hybrid sleep," a capability much like one that has long been offered by Microsoft's Windows.
[ Find out the topics and issues affecting tech's biggest names and news makers as revealed in the IDGE Insider CEO interview series. | Stay ahead of the key tech business news with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: First Look newsletter. | Read Bill Snyder's Tech's Bottom Line blog for what the key business trends mean to you. ]
"When I did the -rc7 announcement a week ago, I said I might have to do an -rc8, but a week passed, and things have been calm, and I honestly cannot see a major reason to do another rc," Torvalds began in the official announcement. "So here it is, 3.6 final.
"The changes in 3.6 since 3.5 are too many to list," Torvalds added. "There haven't been any huge new architectures or file systems, it's all solid progress. That may not sound all that exciting, but the devil is in the details, and there's a lot of small fixes all over."
Ready for a quick rundown? Here are a few of the highlights.
1. Hybrid sleep
Offering a combination of sleep mode and hibernation, what's commonly known as "hybrid sleep," involves both copying the contents of RAM to the hard drive, as in hibernation, and then entering sleep mode. The big benefit to using this technique is that the computer can not only resume immediately, but it also won't lose any data if power is lost.
If power is interrupted, the device will resume from the hibernated image; if not, it will resume normally and the hibernation image will be discarded. In Linux 3.6 this feature was added primarily with portable devices in mind, according to the official release notes.
2. TCP Fast Open
TCP Fast Open is a Google-developed feature that tweaks the process of establishing a TCP connection so as to make it quicker in certain cases. In Linux 3.6, there is now support for this feature on the client side; server support is still to come. The result, according to the release notes, can be speed improvements of between 4 percent and 41 percent in page load times on popular websites.
3. More and better drivers
Linux kernel updates pretty much always add a raft of drivers for better hardware support, and Linux 3.6 is no exception. Of particular note among those included in this release are drivers targeting Sony and Apple vendor-specific devices.
4. Improved memory management
Among several changes designed to improve memory management, finally, is a new feature that allows swap read-ahead IOPS (input/output operations per second) to be merged, thereby improving throughput while also lowering CPU consumption.
Of course, this is just a tiny sampling of all the changes included in this new release. For a full listing, visit the release notes on KernelNewbies.org.
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By Scott Malone
CENTRAL FALLS, Rhode Island (Reuters) - Central Falls, Rhode Island, one of a handful of U.S. cities and counties facing fiscal collapse in the wake of the economic recession, filed for a rare Chapter 9 bankruptcy on Monday.
The bankruptcy filing, a risky and potentially expensive move that could freeze the city out of the U.S. municipal bond market, marks a symbolic blow as state and local governments struggle to pull themselves out of the recession.
The smallest city in the smallest U.S. state made the filing as it grappled with an $80 million unfunded pension and retiree health benefit liability that is nearly quadruple its annual budget of $17 million.
"This is a wake-up call for other struggling towns," said Eileen Norcross, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. "States should be looking at Rhode Island and saying, 'How can we avoid this?"
Still, dire predictions of mass municipal defaults made late last year by Wall Street analyst Meredith Whitney have not come to pass. A string of failures could rattle the $2.9 trillion U.S. municipal debt market.
The Central Falls filing was not the start of a "huge nation-wide trend", said Adam Stern, a vice president at Boston-based Breckinridge Capital Advisors, a municipal bond investment firm.
"A bankruptcy filing is sort of an endgame over years and years of economic distress, so it's not something your typical U.S. town or city is likely to experience anytime soon," he said.
There have been only 624 municipal bankruptcies under Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code since 1937, with five occurring last year, according to James Spiotto, a municipal bankruptcy expert at the law firm Chapman and Cutler. For graphic see: http://r.reuters.com/kyb92s
Alabama's Jefferson County is currently working to ward off the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history stemming from its $3.2 billion sewer bond crisis. The Pennsylvania state capital of Harrisburg, which has about $300 million incinerator debt, is also considering bankruptcy.
Those cases lead some to take a pessimistic view on the future of municipal bankruptcies in the United States.
"Chapter 9 has been a fairly unusual event but we and many others think that's not necessarily going to be the case going forward," said Sean Scott, a municipal bankruptcy expert at law firm Mayer Brown.
"THE BIG ASK"
In Central Falls, a city of just 19,000 located six miles from the state capital of Providence, residents reacted to the news with disappointment and resignation.
The big question on their minds was if another nearby town, like neighboring Pawtucket, or the state itself would take over their city.
"I'd be curious as to who's going to take it over. Someone has to, but no one wants to," said Dan Mercure, 48, on a break from his job at an auto parts store. "It's going to hurt business, it's all mom and pop stores here."
Ulysses Ortiz, a 50-year-old retiree, said whatever budget cuts will be imposed would hurt residents, who have already borne the brunt of heavy budget cutting.
"It's too bad, because Central Falls has always been a progressive city," said Ortiz. He added that he hoped the city would not be absorbed by one of its neighbors. "We've been here for more than a century," he said.
Central Falls, which has been under state control since July 2010, has $21 million of outstanding debt, Moody's said.
State officials worked to avoid a municipal bankruptcy filing, saying it could upset Rhode Island's other fragile localities.
Earlier this year, the state passed a law that guarantees bondholders will be paid before a distressed city like Central Falls deals with its other obligations. It was not immediately clear whether the law would hold up in bankruptcy court.
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee said the situation is "dire" and requires "decisive" action.
"Everything was done to avoid this day," said Central Falls' state-appointed receiver, retired judge Robert Flanders, Jr. "Taxes have been raised to the maximum level allowable. We negotiated with...the police and fire unions, without success, attempting to reach voluntary concessions, and we tried in vain to persuade our retirees to accept voluntary reductions in their benefits," he said.
(Additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago, Joan Gralla in New York and Matthew Bigg in Atlanta; Writing by Edith Honan; Editing by Andrew Hay)
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Sarah Smith who lived at Golders Green
All down one long aisle of the forest the undersides of the leafy branches had begun to tremble with dancing light; and on Earth I knew nothing so likely to produce this appearance as the reflected lights cast upward by moving water. A few moments later I realized my mistake. Some kind of procession was approaching us, and the light came from the persons who composed it.
[...]Then, on the left and right, at each side of the forest avenue, came youthful shapes, boys upon one hand, and girls upon the other. If I could remember their singing and write down the notes, no man who read that score would ever grow sick or old. Between them went musicians: and after these a lady in whose honour all this was being done.
[...]'and who are all these young men and women on each side?'
'They are her sons and daughters.'
'She must have had a very large family, Sir.'
'Every young man or boy that met her became her son--even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.'
'Isn't that a bit hard on their own parents?'
'No. There are those that steal other people's children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more. [...]'
'And how...but hullo! What are all these animals? A cat--two cats--dozens of cats. And all these dogs...why, I can't count them. And the birds. And the horses.'
'They are her beasts.'
'Did she keep a sort of zoo? I mean, this is a bit too much. '
'Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In her they became themselves. And now the abundance of life she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them.'
I looked at my Teacher in amazement.
'Yes,' he said. 'It is like when you throw a stone into a pool, and the concentric waves spread out further and further. Who knows where it will end? Redeemed humanity is still young, it has hardly come to its full strength. But already there is joy enough in the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead things of the universe into life.'
~C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, Chapter 12 (1946)
On this day:
1926 Lewis gives his first lecture as a don in the English School at Oxford, entitled "Some Eighteenth-Century Precursors of the Romantic Movement."
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Wedding readings are a tradition that’s been passed on throughout the ages. We’ve got 10 top tips to help you pick the best reading piece suitable for you.
Personal to you
Try to choose a reading that sums you up as a couple. Think about something that talks about a subject that is close to your hearts – true love, family, never giving up and so on.
Is it appropriate?
Check with your officiant when choosing your readings, especially if you’re having a civil ceremony. Wedding readings at civil ceremonies cannot include religious references.
All about the delivery
When choosing your reader, pick someone who will speak clearly and confidently, and make sure they practice a few times in front of an audience before the big day.
Writing a reading
If someone is writing a reading or a poem themselves, check it beforehand. It must be suitable for the type of ceremony and you need to check that no embarrassing personal details have slipped in!
We love the classic reading from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. Although it has been read many times, we never tire of it! It’s about staying together, even after the initial excitement of romance has burned away.
Is the reading self-contained? Pieces that need explanation or introduction may not work as well.
Is your reading the right length? A poem that is too short may be a bit weak, while a text that is too long might bore your guests!
Help with pronunciations
Check that the reader knows how to pronounce any tricky words or names – you don’t want them stumbling over the words while they’re stood in front of 100 people!
Love or marriage?
Is the text about marriage or falling in love? Your wedding day should celebrate the start of your marriage as well as your love.
Check out our fab wedding planning section, where you’ll find readings to suit every type of celebration.
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By: V Sundaram, IAS, Retd.
January 29, 2007
expressed here are authorís own and not of this website. Full disclaimer
is at the bottom.
Hon'ble Justice F M Ibrahim Kalifulla has delivered a historic judgment
rendering substantive justice to the unmourned, unhung and unsung common
man in Chennai by ordering fresh elections to 99 wards out of 155 wards
and directing the State Election Commission (SEC) to recall election
certificates issued to candidates elected from these wards. The matter has
been referred to Hon"ble Chief Justice A P Shah for appropriate orders.
Through his judgment, Mr Justice Kalifulla has given cubic content to the
immortal words of Justice Felix Frankfurter: "Judges are not merely the
habitations of bloodless categories of the law which pursue their
pre-destined ends". Instead of taking a sterile, bloodless and neutrally
neutral view between good and evil, he has categorically declared: "In a
democratic set up holding of elections in a free and fair manner assumes
great importance". He has referred to the word of caution given by the
Supreme Court of India to the effect that successful candidates who had
resorted to foul methods should not be allowed to reap the benefits. He
has also stated that he was convinced that "there was an extreme and
extraordinary situation", which warranted an extraordinary remedy in view
of the magnitude of the situation. He has concluded that it would be
wholly inappropriate if fresh elections were not ordered to a majority of
the wards. By his verdict setting aside the civic elections in 99 wards
out of 155 wards, Mr. Justice Kalifulla has demonstrated that another
great American Judge and Jurist Benjamin N Cardozo (1870-1938) was
absolutely right when he stated: "The great tides and currents which
engulf the rest of men, do not turn aside in their course, and pass the
Mr Justice Kalifulla in his judgment has expressed concern that it is
unfortunate that the State Election Commission did not raise even its
little finger though an extraordinary situation was unfolding on 13
October, 2006, when the civic election to Chennai Corporation was being
held. He has passed severe strictures against the State Election
Authority. In his judgment he has declared that the stand and attitude of
the State Election Commissioner (SEC) was "highly irresponsible" and that
he had "miserably failed in the discharge of his function". The
law-abiding citizens of Chennai had a lurking suspicion right from the
beginning that the State Election Commission needlessly functioned as a
branch office of the DMK Party from the day on which the elections were
notified. This suspicion has now been confirmed by the Judgment of Mr.
Severely indicting the SEC"s failure to give even the minimum details
about the steps taken by him either to control rigging and booth capturing
or restore normalcy to ensure the conduct of free and fair polls on 13
October, 2006, the Hon"ble Judge has said: "to say the least, the stand of
the SEC can only be construed as a highly irresponsible one and was not in
the interest of protecting democracy. Instead, it can only be stated as an
indifferent attitude displayed without realizing the responsibility
reposed on him".
In conclusion, Mr. Justice Kalifulla said that the SEC had thoroughly
failed to come up to the expectation and that he had displayed a totally
indifferent attitude for reasons best known to him and thereby failed to
ensure a free and fair poll. To quote his words once again: "Every one of
the incidents and details, besides the failure of the SEC to react to the
situation, contributed to an extreme and extraordinary situation and it
called for an extraordinary remedy. It will have to be held that there was
no free and fair election on 13 October, 2006".
The enlightened public in Chennai are fully aware of the fact that the SEC
functioned only as a spokesman for the ruling DMK party and not as an
impartial public election authority. All the complaints made to the SEC
were either ignored or treated with contempt or were simply forwarded to
the Commissioner of Police, who in turn showed no better perception than
that shown by the SEC.
In regard to the complaints of snatching of ballot papers and rigging, the
SEC had come forward with a simple categorical denial of the allegations
and had stated that such incidents had been blown out of proportion. Mr.
Justice Kalifulla has wondered as to how the SEC could come forward with
such a blatant denial.
Mr. Justice Kalifulla has also criticized the Director General of Police
and the Commissioner of Police for having taken the pre-meditated view
that the violent and ugly incidents were only "sporadic". To quote the
exact words of Mr Justice Kalifulla: "I am constrained to state that such
a stand taken by these police authorities was far from truth and did not
reveal the correct state of affairs". The High Court has come to the right
conclusion that the police officials on par with the SEC failed in the
performance of their statutory functions.
Soon after the civic elections, Union Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar
Aiyar had described as "aberrations," the difficulties faced in holding
"free and fair" panchayat elections in Tamilnadu. He pointed out that
enquiries had been ordered into the incidents.
All the major English and vernacular newspapers in India had carried
detailed reports and graphic pictures about the violent and ugly incidents
that marred the Chennai Corporation Council elections. The SEC and the
Tamilnadu Government treated these incidents as minor episodes which had
taken place in a remote district in Central China or Iceland! All the
newspapers had exposed in one ringing voice the massive rigging of
elections on an unprecedented scale in Chennai City. It was reported that
in a precisely planned operation, supporters and henchmen of the ruling
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) drove out poll officers and party agents
at knife point, captured polling booths and the ballot boxes with ballot
papers and voted for their party candidates. Candidates of the rival All
India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Marumalarchi Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) or even an ally like the Communist Party of India
(Marxist), who resisted, were assaulted. D. Pandian, State secretary of
the CPI, called it "a misguided adventure" while G Ramakrishnan, CPI(M)
State secretariat member, described the incidents as "a planned
In a strongly worded statement, N Varadarajan, State secretary of the
CPI(M), called the incidents "shocking" and charged that some DMK
candidates and legislators led "armed, professional rowdy groups" to
capture polling booths. False cases under non-bail able offences were
booked against CPI(M) district committee leaders like Devi. Complaints to
SEC officials were of no avail.
There were widespread demonstrations by almost all political parties
against the planned rigging of elections by the DMK Party. Cadres of the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) staged a demonstration at Dindigul
condemning the violence during local body elections in Chennai. They
demanded stern action against those involved in it. K Balabarathi, MLA,
said that the violence was a "murder of democracy". Though the CPI (M) was
part of the Democratic Progressive Alliance, it would not tolerate such
anti-democratic incidents. She described it as pre-planned violence and
alleged that persons had been mobilized from different parts of the State
to commit atrocities.
Against this known background, the historic judgment of Mr Justice
Kalifullah comes as a great relief to the frustrated, innocent and law
abiding voters of Chennai City. Reading the inspiring judgment of this
great judge, I am reminded of another landmark judgment given by Chief
Justice William Murray, Lord Mansfield in 1770 in England. In this
judgment, he came out with the following inspiring words: "I will not do
that which my conscience tells me is wrong, upon this occasion, to gain
the huzzas of thousands, or the daily praise of all the papers which come
from the Press. I will not avoid doing what I think is right, though it
should draw on me the whole artillery of libels; all that falsehood and
malice can invent, or the credulity of a deluded populace can swallow".
V Sundaram, IAS, Retd.
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The views expressed in this article are the author's own and not of this
website. The author is solely responsible for the contents of this
article. This website does not represent or endorse the accuracy,
completeness or reliability of any opinion, statement, appeal, advice or
any other information in the article. Our readers are free to forward this
page URL to anyone. This column may NOT be transmitted or distributed by
others in any manner whatsoever (other than forwarding or web listing page
URL) without the prior permission from
us and the author.
Previous articles by:
V Sundaram, IAS, Retd.
"M K Hussen" of Tamilnadu
UPA bonanza for Hindus in minority (!)
Gandhi, Moulana of Muslim appeasement
"Shall India die? spirituality will be extinct"
Criminal Union Cabinet Ministers
A National Program For Organized Looting
Tamil barbarous language, Tamilians barb..
Rejoinder to puerile purveyors of hate
A panoply of orchestrated fraud
Swami"s wake-up call to Hindus
Story of Vivekananda Rock and the Cross
A beam of light amidst the encircling gloom
Menacing Neo-Jinnah (Quaid-e-Azam) in U P
A Congress convict Vs the Indian constitution
All articles by:
V Sundaram, IAS, Retd.
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To succeed, an appeal would have to show that the injunction and actions taken by the City of London were disproportionate.
On the day it was announced that British unemployment had risen to close to 2.7 million people, a high court judge ruled that Occupy London protesters must dismantle their encampment on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral in the city’s center. The protesters, who expressed both defiance and resolve, were given seven days to appeal the decision. —ARK
Mr Justice Lindblom allowed the protesters to appeal to the court of appeal and gave them seven days to do so—eviction would begin if they did not appeal by next Friday, 27 January, at 4pm. John Cooper QC, speaking for the protesters outside the court after the ruling, said they would appeal tomorrow. “Onwards and upwards for Occupy,” said Tammy Samede, the principal named defendant in the case.
Lindblom said he ruled in favour of the City because of the extent and duration of the objection of the highway at St Paul’s, and the public nuisance it caused; the effect on worshippers and visitors; the private nuisance to the church; and the “planning harm”. Each of these things individually would be grounds to evict the protesters, he said—taken together they made up “an unusually persuasive case”. Any interference with the protesters’ rights in evicting them was “entirely lawful and justified”, as well as necessary and proportionate.
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Alaska’s seafood could get a marketing boost as part of a national effort to spread the word about American ocean products.
A coalition of 75 fishing-related organizations and states are supporting new legislation to enhance seafood marketing throughout the nation and abroad.
Sen. Mark Begich announced proposed legislation at a press conference Aug. 24 that would spend $50 million per year to market American seafood. The legislation is still being finalized, and will be introduced when the senate reconvenes in September.
Begich said the initiative, “will bring forward a new way to market an incredible product.”
Begich said the effort will work toward getting seafood from all over the country — from Gulf of Mexico shrimp to New England lobster — onto American and international plates.
Selling seafood will, in turn, “promote industry and create jobs in the U.S. and enhance local economies and be able to ensure sustainable fisheries,” Begich said.
Begich announced the legislation at Copper River Seafoods in Anchorage and was joined by others from the National Seafood Marketing Coalition.
Bruce Schactler of Kodiak, director of the coalition, said he thought a national marketing effort could revitalize the seafood industry.
“There’s great opportunity for us to expand and to bring more volume,” Schactler said.
Schactler said the U.S. seafood industry has needed such an effort for a long time. Only 15 percent of the seafood eaten in America is produced domestically, he said.
Begich said the legislation could increase that amount, and also boost sales of American seafood in foreign markets.
“This is a great American job creator,” Begich said. “You’re harvesting from our own lands, our own waters.”
Legislation creating the national coalition is modeled after the 2010 Travel Promotion Act, Begich said, which took two years to realize.
Funding is still in the works, though Begich said he’s looking for a source, like duties, that would not add to taxpayers’ bills.
The money would be used by five regional seafood marketing boards, established by the legislation, which would include harvesters, processors and others involved in the industry.
The legislation also draws on the record of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, or ASMI, which is paid for by a combination of state and industry funds.
Schactler said that the success Alaska had at bringing the salmon industry back from the brink when farmed salmon depressed global prices could be replicated in other industries facing challenges.
Outgoing ASMI Executive Director Ray Riutta, who is retiring in December, agreed.
“I think Alaska’s a good example of the fact that marketing does work,” Riutta said.
Riutta said marketing Alaska salmon a decade ago helped increase the value for fishermen four-fold, without increasing the size of the harvest.
Such a success could revitalize coastal America, Begich said.
The national marketing effort represents a unified effort to market an American product, Begich said. It brings together various regional entities, including gulf fisheries, Great Lakes representatives, and others.
“We find it pretty exciting to now be moving ahead, to create national partnerships,” said Arni Thomson, executive director of United Fishermen of Alaska.
Molly Dischner can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 | 2 a.m.
If election campaigns are supposed to be an exercise in coming to grips with our biggest problems, then the one we just went through was a dismal failure. Our only real solution — a strategy to reignite consistent growth so we can narrow our income gaps and lift the middle class — never got a serious airing. Instead, each side was focused on how to secure a bigger slice of a shrinking pie for its own base. This lousy campaign produced the worst of all outcomes: President Barack Obama won on a platform that had little do with our core problems and is only a small part of the solution — raising taxes on the wealthy — so he has little incentive to rethink his strategy. And the Republicans did not lose badly enough — they held the House — to have to fully rethink their strategy. It does not bode well.
In his book “The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth,” Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman argues that periods of economic growth have been essential to American political progress; periods of economic prosperity were periods of greater social, political and religious harmony and tolerance. On Sunday, The New York Times’ Annie Lowrey wrote a piece quoting Friedman, who wondered aloud whether we’re not now entering a reverse cycle, “in which our absence of growth is delivering political paralysis, and the political paralysis preserves the absence of growth.”
I think he’s right and that the only way to break out of this deadly cycle is with extraordinary leadership. Republicans and Democrats would have to govern in just the opposite way they ran their campaigns — by offering bold plans that not only challenged the other’s base but also their own and thereby mobilized the center, a big majority, behind their agenda, to break the deadlock. If either party does that, not only will it win the day but the country will win as well.
What would that look like? If the Republican Party had a brain it would give up on its debt-ceiling gambit and announce instead that it wants to open negotiations immediately with Obama on the basis of his own deficit commission, the Simpson-Bowles plan. That would at least make the GOP a serious opposition party again — with a platform that might actually appeal outside its base and challenge the president in a healthy way. But the GOP would have to embrace the tax reforms and spending cuts in Simpson-Bowles first. Fat chance. And that’s a pity.
As for Obama, if he really wants to lead, he will have to finally trust the American people with the truth. I’d love to see him use his Jan. 21 Inaugural Address and his Feb. 12 State of the Union message as a one-two punch to do just that — offer a detailed, honest diagnosis and then a detailed, honest prescription.
On the diagnosis side, Obama needs to explain to Americans the world in which they’re now living. It’s a world in which the increasing velocity of globalization and the information technology revolution are reshaping every job, workplace and industry. As a result, the mantra that if you “just work hard and play by rules” you should expect a middle-class lifestyle is no longer operable. Today you need to work harder and smarter, and learn and relearn faster and longer to be in the middle class. The high-wage, middle-skilled job is a thing of the past. Today’s high-wage or decent-wage jobs all require higher skills, passion or curiosity. Government’s job is to help provide citizens with as many lifelong learning opportunities as possible to hone such skills.
In the State of the Union, I’d love to see Obama lay out a detailed plan for tax reform, spending cuts and investments — to meet the real scale of our problem and spur economic growth. We’ll get much more bang for our buck by deciding now what we’re going to do in all three areas and signaling markets that we are putting in place a truly balanced approach but gradually phasing it in. If you tell investors and savers that we’re going to put our fiscal house in order with a credible plan, but one that is gradually phased in, all the money sitting on the sidelines paralyzed by uncertainty will get off the sidelines and we’ll have a real stimulus.
As for investment, I’d love to see the president launch us on an aspirational journey. My choice would be to connect every home and business in America to the Internet at 1 gigabit per second, or about 200 times faster than our current national household average, in five years. In an age when mining big data will be a huge industry, when online lifelong learning will be a vital necessity, and when we can’t stimulate our way to prosperity but have to invent our way there, no project would be more relevant.
I still believe that America’s rich and the middle classes would pay more taxes and trim entitlements if they thought it was for a plan that was fair, would truly address our long-term fiscal imbalances and would set America on a journey of renewal that would ensure our kids have a crack at the American dream. Then again, I may be wrong. Maybe my Baby Boomer generation really does intend to eat it all and leave our kids a ticking debt bomb. If only we had a second-term president, unencumbered by ever having to run again, who was ready to test what really bold leadership might produce.
Thomas Friedman is a columnist for The New York Times.
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Stroke and Osteoporosis Screening Coming to Clearwater January 15th
LARGO - Residents living in and around the Clearwater community can be screened to reduce their risk of having a stroke. The complete screening package now includes a new Heart Rhythm screening which checks for irregular heartbeat, a major risk factor for stroke.
Life Line Screening, the nation’s leading provider of preventive health screenings, will be at the St. Cecelia Catholic Church on January 15th. The site is located at 820 Jasmine Way in Clearwater. Appointments will begin at 9 a.m.
For more information regarding the screenings or to schedule an appointment, call 1-800-697-9721 or visit www.lifelinescreening.com. Pre-registration is required.
A stroke, also known as a “brain attack,” is ranked as the third leading cause of death in the United States and often occurs without warning. In fact, four out of five people who suffer a stroke have no apparent warning signs prior to the stroke. The good news is that with early detection, 80% of strokes can be prevented.
Screenings are painless, accurate and affordable. They help identify potential health problems such as blocked arteries and irregular heart rhythm, abdominal aortic aneurysms, and hardening of the arteries in the legs, which is a strong predictor of heart disease. A bone density screening to assess osteoporosis risk is also offered and is appropriate for both men and women.
Register for a Wellness Package with Heart Rhythm for $159. All five screenings take 60-90 minutes to complete.
Return to Current Edition
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- Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building - http://inhabitat.com -
SPARE TIRE Recycled Bike Tube Belts
Posted By Alexandra Kain On October 5, 2008 @ 5:00 am In Accessories and Fashion,Recycled Materials,San Francisco,sustainable style sundays | No Comments
Fashion forward bike aficionados can now make an eco statement with the new Spare Tire Bike Tube Belt designed by Surya Graf . The stylish Spare Tire Belt is constructed out of reclaimed bicycle inner tubes, allowing bikers to sport their passion on their sleeve (or at least around their waist).
Surya Graf is a Brisbane-based product designer who cleverly strives to mesh functionality and environmental sustainability in his designs. An avid cyclist himself, he was in search of a smart recycling solution to all of the tube garbage from old inner tubes. He began to collect used mountain bike tubes from local cycle shops who were glad to have them off their hands and out of the trash, and the Spare Tire Belt belt was born.
What’s really neat about the design of the Spare Tire Belt is that the tubes come from all types of manufacturers and distributors, giving each belt unique markings and details. After the tubes are reclaimed from various sources, the belts are hand crafted from start to finish. In the first step, the tubes are cut free of valves and thoroughly washed. Then they are formed fit an array of waist sizes, given holes and a chrome-plated belt ring. Surya is currently working on a thinner belt made from road bike tubes, as well as other reclaimed rubber accessories.
The Spare Tire Belt launched a couple of weeks ago at PARK(ing) DAY in San Francisco, an all-day event that transforms metered parking spots into park space. Surya Graf and his Spare Tire belt are proud members of the design collective, Snack On , which launched back in August.
