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All are welcome to attend a one-hour discussion with three
distinguished panelists who will share their leadership journeys with U
of T Engineering:
- Elizabeth Mills, President and CEO, Workplace Safety and Prevention Services
- Paul Murphy, President and CEO, Independant Electricity System Operator
- Rocky Simmons, President and CEO, Eco-Tec, Inc.
The Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow Program's panel discussions
provide students the opportunity to learn from highly experienced and
successful engineers in industry. This particular panel is organized as
a course complement for APS443: Leading and Leadership in Groups and Organizations, taught by ILead Director and LOT Co-Leader Professor Doug Reeve (ChemE).
Please respect our esteemed guests by arriving on time.
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Perhaps this was because in every day terms we have come to use the phrase ‘deja vu’ in a slightly flimsy, inaccurate way. Reading more about it for this post, it seems it is a phenomenon that is still open to a myriad interpretations. It is not simply a trick of the mind, or false memory that gives us a shiver at the time and which can easily be laughed off. At the most scientific level, it can be an aspect of epileptic episodes; at the least evidence based end of the spectrum it is evidence of reincarnation. I don’t believe either of these describe my sensations, which are rather more prosaic.
I can’t explain easily what I have been experiencing, but as an example I might be driving into my home town and have the sense that I am driving into somewhere completely different, albeit subtly so. (It might be nice to drive into Wellington and imagine it is Rome, but sadly that level of fantasy is beyond me.) Does that make sense? It is almost as if it is a memory that is struggling to reconnect with my current life but each time I try and grasp at it to find out what it is trying to show me it slips away.
Recently I have also found myself sensitised to old photos; to fading roses; to songs and classical music; all of which currently have a greater power to bring on a fit of melancholy. I have also been thinking about what happens ‘from now on in’ – after all there are only so many new careers you can try, and at my age I ought to settle on something and stick to it….
So I was thrilled to find this poem in a collection written by American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist Dorothy Parker. I have been reading her more widely recently and I realise now that she was not simply the master of the ‘wisecrack’, and that her oft-quoted poem about suicide (Resume) disguised from me her three genuine suicide attempts. Her memorial, in Baltimore, reads ‘Here lie the ashes of Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) humorist, writer, critic. Defender of human and civil rights….’ and despite two Academy Award nominations she was blacklisted by Hollywood as a Communist in the McCarthy era.
So a woman to be taken very seriously.
I never may turn the loop of a road
Where sudden, ahead, the sea is lying,
But my heart drags down with an ancient load-
My heart, that a second before was flying.
I never behold the quivering rain-
And sweeter the rain than a lover to me-
But my heart is wild in my breast with pain;
My heart, that was tapping contentedly.
There’s never a rose spreads new at my door
Nor a strange bird crosses the moon at night
But I know I have known its beauty before,
And a terrible sorrow along with the sight.
The look of a laurel tree birthed for May
Or a sycamore bared for a new November
Is as old and as sad as my furtherest day-
What is it, what is it, I almost remember?
That last line ‘What is it, what is it, I almost remember?’ describes exactly how I feel in these strange moments of elusive memory. Is it the realisation that I have, as my children reach adulthood, come to terms with the fact I am now firmly rooted in middle-age and that none of these sensations will ever be thrillingly new to me again?
If so that is rather sad. I want to tap into this mood and find a way to look at things afresh, particularly if I am to write successfully in the future. I need to hunt these memories down, see them for what they are – the past – and find new things to excite me in the future.
My decision to do more writing (and thereby, in all likelihood, earn even less money than I do already) means I have taken some baby steps towards some new thrills. It does, almost literally feel like I am making up for lost time – seizing the opportunity to do what I said I wanted to do all those years ago when teachers were trying to work out which career I was most suited to (none immediately springing to mind).
To do more at the moment would be too scary but I hope that when I am really old I will be trying to recall, vividly then, a whole new set of memories….
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JACKSON, MI -- Rick and Lafayette Paschall shed no tears as they watched the house next door come crumbling down.