+ Surya Graf
+ Snack On
Article printed from Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/spare-tire-bike-tube-belts/
URLs in this post:
Tweet: http://twitter.com/share
Share on Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/share
Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/spare-tire-bike-tube-belts/
Image: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/10/05/spare-tire-bike-tube-belts/
Spare Tire Bike Tube Belt: http://snackondesign.com/articles/spare-tire
designed: http://co-dependent.co.uk/
Surya Graf: http://www.suryagraf.com/
PARK(ing) DAY: http://www.parkingday.org/
Snack On: http://snackondesign.com/
Copyright © 2011 Inhabitat Local - New York. All rights reserved.
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Will Proposed Pan-Africa Intellectual Property Organization Enable The West To Impose Its Monopolies?
from the what's-in-it-for-Africans? dept
Back in May, Techdirt pointed to a presentation from Mike Palmedo listing a wide range of research that demonstrates the lack of a connection between policies introducing stricter IP laws or enforcement and economic growth or innovation. Apparently, the African Union Scientific, Technical and Research Commission didn't get around to reading that post, since it has produced a draft statute for the creation of a new Pan-Africa Intellectual Property Organization that seems based entirely on assuming this link exists.
Here's how Brook K. Baker, a US law professor specializing in this area, describes these plans over on infojustice.org:
The statute, drafted by true believers of IP-maximalist ideology, proposes to establish a region-wide intellectual property organization with the sole agenda of expanding IP rights, strengthening enforcement, harmonizing regional legislation, and eventually facilitating the granting of IP monopolies by a central granting authority that may well be legally binding on Member States.
One reason the proposal is so bad is that, once again, all the benefits flow to rightsholders at the expense of users:
Throughout the proposed legislation, there is not one reference to achieving a balance between the interests of rightholders and users of technology and creative endeavors. There is not a word on preserving permitted limitations or exceptions to IPRs or controlling misuse of IP monopolies. There is not a single commitment to withstanding pressures from the US and EU for ever expanding intellectual property rights that are longer, stronger and broader nor for the draconian enforcement obligations that suppress legitimate competition and impose costly border, criminal, and civil enforcement obligations on Africa taxpayers.
The draft will be considered at a meeting of African science and technology ministers in the Republic of Congo in November. If you want to read the details, the proposed text is available (as a Microsoft Word file) from the Intellectual Property Watch site.
It's particularly disappointing that this hugely retrogressive move should be proposed at a time when African innovation is really starting to take off, with a number of tech hubs emerging across the continent. The present proposals seem likely to throttle those exciting developments, because they will impose a neo-colonial IP framework on Africa that will see it ruthlessly exploited by Western companies thanks to their copyright and patent monopolies, just as its physical resources were expropriated in the 19th century.
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Entrepreneurs are -- on some level -- just like any other individual in terms of employment: They need an income, a level of security to ensure they can provide for themselves and/or their families, and work that won't put them to sleep. But they're an unusually passionate group of people whose work is born of something deeper. They enjoy the challenge of building a business, the independence it affords, and the excitement of knowing the business will sink or float based on their efforts.
I was reminded of this sentiment when I read today's Careers Q&A at WSJ's Startup Journal. Reporter Perri Capell responded to a question regarding one entrepreneur's search for a job after having owned a company for the past seven years. The entrepreneur can't find a job, and reporter Capell's first speculation is perhaps the entrepreneur isn't cut out to work for others. (Besides this point, the reporter offers some tips for finding a job after being a business owner: Look for positions at smaller companies seeking someone to help start a spin off; use networking; update your resume emphasizing your business ownership achievements; and return to your original skill set.)
However, when this entrepreneur does find that elusive job, will working for someone else be fulfilling enough? Inc. Editor-at-Large Bo Burlingham responded to one entrepreneur-turned-employee in this 2001 Inc. Query. Burlingham's first comment was that Inc. hadn't heard from too many entrepreneurs seeking to become employees after having experienced business ownership. And Norm Brodsky noted in the same response that entrepreneurs are generally too headstrong to be long-term employees, but could work with a small company looking for an experienced entrepreneur, or become a contractor. Norm's closing remark, "If that doesn't work out, start a business."
Becoming an employee obviously is possible for entrepreneurs. But even the entrepreneurs-turned-employees I know harbor secret yearnings to become owners again. One such entrepreneur who is happy (he says employment works for him because his parent company is across the country) can't seem to shake the entrepreneurial itch. Despite his amenable arrangement, he already has plans for his next business in the works.
I suspect he'll never be able to shake that entrepreneurial passion. Could you?
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Your article is so wonderful, I expect several readers are adding hibbies to their list of "must get" or must get more" next growing season.
One observation, though, I was under the impression h. Hamabo produces a yellow flower. To satisfy my curiosity, I googled and found yellow flowers as well as white w/ red eye as you posted in your article. Curiosity not satisfied, lol.
this may be the answer to the mystery. It appears there is indeed a h. syriacus named "Hamabo" (Adina, the one you show in your article) and there is also a species hibiscus named "Hamabo", which is the one I grow. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/93850/
You mean to tell me that of all the names in the world, these botanists had to use the same name twice????? why do they want to confuse us this way!
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We are in the midst of a tablet revolution, with both consumers and enterprises embracing tablet computers for everything from internet browsing and social networking to mission critical business applications that increase employee productivity and drive revenue. Forrester Research predicts that, beginning in 2012, tablet sales will start to outpace notebooks. This widespread adoption can be unequivocally credited to Apple's introduction of the iPad in 2010, but the upcoming launch of Amazon's tablet Kindle Fire is set to expand the market even further, attracting more users with its lower price point.
It's clear that marketers today cannot ignore the tablet as a channel. However, tablets have added another layer of complexity onto the diverse mobile internet arena, which is already crowded with a rich variety of web-enabled mobile devices from various manufacturers running different operating systems. With new versions of smartphones and tablets being brought to market every day to capitalize on this global trend, the mobile device landscape is becoming even more complex and confusing for brands and consumers alike.
This article will help marketers better understand what makes a tablet different from other mobile devices and PCs, as well as how to leverage the tablet as a critical piece of their mobile web content development strategy. Readers will also learn best practices for building an optimized, engaging web presence on tablet PCs.
A unique niche
So where does the tablet fit in? Somewhere between a smartphone and a PC -- clearly in its own unique niche, but one that is still very new to consumers and businesses alike. Tablets are almost as portable as smartphones, yet they have much larger screens and can provide more immersive experiences. However...
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This study presents our investigation on different hybrid classification models which integrate support vector machines with nearest neighbor algorithm. We study the advantages and disadvantages of Support Vector Machines (SVM) classification and k-nearest neighbor (KNN) classification in performing their classification tasks. In our investigation, we found that the well-performing SVM classification approach may suffer from high time consumption, high CPU and physical memory usages, due to its convoluted training and classifying processes, especially when the dimensionality of data is high. On the other hand, KNN classification approach which implements NN algorithm is outstanding with its simplicity and low cost training process. However, it has been reported to be less accurate than the SVM classification. Many research works have been carried out in order to further improve the performance of the established SVM classifier by integrating Nearest Neighbor (NN) algorithm into the conventional SVM classification approach. The research works which have been reviewed and investigated in this paper emphasize in simplifying the convoluted training and classifying processes and further improving the classification algorithm of the conventional SVM, using NN algorithm. Overall, we concluded that while SVM classification approach has been reported as one of the best-performing classifiers since some decades now, it could be further improved by using NN algorithm in order to obtain more effective and efficient classification models.
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What do people think of when they think of Christmas? Yes, there are Christmas trees and cookies and caroling. But one thing that people think of immediately is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The play has been a mainstay of Christmas almost since the day it was first published. Who doesn’t love the story of Scrooge meeting the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future? And there’s Tiny Tim, who can’t walk but is the most generous child in the world and his father Bob Cratchit, who is also a very kind man. It is a great play for the entire family, because the message of rejuvenation and charity is one that everyone needs to hear once in awhile. Children, parents and grandparents always enjoy this show and everyone can really relate to the feelings of the characters. Don’t miss out on this essential Christmas experience! Get your A Christmas Carol tickets right now!
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Signs life insurance can be tapped for cash
There are two basic types of life insurance: term plans, which provide coverage for a set number of years and usually offer a payout only if the policyholder dies during the term; and permanent policies such as whole, universal and variable life, which can provide a death benefit for as long as you live and also offer a savings component. While permanent plans are generally more expensive than term plans, a major perk is that often you can borrow from the savings reserve or cash it in. It's not always easy to tell if you can treat your policy as a piggy bank. These highlighted keywords and phrases in the sample policy below are giveaways that you can pull money from your life insurance.
Hover over the term to see its definition.
- Cash value: This is the formal term for the reserve that builds up in a permanent life insurance policy. The premiums are split two ways: Part of your money covers the actual cost of insurance, and part gets invested and accumulates value, tax-deferred, the longer you hold it. The cash value of a policy is determined by how long you've held the policy and how well the policy's investments are performing, says Keith Friedman, founder of FBO Strategies LLC, an insurance and estate planning firm in Stamford, Conn.
Rate of accumulation
- Rate of accumulation: Also called "rate of return," it's how fast your policy builds its cash value. Many policies come with guaranteed interest rates, meaning your policy will accrue value steadily for as long as you pay the premiums. Some variable and universal life policies tie their rates of accumulation to the plan's investments, says Damon Bates, a vice president at MassMutual insurance. Policyholders may earn more or less depending on how those investments perform.
- Policy dividend: It's a refund of a portion of your life insurance premiums that's paid when the insurance company's investments have had a good year. This potential spreading of the wealth is a feature of many policies, which might be borrowed from or cashed in.
- Surrender value: Before letting policyholders cash out, insurance companies deduct outstanding loans and may charge substantial surrender penalties. "Surrender value would be the amount of net cash value that you could cash in or surrender your policy for" after taking into account the various costs, says Bates. Surrender values are oftentimes significantly lower than the policy's true cash value.
- Loan value: This is the maximum amount that can be borrowed from a life insurance plan. Loan values can vary, depending on the type of policy, how long it has been in force and whether the policyholder has kept up with premiums, says Friedman. "Most carriers only allow you to borrow a percentage (of the policy's cash value or surrender value), usually up to 80 percent," he adds.
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The “locavore” movement has been getting a lot more attention these days, so much so that an explanation is in order. So, simply put, a locavore is someone who only eats food that has been grown within 100 or so miles of the place where it is consumed.
John Walsh, the owner-chef of the Edgewood Café in Cranston, supports the idea.
“I try to buy as much locally produced food as I can,” said Walsh. “Obviously, it’s fresher coming right from the farm and obviously it tastes better. Produce from other places just can’t be that fresh. It probably has been sitting around or been on the road and was probably harvested before it was ripe. When I find something fresh and in season, I’ll do a special on the menu. If I can get good stuff, I can build around it while it’s available.”
Looking for the right stuff to cook hasn’t hurt Walsh’s reputation as a chef. He started as a dishwasher on Block Island at the age of 15 and worked his way through Johnson & Wales and a few restaurants before he opened the Bookstore Cafe on Wayland Square in 1993. The Edgewood Café was the focus of an episode of “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” on the Food Channel and has the signature stencil of its star, Guy Fieri, on the wall. But it’s the word of mouth that has established Walsh’s restaurant’s reputation and it is all about fresh.
“I will pay more for something I can tell is better,” said Walsh. “You can tell by touching it, feeling it, the color, the size, the shape, the smell … If you start with poor ingredients you end with a poor product.”
On the very funny television show “Portlandia,” two people intensively grill the waitress about where their chicken entrée grew up, what kind of family it came from and generally mocked the extreme to which locavores can go. But Walsh’s success with locally grown produce proves that, while you can’t get everything on the menu locally, you can get enough to encourage more people to want and eventually buy local.
The Rhode Island DEM has been encouraging people for years to support their local farmers and each year, more local farmers are approaching something resembling solvency. The DEM actively supports Farm Fresh Rhode Island, a non-profit founded in 2004 that is devoted to promoting the welfare of farmers and the people they feed. There have been many successes but even its most ardent advocates still get nervous about the future of local farms.
“Being a farmer is not cheap,” said Christina Dedora, a Smithfield resident who runs a one-acre flower farm in Cranston and a more ambitious CSA with several friends in the same area. “Very few people could afford to buy land for a farm in Rhode Island but you can be a farmer if you really work at it.”
The land Dedora and her friends work was willed to the state by a farmer named Arthur Ringrose. In his will, he donated it to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management to be protected from real estate development. The DEM leases the land to the Providence-based Southside Community Land Trust, a 30-year-old group dedicated to teaching city folk how to raise their own food but has since evolved into an import part of a network of people and state agencies that offer opportunity and support for local food producers like Dedora.
“To buy the land we work would cost at least $600,000,” said Dedora, who quit her 9 to 5 job last year to farm full-time. “There are very few people who can afford that, which is why CSAs are so important.”
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. They provide consumers with a direct connection to a farm that produces their food. CSA members typically make an upfront financial contribution to the farm in return for weekly shares of the fresh vegetables the farm has to offer. They also come with the risks inherent in all farming. Drought or monsoon, natural and unnatural disasters, insect pests and just plain luck determine how a farmer will do in a given year and the CSA member shares in that. You also have to live with whatever crop succeeds on your farm. You will still have to go to a grocery store for some foods but the intangible benefit is the feeling that you have earned the food.
“Farm Fresh Rhode Island has been doing wonderful work since it started,” said Dedora. “I don’t know what I would do without them. I certainly couldn’t afford to buy land for farming but they allow people like me to do farming. I’m not getting a lot of money. I still have to work during the winter. I worked at UPS during the holidays to make some extra money.”
A USDA Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food grant to build provided Dedora with an unheated greenhouse that allowed her to grow some vegetables through the winter and, of course, the mild weather helped. But nothing can be done about the time it takes to make farming work for you. Dedora has her CSA members and sells her produce and flowers at farmers markets and local restaurants.
“We grow spinach, lettuce, Asian greens, tomatoes, kale, chard and a lot of the usual farm produce,” said Dedora, things that sell even in the deepest recession. “People have to give some things up but they always have to have food.”
As for the Edgewood Café, even someone as supportive as Walsh has to go somewhere else for produce.
“In the winter, it’s tough for us to be local, said Walsh, “but I still do my best to buy local products year-round, like Gaspar’s linguica and local sausage. If I can get it local, I’ll take it. But there are times that we really can’t afford the luxury. I can’t serve strictly grass-fed local beef. I can’t pay for it.”
While it may not be practical for you to eat completely local, shopping at farmers markets or joining a CSA is a good start. CSA membership usually lasts from June through October. This provides the farmer with a guaranteed market for crops. Members then receive a weekly or bi-weekly share of the harvest throughout the season. Some CSA farms either allow or require their members to work on the farm. You can learn more about CSAs and stores and restaurants who buy local at www.farmfresh.org.
“I really wish I could buy all local, all year-round, but it really is worth the trouble to try,” said Walsh.
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I think the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief. And anything we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done and may in fact in the end be our greatest contribution to civilization.That must be music to Dawkins. (And it certainly got the adrenalin going for me)
Sam Harris was another speaker in that session and as we know Harris is a staunch atheist (some may say extremist) who sees religion today as a very probable cause for what could be the downfall of civilization, or at the very least secularism and the scientific enterprise. I don't share Harris' paranoia, and I'm with Weinberg who sees Islam (rather than the world's religions as a collective) as the one to keep an eye on. In fairness, Harris is pretty clear that it would be a freezing day in hell before we see Buddhist suicide bombers, and that if there is such a thing as fanaticism in Jainism then the more fanatic a Jain is the more nonviolent he becomes (imagine one standing catatonically still for fear of stepping on tiny insects and hardly breathing for fear of inadvertently swallowing and killing airborne microbes). There is much in what Harris says about religion that we can only assent to. Any worldview that remains intractably anchored in Bronze and Iron Age mythologies must certainly be, at the very least, intellectually debilitating. I'm with Harris in underscoring the patently crazy beliefs that religionists have in their jam packed baggage. During the session Harris gave the example of someone waking up in the morning fully convinced that after chanting some Latin words over his breakfast cereal he was now about to dine on the body of Julius Caesar. Plain ludicrous, of course. Such a person would be rightly diagnosed even by a non-psychiatrist as suffering from a delusion. On the other hand, everyone who professes that a cracker similarly chanted over is the body of Jesus are deemed sane simply because these are Catholic beliefs. Yet both are delusions, only that the other has been institutionalized (won't we be relieved if it were in the other sense of that word). The problem Harris points out is that religious beliefs have been sheltered from criticism. It has been taboo to speak out and criticize religion openly. Needless to say, there is a difference between the free world and the Islamic nations where criticism and questioning of religion has pretty fatal consequences.
Physicist Lawrence Krauss also gave his opinion on the conflict. While being a person without faith, his stance on the conflict is closer to a proactive solution wherein he wants to teach and educate the public about what science is and share the discoveries of science. Ignorance of science for him is what needs to be addressed. Doubtless, education is crucial in waking people up. On the other hand, as Harris points out being scientifically savvy is sometimes just not enough. He gives the example of Francis Collins, the leader of the human genome project. I dare say Collins knows more molecular biology than Harris does. But Collins is completely head over heels over Christ and salvation. In his latest book Collins reveals he finally accepted Christ during one of his hikes up the mountain. When he saw this frozen waterfall he was completely awed by it and he then fell on his knees, broke down, and gave himself to Jesus (and he perhaps broke down because part of his grey matter accidentally fell out). Clearly, as Michael Shermer points out in Why People Believe Weird Things even very smart people (Mensans and those with PhDs) can fall for and adopt pretty strange beliefs (James Randi would split hairs here and say being highly educated is not the same as being smart). In Collins' case, his critical faculties vis-a-vis religion were swamped in part by the welter of emotions.
The nine Beyond Belief video files are huge--some 150 to 250 megabytes each. If you've got a broadband connection you can watch them via streaming video (the sessions last from 1 to 2 hours). If not, you can download the files as I did. In my case each file took 10 to 15 hours. I just love these types of lectures/talks.
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The Hunting Island Nature Center nurtures the child in us all. “What’s that?” “Why?” “How?” Find answers to these questions and more. Discover the wonders of nature on a barrier island, as the Nature Center has live animals and exhibits that delve into the diverse habitats of Hunting Island State Park. Enjoy public programs seven days a week from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and Tuesday through Saturday, March to November. Join a park naturalist as we search for life in the water and under the sand and amaze you with stories of the ocean's creatures. Tackle life in the Lowcountry with our skills-based programs. Kayak with us in our tidal lagoon each Friday from March through November. And don’t miss loggerhead sea turtle nesting season, as first nesting mothers, then emerging hatchlings, captivate visitors from May through October. Call the Nature Center for specific program schedules and information.
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EU to Recognize Palestinian State when Declared
The European Union is getting ready to recognize a Palestinian state if one is declared in September, whether by agreement with Israel or unilaterally, reported Haaretz Monday.
A special committee of EU officials is currently discussing the status of the European consulates in Jerusalem after the EU recognizes a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, according to the Israeli daily.
In the Berlin Declaration of March 1999, the EU expressed support for the setting up of a Palestinian state and called on both sides to conclude the negotiations within a year.
In return for Yasser Arafat's willingness to postpone the declaration, set for May 1999, most of the EU countries promised to recognize a Palestinian state if Israel and the PA failed to reach agreement by the end of 2000, the daily said.
The United States officially denied that the Berlin Declaration had been coordinated with it, but American sources have said the declaration was preceded by a favorable nod from Washington to Brussels.
Israel's Foreign Ministry fears that France's assumption of the rotating EU presidency at the beginning of next month will further promote Palestinian efforts to invoke the Berlin Declaration, said Haaretz – Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
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On January 1, 2007, Eliot Spitzer, two-term Attorney General of New York, was sworn into office as the Governor of New York.
Mr. Spitzer, a progressive liberal who notoriously pursued white-collar fraud and crime as Attorney General, is a rising national star in the Democratic Party.
In June 2005, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson hailed Eliot Spitzer as "the future of the (Democratic) party." And 2004 presidential candidate Wesley Clark said that Spitzer was on his vice-presidential short-list.
The following is Gov. Spitzer's 2007 inaugural address, in which he spoke of his progressive reform agenda for New York, and of the enriching role of immigrants in his state.
Inaugural Address of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer
Monday, January 1st, 2007
Happy New Year and thanks to all of you -- intrepid New Yorkers and friends -- for joining us on this glorious, gray January day.
I want to thank Governor Pataki for joining in this time-honored tradition as the reigns of state government pass from his careful stewardship. Thank you Governor and Mrs. Pataki for 12 years of service.
We are honored by the presence of former Governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo and the great grandson of Governor Al Smith. They represent the august tradition of New York leadership.
We are honored by the presence of New York’s esteemed senior Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Charles Rangel and the entire Congressional delegation.
And of course, my colleagues in state government. Speaker Shelly Silver and Senator Joe Bruno and the members of their respective chambers.
A warm welcome to our great friend the esteemed Judge Kay and all the members of the Court of Appeals. A warm welcome to all those joining me in being sworn in today. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and my partner, Lieutenant Governor, David Paterson.
My deepest thanks are to my Parents; my Wife Silda and our three wonderful daughters.
Today, we come together to mark a pivotal moment in our state's history, a day that in the rhythm of democracy marks a transition and a new beginning.
It is with profound humility about the task that lies before us and filled with great hope for what I know we will achieve, that I stand before you to announce that Day One of our time for change has arrived.
As we step outside on this first January morning of two thousand and seven, the light of a new day shines down on the Empire state once again.
The opportunity at the heart of this day is unique to our times, but not new to our history. As the writer Russell Shorto has aptly noted, New York created the model for the kind of society that would be duplicated throughout the country and around the globe: Our state was born as an island at the center of the world.
Generations of Immigrants
What began as a babble of dialects and peoples struggling to find a way to live together, searching for balance between chaos and order, liberty and oppression, became a symphony of democracy.
Under the shadow of liberty’s torch, generations of weary travelers have sailed into New York harbor believing that of all the places on Earth, this was the land where people could come and find the chance to make their world anew.
That no matter how great the hardship, no matter how daunting the challenge, the promise of our democracy makes it possible to overcome the greatest odds so that we -- individually and as a society -- may arrive at a greater good.
And so it was for those first immigrants who came with little and worked long days to give their children a better life.
For the bold governor, Dewitt Clinton, who ignored the warnings of the skeptics and cynics and built an Erie Canal that so many had said was wasteful, impractical, and impossible.
For the reformers of Teddy Roosevelt’s day who dared to take on the political machine and inbred corruption in order to give government back to the people.
For the suffragists and union members and civil rights heroes who organized and marched on our streets to win their chance at the American dream.
For the inventors, artists and entrepreneurs who have turned our state into a beacon of hope, ideas, and opportunity.
A More Vibrant Future
And so it must be for us. Like all who have come before, we have arrived at this moment on this day because we have demanded a different and more vibrant future for our children.
Because we know that New York is the state where the depth of our talent and the breadth of our skills and the reach of our culture have forever changed America and the entire world – and because we know we can do it once more.
This election was not about electing one person as governor. Rather it was about what we the people collectively elected for the future of our state.
We chose pragmatism and ethics over partisan politics and disfunction, and we demanded an end to gridlock.
So I pledge to toil each and every day so as not to disappoint the hard working people of this state who have placed their trust in this future -- a future which rekindles hope and restores growth.
Today we stand in the midst of a global revolution that has transformed the way we live and the way we work. Creativity and prosperity travel wherever the brightest minds and most innovative economies can be found.
Over the last decade, we have seen what can happen when our government stands still in the face of great challenge and inevitable change.
We’ve seen it in the burdensome property taxes and the health care we can’t afford; in the jobs that have disappeared from our upstate cities and the schools that keep failing our children; in a government that works for those who hold office -- not those who put them there.
Like Rip Van Winkle, the legendary character created by the New York author Washington Irving, New York has slept through much of the past decade while the rest of the world has passed us by.
Today is the day when all of that changes – when we stop standing still and start moving forward once more.
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I actually first played Minecraft because of Cameron. He nagged and insisted, and really, it wasn't so hard to convince me I should play video games rather than do my work. Like Cameron, when I play video games (not often) I usually play as a vegetarian/vegan. In most video games that means not eating meat that occurs/drops as premade. It does not usually mean avoiding hunting or domesticating. In Minecraft (at least when I last played, some two years ago), in order to eat meat, you had to hunt and kill animals, that squealed when you hit them. This is Cameron's comments about the one time he decided he'd rather kill the virtual pig than die (also virtually):
I hit it once. It squealed and snorted and tried to run. I chased it. I hit it with a shovel and it tried to run, panicked, and didn’t make it very far. I hit it until it tipped over and pieces of meat flew out of its body.
I’m haunted by it. I’ve killed hundreds of AI humans in video games. I have executed civilians. I have ended civilizations. I’ve cleared out a fictional Dubai of all living beings. I’ve made a wasteland of digital worlds and preemptively struck with nuclear weapons.
Cameron has some theories about why one is perhaps different than the other for him. You have to read it to find out, but here is why it is for me in Minecraft. For those who have never played, Minecraft is the ultimate sandbox game, you mine stuff and you craft it, and you decide what you want to do in the game. Want to build a floating library made out of glass and towers and light and hanging gardens? You can do it. Want to build a replica of the land from The Game of Thrones? You can do it. You get the idea. Minecraft is also weirdly evil. Monsters come out at dark, unless you have light and walls and swords. Look, I am loath to link, but this Penny Arcade comic covers it all quickly and humorously. One, two. Everything in Minecraft is pure resource. Everything is meant to be manipulated, transformed, used. And if you don't make light and walls, the monsters will get you. Using animals in this context always bothered me, because the idea that animals are pure resource is exactly the thing I am always fighting against. Or maybe it is just part of the whole techne tou bios of veganism I have talked about elsewhere.
*Look, I understand it is a weird and roundabout way to give money to someone. It would drive economists insane. That is, honestly, a good enough reason to do it. Buy Five Out of Ten to give Cameron a dollar, and you drive an economist insane. Good call!
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The horseman is a classic American archetype, and at first glance Buck Brannaman, the title character of this outstanding documentary, fits the icon to a tee. Steady and taciturn, Brannaman travels the country training horses using a non-violent method. However, he often has to figure the owners out first, as they can be more jumpy than the horses. As this warm and intimate character study progresses, we learn more about the rest of his life, from his work on Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer to long-held family secrets, all of which deepen our understanding of why the cornerstone of his approach is to never hurt a horse.
We welcome your insights and reactions to our films and content.
Please engage with us by leaving a comment. All comments will be moderated so
as to avoid spam or unsuitable content being published.
View the discussion thread.
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As promised Chris Pratley has posted some more really interesting stuff about features that will be in OneNote 12.
Chris talks about unifying the analog and the digital. What does this mean? Well an example of this you may already be using exists in OneNote today. OneNote takes your handwritten notes today (analog data) and converts them into searchable text in the background (digital data). Anyone who has used this knows what a powerful feature this is. OneNote 12 is going to take this much much further.
Today, you can send just about any content to OneNote by "printing" it to the Send to OneNote power toy. The printed document ends up in OneNote as an image and can be annotated and marked up - BUT - the resulting image includes the text in the original document that is not searchable. OneNote 12 will take this to the next level.
"OneNote 12 includes its own "OneNote Import Printer Driver" which captures the text of any document that is printed to it, and stores it with the images of the pages you print into OneNote. This lets you have not only images of printed pages, but you can search through the text in those images. This printer driver works for anything that can be printed, not just Microsoft applications or documents."
In addition if you scan a document into OneNote 12, take a screenshot or insert a photo of a document the text will automatically be recognised using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and will become searchable.
"For you existing OneNote users, that means the documents you have printed into OneNote already will all automatically become searchable!"
I can't wait to see how well the OCR technology works, but really even if it is not perfectly accurate it is going to be a huge leap forward. That said, it sounds like it is going to be pretty cool!
"In fact, we're including about four different OCR engines in OneNote, each one optimized for different types of images that contain text. We sniff the type of image and use the appropriate one automatically."
And as if all that is not cool enough you will be able to search audio and the audio from video because this is going to be indexed for seaching as well. How?
"The way this works is pretty cool. The audio is converted from waveforms to phonetic equivalents, and those are indexed. You can type your search term, then this is converted by OneNote into a phonetic equivalent which searches against the phonetic index of the audio. Actually this is a gross oversimplification but you get the idea."
Man - and I thought the current product was cool. Roll on OneNote 12!
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Successor to Peter
José Ignacio González Faus
. . . Today, the ministry of Peter really needs restoration, like Michaelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine Chapel, to recover the freshness of the original colours. And not only the ministry of Peter: our politicians have now forgotten that the word “ministry” means service, which gives me the chance to discuss with you some biblical features of this service . . .Of course one of the difficulties with taking the Biblical evidence seriously is that so much of it presents Peter in a largely negative light, but to his credit Faus attempts to reflect positively on this, for example:
Peter had his hesitations. He was intuitive and impulsive, but cowardly. And sometimes, for the sake of avoiding trouble, he betrayed the step that he had previously taken towards those who were not Jews. Paul, the whirlwind, criticised him for it in public. And Peter gave us a great lesson in humility when he accepted this criticism and did not silence Paul for saying so. You will no doubt remember what Augustine was to say later on: “I dare declare that even more exemplary than the courage of Paul was the humility of Peter.”There is a little bit of creative embellishment of the story here, though, with Peter "accept[ing] this criticism" and "not silenc[ing] Paul". Peter's silence at the end of Gal. 2.11-20 is simply a function of Paul's rhetoric, and many a historian has (I think rightly) read between the lines to see Paul attempting to avoid relating the obvious conclusion of the Antioch incident, that Paul lost and Peter won.
I am writing a paper at the moment on the portrait of Peter in Matthew and I was pleased to see Faus stressing both sides of the Caesarea Philippi narrative of Matthew 16 in which Peter is first blessed and then rebuked:
The Church was founded on the faith of Peter. When this faith looked at Jesus from God’s viewpoint, Peter was described by the Lord as a “rock”. But Peter is also called by Jesus nothing less than “Satan” when he thinks of God in terms of power and triumph, and not in terms of a committed life (Mt. 16:18,23).All too often in Biblical scholarship, it is only the "Blessed are you Simon bar Jonah . . ." material that gets spotted, because it is distinctive to Matthew, while the "Get thee behind me Satan!" material is missed because it is shared with Mark.
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OA Information For Students
I’m a graduate or undergraduate student. Why should I care?
If you’re an undergraduate or graduate student, you should care because Open Access means you have uninterrupted access to recent academic articles and research -- regardless of whether you are on a school network, or whether or not you have graduated.
If you publish yourself, Open Access gives your work increased visibility. If you are pursuing a career in academics, supporting Open Access means you are helping libraries at the institutions you work for in the future to spend their budgets in other areas that might benefit you.
What can I do?
- Use and cite peer-reviewed Open Access journals in your academic work.
- Stay informed about the work of student organizations and news about the Open Access movement
- Be diligent about submitting your thesis or dissertation to Emory’s Electronic Thesis and Dissertation repository, and help your colleagues to understand why this is important
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SPIEGEL Interview with Mel Brooks: “With Comedy, We Can Rob Hitler of his Posthumous Power”
Jewish comic actor Mel Brooks talks about Hitler as a comical character, the limits of humor and his latest film “The Producers,” which hits screens in Germany and other European countries this week.
Mr. Brooks, almost all the rogues in your film have moustaches. Is that the long shadow of Hitler?
Brooks: You must be joking! Rogues on the screen were already wearing moustaches when Hitler was still running around in short trousers. A cinema villain essentially needs a moustache so he can twiddle with it gleefully as he cooks up his next nasty plan. So Hitler’s incomplete moustache would never have been enough for that.
SPIEGEL: Your new comedy “The Producers” is set at the end of the 1950s on Broadway and concerns a Nazi musical that breaks box office records. It shows a dancing and singing Hitler. Isn’t that a bit tasteless?
Brooks: Of course. But it’s also funny, isn’t it? The film revolves around a Broadway producer who, for financial and technical reasons, wants to produce a flop. After he turns down the chance to adapt Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” he comes up with the idea of creating a musical about Hitler, produced by the lousiest director in the city, cast with the worst actors by far -– in the middle of the Jewish metropolis of New York. He’s sure it won’t work. Yet because the audience considers the piece to be a brilliant parody, his worst fears are realized, it’s a hit. “The Producers” therefore deals with the difficulty of having a flop.
SPIEGEL: Which you of course know well yourself. “The Producers” is based on a musical that you produced that ran successfully on Broadway for five years and also on the film “The Producers” that you shot in 1967. How did the audience react to the film back then?
Brooks: The Jews were horrified. I received resentful letters of protest, saying things like: “How can you make jokes about Hitler? The man murdered 6 million Jews." But "The Producers" doesn’t concern a concentration camp or the Holocaust.
SPIEGEL: Can you really separate Hitler from the Holocaust?
Brooks: You have to separate it. For example, Roberto Benigni's comedy “Life Is Beautiful” really annoyed me. A crazy film that even attempted to find comedy in a concentration camp. It showed the barracks in which Jews were kept like cattle, and it made jokes about it. The philosophy of the film is: people can get over anything. No, they can’t. They can’t get over a concentration camp.
SPIEGEL: But the film has deeply moved a lot of people.
Brooks: I always asked myself: Tell me, Roberto, are you nuts? You didn’t lose any relatives in the Holocaust, you’re not even Jewish. You really don’t understand what it’s all about. The Americans were incredibly thrilled to discover from him that it wasn’t all that bad in the concentration camps after all. And that’s why they immediately pressed an Oscar into his hand.
SPIEGEL: So there are limits to humor?
Brooks: Definitely. In 1974, I produced the western parody "Blazing Saddles," in which the word “nigger” was used constantly. But I would never have thought of the idea of showing how a black was lynched. It’s only funny when he escapes getting sent to the gallows. You can laugh at Hitler because you can cut him down to normal size.
SPIEGEL: Can you also get your revenge on him by using comedy?
Brooks: Yes, absolutely. Of course it is impossible to take revenge for 6 million murdered Jews. But by using the medium of comedy, we can try to rob Hitler of his posthumous power and myths. In doing so, we should remember that Hitler did have some talents. He was able to fool an entire population into letting him be their leader. However, this role was basically a few numbers too great for him –- but he simply covered over this deficiency.
SPIEGEL: Was he a good actor?
Brooks: Yes, as he convinced many millions of Germans. It’s not without good reason that comedies about Hitler often concern actors who should play him. Just think about Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” (1940) or Ernst Lubitsch’s “To Be or not To Be” (1942). There’s no doubt about it, Hitler worked in the same branch as we do: he created illusions.
SPIEGEL: In a documentary film about the downfall of the German battleship the Bismarck, US director James Cameron referred to Hitler as the “greatest pop star of his time."
Brooks: There's something in that. Hitler must have had a magnetic attractive force, like a rock star he used his voice to spellbind umpteen thousands of listeners. So it’s only fitting when comic actors make him the limelight hog of world history. We take away from him the holy seriousness that always surrounded him and protected him like a cordon.
SPIEGEL: You yourself fought against the Nazis in Europe in 1945 and came to Berlin just after the end of the war and stayed there for eight months. Could you still feel much of a Hitler reverence?
Brooks: Everywhere you went you could sense a great relief that the war was finally over. I myself was shaken by the extent of the destruction. When we were transporting away a few prisoners of war in a train, I discovered an old man who looked like my grandfather. He suddenly leaped out of the carriage. I took my rifle and aimed at him. He called (Brooks says in German): "Don’t shoot, I have to shit". Most of the Germans who survived the war were just poor simple people. Was National Socialism ever taught in German schools?
SPIEGEL: Yes, and in great detail.
Brooks: That is comforting to know. When you come to Germany as a Jew you have an uneasy feeling, but I’ve always felt okay in Berlin. It was there that I saw Brecht and Weill’s “Three Penny Opera” and was totally crazy about this kind of musical theater.
SPIEGEL: Have you seen Oliver Hirschbiegels's film "Downfall"?
Brooks: Yes, and I thought it was excellent. It shows us Hitler’s self destruction. While Goebbels was idolizing Hitler as the new Christ, like the salvation in the flesh, he was decaying before our very eyes -- and all that was needed to illustrate this was a shot of his trembling hand.
SPIEGEL: Don’t you think the film humanizes Hitler too much?
Brooks: No, it doesn’t arouse the slightest bit of sympathy for Hitler. It shows a man who went mad. Let’s face it; he too started off as a small, innocent baby. His monstrous grimace comes across all the more startling when you can sense the paltry remains of his human nature.
SPIEGEL: Was Hitler funny? Would you have been able to make him laugh?
Brooks: I have no delusions of grandeur. Hitler would definitely not have smacked himself on the thigh and cried out (Brooks says in German): “What fantastic fun." If he had found something funny you’d probably see at the most a flinch in the corner of his mouth.
SPIEGEL: You yourself played Hitler in 1983 in your remake of the film “To Be or not To Be”...
Brooks: ... and I also gave him my voice in a song in "The Producers".
SPIEGEL: How does it feel for a Jew to slip into the skin of his greatest enemy?
Brooks: It is an inverted seizure of power. For many years Hitler was the most powerful man in the world and almost destroyed us. To posses this power and turn it against him -– it is simply alluring.
Interview conducted by Lars-Olav Beier.
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© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2006
All Rights Reserved
Reproduction only allowed with the permission of SPIEGELnet GmbH
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Allegedly, summer reading is frothy.
But for some reason, this summer has brought more than its share of books on the brain and brain science — fascinating stuff but far from the breezy love on the beach stuff we’ve all come to expect when the weather heats up.
I like this change of direction, though. Maybe because I live in Houston where the heat is always up.
As soon as I had found a few brain books to blog about, I discovered NPR had beat me to it — BADLY, in fact — but that none of the books they listed in their June story were on my list. You know what that means. It MUST be a trend!
(Aside: Every time I try to type brain I type brian instead. If I ever write a novel about a really smart guy, I must remember to name him Brian… Another aside: If Tina Fey ever writes a brain book, she could call it Smartypants… Folks, I’m two days from a week-long vacation. Can you tell?!)
Anyway, here’s a lobeful of brain-y books. Happy reading!
1. INCOGNITO: The Secret Lives of the Brain, By David Eagleman.
In this book, Baylor neuroscientist David Eagleman mines the circuitry of inner space. His enthusiasm and gift for metaphor help cushion a hard-to-imagine truth: that consciousness is the smallest bit of what’s happening in our brains. That the me-ness of me and the you-ness of you is something beyond me and you. The books asks – and answers – questions including: “Why are we so tempted to tell a secret? Are some marriage partners more likely to cheat? Why do patients on Parkinson’s medications become compulsive gamblers?
2. DELUSIONS OF GENDER: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference, by Cordelia Fine.
An Australian senior research associate at the Centre for Agency, Value and Ethics, Cordelia Fine argues that men and women really aren’t hard-wired all that differently — that this whole men are from Mars and women are from Venus thing is just plain uninformed and dangerous. “We start to think of ourselves in terms of our gender, and stereotypes and social expectations become more prominent in the mind,” Fine writes.” This can change self-perception, alter interests, debilitate or enhance ability, and trigger unintentional discrimination.”
3. NOW YOU SEE IT: How the Brain Science of Attention will Transform the Way We Live, Work and Learn, by Cathy Davidson. (coming in August from Viking)
Cathy Davidson, former vice provost for interdisciplinary studies at Duke University, claims that technology has changed our private lives and work lives, but our institutions haven’t kept pace. Since old hierarchies have become less relevant, the new question is: How should we transform our universities and workplaces to adapt to these changing, uncertain times?
This link to NPR’s story, “Insanse Science,” lists FIVE MORE books that explain the brain.
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View, rate, and fact check the latest campaign ads.
Gallup, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC News … 7-Eleven? The vaunted news outlets and polling agencies are typically pundits’ first stops for election forecasting. But maybe they should look no further than their corner convenience store.
With its “7-Election” coffee campaign, 7-Eleven has correctly predicted the results of the last three presidential elections and is already calling the 2012 race for President Obama. How does your cup of morning joe rank among the oddest presidential-election predictors? Here’s a look.
Milk or sugar? Red or blue? 7-Eleven’s “7-Election” campaign lets customers pick red or blue to-go cups for their morning coffee, a choice meant to serve as a political endorsement for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. The convenience store chain keeps track of the cup count, and reports so far that Obama is ahead, with 60 percent of customers opting for java in a blue cup. Silly as it sounds, these results may worry Romney: the promotion has correctly predicted the past three election results. “While we have never billed 7-Election as scientific or statistically valid, it is astounding just how accurate this simple count-the-cups poll has been—election after election,” said CEO Joe DePinto.
Family Circle Recipe Contest
Could the election be decided by bake-off? Four of the last five presidential election winners also have been the husband of the victor of Family Circle magazine’s First Lady Cookie Bake-Off. The contest has the Democratic and Republican candidates’ wives submit their best cookie recipes and asks readers to make them and vote on their favorites. This year, Michelle Obama’s dark chocolate chip cookies edged out Ann Romney’s M&M cookies by just three percentage points. So come Nov. 6, don’t be surprised to find Barack Obama lounging in the Oval Office, dunking celebration cookies in his presidential blue 7-Eleven coffee cup.
Halloween Mask Sales
Scary news for Mitt Romney? The election falls less than a week after Halloween, and fright-night retailer Spirit Halloween claims that the proximity on the calendar of the major dates makes its metric for predicting the presidential election one of the most reliable: mask sales. Like a portending witches’ brew, the past four presidential elections have been foretold by sales figures of masks modeled after that year’s opposing candidates. So far, Obama is leading Romney with 64 percent of candidate mask sales.
Washington Redskins Home-Field Record
Finally, the Washington Redskins have a winning record. The “Redskins Rule,” as it’s been dubbed, states that if Washington’s NFL team wins its last home game before the election, then the incumbent party will win the presidential election. It’s a stellar track record, too—undefeated, in fact, from 1940 to 2004, when it wrongly predicted John Kerry would win. The rule redeemed itself by foreshadowing an Obama victory in ’08, meaning pundits should pay close attention when the Redskins face off against the Carolina Panthers Nov. 4 in Washington.
World Series Winner
Not a football fan? Baseball also has been known to decide the presidential election. From 1952 to 1976, the theory that if an American League team won the most recent World Series the Republican candidate would win the presidency was batting a perfect average. There was a wonky stretch of four wrong predictions in five cycles between 1980 and 1996, but the past three elections have abided by the playbook. In all, 11 of the past 15 elections were correctly predicted by the winner of the World Series.
Los Angeles Lakers’ Post-Season Record
Still not sold on a sports predictor? How about swapping the Redskins Rule for the Lakers Law? Eight of the nine times the Los Angeles Lakers have played in the NBA championship—even if they didn’t ultimately win the whole shebang—the Republican candidate won the presidential election. (The first time the law was broken: in 2008 when the Lakers played in the finals but Obama won the presidency.) The Lakers missed out on this year’s final dance, meaning Obama may be waltzing into the Oval Office yet again.
This may make Obama feel, well, small. History shows that in 80 percent of presidential elections, the candidate who is taller wins. So, real quick, Barack and Mitt—stand back to back! It turns out Romney is taller than Obama, which, according to this theory, gives the former governor a leg up in November.
Number of Letters in Their Last Names
More is better? Romney may hope so. In 15 of the last 23 elections, about a two-thirds success rate, the presidential candidate with the longer last name has won. Forget the Electoral College. By this metric, Romney beats Obama six to five.
Mitt Had Plan for 47 Percent Remarks
First on agenda: win first debate. More
WAR ON COAL
Energy CEO Lays Off Staff With a Prayer
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Gay Marriage Wins in Washington
Opponents concede Thursday.More
Stacey Dash Pens Election Rant
It’s 1,344 words.More
Mitt's Camp Publishes Victory Site
On 'The Daily Show's first post-election episode, Jon Stewart questioned the Sunshine State's relevance. Sorry, Florida, we elected a president without you.
The Daily Beast’s map of the Electoral College results—updated live as they come in.
From Obama’s win to Akin’s defeat, Sullivan’s celebration to Rove’s meltdown, watch the most memorable moments.
Losing sucks—and healing is hard. Paul Begala offers advice to hurting Republicans.
Three of the most dramatic races ended in wins for Dems Elizabeth Warren and Maggie Hassan, and a loss for the GOP’s Linda McMahon.
It’s finally over! Mark McKinnon looks back on two years of big moments that changed the 2012 race.
Obama’s reelection is a victory for intelligence, reason—and, yes, hope.
As the candidates face off in the election, the books they’ve read recently and their professed favorites also go head to head. Who wins?
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Go to www.hillaryclinton.com and check out Bill Clinton's syrupy five minute ad for Hillary. He introduces the commercial by saying that he wants to share some things we may not know about Hillary's background. His version of her biography is about as reliable as if it appeared in Pravda!
So, I wanted to make a few corrections:
Bill says: Hillary never wanted to run for public office, but she did want to work at public service.
The true facts are: When Clinton was considering not running for another term as Governor of Arkansas in 1990, Hillary said she would run if he didn't. She and Bill even had me take two surveys to assess her chances of winning. The conclusion was that she couldn't win because people would just see her as a seat warmer for when Bill came back licking his wounds after losing for president. So she didn't run. Bill did and won. But there is no question she had her eye on public office, as opposed to service, long ago.
Bill says: In law school Hillary worked on legal services for the poor.
The true facts are: Hillary's main extra-curricular activity in law school was helping the Black Panthers, on trial in Connecticut for torturing and killing a federal agent. She went to court every day as part of a law student monitoring committee trying to spot civil rights violations and develop grounds for appeal.
Bill says: Hillary spent a year after graduation working on a children's rights project for poor kids.
The true facts are: Hillary interned with Bob Truehaft, the head of the California Communist Party. She met Bob when he represented the Panthers and traveled all the way to San Francisco to take an internship with him.
Bill says: Hillary could have written her own job ticket, but she turned down all the lucrative job offers.
The true facts are: She flunked the DC bar exam and only passed the Arkansas bar. She had no job offers in Arkansas and only got hired by the University of Arkansas Law School at Fayetteville because Bill was already teaching there. She only joined the prestigious Rose Law Firm after Bill became Attorney General and made partner only after he was elected Governor.
Bill says: President Carter appointed Hillary to the Legal Services Board of Directors and she became its Chairman.
The true facts are: The appointment was in exchange for Bill's support for Carter in his 1980 primary against Ted Kennedy. Hillary became chairman in a coup in which she won a majority away from Carter's choice to be chairman.
Bill says: She served on the board of the Arkansas Children's Hospital.
The true facts are: Yes she did. But her main board activity, not mentioned by Bill, was to sit on the Wal-Mart board of directors, for a substantial fee. She was silent about their labor and health care practices.
Bill says: Hillary didn't succeed at getting health care for all Americans in 1994 but she kept working at it and helped to create the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that provides five million children with health insurance.
The true facts are: Hillary had nothing to do with creating CHIP. It was included in the budget deal between Bill Clinton and Republican Majority Leader Senator Trent Lott. I helped to negotiate the deal. The money came half from the budget deal and half from the Attorney Generals' tobacco settlement. Hillary had nothing to do with either source of funds.
Bill says: Hillary was the face of America all over the world.
The true facts are: Her visits were part of a program to get her out of town so that Bill would not appear weak by feeding stories that Hillary was running the White House. Her visits abroad were entirely touristic and symbolic, and there was no substantive diplomacy on any of them.
Bill says: Hillary was an excellent Senator who kept fighting for children's and women's issues.
The true facts are: Other than totally meaningless legislation like changing the names on courthouses and post offices, she has passed only four substantive pieces of legislation. One set up a national park in Puerto Rico. A second provided respite care for family members helping their relatives through Alzheimer's or other conditions. And two were routine bills to aid 9-11 victims and responders which were sponsored by the entire NY delegation.
Here is what bothers me more than anything else about Hillary Clinton. She has done everything possible to weaken the President and our country when it comes to the war on terror:
1. She wants to close GITMO & move the combatants to the USA where they would have access to our legal system.
2. She wants to eliminate the monitoring of suspected Al Qaeda phone calls to/from the USA.
3. She wants to grants constitutional rights to enemy combatants captured on the battlefield.5. She wants to eliminate the type of interrogation tactics used by the military & CIA where coercion might be used when questioning known terrorists even though such tactics might save American lives.
4. She wants to eliminate the monitoring of money transfers between suspected Al Qaeda cells & supporters in the USA.
I can't think of a single bill Hillary has introduced or a single comment she has made that would tend to strengthen our country in the War on Terror. But, I can think of a lot of comments she has made that weakens our country and makes it a more dangerous situation for all of us........She goes hand in hand with the ACLU on far too many issues where common sense is abandoned. She is a disaster for all Americans.
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In 1948, Carl Barks’s domestic life was a mess. His second wife Clara was drinking hard, coming apart at the seams. By his account, she was increasingly violent, tearing up his comics and throwing his original artwork out the window, threatening to rip it up. In 1950 she developed cancer and surgery left her leg amputated at the knee. Barks built her a prosthesis. Having no insurance, he paid the medical bills out of the page rate he was receiving from Western Publishing for his duck comics. The alimony he would pay to her for thirteen years after their divorce the following year too.
These comics were the best of his career. Work was an escape for him: “When the dishes would stop flying, the bottles breaking, why, I could sit down and the ideas would just flow in on me,” he recalled in 1973. And indeed, his work of c. 1948–54 ranks amongst the most consistently inspired, inventive, touching, and plain fun in the history of comics.
Fantagraphics’ inaugural volume in their complete edition of Barks’s Disney comics drops the reader in right at the onset of this creative surge, covering the years 1948–49. In addition to containing the standout story, “Lost in the Andes”, after which it is named, the book contains several of Barks’s long- and short-form masterpieces, in the latter category including such career highlights as the acerbic and wickedly funny media satire, “The Crazy Quiz Show” (1948), and the loopy psychosexual comedy “Donald’s Worst Nightmare” (1949).
“Lost in the Andes” (1949), which Barks often singled out amongst his favorites, is justly one of the most famous of his oeuvre. The author, who only left North America once (and late) in his life, was a real armchair Marco Polo; his long-form stories more often than not involved globetrotting adventures. He would invariably ground these stories in realism, drawing upon his collection of National Geographic magazines and other sources in rendering a particular locale convincingly, which accounts for a lot of their allure.
Occasionally, however, he would tweak these scenarios into the surreal, and nowhere did he do this as memorably as in “Lost in the Andes”. The premise is delightfully ludicrous: third assistant museum janitor Donald accidentally discovers that what was thought to be a pile of cubic rocks from the Andes is, in reality, eggs. Barks extrapolates wildly but eloquently from this: scientific and especially commercial interest in Donald’s find results in an expedition to the Andes in search of its source. Ever the subject of hierarchic fiat, Donald and Huey, Dewey and Louie end up heading into the mountains alone, after everyone else has lost interest after having eaten an omelet made by the kids from square eggs decades past their sell-by date.
In a forgotten valley—Plain Awful—the ducks discover a square city inhabited by square people, who speak in a Dixie drawl (adopted from an earlier visitor from “Bummin’ham, Alabama”) and subsist entirely on square eggs that grow from square rocks. The ducks discover the secret of these “rocks” and return triumphantly to civilization, but because of a crucial mistake the mission nevertheless—and naturally—ends up a big fiasco.
The manner in which Barks integrates the square society into a naturalistic mountain environment makes its absurdity especially delightful. The ‘lost civilization’ trope is unmoored from both its colonialist and romantic foundations to function on a more symbolic level. It becomes a reflection of colonialist desire, organized according to an eminently exploitable, constructive logic, populated by hicks (who have discarded their own language in favor of a homey American dialect) and promising an endless supply of eggs that are “easily stored” and “stackable like bricks.” The Lost Horizon of capitalist desire, it turns out, is not only grotesque, it is Plain Awful.
This all comes alive through Barks’ eloquent cartooning. The gum bubbles incessantly blown by Huey, Dewey, and Louie not only afford him a hilarious running gag—as a visual comedian in comics, Barks is rivaled perhaps only by E. C. Segar and André Franquin—but also a potent metaphor for the ideological foundation of the ducks’ endeavor: sweet, sticky, calorically empty, volatile and precariously inflated (Donald repeatedly threatens to “start a war” if things do not go his way, and in classic comic book-ending style ends up blowing his top quite locally).
The round, expansive nature of the bubbles however simultaneously points to the initiative and resourcefulness of the ducks, leading to their discovery of where the square eggs come from. Unsurprisingly—and in a stroke of Barksian genius—anything round turns out to be anathema to the Plain Awfultonians, forcing the kids to negotiate a delightful paradox to save the day, a paradox that one senses reflects the culture that made them.
The book simultaneously contains two other, somewhat more naturalistically founded colonialist adventures, which deepens the insight it offers of Barks as a cartoonist who eludes ideological pigeonholing. Socially conservative and clearly informed by the cultural prejudices of his time, he was at the same time blessed with a healthy skepticism and an equal-opportunity sense of the absurd.