Squatters, drug users and vandals had frequented the vacant house at 820 S. Milwaukee St. just north of Morrell Steet, leaving broken glass, liquor bottles and urine and feces behind.
"It's an eyesore," said Rick Paschall, 62, a General Motors retiree who has lived in their neatly maintained home since 1954. "I'd rather have neighbors than a vacant lot. But since it is what it is, you've got to take it on down."
On Wednesday morning, crews working for the city tore down the 1,568-square-foot house that was built in 1910.
It became the 31st house demolished since December as part of the city's Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
City officials decided it's better to pay to demolish vacant and dilapidated houses instead of spending money to fix them up and resell them.
They estimate it would have cost $189,000 to rehabilitate the house on Milwaukee Street, said Brian Taylor, building inspector. The demolition cost wasn't immediately available, but it typically costs about $10,000 to $20,000 per home.
The two-story house needed new electricity, mechanical, plumbing and windows, a rebuilt foundation and asbestos abatement, Taylor said. "Basically just a complete rebuild of the whole interior," he said.
A peak inside the house revealed broken glass and window frames, and plaster on the floor. The back door was missing, and siding was hanging from the house, which the city claimed ownership of in 2004 due to non-payment of taxes.
Rick Paschall shot photos with his cell phone as a power shovel reduced the home to a pile of rubble.
Jackson Mayor Martin Griffin also watched. He said Paschall has worked with the city to keep the property well-maintained. Paschall said problems at the vacant house subsided in the last year or so as a result of the efforts of city police and building inspectors.
City Manager Larry Shaffer and Deputy City Manager Patrick Burtch have championed the demolition of homes as a way to fight blight. City officials have worked with the Jackson County Land Bank Authority.
City officials say the cost of demolishing more than 800 homes that are in disrepair is about $9.8 million, compared to more than $54 million to rehabilitate those buildings.
The high cost of rehabilitation, along with the large amount of vacant houses in the city, causes officials to believe the supply of houses needs to be reduced to stabilize property values in neighborhoods
Not everyone likes the city's new philosophy. Critics have complained about houses in historic parts of the city being demolished and about a new non-owner-occupied registry fee that's being used to pay for an increasing number of inspections under the Neighborhood Stabilization plan.
Crews started at the back of the house on Milwaukee Street at 8:27 a.m., with one man spraying water on the structure to reduce dust.
Thirteen minutes later, they moved to the front of the house. By 8:51 a.m., only the south wall was standing, and it began rocking back and forth. At 8:59 a.m., the house was completely down, just over a half hour after the demolition began.
The Paschalls are interested in buying the vacant lot.
"This is a good neighborhood," Rick Paschall said. "See, I was raised in this neighborhood. It's gone through some changes -- some good changes and some bad. But it's going to be OK."
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MASON PROFFIT, was a band that appeared on the American music scene in 1969, pushed country and rock closer together than ever before; flew high, played hard and, in 1973, left as quickly as they appeared.
In the late 60’s music was changing and adapting to a new generation. Folk music had merged with rock, blues had re-grouped with gospel and ultimately country and rock were converging. The Byrds and other bands were playing a form of country rock, but the undisputed leader and standard bearer was a band from the Midwest called MASON PROFFIT.
Looking more like an outlaw gang from the wild west than rock stars, wearing leather fringe jackets and moccasins, Mason Proffit took the sound and songs of America and fused them with the conscience of a growing movement for social change. On stage, Mason Proffit combined high energy hard rockin' country guitars, pedal steel and dobro, with incredible harmonies and lyrics that cause you to stop and think.
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In his soon-to-arrive April "Stock Notes" column, Harold Harpster nailed the reason why the U.S. beef herd isn't growing. You'd think with sky-high beef prices that spring-born calves would be popping out in record numbers. But they aren't.
"Many aging cow-calf owners just aren't interested in expansion at this point in their lives," says Harpster. Why bring on the added work of more cows, then larger supplies and the inevitable price decline?"