The beautifully rendered “Race to the South Seas” (1949), for example, is a slapstick replay of Heart of Darkness, in which Donald and his nephews compete with their insufferably lucky cousin Gladstone Gander to find and save their outlandishly rich Uncle Scrooge, thought lost in the wild, only to realize that he prefers living out his colonialist fantasy to himself, cannibals worshiping his spats.Though portrayed with more than a hint of pride, the natives here are largely of loinclothed Hollywood stock. Interestingly, however—and in contrast to the broad blackface of the following longplayer, “Voodoo Hoodoo” (1949)—their bodies and faces are rendered with surprising naturalism. One suspects that the main reason for this drastic shift in approach to the depiction of natives between two stories published the same year is the reference material employed, but it nevertheless adds nuance to the story and creates an interesting frisson at its center. “Voodoo Hoodoo” is a darker piece, telling the story of Bombie the Zombie, who is sent to inflict a curse upon Scrooge for once having stolen the land of his African tribe in order to build a rubber plantation: “They wouldn’t sell, so I hired a mob of thugs and chased the tribe into the jungle,” Scrooge explains smugly (remember, this is still the early, mean Scrooge; Barks would eventually make a whole man of him). In other words, and despite the fact that they play the part of villains (with pointy teeth and bones in their noses), the natives are given a perfectly sound rationale for their actions.
The story is essentially about power: Donald travels to Africa to cure himself of the curse that was meant for his unsympathetic uncle. There he meets the voodoo priest, who in spite of this mixup decides to take out his anger on Donald, because he is powerless to avenge himself on the real culprit. And in the middle we find Bombie, the powerless dupe who ends up exploited by every other character in the story, including Donald and the kids, who end up walking away uncaringly, having gained no particular insight. Although a highly moral artist, the Barks’ world is more complicated than whatever principles he sets up to guide his imperfect characters; its absurdity is writ in humor.
These two stories exemplify the meticulous approach taken to the material in this series. For the first time since its original printing, “South Seas” is here published in a version derived from the recently discovered, original artwork, whereas all previous reprints were based on a reconstruction with Dutch master chameleon Daan Jippes cleaning up the inferior printed material available. While comparison cannot but heighten one’s estimation for Jippes’s work, Barks’s original line is just that much more nimble and clear. Beautiful. (Let’s hope a solution is also found for the stories “Santa’s Stormy Visit” (1946), “Darkest Africa” (1948) and “Donald Duck Tells About Kites” (1954), which have so far only been reprinted in feebly restored Dutch versions).
As for “Voodoo”, it is here published uncensored. To my knowledge, all other reprints, except the recent Barks collection published by Egmont in Northern Europe (2005–2008), featured a doctored version in which the racial caricatures of the African natives were toned down somewhat. Here this partial whitewashing is dispensed with, leaving us with a more historically truthful product.
Easily the most controversial issue raised by this book, however, is the new coloring of the comics, executed by Rich Tommaso. Editor Gary Groth has stated that the principle is to reproduce as closely as possible the coloring of the original comic books with changes made to the work only in case of obvious errors, as well as “when we thought we could improve it (or for the sake of consistency) and when we know Barks disliked the coloring.”
This is clearly what was done: comparison reveals that Tommaso has stuck closely to the original coloring, making only the occasional, generally minimal correction. Besides fixing the ubiquitously skewed register of the originals, the main difference is that the colors here, although just as saturated (the 100% yellows are particularly glaring), tend to be slightly lighter and more muted. A somewhat strange concession, it would seem, to contemporary fan sensibilities that wince at the bright and garish. But it is by no means a calamity.
Aficionados will question the choice to color the strips at all, rather than leaving them as Barks drew them, in black and white—as was done beautifully in the first comprehensive archival edition, Another Rainbow’s Carl Barks Library (1983–90)—while purists will question the choice to recolor instead of restoring the original printed colors—as achieved so successfully in other archival projects such as Fantagraphics’ own Krazy Kat, Popeye, and Prince Valiant series. A third objection is that the original colors were not good enough and should be jettisoned in favor of entirely new coloring.
Regarding the first reservation, it is important to keep in mind that the strips were drawn with colors in mind—colors were part of the finished work, and to eliminate them is to change the work into something else, an object of study rather than living history. Similarly, the second position favors archival authenticity over the crisper, more current quality achieved by recoloring. Such an approach, however, would risk lessening the appeal to a large part of the intended, youthful readership of these comics, and would arguably deny them a different kind of authenticity, namely the crackling visual experience that the original readership must have experienced when holding a freshly minted duck comic.
The third objection, while fair to an extent—those comics were not always equally well colored—is ultimately less helpful, in that it presupposes a new, better coloring without needing to define it. Earlier attempts at recoloring have been uniformly terrible, and while one could easily imagine them being improved upon (the bar is depressingly low), it is hard to imagine a new color job that would not be controversial. The fundamentalist choice adopted here at least has the virtue of staying true to the original comics as they were read and appreciated by hundreds of thousands of readers.
Besides, the original coloring is generally quite good, striking a fine balance between naturalism and graphic effect and pretty consistently enabling the storytelling. The coral atolls of “South Sea” come to life through a simple combination of blue, yellow, and green, evocatively distilled from nature, but if an image pops better with a pink brick wall, then the brick wall is pink. And in defiance of naturalism, backgrounds often change color between panels enlivening the storytelling in a way uniformly colored neutrality would not. Of course one need look no further than to two of Barks’s sources of inspiration, Prince Valiant and the Terry and the Pirates Sunday pages, to acknowledge that things could have been better, but taking into consideration that this coloring originated with underpaid coolies in the Western sweatshop, it is a remarkably good job.The comics are printed on fairly light uncoated stock, recalling the tactile quality of the original comics and allowing the colors to breathe. Furthermore, they are reproduced close to the original comic book size, which would seem a no-brainer but was not done in any of the earlier complete editions, all of which were oversize. Jacob Covey’s cover design, if a little busy and in places somewhat indelicately arranged, is attractively retro and does its job well. The main problem with it, and indeed the layout of the book as a whole, is no volume number is offered anywhere, while the original publication dates of the comics is only divulged in small print on the very last page. As mentioned, this first volume covers the years 1948–49, which will actually make it the seventh or eighth once the series is complete (Barks started his Disney comics career in 1942). Why this is not considered in the design is bizarre.
Worse, however, is the decision not to present the stories in chronological order, but rather to mix them up according to no immediately discernible logic beyond the evident wish to lead with the title story. There is some sense in separating out the longform adventures from the ten-pagers and one-pagers as is done here, but why not at least arrange each section according to original publication date? That the editors prefer this nebulous concoction when they have otherwise decided to package the individual volumes chronologically is strangely inconsistent. It leaves the reader with an unnecessary jumble where chronological insight into Barks development month for month would have been easily achievable—as indeed it was more or less in all earlier complete editions, and is in Fantagraphics’ own concurrent series compiling the Mickey Mouse comics of Barks’s contemporary Floyd Gottfredson. Here’s hoping the editors will reconsider this choice for the rest of the series.
The comics are bookended by various editorial material, ably helmed by distinguished Barks/Blake scholar Donald Ault, a leading authority and the most insightful analyst of the Duck Man’s life and work for more than four decades. He opens the present volume with an informative introduction to Barks that negotiates admirably the balance between facts and their interpretation (even if it takes for granted perhaps a little too readily the factuality of Barks’ own, retrospective accounts of his life), and additionally contributes a couple of brilliant short analyses of individual stories in the closing “story notes” section.
A number of other comics critics and scholars also contribute short essays to this section of varying, but generally good and sometimes excellent quality. It would be great if some of these writers were given the opportunity to write more substantial essays for future volumes. When compared to the Mickey Mouse series’ near-excess, the extra material is generally rather light here. While I would not propose going all-out museum as is done in those books, it would serve this series well if a wider range of supplements, including sketches, interviews and the like, were considered.
These criticisms notwithstanding, this is a series that finally promises Barks done right, promising a major revival of one of our greatest cartoonists.
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The Salvation Army celebrates its 130th Anniversary in 2013. The Salvation Army of the Syracuse Area began on a chilly March Afternoon in 1883 with four volunteers singing hymns by the courthouse.
By the turn of the century, The Salvation Army was well established in Syracuse, providing food and housing to those in need. The Salvation Army has since grown to provide service for many families all over Onondaga County.
For more information about the Salvation Army visit: sasyr.org
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I know its something I have written about before, but it never ceases to amaze me how historians and publishers will attempt to flog dead horses. Well, maybe thats not a great analogy, but some battles have been written about so much, without anything substantially ‘new’ being offered.
Coming from a background of academic history, my philosophy is that you only undertake to write something if you have a new vein of original material that has never been worked on before, or you can offer a dramatically new appraisal of something that has already been done. What you don’t do is just re-hash what somebody else has already done. It gets very tiring when you see yet another book about an epic battle, that promises much but delivers little.
Therefore I am astounded by just how many books get written about Arnhem and Market Garden. Most of them are very general books, telling any reader who has more than a little knowledge what they already know and offering nothing new in return. In Waterstones yesterday I picked up a copy of a new Arnhem book by a well-known military history duo, whose books I have previously enjoyed, but whose new effort on Arnhem appears to be re-inventing the wheel. It does seem to be publisher-motivated, as any military history publisher knows, books on Arnhem sell.
Out of the virtually hundreds of books written about Arnhem, only a handful of them are really indispensible, in my experience. Arnhem by Martin Middlebrook is the best overall, general introduction about the Battle. A Bridge too Far by Cornelius Ryan is, for obvious reasons, another good introduction, which reads almost like a novel, and takes a wider perspective. It never snows in September by Robert Kershaw is invaluable, as it is the only book that really tells the German side of the battle – and a history of a battle that only focuses on one side is like watching a football match but only being able to see half of the pitch. Arnhem 1944 by William Buckingham was, in my opinion, the first book to look at Arnhem through a more challenging, modern historiographical perspective. Even if you don’t agree with his conclusions, putting the cat amongs the pigeons leads for a more rigorous history in my opinion. And obviously ‘original’ texts like those by Roy Urquhart, John Frost etc are invaluable, as primary sources.
It’s so disappointing, to see big name authors with big publishing deals re-hashing what is already out there, when there are legions of historians out there who are working hard on original material, yet never get the credit that they deserve. As much as I want to sell books and pay the bills, I also want to contribute to history, and you do that by offering something new or different. I guess in that respect military history does lag behind some other disciplines, in that sometimes it is nowhere near challenging enough, and of course as a popular subject for publishing it is open to market forces more than say the history of ferret stuffing in deepest Somerset.
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Posted: June 30th, 2010 | Author: Angela Bonnell | Filed under: Metals, Steel | No Comments »
European Union regulators on Wednesday fined steel producer ArcelorMittal euro276 million ($337 million) for secret deals to fix steel prices for nearly two decades with 16 other steel makers.
ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel maker, received the largest fine based on the size of its operations and revenues — but also won a reduction for cooperating with investigators. It says it educates workers to make sure all business activity meets legal and ethical standards.
The Associated Press: EU fines steel producers for cartel.
Posted: June 29th, 2010 | Author: Rod Sherkin | Filed under: CSR in purchasing, Greening the Supply Chain | No Comments »
Fleet drivers should be rewarded for ‘green’ drivingPublished: June 29, 2010 The best way to cut back on a business’s carbon footprint is to reward eco-friendly driving with bonuses and gifts.That’s according to Andrew Yeoman, managing director of Trimble MRM Europe – one of the leading experts in telematics and in-vehicle technology.Yeoman says companies must step up their efforts to reduce their fleet’s carbon footprints and while there’s technology available to help monitor fuel consumption, it inevitably comes down to the way a vehicle is driven.
via Fleet drivers should be rewarded for ‘green’ driving.
Posted: June 28th, 2010 | Author: Rod Sherkin | Filed under: Commodities, Energy, Energy, Natural Gas, Uncategorized | No Comments »
A new report out of MIT explores the carbon-reduction challenges faced by the United States, and concludes Natural gas is best.
The scenario goes like this, according to MIT: Nuclear power, renewable energy and carbon capture and sequestration are relatively expensive next to gas. Conventional coal is no longer a major source of power generation in the United States. “Natural gas is the substantial winner in the electric sector: The substitution effect, mainly gas generation for coal generation, outweighs the demand reduction effect.”
via MIT Researchers See Natural Gas as the Choice for Lower Carbon Emissions – NYTimes.com.
Posted: June 21st, 2010 | Author: Ethan Davis | Filed under: China, Commodities | No Comments »
Interesting analysis here:
A lot of the immediate impact of China’s decision to allow its currency to float higher is being felt by commodities and commodity producers – as in, they’re going up.
Pierre Lapointe, global macro strategist at Brockhouse Cooper, noted that commodities are actually one of the reasons for China making the decision in the first place. Chinese consumer prices are above the target range, but producer prices look even worse: They have surged 7.1% over the past 12 months, mostly because of higher commodity prices.
via The Link Between China, The Yuan and Commodities — Seeking Alpha.
Posted: June 17th, 2010 | Author: Rod Sherkin | Filed under: Greening the Supply Chain | Tags: Greening the Supply Chain | No Comments »
You might find this interesting:
Against a backdrop of rising global concern about the environment and climate change, a McKinsey Quarterly survey finds that executives view climate change issues as important for their companies, seeing both opportunity and risk. The survey,1 which included respondents from a range of industries (some 40 percent of whom are evenly split between finance and manufacturing, with another 8 percent in energy, transport, or mining), finds that fully 60 percent of global executives view climate change as important to consider within their companies’ overall strategy. Further, nearly 70 percent see it as an important consideration for managing corporate reputation and brands, and over half say it’s important to account for climate change in such varied areas as product development, investment planning, and purchasing and supply management. About one-third of respondents say their companies places more emphasis on climate change than on most other global trends.
via How companies think about climate change – McKinsey Quarterly – Energy, Resources, Materials – Environment.
Posted: June 17th, 2010 | Author: Rod Sherkin | Filed under: Metals | No Comments »
Quebec’s aluminum companies said yesterday they’re well on their way to meeting their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Representatives of the major aluminum companies announced yesterday that they are on track to meet targets set in 2007, cutting the equivalent of 150,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from 2008 to 2012. They will be verified by external auditors.
via Aluminum industry getting greener.
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Main Line Health's first baby of the New Year was born at Lankenau Medical Center at 4:21 am on January 1, 2013. Baby girl, Hannah, weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces at delivery. Hannah is the first child born to Valeriya Litvak and Andre Szumylo of Philadelphia. Also pictured is Lankenau maternity nurse Diane Lacing, RN.
At Main Line Health, 700 babies on average are born every month across the health system's four acute care hospitals.
Founded in 1985, Main Line Health (MLH) is a non-profit health system serving portions of Philadelphia and its western suburbs. At its core are four of the region’s respected acute care hospitals — Lankenau Hospital, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Paoli Hospital and Riddle Hospital — as well as one of the nation’s premier facilities for rehabilitative medicine, Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital, and Mirmont Treatment Center for drug and alcohol recovery. Main Line Health, with more than 10,000 employees and 2,000 physicians, provides the area’s most advanced medicine, education and research to help our community stay well ahead on the path to life-long health.
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I am happy to announce that the Arkansas Archeological Society will be returning to the historic town of Washington, Arkansas for the 2012 Summer Training Program. I personally had a great time last year, and hope that many of you who participated in the 2011 dig had half as much fun as I had excavating the remains of this incredible historic town.
We and our gracious hosts (Historic Washington State Park and the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation, Inc.) would also like to invite all of you who did not make it to the 2011 dig to come and participate this year as we continue to “dig for history.” Washington is both picturesque and packed full of the past. In the words of Mary Kwas (whose book title, Digging for History at Old Washington, we’ve cribbed here for my own uses)
“A visit to Historic Washington…provides a fascinating glimpse into Arkansas’s past. Visitors can walk along the same unpaved streets that were laid out in the early nineteenth century, see houses that were built over 150 years ago, and enjoy the shade of large-grown catalpas, magnolias, and other ornamental trees planted by the town’s residents so long ago.” (Kwas 2009:1-2).
Moreover, Kwas points out that the vacant lots in Washington “hide clues buried in the soil that can tell us more about the lives of nineteenth-century people than what can be seen in the houses or found in history books” (Kwas 2009:2). In fact, the Arkansas Archeological Survey and the Society have been conducting archeological excavations in Washington since 1980 (Brandon and Markus 2011:4; Stewart-Abernathy 1981)—including five Arkansas Archeological Society Summer Training Programs (1981-1984 and 2011). Dr. Stewart-Abernathy, who lead most of the excavation efforts in Washington over the last thirty years, has often referred to the town as the best preserved historic site in the Old Southwest (remember that Washington was a border town until Texas was brought into the Union in 1845).
Those of you who attended the 2011 dig got a good feel for Washington and its place in history—we were given several guided tours of the historic buildings, danced period dances with Washington’s regular dance workshop and were even treated to ragtime jazz music one evening on the lawn of the 1874 Courthouse.
For those of you who have not been to Washington yet, you are in for a treat. The town was founded in 1824 along what was known as the Old Southwest Trail (once a major trading route running from St. Louis to the Red River Valley in eastern Texas). Since then, Washington has been witness to much of the historical changes that have affected the nation through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In the early and mid-nineteenth century Washington was major regional center of commerce and government that served the local “cotton frontier” as well as providing an important stop and resupply point for migrants heading into Texas and points west (Kwas 2009:3; Stewart-Abernathy 1981, 1990:8). During the Civil War, after the fall of Little Rock in 1863, Washington served as the capital of Confederate Arkansas (Stewart-Abernathy 1981). It escaped destruction during the war, and the post-war recovery was suggested by the construction of a new brick courthouse in 1874. However, postbellum Washington was soon eclipsed by a new railroad town—Hope, Arkansas—which had been constructed just a few miles to the south on the Cairo and Fulton Railway (Stewart-Abernathy 1990:9) in 1872. Through the remainder of the turn-of-the-century era, Washington struggled to keep its place as the commercial and governmental center of the region, but it continued to lose population, businesses and eventually the county seat to Hope (Stewart-Abernathy 1990:9).
However, this economic hardship was a boon in disguise for historic preservation—as many of the original antebellum buildings in Washington survive to this day. Restoration and tourism have indeed been important aspects of the town in the twentieth century—from the Daughters of the Confederacy saving the 1836 Courthouse in 1929, to all of the work conducted by the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation from 1958 through to today, early preservationists laid the foundation for what we will see in Washington during the 2012 Summer Training Program. Today the town also is home to what is now known as Historic Washington State Park (founded 1973). Jointly, the park, the city government and the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation are dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of the town and Arkansas to thousands of visitors every year. This summer we will be happy to be a couple hundred of those thousands of visitors.
What Happened at the 2011 Training Program?
As I have pointed out in earlier articles (Brandon 2011: 3; Brandon and Markus 2011:4-5), the majority of the past archeological work in Washington has been associated with the homes of prominent individuals (e.g., Simon Sanders, Abraham Block, and Grandison Royston) or public spaces (e.g., the 1836 Courthouse). Additionally, although these past excavations have sought to uncover lost landscapes (such as detached kitchens, slave quarters, and other ancillary structures), they have all taken place next to standing structures. Our work last summer was different in various ways. The 2011 summer dig focused on Block 6—the now empty lot that was once the home of the earliest merchant district in the town (1830s through the 1880s). Our remote sensing survey and excavations have shed much light on what this block might have looked like in the nineteenth century. In total, we identified at least four new buildings (maybe more) none of which can be found on existing historical maps or photographs (how is that for demonstrating the usefulness of historical archeology).
In Area A we uncovered the east wall of a large post-in-ground structure that we now believe to be a possible merchant warehouse used between the 1830s and 1870s. Nearby, we also uncovered a cistern that I originally suspected to serve the warehouse—but we found that it dates to the 1850s (but was filled in the 1920s) and most likely served an entirely different structure in the northwest corner of Block 6. In Area B (the north central portion of Block 6) the Basic Excavation seminar uncovered a large feature which is probably a cellar for a small structure that appears (along with what seems to be an as-yet-unexcavated outbuilding) on several of our geophysical technologies. Finally, along the eastern margin of Block 6 (Area C), we uncovered relatively intact limestone and brick foundations of 1830s storefronts facing Franklin Street—along the Old Southwest Trail. For a more detailed description of the preliminary interpretations of what we found in 2011 in Areas A, B, and C, be sure a check out my article in the November/December issue of Field Notes (Brandon 2011).
Plans for the 2012 Training Program
This summer we plan on both continuing excavations in some of the same areas that we worked on during the 2011 dig, and opening new excavations in new areas. We do not plan on reopening excavations in Area A in 2012. This area is where the vast majority of excavations were located during the 2011 summer dig (21 2×2 meter excavation units to be exact). I feel that the 2011 work has given us enough data to hypothesize a date range and function for the structure (and even evidence of the fire that brought about its demise). So we will be shifting our efforts this year to Area C and the new Area D.
First, the Basic Excavation seminar will continue to work on units in Area B—completing the units begun in 2011 and opening more units (perhaps locating the outbuilding hinted at in our geophysical data). This year the Basic Excavation Seminars will be led by Drs. Mary Beth Trubitt and Elizabeth Horton…Under such great leadership, I have high hopes that much will be accomplished in Area B this year.
At Area C, we will be uncovering as much of the storefront brick scatter as possible. However, instead of excavating each unit to subsoil on its own (as we did in 2011), we will be uncovering the entire shape of the brick scatter in as many units as we can. After uncovering the dimensions of the feature, we will then “punch through” the scatter in all of the units recovering the material lodged within the brick rubble separately. Following that, we can investigate the possibility that these store fronts may have had below-grade cellars (a notion suggested in the last profile of the last unit that we completed in 2011).
The other large task for the 2012 field season will be to begin work in what will call “Area D”—Block 6, lot 4, or the northwest quadrant of Block 6. This is the vicinity of the mysterious structure that may be associated with Feature A-1—the 1850s cistern. It is possible that this is either a domestic dwelling or storefront belonging to Augustus Crouch. We simply need to gather basic information about this structure. Does it, in fact, date to the 1850s? Is it domestic as initial units suggest? How long was it occupied? All of these questions and more await our excavations.
Finally, if we can manage the time and logistics, we will tackle the excavation of half of the remainder of Feature A-1 (the 1850s cistern). During the 2011 summer dig we excavated the south half of the cistern to a depth of 140 cm below the surface—as far as we were able to go safely without shoring up the excavation trench. As the end of the field season we carefully backfilled the feature in hopes of returning to open up a wider trench that can be properly stepped or supported by scaffolding. There could be as much a 7-9 more feet of fill in the cistern, so we have much more to discover.
Last year at the 2011 AAS Summer Training Program we had great archeology, sandy soils, few mosquitoes, and great facilities. We hope to continue that tradition this year when we return to the historic town of Washington for another round of summer fun. I hope to see you all in June!
Brandon, Jamie C. 2011 Preliminary Results of the 2011 AAS Summer Training Program at Historic Washington, Arkansas. Field Notes 363:3-9.
Brandon, Jamie C., and David Markus 2011 Digging for History: The Arkansas Archeological Society Training Program Returns to the Town of Washington in Southwest Arkansas. Field Notes 359:3-7.
Kwas, Mary L. 2009 Digging for History at Old Washington. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville.
Stewart-Abernathy, Leslie C. 1981 Historical Archeology at Old Washington: 1981. Field Notes 179:4-51990 The Archeology of Antebellum Washington, Arkansas. Unpublished grant proposal submitted to the National Endowment for the Humanities.
**this post was submitted as an article to Field Notes: the Newsletter of the Arkansas Archeological Society 02/28/2012**
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February 2, 2011
Between The Numbers
Better With Less: ERA Estimators
Last week Matt Swartz published an updated analysis of ERA estimators. He was kind enough to share his data so I could take a look at the accuracy of ERA estimators as a function of innings pitched. In other words, is there a difference in accuracy between the estimators given 100 historical innings pitched versus 500? (Hint: yes.)
We can measure a lot of things that happen while a pitcher is on the mound, but it takes a while for the real information to show itself. As we collect more data, the random noise is more likely it is to cancel itself out. For example, during any one season you'll see a lot of .270 BABIPs, but once we look at careers over five-season stretches, .270 BABIPs are few and far between.
Some peripherals include a lot of noise, such as BABIP, HR/FB% and LOB%. Other peripherals start with a low noise-to-information ratio, such as SO/PA, BB/PA, and GB/BIP. As such, we might guess that metrics like SIERA and xFIP, which only use the latter peripherals as inputs, will more accurately reflect true talent in the short run, while things like ERA will be more accurate in the long run, because they can pick up on the former peripherals. Short term we need to reduce noise, but long term we can maximize information.
Methodology: Using pitchers who threw at least 40 innings from 2004 through 2010, I binned them according to total innings pitched the previous three years, every 100 IP. (Note that the data set only goes back until 2003 and didn't include any seasons with fewer than 40 innings.) The first bin has 40-100 IP in years n-3 through n-1, and the last bin has 600+ IP. For each bin, I calculated the weighted metrics (ERA_adj, FIP, xFIP, SIERA, and tERA) over the preceding three seasons, and then found the RMS error compared to the following season's park-adjusted ERA, weighted by the following season's IP total. A lower number means less disagreement, which is good.
Results (full data table at end of post):
(Not that the only job of an ERA estimator is to predict future ERA. Another important use is to evaluate in-season performance. Comparison to future ERA remains a handy benchmark, however, because determining in-season true-talent ERA is an important part of projection.)
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|Back to Jan. Ed Reporter|
|NUMBER 228||THE NEWSPAPER OF EDUCATION RIGHTS||JANUARY 2005|
|Public Schools and the ACLU Play Scrooge This Christmas|
Scrooge would make the perfect public-school bureaucrat - except he'd insist on calling it a holiday pudding, playing "Winter Wonderland" as background music, and doing it all in the name of inclusiveness, sensitivity, and church-state separation.
In the latest manifestation of what Rabbi Daniel Lapin of Toward Tradition calls "secular fundamentalism," the South Orange/Mapplewood, NJ school district has banned playing the instrumental music Christmas carols.
In the early 1990s, the district prohibited the singing of Christmas carols. However, in an embarrassing oversight, bands continued to play "Silent Night" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."
Such gross insensitivity and incipient theocracy shall cease forthwith, the district's superintendent decreed. From now on, the 40-member Columbia High School brass ensemble will be restricted to uplifting numbers like "Frosty the Snow-man," according to the Newark Star-Ledger.
Furthermore, an October 29 directive provides that printed programs for holiday concerts "must avoid graphics which refer to the holidays, such as Christmas trees and dreidels." In the South Orange/Mapplewood school district, they celebrate generic "holiday." Even under torture, they won't disclose more than that.
The ADL/ACLU letter demanded that the Elbert County Charter School "take immediate steps to comply with the constitutional separation of church and state."
Even if the First Amendment required the separation of government and religion (it doesn't), no federal court has ever held that Christmas carols, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas books, or Christmas greetings constitute a violation of the Establishment Clause.
The closest the judiciary has come to a ruling which might affect public-school Christmas celebrations is the Three-Reindeer Rule, in which the Supreme Court held that that there must be a sufficient number of secular items in a Christmas display to allow religious symbols (crèches and menorahs) to pass constitutional muster.
Back in New Jersey, South Orange/Mapplewood Schools Superintendent Peter P. Horoschak explained the rationale behind the new policy: "Rather than try to respond to all the various religions and try to balance them, it's best to stay away from that and simply have a non-religious tone to them and have more of a seasonal tone."
There it is. If we can't provide equal time for every religion on earth (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, you-name-it), there can be no reference to - or musical suggestion of - the holiday that's celebrated by 96% of the American people (and many people who are not professing Christians).
When liberals can't use their convenient misinterpretation of the First Amendment (reading church-state separation into the Establishment Clause), their fallback position is multiculturalism, inclusiveness and sensitivity.
Little Omar will feel excluded by trees with tinsel. Myron may fear the onset of another Crusade if he hears the strains of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" drifting through the hallways.
But this hyper-sensitivity to religious minorities requires gross insensitivity to America's majority religion. You know, the one that begins with a "C."
Since at least 9 out of 10 taxpayers are Christians, they foot the bill for a public education system on a search-and-destroy mission against even the mildest expressions of their holidays.
America was founded by Christians and based on Judeo-Christian values. The signers of the Declaration of Independence and drafters of the Constitution were Christians - not Buddhists, or Wiccans, or Zoroastrians. Were it not for Protestant Christianity, we wouldn't have limited government, separation of powers, a Bill of Rights, or religious tolerance. In short, without Christians, the United States of America would not exist.
Even in an age when traditional religion is driven underground, our currency still says "One nation under God" - not one nation under Allah, or Shiva, or Buddha. On January 22, like all of his predecessors, George W. Bush will take the oath of office on a Bible that tells the story of the Nativity.
The brave men who fought and died for America in every war from the Revolution to Iraq, overwhelmingly were Christians. Count the number of crosses in Arlington National Cemetery (on federal property, no less). Add the Stars of David. Now compare them to the number of crescents.
Yet in a nation founded by Christians on Christian values, defended by Christians from Bunker Hill to Falluja, primarily populated by Christians, and whose public institutions are financed by Christians, most references to the holiday that celebrates the birth of the founder of Christianity have been expunged.
This isn't just a war over Jingle Bells and holly wreaths, but a war on Christianity, which in turn is a war on the Judeo-Christian ethic.
The public schools are busy inculcating other values: humanism, environmentalism, internationalism, multiculturalism, sexual anarchy, and New Age spirituality. In California schools, there's even mandatory instruction on the tenets of Islam, including I'm-a-Moslem role-playing.
Reference to America's Judeo-Christian roots would interfere with the ongoing liberal re-ordering of our society - which, ultimately, will neither be jolly nor result in peace on Earth and good will toward men.
Now, if I had my way, every public school administrator who banned Christmas carols, Christmas decorations, etc., would be boiled with their own anti-Christmas directives and buried with a rolled-up copy of the latest ACLU newsletter through their hearts.
Don Feder is a former Boston Herald writer who is now a political/communications consultant. He also maintains his own website, DonFeder.com. This column first appeared in Front Page Magazine and is reprinted with permission.
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The United States could have picked a better day to reassure the Philippines on which side of the fence they stand on as the Scarborough Shoal standoff reaches week four. The Chen Guangcheng situation in Beijing is coming to a boil, and an increasingly paranoid North Korean adds extra salt and pepper to this stew. Here’s the full report on the U.S.’s commitment to the Philippines:
With a standoff between Philippine and Chinese ships under way in a disputed corner of the South China Sea, senior leaders from the United States and the Philippines have reaffirmed their longstanding commitment to mutual defense.
“We oppose the threat or use of force by any party to advance its claim,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said after the meeting Monday in Washington. “And we will remain in close contact with our ally, the Philippines.”
Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta met with their Philippine counterparts, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin. They discussed broadening their military alliance as well as expanding economic and cultural ties.
The meeting took place as the standoff in the South China Sea entered its fourth week.
Since April 8, maritime vessels from China and the Philippines have been stationed at Scarborough Shoal, a disputed string of rock outcroppings about 125 miles west of Luzon Island in the northern Philippines. Both countries claim the area and have demanded that the other leave.
The Philippine government has accused China of “bullying” its vessels in the disputed area by making aggressive maneuvers, and lawmakers have called on the country to stand its ground.
Late last week, a Chinese general suggested that his government should be open to taking military action.
At the meeting in Washington, del Rosario said his country was seeking the help of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has been largely silent on the issue. The Philippines is also seeking U.N. mediation in the dispute, but China opposes that option.
When asked whether the United States would come to the aid of the Philippines if it were attacked at Scarborough Shoal, del Rosario responded: “They have expressed that they will honor their obligations under the mutual defense treaty.”
The treaty obligates the two nations to defend each another in the case of attack, although it is not clear how that might be applied in a disputed area.
Discussions of broader military cooperation have been under way since last year, when the administration of President Obama announced a strategic “pivot” toward the Asia-Pacific region.
In November, Clinton visited Manila and proclaimed continued U.S. military support from the deck of a warship.
Any expansion of the U.S. military presence in the Philippines, a former U.S. colony, would be controversial. The Philippine government forced the United States to close its military bases in the country in 1992, and any suggestion that the return of permanent U.S. facilities is being considered remains highly sensitive. (Source: Floyd Whaley, The New York Times)
When the U.S. dusted off their old manuals on Pacific Foreign Policy and dove back into those dangerous, churning blue waters, I didn’t believe they’d start knocking heads with China before shaking all the Afghan dust and Middle Eastern sand out of their boots.
Apparently the US government and military are able to deftly manage all of those things…
Craig was born & raised in the United States, having recently returned there after over five years in Asia. He is currently pursuing further education in the realms of East Asian Studies and Politics. Craig is an avid fan of the political, economic, and military machinations occurring throughout the Asian continent and how those turning gears affect the rest of the world. He's currently covering both North and South Korea for Asia Security Watch, enjoying shedding light on to this far-too-often ignored slice of Asia.
Craig Scanlan has 81 post(s) on Asia Security Watch
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|Uploaded:||August 9, 2010|
|Updated:||August 9, 2010|
I've captured another image in my mind that included a dragon and a warrior that flew with it. While doodling around, inspiration hit me while I listened to “the Chairman's Waltz” (a great and emotion capturing song). Countless people have been asking me to submit a tutorial on ”how to draw a dragon rider”. There are so many styles to draw these types of riders in. Instead of riding a horse, riders are flying and guiding a dragon amongst their endeavours. Besides, who wouldn't want to fly with a kickarse fire breathing creature? The original image was much more dull then what's shown. I've posted the same picture on Facebook but it lacked deep tones and value. I thought blue would emphasize on the bond that both of these fliers hold. The fire symbolizes the strength that a rider and her dragon are as one. The moon shines gracefully; embracing the power of them combined. To "draw a dragon rider", you'll need to know the basics on how to draw a dragon. I have an immensely large category focusing on dragons beneath the “fantasy” category. Most of those tutorials are fairly old and need revamping to teach you avid artists correctly. Anyways, there are lots of movies which feature dragon riders. Eragon is a great example of a noble and compacted bond between dragon and man. Another movie is “How to Train Your Dragon”; it features diverse types of dragons and how humans interpret them incorrectly. Later on, they come together and help eachother in harmony. Lastly, a great movie that's been dear with me since the beginning of my dragon obsession is “Dragon Heart”. It's probably the greatest movie that made emotions bubble at the very end. Remembering all these movies sparked an urge to draw and complete a tutorial on “how to draw a dragon rider step by step”. This tutorial should be very helpful for those that enjoy drawing these creatures. It would be a great thing if you left some feedback or critiques. Don't forget to rate and comment folks! Thanks for viewing and peace out!
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|ESCAPE THE DARKNESS
Authors Quick Note – This story explores the idea about what might have happened if Strider had come to the Shire to forewarn Bilbo Baggins about the Ring Wraiths that would soon come hunting for the One Ring. Commences a few days before Bilbo’s Birthday party and before Gandalf returns to the shire as well.
Strider had vows to protect Bilbo when the Ring Wraiths are sent by the Dark Lord but he is unaware that the legacy of who is to carry the Ring to be destroyed falls upon a totally different Baggins hobbit.
Disclaimer - I do not own any of these characters but enjoy writing them and their adventures together.
CHAPTER FOUR - TREES AND ELVES
Much to the relief of Merry and Pippin, Strider was the one to save them from the wrath of Samwise and the annoyed expressions from Gandalf and Bilbo.
“Are you sure you are alright Mr Frodo?” Sam asked making sure that the apple had not struck hard enough to leave a mark.
“Yes thank you Sam,” Frodo said, getting off the couch to testify to what he was saying. Frodo now got himself a cool drink of water.
“Has you headache eased at all Frodo lad?” Bilbo asked, noting that being struck on the head by an object may have caused the pain to lengthen in duration.
“Actually it has, but only slightly most probably due to the shortness of my nap,” Frodo said, giving at disapproving look at his two younger cousins once again.
“If I may make a suggestion for the afternoon,” Strider interjected. “I will gladly take all of the young hobbits outside if it were to only allow Bilbo and Gandalf more time to talk or prepare for tomorrow’s celebrations.”
“Would you do that Strider?” Bilbo asked, grateful that the Ranger would offer to keep them occupied and out of Bag End if only for a few hours. “Of course if Frodo or Samwise wishes to stay I am certain that they would not disturb us.”
“Thank you Strider, I would appreciate going back out doors on such a nice day outside. A little more fresh air may be greatly beneficial and welcome,” Frodo said, pleased that the man was taking such an active interest in himself and his cousins.
“I’ll be coming with you to Mr Frodo,” Sam said, more of a statement than a request. After two incidents already in the short period his master’s cousins had been there, he was not about to let Mr Frodo go off in their company without being forever watchful.
Once earlier observations about the Ranger had been sorted out and explained, Sam knew that Strider would not let any harm come to his master. Sam reminded that there may be things about his master that the Ranger might question and not know the answer to. It was his duty to see to all of Mr Frodo’s needs and he aimed to do it to be best of his ability
“We can go and play in the stream and dream up some adventures in the tall grass
Merry,” Pippin said, clearly excited about the idea. “Come on Frodo and Sam what are we all waiting for?” he said, trying to race to the doorway.
“Hold on a minute there young Took, it might be wise to take some cool water to drink and something to eat later with you if you plan to stay out for a time,” Gandalf suggested.
“Mind you don’t get taking your games too seriously Pippin or ruin your clothes with your rough play after just arriving,” Bilbo said. Previous visits by the two lads Merry and Pippin had caused Bilbo much distress upon time for them to return home when he would have to explained to their parents what had happened to their nice clothes.
Sam went about getting a small basket ready for their afternoon’s activities. There was cool fresh water to drink, apples to eat under the shade of the trees and a few biscuits as well that Bilbo offered.
“I will bring them all back safely before it is time to prepare supper,” Strider said.
The four young hobbits and Ranger now walked out Bag End and paused at the top of the hill to decide which direction to take next. It seemed that Merry and Pippin had already made up their minds for everyone and they were already halfway down the hill before Strider or Frodo got a chance to ask where they were being led.
“They seem to have an abundance of energy for ones so small,” Strider now commented as he held back his pace a little for Sam to keep up with him.
The Ranger had already offered to take the basket from Sam if it became too heavy but Sam had objected and said that it was not necessary.
“They will certainly keep us all on our toes this afternoon I suspect,” Frodo said in reply. He couldn’t help but smile at the exuberance his two younger cousins displayed almost every minute of the day.
There were only two occasions when such energy wasn’t apparent, the first being when they slept at night and the second being when it was meal time. Although the second one was not as certain either for Frodo had experienced their enjoyment of food many times, noting that both would eat until there was nothing left upon the table and then be still voicing that they were hungry.
The shaded trees were now only a short distance away. Merry and Pippin had slowed their pace some and were walking a short distance in front of the other three. Frodo found himself wanting to let go a little as well that afternoon and enjoy the sunshine for as long as possible.
Frodo now walked a little more briskly towards Merry before turning to him to say something.
“Merry I have something to tell you,” Frodo in a slightly serious tone. He glanced away briefly making sure that his path in front was clear and unobstructed.
“What is it cousin?” Merry asked not reading anything more into Frodo’s words.
“Your tagged,” Frodo said and in less than a half-beat was now racing away from his two astounded cousins towards the long grass and trees.
“Why you……………… Baggins,” Merry said as he started to run after his fleeing cousin. “You won’t get far dear Frodo,” he added.
Pippin wasn’t going to be left out of the fun and games and was soon tailing Merry before pulling out in front in his attempts to catch sight of his older cousin.
Strider and Sam couldn’t help but laugh out loud at Frodo’s tactics towards his cousins. It pleased Sam no end that his master was having such fun at present.
Sam and the Ranger didn’t need to worry about loosing the three hobbits for their
laughter soon echoed through the trees, directing the trailing two in the right direction.
They came to a wooded area with a number of very large trees, one in particular looking magnificent with the different hues in its leaves and the stark whiteness of it’s trunk.
There was a small stream gleaming a few metres away and it was here that Sam and Strider now spotted the other three. The water wasn’t very deep, merely a few inches high, but it ran like crystal along its course so that the stones on the bottom could be clearly defined.
Merry and Pippin were already involved in playful frolic, happily splashing each other with the water as they stood in the middle of the stream. The bottom of their breeches was wet from their attempts to soak each other but other than that they remained mostly dry.
Frodo on the other hand was merely content to stand on the very edges of the stream, far enough away from his two cousins that he not be showered by them. The water was so inviting and he let the coolness run over this feet.
Sam set the basket down under the larger tree and both he and the Ranger watched from beneath it’s shady canopy.
“Why does Frodo not join in with Merry and Pippin?” Strider asked, noting that it the expression on the hobbit’s face was as though he forced himself not to go any deeper into the water.
“Tis not natural for a hobbit to be fully submerged in water unless they are bathing Sir, although with Mr Frodo’s cousins you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise,” Sam answered. “That is what my Gaffer always says.”
“My master has other reasons for not wanting to go any further than the edge,” he added and turned his attention to unpacking the basket to avoid the Ranger’s curiosity further.
Strider did not press the subject further at this point in time as it became apparent that he was in danger of putting a dampener on the currently happy atmosphere by asking such a question.
A few minutes later, Merry, Pippin and Frodo all came to join their companions under the shade of the tree. The two younger hobbits were still trying to catch their breath after much activity in a short space of time.
Frodo now sat down directly under the tree, separated a little from the others, leaning his back against the strong trunk. He willed himself to relax and enjoy the peaceful surroundings, the breeze gently ruffling his hair.
“Do you have any stories that we can share Strider?” Pippin asked as he grabbed at one of the biscuits Sam had just set down on a small plate.
“Depends on which type of stories you would like to hear,” Strider said as he made himself a little more comfortable underneath the tree. He looked over at Frodo, who by now had his eyes closed but was not asleep. He would still be able to hear what was said.
“I want to hear about some of your other adventures,” Merry declared. “Action with swords and fighting.” Strider raised an eyebrow at such a strong inclination for stories with violence.
“What about you Sam, what would you prefer to hear?” Strider asked, involving him as much as the others in the conversation and decision.
“You’re asking me Sir?” Sam said with a surprised expression. To be in the company of such a man as Strider was indeed unusual to say the least but more than he could have hoped for and he had his master to thank for most of that outcome.
“Yes Sam, I am asking you,” Strider repeated, noting that Sam was one not used to having been asked what he would like or prefer.
“Beggin your pardon Sir, but if I were to have a choice, and I thank you for offering, it would be to hear about the elves that Master Bilbo has spoken to me about,” Sam said.
“If your story has elves in it Strider then you are sure to win Sam’s heart,” Frodo now said, still relaxing against the tree and still with his eyes closed.
“Oh, who wants to hear about them,” Pippin said with a little disappointment in his voice. He gave Sam an apologetic look for sounding like the idea was a poor one.
“Would it please you all to know that I know of many stories that would entail both elves and adventure?” the Ranger now offered in compromise.
“Do you know about Elves Mr Strider?” Sam asked, not knowing anybody else apart from Master Bilbo who claimed to know as much about such different folk.
”One of my closest and dearest friends is an elf Sam. He is indeed a true example of his kind. He is also of noble birth, a prince no less among his own people. And we have had many adventures together during our long friendship,” Strider said, noting the looks of awe coming from Sam about an elf that was also a prince. He knew he had one over Merry and Pippin to with his talk about adventures.
“Please tell us Strider,” Pippin asked, giving his best pouting look.
“Is it true what they say about Elves being able to sneak up behind you without hearing them?” Merry asked.
“Yes it is true Merry. Elves are very well known for their stealth and ability to walk along paths but leave little or no trace of their presence as others would do.
“Master Bilbo has learned me that they have very fair skin,” Sam said, trying to remember the descriptions he had heard in the past.
“That is true Sam, you have remembered your tuition well, for Legolas and many others of his kind have very fine features and fair complexions,” Strider said in response.
“Hey Frodo that means you might be part Elven,” Merry said, interrupting the flow of conversation for a moment. “I’ve always said that your skin is much too pale for a hobbit, even if you are part Baggins and part Brandybuck.”
“Yes Merry but Frodo couldn’t be an Elf because his hair is much too dark,”
Pippin piped in, agreeing that Frodo had some of the similarities in his face that Elven people were said to have inherited.
“Elves are said to have hair as fair as their skin, though I have never seen one to affirm this,” Pippin explained giving what little information he knew about them.
“Ah but young Peregrin, I know Elrond, Lord of the Elves. He has long hair that is encircled by a symbol of his race, the colour is described as being dark as the shadows of twilight,” Strider said, seeing that he held keen interest of such things from the younger two hobbits.
“Lady Arwen, Lord Elrond’s daughter also has also long lustrous hair that is written in books to be dark braids of hair touched by no frost,”
“The elves certainly have a pretty way of putting words together don’t they,” Sam reflected. Many a times he had heard Bilbo sing songs that the elves had written and all of them had so much poetry and meaningfulness to them unlike any other songs that Sam had ever known before.
“Does your friend have fair hair Strider?” Merry asked. “I don’t think you have told us his name yet.”
“Legolas,” Strider informed them. “His name is Legolas, a Prince of royal descent and yes he has long fair hair. Some of the strands are often plaited or braided to keep them away from his face.
“A strange sounding name I must say,” Merry commented never hearing a name for someone even remotely similar.
“If you don’t mind Merry, no matter what characteristics I may share or not share with elves, I would need to grow quite a lot taller than I am I should think. I am quite happy to call myself a plain ordinary hobbit,” Frodo said to his cousin.
Frodo was keeping up with the conversation but not involving himself much. He tried to hide a smile at the suggestion that he might have Elven bloodlines further back in his heritage.
“Enough talk about how elves should look, what of these adventures you had?” Pippin now demanded, hoping they would get to the good parts of the story soon.
“Ah, I see you are a little over zealous,” Strider remarked.
“Tell me more about this place Mirkwood you mentioned?” Merry asked. “I have been told it is very strange place to be visiting.”
“That is true Merry for those who do not know the hidden dangers,” Strider said with a note of warning in his voice. “Mirkwood is a very picturesque part of Middle-earth with many beautiful trees and plants that grow no where else.”
As the three hobbits and Ranger talked of strange lands and people, they failed to notice Frodo choosing now to depart their company. He did not want to interrupt their discussion and planned only to wander but a few metres away to stretch his legs.
“What are the hidden dangers Strider?” Pippin asked in a nervous voice.
“Spiders Pippin,” Strider said as he watched the faces of the three small hobbits grow round with fear. “They are very small and hardly look troublesome for those who would come across them. But they are poisonous and should be well left alone,” he explained.
“I do not like crawling bugs of any kind Mr Strider,” Sam now commented as his skin suddenly felt all tingling just thinking about coming into contact with such creatures.
“I dare say my master would not like them any more than I either, do you Mr Frodo?” Sam asked, expecting to hear a voice in reply. A memory came to him of a much earlier time when Frodo had found a large bug on his bedding one day. Frodo had not wanted to admit to anyone how much he hated crawling insects or bugs.
The reply did not come though and all turned their faces to where they knew Frodo to be sitting only a few minutes earlier. To their surprise, the grassy spot was now vacant.
“Mr Frodo?” Sam asked again as he got to his feet and walked around the tree in case his master had sought to lay down and doze in the dappled shade.
“Frodo?” Strider repeated after Sam, he too getting to his feet and concerned that he could see no sign of the hobbit.
“Sneaked away as quiet as the elves,” Merry said, seeing Pippin nod his head in agreement.
“I believe Frodo to be sensible enough and not wander to far away. Let us take a short walk and see if we can find him,” Strider suggested.
“We don’t even know which direction he went in though,” Merry said, pointing out what seemed obvious. They couldn’t see Frodo anywhere within viewable distance from the tree.
“But if we use what evidence is before us and our knowledge of Frodo, then we will surely pick up his trail soon enough,” Strider said, remaining positive.
“What evidence are you talking about?” Pippin asked, not being able to see any sign that Frodo might have left to show where he went.
“Come here Pippin, Merry and Sam,” Strider instructed, kneeling in front of the spot where Frodo had been sitting earlier.
“He may have moved as silently as an elf, but I am afraid that Frodo does not have the feet to match,” he said, pointing to footprints made on the ground.
As they looked beyond the footprints and into the long-grass, a definite path could be seen where blades of grass had been trodden on or lay bent over from where Frodo passed by.
Sam now lead the group as they followed the trail to the missing Frodo.
Whilst Frodo’s friends only just noticed that he wasn’t with them and beginning to worry of his whereabouts, the dark-haired hobbit was enjoying himself immensely.
After a short walk away from his companions, Frodo had come to another large tree in the wooded area. Whilst this one was not so wide spread in it’s branches, it was much taller and the leaves were of a more natural green colour.
Frodo had always liked climbing trees and sit perched amongst the higher branches, listening to the sounds that were around him. From where he was he could let the breeze blow and rustle the leaves taking him back in time to when he lived at Brandy Hall. He had often climbed trees near there as well before moving in with Bilbo.
Frodo could hear birds somewhere above him, making nests and raising families, singing and chirping as they went about their routine. He could see out into the rest of the wooded area and survey the area for a greater distance than he would have normally seen from the ground.
The branch that Frodo had chosen to sit on was a very large one that grew much longer than some further down the trunk. It was sturdy and strong and would easily accommodate his weight. The young hobbit now looked upwards and spotted another branch, and although it was thinner, it was only fractionally shorter than the other.
It was at times such at this when he completely on his own and enjoying what nature had to offer that Frodo found himself showing another side to himself rarely displayed in front of others, including Samwise. There were times when he let his heart rule his body and his actions rather than acting like a sensible hobbit ought to.
Frodo stood up on the bottom branch, placing his feet carefully on the thicker bottom branch. He now reached up with his arms at full stretch and comfortably encircled his hands around the width of the narrower branch above.
For the next few minutes, he walked back and forth a few feet in either direction along the branch and then back again towards the trunk, always keeping his grip firmly on the higher branch. He placed his feet deliberately and accurately each time as though where he walked was much narrower.
As he kept his concentration focused on where he placed his feet, Frodo was unaware of his companions approaching down on the ground.
“The trail sort of ends around here,” Merry now pointed out, not yet having looked into the trees. He and the rest of the group had been intent on following the trail on the ground before them but now they could see little sign of where Frodo had gone next.
Strider was the first to look to the branch and notice the young hobbit, grateful that he had done so before the others. He couldn’t help but fear for Frodo’s safety as he watched in silence.
“Sam, Merry, Pippin, I have found him but you need to keep quiet before I point him out to you,” the Ranger whispered.
“Why do we need to keep quiet?” Merry asked, thinking it was not something that was going to stop them from finding his missing cousin.
“Look yonder Merry but do not shout out too loudly for what you see,” Strider warned before raising his arm so they could follow with their eyes.
“Oh my lord!” Sam said with a little more volume than he or Strider would have liked. He quickly clamped his own hand over his mouth but could not hide the fear in his eyes that he now held for his master.
Merry and Pippin were both about to call out to their cousin upon seeing him perched in the tree but refrained as Strider repeated his warning of not startling Frodo.
“We have to get him down from there now!” Pippin said to the Ranger in a whisper. The fact that the youngest hobbit was whispering at all or was capable of it, demonstrated just how afraid he was that Frodo would fall.
“Frodo has always been the one to climb trees. Even back in Brandy Hall he was told about how dangerous it was. He never listened though,” Merry commented as he thought back to earlier times.
“I am certain that Legolas and Frodo would fast become friends now that I see him doing such things. Legolas too has an affinity for climbing trees though he had never fallen out of one so far as I know,” Strider stated, trying to reassure the hobbits that Frodo might not be in any direct danger.
“Mr Strider you just have to get him down before he falls,” Sam voiced again softly, his fear not having been abated in the slightest by talk of others doing the same thing.
“I agree with you Sam, but we must also be cautious in how we go about doing it. If Frodo was to startle suddenly then we would be causing more harm than good,” Strider said.
“Let us wait until he is closer to the trunk before trying to attract his attention,”
Strider suggested, noting that Frodo was only just beginning to walk back towards the tree.
Frodo stopped walking about halfway along, still holding tightly onto the branch above. His gaze turned upwards to the branch above as he now tried to use the strength in his arms to lift himself up onto the higher branch.
Sam’s heart was almost in his throat as he watched his master become even more daring than he had ever thought was possible of him. Inwardly he told himself that once Frodo was safely on the ground he would have to have a stern conversation with his master.
Although Strider was a little concerned himself about Frodo’s safety, upon watching the agile young hobbit, he couldn’t help but be amazed at his flexibility and strength for one so small. There was so much to learn about this most interesting of hobbits.
By now, Frodo had managed to complete his desire and pulled himself up onto the higher branch. He still held onto the branch with one hand as he waited to steady himself properly. It was only now that he became aware of being watched.
Without remembering the warning Strider had given moments before, Pippin had also been amazed at what Frodo had achieved. The youngest member of the group now only wanted to show how impressed he was and began clapping towards his cousin.
“No Pippin,” Merry shouted harshly, also forgetting that he too was supposed to be using a softer voice. But the damage was already done.