Harold just might identify with that group. He's not as enthusiastic as he used to be about putting feed out at 5:30 on a cold winter morning before heading to his day job. And, slipping on the ice leaves a longer imprint on your head, shoulder or backside than it used to.
Another friend told me of two Montana brothers in the cow-calf business who are in their seventies, and have no one coming on to continue the business. And, they're being pressured to give up their land to big-buck "green spacers" of the likes of Tom Brokaw and Brooke Shields.
Then there's this from Farm Progress' Beef Editor Alan Newport: "Inputs have risen so much the average [cow-calf] producer still isn't making that much money, although a few are doing well.
"Second, startup costs are exorbitant, the first of those being land prices. That's why I've never entered the business in a meaningful way," says Newport. "You need to be rich to enter the beef business" – or have it given to you.
Texas economist Stan Bevers, who maintains the only beef standard performance analysis in the country, says overall profit needs to rise more before we'll see a lot of expansion. But he also worries we'll hit a point where consumers will balk. Not sure where that is.
Cattle-Fax says we'll start to see some herd expansion this year. Bill Helming thinks we'll have an industry diverging into a "hamburger" segment for lower-quality beef and a fed segment for the highest-quality beef.
The grass vs. corn model is more or less what Helming suggests. Newport thinks it's already coming true. More and more cattle are staying on grass longer and longer before feeding.
That makes sense and more than cents with $7 corn.
Your comments are welcome and wanted. Just click on “Add a Comment”.
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CAIRO — Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi claimed a narrow victory early Monday in Egypt’s first free presidential election, hours after the ruling military council further expanded its control over the country by granting itself war powers, raising new questions about what authority the president would actually have.
Morsi’s declaration of victory at 4 a.m. local time, six hours after polls closed, set the stage for a protracted conflict between the Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organized political party, and the military establishment and allies of deposed President Hosni Mubarak, who have ruled the modern Egyptian state since its inception.
Morsi’s election rival, Ahmed Shafik, who served as Mubarak’s last prime minister, said he didn’t accept the result. Morsi claimed that he had won 52 percent of the vote with 97 percent of precincts reporting, based on reports from party representatives who were observing vote counting at polling stations across Egypt. Egypt’s official election commission had yet to issue its own count, but the Brotherhood’s preliminary tallies proved largely accurate in last month’s first-round presidential vote.
By swiftly declaring victory, the Brotherhood appeared to be pushing back against the military’s efforts in recent weeks to consolidate its hold over Egypt. What was once celebrated as a revolution that toppled Mubarak and could have inspired the Arab world has increasingly become a counter-revolution by the ruling generals, who have reinstated martial law, dissolved the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Parliament and will control who writes Egypt’s new constitution.
For the second time in less than a week, the military council issued a decree that greatly enhanced its already near-total power: it amended the temporary constitution to define the powers of the president and gave itself the final say over major military matters. Under the change, president can’t declare war without the military council’s approval, and the council itself will decide its commanders. In the absence of a Parliament, the new president will take the oath of office before the Supreme Constitutional Court, which consists of Mubarak appointees.
Even before the military council’s announcement, the two-day runoff vote that ended at 10 p.m. Sunday was shrouded in suspicion over the generals’ intentions, with many Egyptians convinced that it would ensure a victory for Shafik. The Brotherhood, which held 47 percent of seats in the now-dissolved Parliament, has increasingly clashed with the generals and on Sunday seemed to signal that it would protest if Shafik was declared the winner.
The sense of uncertainty dampened voter turnout. The Brotherhood’s tally said that about 24 million votes were cast out of a population of 50 million eligible voters.
The election commission council said that final results would be announced later this week, but the series of moves by the military made it clear that voters had elected a president without knowing what his powers would be.
In the days leading up to the runoff, the military council named itself in charge of the legislative branch after the constitutional court ruled that some parliament members had been elected illegally. With that, the constitutional assembly, which was to consist of Egyptians and parliamentarians tasked to write the new document, was now under control of the generals. The generals announced Sunday that an assembly will write the permanent constitution within three months of being named, and the document will be put before a public referendum within 15 days. The composition of the constitutional assembly remained unclear.