Frodo was startled by the clapping from his cousin and the shout from Merry. He lost his balance and attempted to grab a hold of the branch but wasn’t quick enough. His concentration had been interrupted and as he tried to find a firm foothold, all he found was air. All watching yelled in horror as they saw Frodo lose his balance.
Before anybody could prevent it, Frodo fell backwards off the branch, a smaller branch striking him across the cheek as he toppled. There was a cry for help as he tried to stop himself and then a harsh thud as he fell face first onto the ground underneath the tree.
Strider had tried in vain to get to the tree to try and cushion the fall with his own body, but he was not fast enough either. Frodo now lay on his stomach in the grass not moving.
“FRODO!” the three hobbits managed to say in unison as they all arrived a second behind the Ranger and tried to assess how badly he had been hurt.
“Are you alright little one?” Strider asked, feeling as though there should have been something more he could have done to prevent such an accident. He had promised Bilbo that he would protect him whilst in the Shire and although Frodo’s wandering away from them had been unexpected, he still laid a great deal of blame on himself.
At first there was no response and he thought the hobbit must have lost consciousness as he landed. He placed his hands on the hobbit’s slim shoulders and was about to gently turn him over to see what injuries he had sustained.
“Please be alright Mr Frodo,” Sam said, almost on the verge of tears. “You just got to be.”
“S-Sam……..” came the response, Frodo still trying to let the air back into his lungs.
Strider and the hobbits couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief at hearing even that one word escape his lips. After a few more seconds, Frodo had regained enough of his senses to try and pull himself into a sitting position.
The hobbit winced at the dull ache he felt in his chest when he did so, but he tried to put on a brave face. He looked up and saw the distressed faces of Sam and his two cousins. The Ranger knelt beside him, looking him over very carefully and waiting for him to tell him what hurt the most.
“Just got the wind knocked out of me a bit,” he said, but placed a hand on the spot on his chest that was causing discomfort and trying to rub the pain away with the palm of his hand.
“Let me take a look Frodo,” Strider now instructed as he gently undid the buttons on Frodo’s shirt and took a look underneath the hand.
“It is a little reddened at the moment and no doubt you will have discomfort for a day or so, not to mention a bruise afterwards,” Strider diagnosed.
“Frodo I am sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you like that,” Pippin said, worried that he was the most responsible for his cousin’s fall.
“I must admit I did not know you were watching but you are not to blame dear Pip,” Frodo said, placing a hand on the youngest hobbit’s shoulder and helping to divert his concerns.
“Oh Mr Frodo I was so worried about seeing you up in that tree like that,” Sam blurted out.
“What were you doing climbing that tree anyway Frodo?” Pippin asked.
“I like being around trees Pippin,” Frodo declared as he let himself be pulled to his feet. “It makes me feel good inside to be around things in nature.”
“I bet your not feeling to good inside there right now,” Merry commented ruefully. “Silly hobbit,” he added, getting a sheepish grin in return from Frodo.
“Are you sure you can walk back without too much discomfort Frodo?” the Ranger enquired. Frodo seemed to be standing on his own alright with little sign of any problems with his sense of balance at the moment.
“I will be fine,” Frodo said, a little embarrassed that he had caused his friends and companions to worry so much about him.
The group now started to head back to Bag End. All of them were lost in their own thoughts for a time. Strider was trying to come up with a plausible explanation for Gandalf and Bilbo why he hadn’t kept a sharper eye on the lad.
Sam was determined not to let his master Mr Frodo out of his sight again that afternoon and making sure that he would know if Frodo was trying to hide any pain.
The pace returning to Bag End was somewhat slower than it had been leaving, but Frodo did not voice any complaints or concerns along the way. Sam had already promised to make a nice cup of hot tea for them all once they were there. Hopefully the tea would help his master relax and allow any sore muscles to do the same.
As it happened, Gandalf was talking with Bilbo in the kitchen when the Ranger and hobbits came through the front door. Bilbo had been very busy making some of the dishes for the party whilst Gandalf was prepared just to sit back and enjoy his pipe whilst engaging his friend in intelligent conversation and memories of old times.
“What have we here, our much too noisy friends have returned Bilbo,” Gandalf said with a laugh. He noticed that Merry and Pippin were still trying to escape his piercing gaze but there was also something else.
Frodo walked in front of Strider and could not hide a few winces of pain as he shuffled his feet along the floor, looking for the words to say to his uncle Bilbo. The ranger himself had a most strange look on his face as though he might be guilty of something.
Sam was the first to inform them of the misadventures of the afternoon, “Master Bilbo, Frodo hurt himself falling out of a tree,” he announced. Frodo and Strider both inwardly groaned, hoping they would be able to relay the details a little more subtly.
“Frodo lad are you hurt somewhere?” Bilbo now asked, wiping his floured hands on a cloth and walking forward with a concerned look on his face. His mind had only yet focused on Sam’s words that the boy was hurt.
“Only a little bruising Uncle Bilbo,” Frodo said, giving his best sympathetic look with his expressive blue eyes. “It doesn’t hurt so much now,” he added, hoping to ease a little of his uncle’s worry.
“I am sorry Bilbo but I could not get to him in time to prevent his fall. I will have Frodo sit a minute while I examine the area more closely,” Strider suggested.
“Oh I know you are not at fault Strider. Falling from a tree Sam is it? Well that doesn’t surprise me one bit with our young Frodo here. He was always a little keen on trees even before he moved here to Hobbiton.” Bilbo said as he saw Sam’s nod of him getting the version of events correct.
“Frodo you go with Strider and do what he says while he takes a look at you. Sam and I will make a nice cup of tea for you and I will put some herbs in that will help with any pain,” Bilbo suggested.
Merry and Pippin decided it best to keep out of the way for a few minutes and were content to move closer to the table where Gandalf sat. Pippin couldn’t help but spot the pies that Bilbo had been preparing a little earlier. He reached out his hand and tried to sneak a piece of the dough before his hand was slapped away by Merry.
Merry gave his best disapproving look to his younger cousin, but he too was soon dipping his finger in the soft, edible dough whilst Bilbo and the others were concerned with Frodo.
Frodo obediently went with the Ranger into the sitting room where he could be more comfortable on the settee. He stretched out along it and patiently waited for Strider to look at his chest.
“I didn’t know you knew about such matters,” Frodo said as he watched the Ranger use hands of gentleness that he would not have normally associated with men. The touch was light and firm but did not hurt.
“I have learned much about the skill of healing from Lord Elrond that I spoke of earlier. I was fortunate enough to learn quickly under his careful and great knowledge,” Strider replied.
“Here is your tea Mr Frodo sir,” Sam said as he walked over to his master and placed the mug of tea on a small table beside the settee.
“I could probably lessen any discomfort for you a little more if I had the athelasplant among my possessions. I am not certain it grows in this area though,” Strider commented, looking towards the wizard for his assistance.
“No Strider you are right, that plant does not suit well in these regions,” Gandalf said blowing out a puff of smoke.
“I was just about to start to prepare supper, Samwise would you like to join us?” Bilbo asked, knowing that Frodo would appreciate his offer.
“Can he stay with all night Uncle Bilbo?” Frodo now asked with a touch of excitement in his voice. “There are already three of us and there is plenty of space,” he added. Somehow it didn’t feel right that he and his two cousins would be allowed to join in fun and games later on that evening without Sam to enjoy it too.
“Mr Frodo I am just overjoyed you would ask,” Sam commented, very grateful for his master’s invitation. He had never thought of staying overnight in Bag End unless Mr Frodo wasn’t feeling well and he had been asked to keep him company whilst he recovered.
Now he was not only being asked to stay overnight but to be included in the fun of it all. “Are you sure there is enough room, beggin your pardon as you seem to have a number of guests already Master Bilbo?”
“I think that’s a splendid idea Frodo,” Bilbo said, noting the happiness in his nephew’s eyes.
“But what will I tell my Gaffer,” Sam said, knowing that his father might frown a little on such matters where class and knowing one’s proper place were expected.
“Well Sam, now that Frodo has gone and hurt himself some and with all of these other guests as you say, I need someone with some good old fashioned hobbit sense in case he needs anything during the night,” Bilbo explained, giving Frodo a sly smile to go with his words.
Gandalf and Strider couldn’t help but try and hide grins behind their mugs of tea as they listened to the older hobbit trying to coax Sam into thinking he was doing the right thing.
“Frodo’s hand will need to be attended to and the bandages changed after his bath. I will need someone who has a sound mapping of my kitchen to help prepare the right sort of tea before bed so that he can rest through the night without being disturbed by any lingering discomfort. Merry and Pippin will be full of energy I suspect and therefore they might not be suited to such an important task,” Bilbo said, giving the stout hobbit a viable alibi that he could tell his Gaffer.
Bilbo knew about Hamfast’s views on taking care of those better than themselves. He would use such views to his advantage without stretching the truth too much. He doubted Frodo would like having himself referred to as needing as much help as he said, but he also knew his nephew would be more than willing to endure such remarks if it allowed Sam to join him and his cousins.
“I’ll go and see him Master Bilbo and tell him the same, that Mr Frodo may be needing some company as well as caring for his hurts,” Sam said, now mirroring the excitement that his master had displayed. “If all is right, I will return with a change of clothes and some of my mother’s fresh made confectionary. Made it just for Mr Frodo’s birthday she said too.”
“Um, well will come with you to support your story Sam,” Merry now offered, giving his younger cousin a quick jab with his elbow. “We will make sure that Sam gets home safely and back again.” he added.
“Oh yes, we will won’t we Merry,” Pippin said, following the lead unaware of his obvious overacting.
“Is that alright with you Mr Frodo sir?” Sam asked, a little wary as to why Frodo’s two cousins would be offering to go with him until he remembered mentioning something about his mother’s homemade sweets. At least now he knew what they were up to. Hoping to get the candy for themselves no doubt Sam told himself.
“That’s quite alright Sam, go now and you can come back and we can have supper and then I will read some stories to you all in my room,” Frodo said, by now already knowing like Sam why Merry and Pippin were insisting that they went along too.
Frodo and the three adults watched the three hobbits head back out of Bag End and walk what would be a relatively short distance to Sam’s home.
“Those too are incorrigible Bilbo,” Gandalf now said, breaking the silence in the room. He wasn’t cross with the two cousins, but was not accustomed to such brazen measures taken at any opportunity to gain for themselves.
“Ah, yes I am afraid they are at that Gandalf, but don’t fret so. Underneath Merry and Pippin are quite sensible even for their ages. They will not do wrong by Sam once they are in the presence of others. They will mind their manners and be nothing but charming to the Gamgee family I am sure.
“Your pies and delicious pastries smell wonderful Uncle Bilbo,” Frodo said as the enticing aromas wafted out to him in settee. A mixture of just the right of nutmeg and cinnamon and a few other sweet smells that were beginning to make him hungry.
“Ah supper will be ready very shortly my dear boy,” Bilbo said with a chuckle, delighted for once that his cooking had such an effect on his young nephew. “I have been very busy since you were gone all afternoon. That apple barrel down in the cellar will need replenishing by tomorrow as well as most of my other cooking ingredients.”
“You mean that giant barrel of apples,” Frodo said in astonishment. His memory took him back to a month before when the barrel had first been brought in by Sam’s Gaffer. He had questioned his Uncle back than as to why they needed such a large barrel for just the two of them.
Bilbo had replied by telling him that it didn’t hurt to have a supply of fresh food wherever possible, particularly when a certain young nephew was quite fond of apples and was often found pilfering one or two before heading outdoors for his walks.
Bilbo looked towards Frodo when he finished speaking and saw the boy’s mind ticking over with the information he had just been told. “What are you thinking about?” he asked, clearly seeing an air of mischief coming from his nephews blue eyes.
“I think you have just given me a little idea about how to get back at Merry and Pippin,” Frodo said with a grin as he went to get off the settee.
“Mr Strider, may I enquire if you have a cloak that I may borrow for but a few minutes. I promise it will not come to any harm,” Frodo enquired from the Ranger.
“I do indeed, and I have no objections but must ask what are you planning to do?” Strider said, relieved that Frodo seemed to have suffered very few ill effects from his fall.
The hobbit’s movement was uninhibited from what the ranger could see. It looked as though the bruise that would be present the following morning would be the only reminder of the mishap.
“To give two certain young cousins a taste of their own medicine,” Frodo said as he took the cloak Strider offered. He was even more pleased to see that the cloak was also hooded. Even better for his idea. It was much darker in colour than his own and a great deal longer but that would suit his purpose even more.
By now the adults had a vague notion of what Frodo planned to do. Bilbo and Gandalf did not usually see Frodo involving himself in such activities, but would not deny now that they thought a little harmless fun would entertain them all.
“Uncle could you see that Merry and Pippin come looking for me once they have returned?” Frodo said as he started heading down to the cellar.
“Yes Frodo, I will tell them,” Bilbo said as he began clearing away his cooking dishes in order to set the table for supper.
“Looks as though the young apprentice has an accomplice Bilbo,” Gandalf laughed. “You are not returning to ways when you were much younger are you?”
“I’ll see to it that you and the Ranger are blamed as much as I am Gandalf, should it become necessary,” Bilbo teased. Strider and Gandalf both chuckled at the remark.
About five minutes after Frodo went down to the cellar, Merry and Pippin returned to Bag End, followed closely by Sam carrying a small backpack with his change of clothes.
“I see your Gaffer was agreeable to you staying then Sam,” Bilbo said as he laid plates and cutlery on the table for all.
“Not at first Master Bilbo, I must admit. He wasn’t too keen on the idea at all. But I am most grateful for Mr Merry here who helped to repeat the reasons why I was needed that you did. That I needed to help look after Mr Frodo and the like. My Gaffer changed his mind then and said it was alright as long as I remember to help out where I was needed most,” Sam explained.
Merry and Pippin were both pleased with their efforts of being able to persuade Sam’s parents into letting him stay at Bag End. Like their cousin, they would be a little disappointment had he had to return home and miss out on the fun.
“Well that is most pleasing to hear Sam, I am grateful that your Gaffer has much wisdom when it comes to such things,” Bilbo said. “I am sure that Frodo will be just as happy to hear the news as well.”
It was only now that Bilbo mentioned his name that the three younger hobbits, noticed Frodo was no longer sitting on the settee. He gave a secret wink towards Gandalf and Strider before continuing his performance.
“Where is Mr Frodo?” Sam asked, thinking that maybe his master had gone to change for dinner or lay down in his room before supper.
“I sent him down to the cellar to get some ingredients for my dessert. I must say I sent him just after you left, he has been gone a few minutes longer than I would have expected of him. Merry and Pippin, would you two go down and see what’s keeping him. Sam I could use your expertise in telling me if this stew is salted enough if you didn’t mind,” Bilbo said, using a ploy to ensure that it wasn’t Sam that went looking for Frodo first.
“Sure Bilbo,” Merry said enthusiastically as he urged Pippin to follow him. He gulped a little at the darkness of the room, even from the top of the stairs and was grateful that he was not about to proceed down there alone.
Strider secretly laughed at the two hobbits paused on the stairs and noted that their fear of the dark only played further into Frodo’s plan. At first Sam had been a little irked that it was the two cousins that were asked to fetch his master, but didn’t want to upset Bilbo over helping him assess the readiness of the stew. It seemed a little odd at first, Sam knowing of Bilbo’s ability to cook up any number of delicious dishes but he didn’t question it all the same.
But upon seeing Strider’s grin and the looks exchanged between Master Bilbo and the wizard, knew that the disappearance had been staged. He waited along with the adults to see what would soon transpire.
Frodo could now hear footsteps descending down into the cellar and shrouded himself further into the folds of the Ranger’s cloak. When he had come down to the cellar, he had quickly climbed into the almost empty apple barrel. The effort had made him wince a few times from the muscles in his chest pulling, and he was glad that nobody else had been about to hear his sharp intake of breath.
Once the ache had all but disappeared again, he sat on the bottom of the wooden barrel, with his knees drawn up towards his chest. He then proceeded to drape the long cloak over his shoulders and fasten it with the fine brooch in front.
The last thing was to set the hood over his head, shielding most of his face as he went. He didn’t have a mirror to go by, but used his hands to brush some of his dark curls wards the edges of his face for even more effect.
Now all he had to do was wait until Merry and Pippin got too curious for their own good.
Frodo didn’t have to wait long. He heard the footsteps descend and then heard whispered voices as Merry and Pippin walked together across the floor, neither willing to admit that he was afraid of the dark and determined not to let go of each other in case they lost each other in the darkness.
Merry and Pippin could see the barrels of wine and various casks of other long life food piled up in each corner. They couldn’t see any sign of Frodo and were beginning to feel as if something might have happened to him.
“Who goes there?” Frodo said in a very deep voice, disguising his own and trying to put a little fear into the cousins.
“Merry did you say something?” Pippin squeaked in alarm at the voice he heard.
“Don’t be daft Pip, I didn’t say anything, it must have been you or that imagination of yours,” Merry said, trying to sound brave but knowing he was just as frightened as Pippin.
“Meriadoc and Peregrin, you disturb my slumber,” Frodo said in the same voice, scarcely able to keep from laughing at the squeaks of fright he could hear coming from his two cousins.
“We didn’t mean to disturb you sir, honest, we were just sent down here to look for our cousin Frodo,” Pippin said, not realising who he was speaking to or that he was talking out loud.
“Frodo?” came the voice as though confused about the name. “You mean that other hobbit whom I have eaten,” it continued.
“Eaten!……….” Merry said as he felt the blood drain away from his face at such a statement.
Frodo now began to rise from his seclusion in the apple barrel, looking as though he was a dark spectre rising from the floor of the cellar.
For a few seconds, Merry and Pippin could only watch in stunned horror as they watched the large, cloaked figure rise in front of them, seemingly getting larger and taller by the second.
Merry and Pippin could not see the face of the thing in front of them as it spoke to them. It’s face was shrouded by the hooded cloak. They were on the very edge of fear and clinging to each other as though they lives were truly in danger.
“And now I shall have you as well,” Frodo said in the voice, reaching out his hands towards the two hobbits. Frodo now turned his face towards his cousins, the dark curls falling across his paler skin and making it appear as though there was nothing underneath the hood but the face.
Merry and Pippin shrieked in utter horror as they gazed upon the white face that was staring intently back at them. They saw the blue eyes but their fear didn’t allow them to recognize them as anything other than piercing and cold.
Gandalf and the others had been waiting above in the kitchen, waiting to hear what Frodo was planning to do to his cousins. They didn’t need to wait long and fought to hold back their laughter in a more composed manner as they heard the hobbits shriek and run back towards the kitchen.
Merry and Pippin came into the kitchen after climbing the stairs two at a time and fell over each other’s feet on the floor in front of the others as they tried to escape what was chasing them.
Frodo had followed the two but stood just the other side of the doorway, whilst listening to Merry and Pippin tell their versions of events.
“Merry, Pippin, are you alright?” Gandalf asked, finding it hard not to see the funny side of the prank. He tried his best to keep up a sympathetic appearance which is more than could be said for Bilbo and Strider who hid their grins and giggles behind their hands for a moment. “Whatever is the matter,” he asked in a mock concerned tone.
“Oh Gandalf, Bilbo, there is a big monster down in the cellar,” Pippin wailed as he fought to pull himself to his feet.
“A monster you say! How big was this monster and what did he threaten to do?” he asked as though hanging onto their every word.
“He was small at first, we didn’t even see him until he started rising out of the floor,” Merry declared, waving his arms about and giving a grand demonstration of what they had discovered.
“He said he was going to eat us. He said he had already eaten Frodo!” Pippin said, not realising at first how ridiculous he sounded.
“Eat Frodo you say?” Gandalf said, knowing he could not hold in his mirth much longer. Thankfully he could see the still shrouded Frodo creeping up behind the two hobbits, ready to reveal himself.
Sam would have been most alarmed at such a statement, had he not been a little nervous at the sight of the moving cloak.
“Does this monster look anything like the one standing behind you?” Gandalf now asked casually.
Merry and Pippin froze at the wizard’s words and as soon as they saw the cloak, ran behind Strider who was still seated. “Don’t let him get us Strider?” Merry cried out.
“Meriadoc and Peregrin, note what I am about to say well,” Frodo said in his deep voice.
The two hobbits were telling themselves not to look at the figure any more, but the more they resisted, the more they found themselves wanting to look. Just when they thought they would scream again in fear, the figure lifted one of his cloaked arms towards his hood, throwing it back suddenly.
“BOO!” Frodo said in his own voice, his blue eyes now shining with sheer delight at having given his two cousins such a great scare.
Strider and Bilbo could not believe such a voice came from the normally, mild mannered hobbit. The two of them now laughed and laughed at the priceless looks on the faces of Merry and Pippin. By now Sam had relaxed upon seeing the figure was only Frodo and he too laughed heartily along with the others.
Frodo could scarcely stop himself from laughing as he looked at the stunned looks on Merry and Pippin’s faces. The more he looked at them and remembered their shrieks and whispers down in the cellar, the harder they laughed.
By now Merry and Pippin knew that they were the butt of the joke. They could see all laughing until they were ready to drop. Frodo was laughing so hard his eyes were watering.
Merry expression was the first to look indignant at what they had just been put through. “I suppose you think that is very funny Frodo Baggins,” Merry asked in a demanding voice.
Pippin now wore a similar look as Merry that he had not figured out the whole thing was a gag to catch them out. It seemed that everybody had been in on it except him and Merry.
“Actually I do,” Frodo said, straightening himself up for a second and removing the cloak from around his shoulders. “Thank you Strider, that was most enjoyable. Best fun I have had in a very long time,” he said still smiling broadly.
“You should have seen your faces,” Frodo said to the cousins. “I’m coming to get you” he uttered in the deep voice again and then collapsed again into laughter at the reaction he had invoked.
“You sure got them good Mr Frodo sir,” Sam said, now as the laughter began to slow a little. “I bet they won’t be pulling any more pranks on you in a while,” he noted with satisfaction. He would never have thought up something as clever as that to get back at Merry and Pippin for the ink and tea.
“It was a pretty good trick,” Pippin now admitted, seeing it from Frodo’s point of view. If he hadn’t been so scared by it, he would have said it was most inventive. He would have to remember something like that for himself for use in future.
“Never let it be said that a Baggins was out done by a Brandybuck and a Took,” Frodo now said proudly.
“That’s two Bagginses, Frodo my boy,” Bilbo pointed out as he sat down at the table with the others. “We Bagginses have to stick together you know,” he added.
Merry and Pippin could only give Bilbo their icy looks as they did recall the old hobbit being part of the whole plan for it was he that had sent them down to the cellar in the first place. He had known all along what was doing to happen.
“I am glad that I should not be on the receiving end of such revenge from a Baggins,” Strider commented. “I shall have to be forever vigilant around all of you hobbits.”
“I guess we are about even at the moment Frodo,” Merry said seeing little chance to get back at his cousin until he remembered the birthday celebration the next day. A smile crept over his face as he started thinking.
For the next hour, chatter around the table soon turned to eating and Frodo would steal looks towards his two cousins on a few occasions and laugh. Looking around the table as he did now, with so many friends and family at the one gathering, Frodo couldn’t help but think that the birthday celebrations for him and Uncle Bilbo tomorrow should be the best ever.
As promised, about 9.00pm that night, Frodo had taken the other young hobbits into his room to read to them from some of his books. Sam had offered to help clean up the dishes, but was dragged away by Frodo, telling him that this was one night where he was to do nothing but enjoy himself.
Gandalf and the other two adults spoke around the sitting room for a time, smoking and sipping at piping hot cups of tea and reliving old memories. Gandalf had declared that he should retire so that he could help with the many preparations that would be in order the following day.
Bilbo and Strider could hear whispered voices coming from Frodo’s room as they passed, and couldn’t resist looking in to see what was going on. As they opened the door and looked in, their eyes smiled with a most heart-warming scene before them.
Frodo had been reading to the younger hobbits as he promised, but at some stage, Merry must have declared it his turn to read to them all. Frodo was laying on one side of the bed, whilst Pippin and Sam were gathered beside Merry turned slightly away from Frodo, apparently unaware of anything else in the room but the story they were hearing.
“Did you young hobbits wear poor Frodo out?” Bilbo asked as he walked into the room, followed by the Ranger.
Sam and the others now turned around to see what Bilbo was talking about and were surprised to see the dark-haired hobbit, sleeping peacefully on his back, his face relaxed and trouble free.
Sam felt his cheeks redden slightly that he had not recognized any signs that he master was feeling weary. When Merry had begun to read about a sword fight from long ago, he had been listening to closely to notice much at all.
“I am sorry Master Bilbo, I did not see how tired he was,” Sam offered in apology.
“It’s alright Sam,” Bilbo said gently as he arranged the blanket over Frodo’s slumbering form. “I suspect you all, but Frodo most of all has had much more activity today than he is used to. I hope he gets enough rest tonight for tomorrow. No doubt his birthday party will be just as much fun.”
“His hand and chest must not be bothering him judging by the way he sleeps so peacefully,” Strider commented, not wanting to dwell on how his heart had skipped a beat a remembering the fall from the tree.
“Sam I will leave you in here with him tonight for I know you will not awaken him with chatter or moving about before he is ready to do so. Merry and Pippin, if you come along with me I will see you settled in the spare bedroom down the hall,” Bilbo instructed.
“Good Night Master Bilbo and Mr Strider sir, I will not disturb him before morning,” Sam promised and began settling himself on the other side of his friend as quietly and carefully as he could.
Merry and Pippin bid Sam goodnight and followed Strider out of Frodo’s room.
“Good night my dear boy,” Bilbo said and gently kissed the sleeping hobbit on his forehead, brushing the curls from his face with an affectionate stroke of his hand.
TO BE CONTINUED …………..
These chapters are turning out have a lot more content than I originally planned – not a bad thing – just means that there are still a few preparations to be done for the party.
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Create/July 2011/ Turmeric Mask
The benefits of turmeric are plenty and to be honest, unless you have an Indian background such as myself, it’s difficult to know its properties and its uses of the top of your head.Turmeric is used in a multitude of Indian dishes ranging from marinating meats, adding colour to rice and also as a flavouring in curries and sauteed vegetables. It’s medicinal properties are widely studied and have been known to help as an anti-inflammatory for skin ailments such as varicella zoster (chicken pox/shingles) and acne.
As a young child, I’ve come to know this spice not only in traditional dishes my mother has made, but also as an Ayurvedic cleansing ritual known as an Indian Malish. This technique has been used for thousands of years to not only release tension in areas which we over-work, but also to stimulate blood circulation and add a healthy glow back to the skin. My mother would bathe me in sesame oil and turmeric and would gently scrub me until all the remnants of the turmeric and oil were thoroughly rinsed.
Once I began to give these facial massages to close friends and my partner, it became a requested ritual. I can’t help but share a few of these mask recipes for my readers, it’s easy and affordable, but more importantly, it boosts blood flow, acts as a antibacterial barrier and helps to keep you skin looking amazing.
Below is a guide to help you make one version of this mask yourself, and with a gentle cleanser to rinse the mask off you won’t have to worry about it staining your skin. This mask is typically for those who are prone to an oily sheen or have mild acne. If you have dry skin I have a fabulous alternative for you coming up soon!
1 Tsp of turmeric & 2 Tbsp of milk
Stir the mixture until it forms a runny paste consistency
The paste should be thick enough so you can write with it.
Apply a generous amount of this mask onto your face, leave for 5-10 minutes and wash with luke warm water and a gentle cleanser of your choice. Do not scrub this off as this will aggravate your skin and simply over stimulate your oil glands and cause it to create more oil.
This is easily transferrable to use on your entire body, just wash off with your body scrub/wash of your choice. I hope this works for you, I know it does for myself and others. Just remember that this is a mask to help calm any areas of redness and soothe over worked, tired, oily skin. This is an ancient remedy, but not a cure for acne.
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SAN DIMAS, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say three women riding on a personal watercraft were killed when they crashed into a motorboat at a Southern California reservoir.
Los Angeles County fire Inspector Matt Levesque (luh-VECK') said the Saturday collision at Puddingstone Lake also left three men from the boat with serious injuries and a woman with minor injuries. They are all expec
Now he's got more than 14,500 followers on Twitter from around the country. That's more than a "Today" show co-host and nearly as many as the U.S. secretary of education.
His goal? To tap into the oceans of educators everywhere using social networking to share tips, ask advice and promote what they're doing. "I'm opening up what I'm thinking as a principal to the global society," he says.
While some skeptics may see a stream of 140-character updates as a time-consuming distraction, Sheninger ticks off the benefits for his school of roughly 700 students. One contact he made through his Twitter life spurred a company to donate cameras that scan documents. Another invited him to bring students to a United Nations summit on women in education. And another led to a teacher's free trip to Israel, with a later visit to the high school by Israeli educators who talked to his teens about the Holocaust.
"It's not about how many followers you have," said Sheninger, 36. "It's about the substance of those you follow."
The former science teacher's zeal for the savvy use of new technologies was on full display Saturday in a conference called "Edscape," expected to draw more than 300 educators from the tri-state area to New Milford High School. Sheninger made a pitch on Twitter for presenters, and ended up with workshops on digital storytelling, podcasting, productive use of iPads and SMART Boards, plus math in the "Jetsons' Age," a reference to the space-age cartoon family.
The conference aimed to show them how to make the most of modern tools so they're not just cool gadgets. As Sheninger cautions, "When you don't have a clear lesson plan, the technology is fluff."
While many schools ban cellphones during class time, Sheninger embraces them as "mobile learning devices" and pushes a BYOD — for bring your own device — agenda. He spread word among his staff about polleverywhere.com, a free website that lets students use their phones to answer questions by text message, so a teacher can instantly see how many students understand a concept. (It's a bit like voting for American Idol.) Most kids have unlimited text plans so it doesn't cost extra, he said, and any students who don't have phones are paired with those who do.
"Take out your cellphones, turn to Page 73, and text in your answers," geometry teacher Jeff Fiscina told his 10th-graders one morning this week during a class on complementary angles. After a bar graph of their responses flashed on a SMART Board screen, he smiled and announced, "100 percent got it!"
Some teachers acknowledged sheepishly they don't follow their boss on Twitter, but Fiscina said he did. "Our ability to share resources has grown incredibly with social networking," he said. In the old days, Fiscina added, collaboration meant "talking to the teacher across the hall, but now you can talk to someone in California."
Many of Sheninger's tweets (using the handle (at)NMHS_Principal) are links to articles, inspiring quotes, answers to followers' questions or tips about new apps. He said he never tweets when observing a teacher's class; his missives often come after school or in the early morning (a father of two, he gets up at 4:45 a.m. to commute from Staten Island).
Despite his fascination with social networking, it's still out of bounds for students on campus. The school blocks access to Facebook and Formspring, which has been widely castigated for inflaming bullying. Only teachers have access to YouTube, which some use to download short documentaries.
Sheninger said he hasn't heard complaints about his prolific tweeting since one goof early on. Back in 2009, when he first started using Twitter to broadcast news on school sports scores, report card schedules and the like, he taught parents how to make tweets appear instantly as text messages on their cellphones. One parent asked if he could please stop making his phone buzz on Saturday mornings with alerts about "collaborative learning and differentiated instruction."
After that, Sheninger set up a separate account for news for his local audience ((at)NewMilfordHS), which has about 300 followers.
School board member David Foo, a 58-year-old engineer, at first thought the notion of 140-character bursts was odd, but he has come to see its value. He's been tickled by the ways kids find information differently these days — his son, for example, Googled "how to tie a necktie" instead of simply asking him. "I'm an old-timer but it's important to keep an open mind," Foo said.
Is there any evidence yet that all this social networking and new technology have actually increased student learning?
"The education community as a whole is waiting for that big study to come out," Sheninger answered. Even if student achievement rises in coming years, he noted, it won't be clear whether that's due to high-tech advances or other factors, such as improvements in teacher quality or more stringent standards.
There's one point Sheninger feels certain about, however: To compete in the future, kids will have to adapt quickly to rapid changes in the world around them. "We're trying to unleash student creativity by allowing them to use the tools of the 21st century," he said. "How do you prepare students for jobs that don't even exist yet?"
Information from: The Record, http://www.northjersey.com
ted to survive.
Authorities say the women, ages 25, 35, and 60, were all riding on the same Sea-Doo watercraft when they crashed. Paramedics declared all three dead at the scene.
Sheriff's homicide detectives and county lifeguards are investigating the crash, but have not said what may have caused it.
Puddingstone is a popular recreational reservoir inside Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park, some 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
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Picture this scene: At a stirring Rose Garden ceremony, President Barack Obama signs health-care reform into law, with members of Congress beaming behind him. They erupt into cheers when he puts down his pen -- hands are shaken vigorously, and even a few hugs are exchanged. Afterward, everyone speaks of how they've honored Ted Kennedy and his lifelong crusade to get every American health coverage. Over the next few days, the news media note many times that Obama accomplished what every Democratic president since Harry Truman tried and failed to do. All agree that this will almost certainly be the defining domestic-policy achievement of his presidency. Republicans grumble but know they've been beaten.
Americans watching at home are pleased and hopeful. Terrific, they say -- I can't wait for my newfound health security! And when do they get it? A little over three years from now. Because in all the versions of reform now moving through Congress, most of the provisions don't take effect until 2013. Although you've probably heard this date, it hasn't been the topic of much discussion outside the wonkiest corners of the American health-policy debate. But we should keep it in mind when we're wondering how the public will respond to reform.
As this timeline of the implementation of the House bill shows, of the high-profile provisions, only one -- the outlawing of the vile practice of "rescission," in which your insurance company cancels your plan when it learns you've been diagnosed with a serious illness -- will go into effect right away. While there are many other technical changes, the most significant features of reform -- the establishment of the insurance exchanges, the ending of denials for pre-existing conditions, and the enforcement of an individual mandate to buy insurance, along with subsidies for those with low and middle incomes -- don't happen until 2013. This is true of the Senate bills as well and will almost certainly be true of whatever bill emerges from the conference committee that will reconcile the bills that pass each house.
Why? While things like setting up exchanges and implementing an individual mandate could take some time, the real reason is money -- namely, that by delaying the implementation of the reforms for a few years, the total cost of the bill becomes much lower. That total, which will likely end up somewhere between the $774 billion plan put forth by Sen. Max Baucus and the $1.04 trillion plan passed through three House committees, is calculated by the Congressional Budget Office for a 10-year window from the point the bill is passed. Speed up implementation by an extra year, and you could add $100 billion to the cost. And since President Obama has pledged that the bill will be entirely paid for by spending cuts and new taxes, that would mean coming up with more spending cuts or more taxes, something few in Congress have a taste for.
So when reform passes, our deeply pathological health-care system will remain nearly as pathological for three full years. That's three years of people being denied care because of pre-existing conditions, three years of climbing premiums, three years of "job lock," three years of families going bankrupt when they get sick and discover all the exclusions and limits of their insurance, and three years in which millions of Americans (46.3 million at last count) go without any insurance at all. A recent study from Harvard Medical School found that 45,000 Americans die every year because of lack of health coverage, which means 135,000 will die while they wait for reform to take effect.
In his recent speech to Congress, President Obama introduced the idea of creating a catastrophic health plan right away for those who can't get insurance. If it ends up in the final bill (and depending on its details), those who can't get insurance elsewhere might get some relief. But most people will go through a midterm congressional election and the next presidential election, before they experience any of the benefits (or costs) of reform.
And you can bet that Republicans won't stop decrying health-care reform once it has passed. Once people have actually begun joining health exchanges (or even, we should be so lucky, the public option), it will become much harder for politicians to give them demagogic warnings about the coming descent into a socialist nightmare. But between now and 2013, they can still make those apocalyptic claims. If people are still uncertain about what reform means to them (and they will be), Republicans can run on repealing the supposedly awful plan no one has yet experienced.
Will it work? Some are already raising the possibility that Republicans could win back the House next year. That's possible but unlikely. But when President Obama's re-election campaign says, "We gave you health reform!", don't be surprised if his opponent replies, "You gave us death panels and a government takeover!" Because the plan won't have taken effect, many voters won't know who's right.
Nevertheless, the only thing worse than waiting for reform is knowing that reform died. Conservative Democrats in the House seem to have come to an understanding that what truly endangers them is not the passage of a health-care bill that some of their constituents might find too liberal but the failure to pass a health-care bill at all. This may explain why they've softened their opposition to the public option and have quieted their threats to kill the bill if it is insufficiently stingy toward the middle class.
If reform does succeed, analysts will write books about the Obama administration's extraordinarily intricate and dexterous political strategy. But Democrats should prepare themselves for the likelihood that people will not in fact be turning cartwheels of joy in the streets the moment the bill passes. There is too much uncertainty, too much complexity, and too much of a delay before the changes take effect for that to happen. In the long run, what matters is whether the final bill actually creates universal coverage and the security people need (and not incidentally, whether it allows for progressive tweaks in the future). But the long run doesn't really start for three years, which in politics is a long time indeed.
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January 2, 2013 | 4
I have to confess that I am an occasional consumer of 5-Hour Energy. I started trying it out after a friend at work reported “benefits”. I consume it quite rarely, maybe once a month or so, usually if I have had a heavy lunch and am trying to stay alert or if I am planning to go to the gym and am not quite feeling up to it.
As far as the actual effect is concerned, I would describe it as mild but noticeable, a level of alertness that while not significant, stands out from the noise. In fact it’s as noticeable…as a cup of coffee. And that seems to be the conclusion many sources, including the New York Times, are drawing about a variety of energy drinks including 5-Hour Energy, Monster and Red Bull. Energy drinks have been in the news recently, especially in connection with about 20 or so fatalities connected to the whole spectrum of the various brands. The verdict on these fatalities is still out there since it’s very difficult to establish a causal connection in such cases, but what’s an unquestionable fact is that these drinks are now available in every convenience store in the country and countless bottles are consumed every year. They are the new Gatorade. Anything of that magnitude needs to be rigorously probed and scrutinized since it has the potential to affect the well-being of millions.
An article in the New York Times today investigates whether there are any more benefits to energy drinks than those provided by a regular cup of coffee. It cites the opinion of various experts who seem to agree that the principal – and in their opinion the only important – ingredient in these concoctions is caffeine. According to these experts, basically what you are paying for is an overpriced bottle of caffeine, more expensive than a NoDoz pill and even a Starbucks coffee.
The other ingredients mainly seem to serve the purpose of window dressing and advertising. For instance there’s taurine, an amino acid with an unusual structure sporting a sulfonic acid group. Taurine is generally not regarded as an essential amino acid, although studies have implicated it in a variety of physiological functions. Taurine can be synthesized in the body from the amino acids cysteine and methionine. More importantly, it is present in copious amounts in meat which means that most meat-eaters will get enough of it from their diet. The taurine in energy drinks thus seems to be superfluous.
Another common ingredient in the drinks is good old vitamin B12. Vitamin B12 is also a major staple of animal derived foods and is also part of certain man-made foods like fortified breakfast cereal. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for B12 is about 2.4 micrograms for an adult male or female. As a comparison, you can get 6 micrograms from a serving of breakfast cereal specially fortified with B12 or 1.2 micrograms from a cup of low-fat milk. Thus, two cups of milk should ideally provide you with your B12 RDA. Energy drinks contain upto 200 micrograms of the vitamin, or more than 8000% the RDA. It’s worth noting that B12 is a water-soluble vitamin, so most excess amounts are simply going to be excreted; even the spokesperson for 5-Hour Energy acknowledges this. The same goes for the other vitamin B in the brands, B6.
Other ingredients are of a similar type; common dietary substances whose amounts vastly exceed their RDAs. For instance there’s glucuronolactone which is a precursor for vitamin C synthesis. Vitamin C itself is of course another substance whose excesses have been famously questioned for more than half a decade, most notably after Linus Pauling prescribed it as a panacea. The same goes for the other additives in energy drinks. At best their functions in the body are under investigation, and the benefits of excesses are definitely up in the air. The studies done on the value of large quantities of these substances suffer from a variety of limitations; many of them are done on rats for instance, and anyone who is involved in drug development knows how different rats and humans can be as test subjects. Thus it is completely fair to question if these drinks provide anything other than a concentrated dose of caffeine.
However there is one possible mechanism that I can think of which could possibly make the caffeine in these drinks somewhat different from that in other formulations. The reason the Times report made me ponder is because it led me back to the original reason why, after trying out 5-Hour Energy once, I started occasionally sampling it. The reason was that black coffee and NoDoz both gave me headaches; for some reason 5-Hour Energy did not. Now doctors have known for centuries that the presence of certain foods in the stomach can affect the way drugs and other organic molecules are absorbed and metabolized. Recent studies lead credence to this observation; for instance drinking grapefruit juice can significantly enhance the blood levels of certain widely prescribed drugs like statins. What basically happens is that the other ingredients block key proteins in your digestive system that would usually metabolize the drug of interest; this leads to less of the drug being broken down and more of it being absorbed intact. In case of 5-Hour Energy, I wonder if the other ingredients, even while providing no benefits of their own, somehow enhance the absorption and effects of the caffeine.
This is just a wild hypothesis. My experience of 5-Hour Energy giving me a caffeine buzz without a headache is as anecdotal as the hundreds of anecdotal comments that usually erupt when articles on energy drinks are published. In fact I would be the first to admit that even the slight enhancement I feel from 5-Hour Energy is entirely a placebo effect. However my hypothesis is a testable hypothesis, the testing of which might illuminate other properties of energy drinks. The truth is that without controlled experiments which test the effects of the ingredients individually and then in combination using the exact same formulation (which unfortunately is proprietary) it will be hard to tease out any potential effects of these extra ingredients. They could possibly have the kind of caffeine-enhancing property that I mentioned, although this is only a conjecture. But based on what we know about human physiology and dietary allowances, it seems much more likely for now that these drinks are little more than caffeine shots packaged in a fancy wrapper. The burden of proof still lies with the manufacturers.
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Internet Marketing Ad Campaigns
Internet is a large void of immense possibilities. The major domination is of search through which users find what they are seeking. People search online for information, products and utilities. Billions of searches are made every day by Internet users.
Google is the most prolific search provider with highly advance ranking and indexing system. It is one search company that offers highly relevant results hence its popularity. The search engines use an indexing and retrieval process. This enables them to produce matching results on SERPs.
The system uses algorithms to index website as per topic and retrieve results corresponding to the users query. SERPS are the interactive result pages that are visited by users through the web browsers. The results appearing on the SERPS are called organic search. While those appearing on the right side of the page are non organic in nature are called Ads.
Google Ads are most prominent and placed on the right side bar. These are paid Ads and differ from organic results. The effectiveness of your Ad campaign depends upon how fine tuned your program is. Though configuring Ads is not difficult you do need some experience.
If effective keywords are used and good geo targeting is in place your campaign would be more successful. The payment is on PPC ( Pay Per Click) basis meaning you pay when the Ad is clicked. Another options require you to pay on per thousand ad basis. The higher the Ad is placed on side bar more it is going to cost. You have to define your Ad budget when you configure the account.
Your Ads should have effective title and description for getting higher clicks. Google AdWords is used as alternative to organic ranking or part of Internet Marketing. It is good to have a trial run in order to assess your success potential before launching large scale campaigns.
This types of advertisements are also provided by other search engines like Yahoo and Bing. You can also places Ads of Social Networking websites the one’s which are popular. Some of the popular social sites are Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn which have a large database of members and users.
All such Ad campaigns are paid and their effectiveness depends upon many factors. The Ads appear on relevant search in order to be very effective. These are therefore much in demand as relevancy rules the Net.
When configuring the Ads it is better to employ a search engine marketing service with experience. This can be a money saving strategy and delivers more for your campaigns.
Uday is a professional SEO and writes articles online. He writes on Seo blogs for the benefit of search engine optimization entrants. Uday also writes on top SEO services in India which offer Internet Marketing consultancy. He writes on various Internet based topics.
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LIVERPOOL – John Lennon’s toilet goes on sale today. Fans are flush with porcelain dreams.
John Lennon’s toilet will be among the items to be auctioned at a sale of Beatles memorabilia next weekend in Liverpool.
The toilet was from Lennon’s house in Tittenhurst Park, Lennon’s Berkshire home between 1969 and 1972. It was affectionately called “Yellow Submarine” by Ringo Starr who used the toilet frequently when he had a bad bout of Irritable Bowl Syndrome in 1971.
Lennon told a builder, John Hancock (who signed the bowl), to keep the toilet and “use it as a plant pot” after he had installed a new one. It was stored in a shed at Hancock’s home for 40 years until he died recently.
The toilet is estimated to go for $2,000 to $4,000 dollars. But it may go for a lot more – especially because Tom Turley, 49 of Phoenix, has expressed interest. Turley owns toilet bowls that used to belong to Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Soupy Sales (Turley was a big fan). Turley has also tried to get his hands on a throne that Pope John Paul II used to sit on when he needed to go numero due, but as he said, “The Vatican won’t give it up.”
Turley told WWN, “If I could get my hands on that Lennon bowl, man, my life would be complete. Imagine. I’d be in heaven.”
The auction organizer, Stephen Bailey, manager of the Beatles Shop in Liverpool, who is selling the famous bowl said, “I can’t believe I’m touching something that touched John Lennon’s arse. I can almost hear him singing, “I am a Walrus.” Bailey confirmed that Lennon came up part of the lyric for that song while on the toilet. “Goo, goo, g’joob was something John used to sing to himself while on the toilet. It was a way for him to relax. I do it all the time myself now.”
A small harmonica that belonged to Lennon’s son, Julian, is also up for auction. It was also given to Hancock by Lennon, who asked him to take it home as “Julian was driving him mad with it”. Isn’t that odd how Lennon just gave his things to Hancock for safe keeping in a shed behind his house? Hmmm….
Hearing about the toilet auction, Paul McCartney immediately jumped on a private jet heading to Liverpool to out-bid anyone – including Turley. “I want that bowl. John was sitting on that when we came up with the lyrics for “It’s A Hard Days Night” and “Long and Winding Road” was inspired by that very bowl.
Yoko is also flying to Liverpool. Even though her and John considered having a “bowl-in for peace” on that very toilet before they had their infamous “bed-in for peace,” she doesn’t want the bowl. But she doesn’t want Paul to have the bowl either. “Paul always gets his way. Not this time!” There’s going be a Bowl War in Liverpool.
WWN is betting that Turley wins the auction.
Here’s the bed-in that happened after the bowl-in was canceled:
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The Best Is Yet to Come
- Thursday, September 18, 2008
The expectation of summer was always an exciting time for me as a child. My dad would get tickets to a baseball game and I would stare at those colored pieces of paper for weeks thinking about the game, dreaming of catching a foul ball or meeting one of my heroes.
The anticipation was almost as good as the game itself because I could envision any outcome or situation that I wanted. The sky was the limit! Even as the final innings of the game approached, there was always another game I could dream about—this gave me a hope for the future and something I could hold onto.
Today, many of us have lost a childlike eagerness for the future and we find it difficult to live free of feelings of trepidation. Economic instability, housing foreclosures, rising gas prices, national security issues, unemployment, aging parents and (for some) singleness leads us to believe our best days are over. As a result, we tend to approach each day worried and anxious. The Bible addresses these thoughts that we battle.
Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself (Matthew 6:34).
Nearly every occurrence of the word worry in the (NIV) Bible is preceded by do not. Throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, Scripture tells us do not worry. It is a command for us to follow. Why? Worrying doesn’t help, it causes further personal problems, and it shows a lack of trust in God.
Worrying Doesn’t Help
Jesus asks, ‘Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?’ (Matthew 6:27).
Jesus posed this question during his Sermon on the Mount, and those teachings from the first century apply to us today. He gives us instruction on how to face anger, adultery, divorce, revenge, enemies, prayer, money and possessions—not by worrying, but by shining your light, trusting the Lord, repenting of your sins, reconciling with or confronting those who sinned against you (or who you’ve sinned against), loving and giving to your neighbor, coming clean before God, praying, and carrying out the vows you have made to the Lord. Nowhere does he call us to worry.
I have found that worrying about my work, finances, relationships, and future solves nothing! I fail to see or find any solution by focusing on what might happen instead of focusing on the problems themselves.
Worrying Cause Further Personal Problems
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.
— Corrie Ten Boom
I only thought that worrying could cause gray hair; however, I have learned there is an actual medical condition for worrying as well.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – excessive and unreasonable worry over events or activities, such as work, school or health; inability to control or stop worrying; causes fatigue, tension headaches, sleep troubles or muscle aches.
Worrying is the basis of all sorts of medical conditions from stress to depression, and the medical community is still discovering further ramifications of worrying and living with anxiety. At the very least, worrying causes physical and emotional discomfort. At the very worst, it breaks our fellowship with God. Worry not only adds to the feeling of being overwhelmed where it weakens you emotionally, but it can also debilitate our spirit and weakens our confidence in God. However, the Bible gives us encouragement to walk through our struggles.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. Through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).
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1969 – Nothings Gonna Change My World
In 1969 the Art Collective known as The Beatles imploded; more precisely the “Musical Instrument known as The Beatles”, as Brian Eno would characterise them, no longer had Brian Epstein to care of the business. In 1968 they really had taken care of the music and taken care of business, after a fashion. The Beatles had triumphed musically, but it hadn’t really been recognised; Lennon, left fuming at the end of 1968, shared his pain in a lengthy interview to a student, recently published in New Statesman. They had taken care of Business by launching Apple Corps and Apple Records, but they couldn’t hang on to the money they were making. Despite making the music/business equation work in 1968 it was to tear them apart during 1969. Not least because their work as creators of, and commentators on, the sixties was done. They didn’t fully understand how they had achieved that, and we didn’t get it at the time either.
A few years ago Mojo magazine devoted a whole issue to 1969, pointing out how The Band and others promoted a post-psychedelic back to music-making ethos that George Harrison particularly picked up on. However in 2009 Mojo produced a special edition celebrating 1969 in terms of the emergence of Led Zeppelin. Uncut recently celebrated 1969 for the quality of albums released that year and, although Abbey Road is rated highest, the range of music on album in 1969 is impressive. Woodstock also happened putting another of the trends of the seventies in place and The Beatles were becoming irrelevant to the rich tapestry of downer stadium rock that was emerging.
The advent of the Musicians Collective
Ironically the Beatles and other musicians were drawing up the threads of an alternative history that never happened. In reviewing the way the Beatles made albums, their enduring contribution to rock history, the White Album particularly stands out as it represents a way of working as an Art Collective, what I call an Atelier studio model, releasing music under The Beatles brand on Apple, and others on Zapple, reflecting their diverse range and interests. Interestingly both Cream and Jimi Hendrix were moving to a similar approach at the same time. Undoubtably the Stones Rock n Roll Circus also fits this collaborative Musicians Collective approach with Lennons Dirty Mac exemplifying this model. Unfortunately the Stones own performance suffered in comparison to Jethro Tull and especially The Who so, sadly, they never released it at the time. Mick Jagger never made the same mistake again and crossed over to the other side.
In Composing Myself Jack Bruce suggests that all three members of Cream found it limited their broader interests in music making. He argues that his own interest in jazz, Clapton’s in less ego-driven music and Baker’s in World Music could have been framed under the Cream banner with a concert of four parts, concluding with a Cream improvisation. Like The Beatles their final tour of America tore them violently apart and it never happened. Ironically Jimi Hendrix got closer to achieving this Musicians Collective approach in his final concert as the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Royal Albert Hall on February 24 1969 where Fat Mattress, his bassist’s group, was a support band. Hendrix, like Cream, wanted each musician to play their own music on the undercard (like his own Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows at Woodstock) with the Experience climaxing the show. Sadly Cream and Hendrix had even worse management than the Allen Klein directed Beatles and these music-oriented solutions had no chance in the business conditions of the time. However as well as the White Album Jack Bruce presented a version of this approach successfully on the over-looked classic Songs For A Tailor, and Hendrix died whilst he was trying to complete his own First Rays of the New Rising Sun. These albums are all tight musically with arrangements and playing that serve the song rather than flaunting the egos of the musicians. Although Rock albums they complement the approach pioneered by the Band in Big Pink, and Fairport Convention on Leige and Lief, which took old songs and radically refresh them with a rock sensibility and that creative sixties “lets start over” vibe. Sadly it turned out we preferred the spectacle of rock stars in their pomp with our lighters raised in the air in supplication.
Let It Be
My opinion concerning the Get Back project is that it was a brilliant idea but way too much, far too soon after the White Album, and crucially they situated the recording in entirely the wrong place. The Beatles were consummate craftsmen in Studio 2 at Abbey Road, and the neat idea of showing their creativity in action was scuppered by locating it in Twickenham to allow for the cameras. Right idea; creativity. Wrong context; aircraft-hangar film studio. Wrong time too, January 2nd 1969 just 6 weeks after the White Album launch, and lacking preparation and time for reflection, just like their other comparative failure Magical Mystery Tour. And as with HELP! they were dependent on the working processes of the film crew. Critically they were working without George Martin. The Beatles strength was when they were working collaboratively as a group in the studio, specifically Abbey Road Studio 2, without the distraction of business affairs. None of these features were in place on Get Back. In the end The Beatles effectively knocked the Let It Be album out in four days in the studio and 45 minutes on the roof, whilst the film failed to reveal the creative process that had produced so many great albums. But a contract obligation to United Artists had been fulfilled…
In my opinion The Beatles broke up at this time. George, Ringo and John had quit in different ways and at different times before the Get Back debacle. I still think it was a genius idea of McCartney’s but it wasn’t thought out and McCartney foolishly continued to act as the Brian Epstein of the group, thus breaking the species barrier between musician and businessman. The problem with this is that The Beatles needed to work collectively on their music as a group, that was their genius. But with the advent of Apple and the re-negotiation of The Beatles contracts, the arrival of Robert Stigwood and Allen Klein meant that the biggest cashcow in entertainment was up for grabs and, in the main, they were no longer in charge of their destinies; the Funny Papers had been served. In 1969 The Beatles weren’t taking care of business, whilst back at the store the Longest Cocktail Party in History was in progress. TLC and support for the Fabs was distinctly missing. Perhaps even Brian Epstein couldn’t have stopped them being colonised by the vulture capitalists who had arrived to gain access to their unprecedented cashflow, but Apple wasn’t set up to resist a hostile take-over.