After completing the constitution, the military council said, a parliamentary election would be held within a month. That means the military council will remain in control of the legislature for at least four more months.
The Brotherhood, which initially said it respected the constitutional court’s ruling, has issued increasing vitriolic language, accusing the military of staging a coup.
In the middle-class Cairo neighborhood of Imbaba, as election workers were counting ballots Sunday evening, the military council’s growing powers loomed over the count. The election workers joked about how Egyptians would respond if either one of the two polarizing candidates won. They dumped the piles of ballot in the middle of the table, the sound of ruffling papers filling the room as military officials watched through barbed windows outside.
As Shafik garnered more votes, one said that the military council “has been building a revolutionary youth prison,” referring to the protesters whose calls for reform led to the vote. “We are all headed there.”
“No we are not,” another responded. “Nobody cares about the state. They only want power.”
An election judge tried to keep them focused: “Count carefully. The difference could be one vote.”
Perhaps the most telling ballots were the ineligible ones. Some wrote in their own names; others did not mark them at all. Another wrote revolutionary favorite Hamdeen Sabahi, who was disqualified in the first round, across both names on the ballot. Still another wrote “O Lord” next to the check for Shafik.
Slowly, the piles of slips of paper in Imbaba grew higher for Shafik. After two hours of counting, the final tally was 1,828 for Shafik and 1,434 for Morsi. Another 120 votes were ineligible. In a second polling station in Alexandria witnessed by McClatchy, Shafik won 1,225 to Morsi’s 1,223. Another 176 were disqualified.
By Sunday night, resignation over the process had turned into sloppiness. In some polling stations workers, soldiers and delegates walked freely through the room. Some representatives of the candidates were put to work as the rules became increasingly more lax.
The new president is to be inaugurated July 1.
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Viewers, beware. Presidential debates, sad to say, aren’t always exercises in scrupulous political accuracy or honesty.
Fact-checkers usually tag dubious claims a day or two later. But here, drawing on three of my favorite truth-squadders — FactCheck.org, PolitiFact.com, and the Washington Post’s Fact Checker — is a day-of-the-debate guide to arm unwary viewers against false attacks.
You may well hear Barack Obama assert that Mitt Romney would raise taxes on the middle class to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Zounds, you may say: What politician in his right mind would propose that?
Romney hasn’t, of course. That charge is cantilevered off a critique the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center did of the Republican nominee’s $5 trillion tax-cut proposal. Romney says he will pay for his 20 percent across-the-board income-tax reduction by closing loopholes and deductions, but has stipulated that he won’t target breaks important to the middle class.
That’s impossible, say the center’s experts, whose careful analysis concluded that offsetting the cost of Romney’s new tax cuts for upper earners that way would require hitting loopholes and deductions for the middle class as well, thereby raising their taxes.
But there are obviously other ways out of that fiscal box. Romney could scale back his proposed tax cut. Or he could try to make larger spending cuts to help offset the new tax cuts. (That said, he has already called for large, mostly unspecified, reductions in spending). So this charge is unfair. Still, it is fair to observe that Romney has offered no details about how he’d pay for his tax cut and that the fiscal math just doesn’t work.
The Republican equivalent of that claim is something you may hear from Romney: Obama has gutted the welfare work requirement. Sometimes that charge is accompanied by the assertion that recipients will now be able to receive benefits for doing nothing. Not so. As any number of fact-checkers have noted, all the Obama administration has done is agree to waive the work requirement for states that want to experiment with more effective ways of transitioning recipients into the workforce. Requests for exemptions will be evaluated on a state-by-state basis, with a requirement that states have a realistic plan to boost welfare-to-work numbers by 20 percent.
You may hear the president say, as several of his campaign ads have said, that Romney backs or has backed banning abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life was at risk. Now, the Republican Party platform does contain language calling for a human life constitutional amendment, some versions of which would have that effect. Still, Romney has repeatedly said that he favors exemptions in cases of rape, incest, and where a pregnancy endangers a woman’s life.