Abbey Road was a coda, the reunion album produced before we even knew that they had spilt up. Finally they weren’t pushing the boundaries any more, they made tracks in the epic style that they had perfected on the White Album, and were back working in Craft Central with George Martin pulling bars and scraps of inspiration together with their group genius for music making. The collaborative creativity of the group however was in full flow; Harrison was supreme and the final Medley also allowed Martin to realise his vision of an operatic Beatles, which he was to fulfil on Love. Abbey Road is The Beatles album that is the most respected in the 21st Century, but in the end it was a valedictory act not a rebirth.
So in the end John, Paul, George and Ringo left the fifties boys club known as The Beatles and went off to live their lives as grown ups in the socially changed landscape they had help create. The love they made has been remastered and you are still free to take it and enjoy it; anytime at all…
When I’m 64
And it is Happy Birthday to Kevin Donovan who is now happily 64;
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Family Empowerment Network® (FEN) was founded by pediatrician Dr. Kathy Masarie to empower parents in the raising of their children. She is assisted in her efforts by her associate, Ruthie Matinko-Wald, MA. FEN continues the work begun by Full Esteem Ahead, the non-profit organization through which we created the original parenting guides we feature on this Web site.
At Family Empowerment Network, we believe the most powerful way to support children to thrive and be healthy is by enhancing connection and communication within our families and by networking families with each other. The main tools we offer to assist parents and other caring adults in creating this connection, communication and network are:
Family Empowerment Network understands that parents, given the information and support they need and deserve, are the “experts” in knowing what is the best solution for their unique situation.
Family Empowerment Network’s Parenting Guides support parents in connecting with their children as they grow and in creating a caring network for themselves and their children.
Family Empowerment Network believes:
- Our children will thrive best when they are connected to their parents and their schools.
- There is no “right” way to parent. There are a thousand ways to be a good parent. Parents, who take the time to explore, will tap into their “inner wisdom.”
- Parents cannot do it alone. Healthy children and strong families thrive best when they are in communities that care about them. Parents, with the right tools and information, have tremendous power to contribute to and build healthy communities around their family.
- It is important for parents to support one another. We all struggle as parents. Sharing what works and doesn’t work can be very empowering.
- Every chapter of Raising Our Daughters and Raising Our Sons is built around the 40 Developmental Assets™ from the Search Institute®, leveraging 50 years of research-based information “to create a world where all young people are valued and thrive.”
- Parents who focus on ways to connect with their kids and address the underlying motives for misbehavior will be more successful than parents who react in the moment to the behavior.
- Strengthening yourself is the best way to strengthen your family and your child.
The following are the core values on which we base Raising Our Daughters and Raising Our Sons:
- Family: Unconditional love allows everyone to thrive; Focus on respect, honesty and compassion leads to quality relationships; Appreciation and gratitude enriches family life.
- Authenticity: Individuals and relationships thrive with honesty, open-mindedness, and curiosity; Being accountable for one’s own actions and honoring commitments are critical to a healthy family; Lifelong personal growth allows for flexibility and resiliency.
- Community: Acceptance, belonging, and caring are key ingredients of community; Healthy families benefit from and contribute to healthy communities.
“The magic that can happen when using Raising Our Daughters/Raising Our Sons Parenting Guides with a group is that you create a support network of people who not only care about you, but also care about your children. In essence, you can create group of ‘aunties’ and ‘uncles’ who look out for all the children in your everyday life.”
Kathy Masarie, MD
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The philosophy of education in Centers for Spiritual Living is to present Science of Mind as an exciting, contemporary educational model through which learners fully experience the spiritual reality of their being. This model recognizes that all aspects of life are spiritual, as the curriculum infuses the intellectual, emotional, and physical aspects of contemporary living. The educational program of Centers for Spiritual Living offers people of all ages the opportunity to realize the Presence of God, to discover their inherent creative power, and to experience the Presence and Power in their daily lives.
Those who "stay the course" form an incredible bond, unified by their dedication to apply spiritual principles to the everyday problems of human life. This is a movement from theory to embodiment. As we study the Science of Mind, we awaken to the dawning of new insights upon our consciousness. Suddenly, the words Life, Principle, Reality, the Law of Mind, Pure Awareness, God and Spiritual Mind Treatment take on a new significance. There is an excitement in working and supporting students in using the Science of Mind and Spirit, to more effectively, promptly, and constructively move through obstacles and ultimately to manifest desired results.
Courses are offered through our member communities or online:
|Find a member community near you.|
|To see a listing of our online classes, go to www.enhancing.com/foundational|
Each of our classes is designed to support the spiritual student to more fully express themselves as individuals. We not only carry forward the rich traditions of our past, but we also offer new ideas, new perspectives and ever-expanding methods of delivering ancient truth to the contemporary classroom. Our intention is to communicate with modern language and provide teaching methods based upon the best practices for adult learning and consciousness development.
PATHWAYS OF EDUCATION
A student may pursue Certificated Courses of Study either for personal growth or in preparation to become a Professional Practitioner or Minister in Centers for Spiritual Living.
The student enrolls in a Certificated Course at a member spiritual community (or online if there isn’t a member spiritual community near you). You start with foundational courses that introduce you to the Science of Mind teaching and how to apply it in your life. You continue to study courses that offer both spiritual practice and insight into meditation, spiritual visioning, and affirmative prayer. As you advance along the path, there are courses that explore different spiritual teachers and writers from across the ages, as well as contemporary writers and teachers. Centers for Spiritual Living offers a wide variety of courses that are sure to facilitate healing, opening, deepening, and greater understanding of your spiritual nature.
"Science of Mind principles are simple, and yet demand daily practice and application. When I was willing to do the work, that's when new and great manifestations started occurring in my life." C.F.
"Science of Mind saved my life. No kidding!. Through learning how to think I really did learn how to live a full rich life! " L.S.
"Classes keep me growing. When I am involved in classes I continually work my practices and learn more about myself, which reawakens within me my Divine greatness." C.L.
"I awoke to the inner dynamics of why I was experiencing such turmoil in my life!" M.T.
"Science of Mind classes were the door that opened me not only to the spiritual principles that govern my life, but to incredible bonding with my like-minded class members!" S.M.
"Seek and ye shall find. Well, classes gave me the permission to see with new eyes and to seek from within myself for the answers and the love I desired." M.S
"I wanted something to change and through classes I realized I needed to be the change I wanted to see." K.N.
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At age 49, Richard Andrito has been successful at nearly everything he has touched.
He has built a thriving 22-year-old lighting business, Illuminations, which employs 12 people.
He has raised two children, both enrolled in the honors program at the University of Florida. He has a great wife, a beautiful home and a reputation for standing behind everything he does.
There's just one thing wrong.
Andrito has a rare genetic disorder that causes tumors to erupt unexpectedly in his blood vessels, and no health insurance carrier will cover it. And so after two years without health insurance, he ignores chest pains, knowing that the life he has built could be vaporized if he seeks care.
"If I were to be hospitalized right now, it could wipe out everything," Andrito said. "It could cost me my home. I could lose my business."
As the health care debate nears a climax in Washington, the insurance industry has emerged as the Democrats' villain. They say the industry denies care to the sick, raises rates on the hardworking middle class, enjoys antitrust protection given to few others, all the while taking profits and fighting health reform.
The true picture is more nuanced, the industry argues.
Health care costs are skyrocketing because every sector of the health industry is raising prices and taking profits, including hospitals, drug makers and medical-device manufacturers, the insurance industry says. It represents just 4 percent of the health care cost pie.
The focus needs to be on cutting costs, the industry says.
The American public shares responsibility, too. Many people with access to insurance opt not to pay for it until they need it. Many go to hospital emergency rooms never intending to pay.
An analysis released this week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows the situation: Insurance rates have been rising dramatically at a time when people's income has been falling.
The average private, employer-provided family insurance premium in Florida has risen 61 percent to $12,697.
Meanwhile, median family income in Florida has fallen 2.6 during the same period, to $46,206.
The consequence? Today nearly 1 in 4 Floridians is uninsured. Many of them work in small businesses.
Along Southwest 30th Avenue, an industrial corridor in Boynton Beach, Paul Copenhaver sits behind a steel desk at Creative Mouldings and Millwork explaining how his company's health plan works.
"We stay healthy," said Copenhaver, 41.
It amounts to gambling, he acknowledges. He has a wife and two children, and they pay cash for their care. About $1,400 so far this year.
It's not ideal, and he's watching for a plan that he can afford.
He voted Republican in the last election and says he's for less government. But he'd appreciate it if Congress would pass a health bill with a public option in it. He likened it to the choice he has when shipping his products. He can use the U.S. Postal Service, UPS or FedEx.
"I think the public option would bring down costs," he said. "I would prefer it would be voluntary."
The insurance industry wants health insurance to be mandatory, with penalties for those who don't buy it.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, sent Monday, the president of America's Health Insurance Plans suggested that Congress take away the personal income tax deduction if people go without health insurance.
That doesn't sit well with Brad Cook, 43. Cook, who works with Andrito, is also uninsured, but by choice. He smokes a cigarette on the sidewalk of Southwest 30th Avenue, explaining why he won't buy insurance.
"I have no health issues. The few times I've been sick, I've just gone to the ER," he said.
Asked how he paid the bills, he shrugged.
"I have bad credit," he said. "Insurance is just too damn expensive."
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The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
Rachel thought of herself only as a young girl, nothing more, until she found herself living with her grandmother, who told that she should learn her new position, that of a black girl, rather than hold herself to what she was raised as -
the daughter of a white mother who was not labeled. The daughter of a Danish woman and a black man, Rachel was never defined as any particular race, and it is not until she, her mother and two brothers fall from the top of a Chicago apartment building -
Rachel being the only survivor -
that she realizes there are definitions at all.
As her new life begins, Rachel struggles to be what she is asked to be, all the while coping with the confusion, brutality and prejudice in the only way she can. As she explains, “I imagine inside of a person there’s a blue bottle, you know? Ö The bottle is where everything sad or mean or confusing can go. And the blues -
it’s like the bottle. But in the bottle there’s a seed that you let grow. Even in the bottle it can grow big and green.”
And a young boy in the Chicago building where Rachel’s tragedy happened cannot escape its repercussions either. After seeing Rachel’s little brother drop past his window, he is haunted by the event. He eventually escapes his dysfunctional family and the memories by boarding a bus in search of the girl he learns has survived the fall. As they each separately struggle with the uncertainties of who they are, the responsibilities they encounter at such young ages, and the grief they have swallowed, they eventually encounter each other -
he aware of who she is, she only finding herself drawn to his kindness and clarity.
In “The Girl Who Fell From the Sky,” author Heidi Durrow creates a captivating cast of characters that make the reader take a look into the future and consider what it is that will define us in the future. She claims Barbara Kingsolver as her hero and is a graduate of Columbia University’s School of Journalism and Yale Law School. She has received numerous grants for her work.
Frankly, My Dear
“Gone With the Wind” endures as few other books -
and movies -
have, and author Molly Haskell follows the lead, describing her “Frankly, My Dear” as “Gone With the Wind Revisited.”
Addressing the novel as a combination of film work, political and cultural study, sociology, and a look at the role of women, Haskell examines each angle both collectively and individually in her analysis of the film.
As a feminist, film expert and Southern author, Haskell exhibits a firm grasp on the various ways the book can be addressed -
according to the age of the reader and their geographic basis. Her insight and evaluation of GWTW (few works are so easily recognized by their initials) throw an open eye and mind onto a work that has endured as a classic in American cinema since 1939.
The longest and most expensive film made up to that point in time, GWTW altered the way Hollywood looked at movies -
aiming them toward box-office bonanzas hoping to outdo its number of Academy Awards and box office receipts. Haskell explains how the film’s long standing popularity and portrayal of its political time -
accurate or not -
have fascinated readers and viewers for decades.
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The International Student Program allows students from around the world to study and learn alongside Canadian students of the same age.
The Sea to Sky School District is located 30 minutes north of Vancouver.
Situated at the head of Howe Sound and surrounded by mountains, Squamish is cradled in natural beauty and is the envy of the south coast.
Whistler is a 40 minute drive north of Squamish and is nestled below Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.
Pemberton, with a population of 3,000, lies 20 minutes north of Whistler. Pemberton sits in a wide valley surrounded by mountains.
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Since the 19th century, Meteor Crater has been a location of high interest. Located in the Arizona desert, the 570 feet deep crater has drawn many to its spectacular inverted topography. Arizona is also the birthplace of featured jewelry designer Vernon Haskie.
A curious youth, Haskie built his first jewelry piece at the age of nine after watching his parents, Leonard and Lillie, make “water bird designs” with inlay work.
“I took some of my father’s scrap silver and did a water bird design on it. I did some practice runs with the torch to learn soldering and I eventually soldered the silver with the water bird design onto another piece,” recalls the designer.
“I couldn’t wait to show my parents, but they did not believe I did it. So I had to go and get all of the scrap to show where I cut it out, and explain how I made it.”
Since then the self-taught Navajo silversmith has built an illustrious reputation, punctuated by multiple awards, as a highly skilled craftsman.
Haskie specializes in creating multi-dimensional designer jewelry fashioned from sterling silver, 14- and 22-karat gold, and large brightly colored inlaid gemstones.
Such items as his sterling silver cuff bracelets and gemstone pendants are imbued with character through bold outlines, engraved surfaces and a dose of spirituality.
“From a spiritual point of view, as an artist, I take materials form Mother Earth and build a jewelry item. I do become attached to the finished piece.
There is an intimacy with creating jewelry. I recall memories of setting certain stones and how I was feeling or thinking at that time,” says Haskie.
“The creation process is important as a jewelry item literally comes to life. A jewelry item is alive; it is made of materials from Mother Earth. It ultimately becomes a piece of the mind and spirit of the artist who made it.”
His work with sterling silver and gold beautifully display the inherent traits of both metals: sterling silver provides a subtle yet rustic setting for gemstones of coral, lapis, and opals while the gold adds a backlit glow to Lone Mountain Turquoise. It is like watching gemstones float in the alternate palms of the Moon and the Sun.
Of utmost importance to Haskie is that his art reflects a diversified image of Navajos, “I would like to give a positive image of the Navajo in my work. I want to create something with strong enough imagery where people take a positive message with them.
Positive art breaks down stereotypes, instills pride in our younger generation and encourages them to see they have a blessing in them.”
I could not find a personal website for Haskie, but a number of his items can be viewed at online store Southwestern Jewelry Collection.
Photo 1 (top right): Sterling Silver Mediterranean Coral Navajo Earrings
Photo 2 (center): 14-Karat Gold Cuff Bracelet with Red Coral Stone and Coral Inlay
Photo 3 (bottom left): 22-Karat Gold Turquoise Butterfly Pendant
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I run a subject (“Integrated Media One“) within the RMIt media degree program. This subject has students using their available resources (i.e. smart phones) to record brief videos. These then become a small personal interactive film (using Korsakow). From this we then make a larger, small group, interactive video project (using Korsakow). There are lectures, and a weekly lab with approximately 20 students in each lab. I am delivering the lectures and two of the 5 or 6 labs. This means I am looking for someone to teach the remaining labs. The curriculum is described at the post industrial video site. The subject blog I use might be useful too.
Details. It is here in Melbourne, Australia. It begins end of February. Sessional means you are paid for the teaching hours you teach. You assess the students in your classes. You attend the lecture (and should be paid for doing so). You should be familiar with Korsakow, network literate/savvy, and have a minimum honours degree in a relevant discipline/field. Would be good that you’re interested in innovative teaching practices too. If you’re doing a Phd in or around this area and interested, this is a great chance to get some teaching, and also learn a lot, quickly.
Get in touch via adrian dot miles at rmit dot edu dot au
From Hannah Brasier, an honours student I am supervising (we’re working in Korsakow):
How do I conceive of and make a slow interactive online video work? This is a problem because there is little work available that considers the slow in relation to interactive online video. Deleuze’s concept of the affect image provides a possible framework and method for how to make and theorise such a work/project. This may provide a method and theoretical model for making and understanding complex multilinear videos in the context of the slow.
, research practice
Massively Open Online Courses, in the spirit of Stanford’s recent AI course, now one of the flavours of the e-education month. Some associated with the Stanford project have now spun off Udacity and Coursera. The education platform wars are beginning. For someone like me at a piddling regional university, this really is a great opportunity. Some of the grunt work of content can be farmed out to these sorts of eduservice providers freeing up time and resources for real engagement and learning. It is obvious that while these services may address the content issue, they are going to struggle with the epistemological and ontological facets of university education which revolve around learning how to be (a designer, media practitioner, economist, doctor).
Or just use the current ‘flipped’ model, send them to do something like Networked Life at Penn which they do in their own time then in class, let’s do, hey, I know, diaspora (or some similar enquiry based learning action) in our face to face class time. And note to self, what would a course on post industrial media look like in this format? Why?
Tags: Network Literacy
, network practices
It might not seem so but it is a bit of a radical step to let students assess their participation, themselves. Most of the time most teachers at uni don’t trust students to know how to do things like this (I’m not sure why), but they can, and they almost always do it very well. We spend time on this in the first class, revisit it in a few weeks and quite a bit of time in the last one. Why do we do this?
- because we want participation to be a diverse range of things relevant to the student
- and only they know if they have done them or not (since most of the things that count as participation are invisible to me in the class and in their submitted work)
- because we are always told that if you ‘put in’ you will get ‘more out of it’ so I put my money where my mouth is and make it worth their while (say, 30% of their final mark)
- it helps students to define who they are to your peers, so is actually about building and maintaining a reputation come trust network (and in an intimately networked world getting an understanding of this as an ethics matters
- if I have to assess it then it becomes little more than attendance, which is certainly no measure of something as diverse and complicated as ‘participation’
This is why it takes a while to do. We discuss how it went last time, what might be done differently this time, and then make a list of all the things that might need to be done by you to learn successfully across the semester. The small change this time, since they had experience of doing this already, was to use some ‘filters’ on the list: what would be the two easiest things for you to do? Why? The two hardest? Why? And which two would make the biggest difference? Why?
I was at a really interesting seminar the other day which was largely about writing and the cinema. Was too short. But some of the incidental conversation was troubling. The visitor was pointing out how many of the undergraduates (as opposed to the postgraduates) struggle to get what is being discussed, or why it matters. There were supportive nods of heads and comments about how one or two would get it, the intent being that these are the ones who matter. This is self serving romantic nonsense that is the university myth we all hold dear. Imagine if primary and secondary school teachers had this understanding of their role and value as educators, and if your child wasn’t one of those one or two. The problem I have with this is that I was once one of those students. I relished the university experience, but the university didn’t teach me how to relish it, it didn’t teach me how to be ‘theoretical’, I came primed and already ready. Most of my peers, as with most of my students, don’t get ‘theory’ in the way we academics do, but we teach it as if they should and those that do get HDs and those that don’t get confused. When do we stop and wonder how to teach to the other 22 in the room? Surely that is what constitutes good teaching? All of us can wheel out our HD students as evidence of our teaching brilliance, except these students will almost certainly already be academically inclined and this will have had little, if anything, to do with us. This is another version of the ‘little academics‘ model, a Lacanian mirror phase moment where we misjudge the reflection of ourselves in these students as an imprimatur of our own ability.
In 2010 Integrated Media One, for the first time, used the Korsakow software for making and exploring multilinear online video.
course, workshop and reading notes (written in Tinderbox and published serially)
a teaching blog where commentary on student work was made
an archive of the 2010 final k-film projects made
, Vogging Theory
Integrated Media in 2011 returned to being based around the Korsakow software to explore how to make multilinear online video. There are:
rough course notes (lectures, workshop outlines, readings) written in Tinderbox and published serially to the web
an integrated media blog where I write occasional commentary on student work, provide some resources and the like
an archive of the final interactive Korsakow films created by the 2001 cohort
I write course notes using Tinderbox for lectures and lab/workshops and they are published serially to a rather messy and haphazard site. They are added to, amended, edited, each year. The 2011 course notes are located at vogmae.net.au/intmedia/2011/
, Vogging Theory
So, next week teaching starts. I am program director for the honours program, and do a lot of teaching into that, but the main teaching I’m concerned with at the moment is for Integrated Media One (a subject that is need of a name change). In previous years I’ve used a different blog to teach from, for the undergrad stuff, but last year that ended up containing some good stuff about interactive video. So, this year, the commentary is coming into here. I’ve archived all the courseware from 2010, and am in the process of building the site for 2011, as well as a generic HTML portal to the old stuff. Stay tuned.
Tags: Int Media
This years students have submitted, the work is out for examination, now we wait…. A mix of thesis and project outcomes. This is what was created:
In the honours program that I run I spend a lot of time with the students making things strange. (Actually that’s a reasonable description of how I do most of my teaching, honours or otherwise.) The majority are all from media disciplines, things like journalism, media studies, public relations and the like. But at heart their training, and the core of their educational experience, is as humanities students. This means most of their assessment that has really mattered has been written, that their primary mode of learning is individual, and that all assessment is individual. Group work is minimal, often reviled, and rarely developed in a manner where working in a group, rather than individually, makes much difference.
Anyway, one of the ways in which I make things strange is to regularly use completely different semiotic economies or registers as ways of mapping knowledge. In this case drawings. Generally they can’t draw, but this naivety can be valuable as all sorts of things turn up in their drawings simply because they are so unaware the drawings become highly self aware. If that makes sense. (Some produce highly regular patterns, others not, some stick to the centre, some to the edges, some have to cover the entire page, some only a corner.) As one of the completion tasks for the year I invited everyone to make a graph (so actually much easier than a drawing). The x axis is time, which in our case means the entire honours year. The y axis is bisected by the x axis so that it falls above and below the x axis. Above is positive, below negative. I then asked them to plot, as a line graph three things:
- their understanding of what research is as a practice or thing (research as a way of doing and not the common garden variety noun that they started honours with where research = to do a lot of reading about something)
- how much they know about their topic or research subject, and how that changed through the year
- how much what they were studying, or what their outcome would be, changed from what they thought they would be doing, and whether this change was good or bad
I then asked them to write on the graphs the three things (not in any order) that had the biggest impacts on their honours outcomes through the year. These are the drawings that resulted.
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For the most part Revit will help you find when various elements interfere with each other. A window that gets bumped into by a perpendicular wall will generate a warning. A wall that overlaps another will too. A desk copied on top of another will but only if it is in the exact same location.
There are instances that do not generate warnings at all. The same window that complained about a wall won't complain if another window overlaps it. Then there is a door that doesn't mind something encroaching on the swing area or the accessibility requirements. Put a desk so that it crosses into the swing area and use Interference Check between doors and furniture and you'll find no interference reported. Is Revit blind? In a way yes!
A typical door family doesn't have a real element representing the swing or panel in a plan view, it is just symbolic lines. Therefore no interference. The only solid geometry in most door families is the panel and glass which is usually confined to the extents of the wall interior and exterior faces. That desk will need to cross into that space to be a conflict.
Is all of the content for Revit missing this intelligence. Yes, nearly all of it. Why? Because except for a few instances this intelligence isn't so simple. The clearance requirements for content becomes highly specific very quickly. Even more specific when you start examining MEP equipment. Even doors that have seemingly simple push/pull clearance requirements have subtle exceptions depending upon where in the world the door is installed and the relevant code(s). Thus far the content we use ignores this issue for the most part.
The next step is for content to begin to address these design considerations and that's how content becomes more powerful and relevant. More powerful when it not only helps us model and document a design but it begins to make sure that our decisions will meet codes and design best practices. Does your content help your firm in this way? If it does then bravo, if it doesn't it could. How?
One way is to include solid geometry that represents the clearance requirements for the element. This means defining a boundary, usually parametric too, that will represent whatever clearance/interference issues a family might have. This could be a bounding box surrounding the entire element or a box defining an access door's swing clearance for maintenance.
Incidentally, with Naviswork's Clash Detective it is possible to test for Hard and Soft clashes and even define a clearance value that can be applied during a test. Revit lacks this subtlety so a family needs to provide something for it to use. That something is solid geometry.
Practically speaking this means more in each family. This extra solid will also have to be managed otherwise you'll be seeing a lot of boxes in your views.
Autodesk could help us by defining a new sub-category for all elements called Clearance or similar. This would mean that Revit could then learn how to detect a user defined clearance sub-category element and even have a default visibility behavior or setting allowing us to flip a switch to show or hide clearances. Until such time we have to do it by adding it ourselves and ensuring these solids are properly assigned and done consistently for our content.
Keep in mind that the obvious way to manage visibility by using Detail Level won't help us for now. Why? Detail Level doesn't work with Interference Checking, the solid has to be "visible". If you assign the clearance solid to use a specific Detail Level the Interference Check tool fails to see the solid at all even if you change the view to the correct detail level.
Bottom line, can't use Detail Level to manage the visibility of clearance solids. You must use sub-categories or Yes/No parameters. Using sub-categories is a broader brush solution while Yes/No is more involved because you have to manage them at the family level. When you use these methods you can turn off the visibility of a clearance solid and the Interference Check tool will still find them.
Just when you thought your content was great you find out there is something else you could do to make them even better! A toast to making content better still!
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When I began to write, some people humored me. "You've always been such a dreamer!" Some discouraged me. "Do you know what the odds are...do you know how many would-be writers there are out there?" Some were actually angry. "What makes you think you can write?"
A lot of my readers ask me for "writing tips." I wish it were that easy! There are no hard and fast rules for writing, and no secret tricks, because what works for one person doesn't always work for another. Everybody is different. That's the key to the whole business of writing - your individuality.
I once met a woman who wanted to write. She told me she'd read 72 books about writing but she still couldn't do it. I suggested that instead of reading books about writing, she read the best books she could find, the books that would inspire her to write as well as she could.
On this site, the best I can do is share with you what works for me. Click on one of the topics below (also listed on the left) to read about it, or click here to download a printable version (PDF) of all.
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