Another favorite Romney charge is that Obama, early in his term, went around the world apologizing for America. Obama did give some speeches that read like not-so-oblique criticisms of George W. Bush’s foreign policy. But the idea that he has apologized for America simply doesn’t pass muster.
Finally, a word on fiscal affairs.
One regular conservative charge is that Obama has increased the federal debt by $5 trillion. That makes it sound as though the increase in red ink results from a massive surge of new spending under Obama. But before he even took office in the midst of a worsening recession, the Congressional Budget Office was projecting a $1.2 trillion shortfall for 2009.
It’s hard to say with precision how much of the new debt Obama should own, but it’s clear what the big drivers of that debt have been. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank well-regarded for its fiscal analyses, says the single biggest contributor is the Bush-era tax cuts, followed by depressed revenues from the still-sluggish economy. War costs and Obama’s stimulus each contribute about 15 percent.
Now, Romney may argue that Obama should have cut spending to the level of revenues. But in slow economic times, that wouldn’t be wise. Last spring, Romney acknowledged as much when asked why he wasn’t planning steep budget cuts for the first year of his presidency.
“If you take a trillion dollars, for instance, out of the first year of the federal budget, that would shrink GDP over 5 percent,” he said. “That is by definition throwing us into recession or depression.”
Here’s hoping this helps you sort fact from fiction as Obama and Romney go toe to toe.
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The ECE (Economic Community of Europe) 22.05 rating is the most widespread helmet standard internationally, required by over 50 countries worldwide. Helmets that meet the ECE 22.05 criteria will meet the expectations of the motorcycle rider looking for more protection than the standard US DOT certification. Since ECE 22.05 standards are more in line with the Snell requirements for helmet safety, American motorcycle riders can be confident that an ECE 22.05 helmet will keep their brain-bucket just as safe as a helmet with Snell certification. RevZilla carries over 100 ECE 22.05 helmets from industry-leading manufacturers such as Arai, Shark, Icon, Nolan and more. If you're a rider looking for an ECE 22.05 motorcycle helmet and have any questions about the different criteria for helmet certification, don't hesitate to contact us. We're happy to help keep you safe.
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MODERN central banks are suffering from post-financial crisis stress syndrome. After a near-death experience in the fourth quarter of 2008, when a systemic financial meltdown almost occurred, they remain very cautious and reluctant to ignore financial stability.
It is probably time for them to return—after a good economic recovery and strong financial conditions—to the old framework: aim for low and stable inflation.
The need seems especially strong in the UK where inflation is running persistently above target—notwithstanding the fiscal stringency that is being implemented. The Fed has a bit of time, given low core inflation, but it needs to seize the opportunity to return to a single—low and stable inflation—mandate.
The European Central Bank remains entwined in the euro zone's sovereign debt problem/crisis and needs to adhere strictly to its inflation target—especially after Axel Weber's announced departure from the Bundesbank and ECB board.
John H. Makin has been Caxton’s Chief Economist since January 1990 and Principal in the firm since 1995. Dr. Makin is also a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and has been a member of the panel of Economic Advisers of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. He holds his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. Dr. Makin is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations, The Economic Club of New York, and The Links.
By number of guest contributions
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8 Secrets of Happy Families
Try these ways to enjoy one another's company more; to have more fun; and to be, well, happier.
Leo Tolstoy had it right when he wrote in Anna Karenina, "Happy families are all alike." Okay, he wasn't thinking about a three-kids-and-a-minivan lifestyle, but his point was timeless: Some families just seem to enjoy one another's company more; to have more fun; to be, well, happier. What do they know that the rest of us don't? We asked parents and other experts to spill their secrets. For a more joyful clan, why not try what works for them? Here are some of their techniques.
Whether it's making pancakes for dinner on Sunday nights or ending every car trip by saying "Home again, home again, jiggity-jog," unique family rituals strengthen ties like nothing else.
"Traditions give children a sense of identity and belonging," says Richard Eyre, coauthor of The Happy Family: Restoring the 11 Essential Elements That Make Families Work. "They may seem insignificant to adults, but kids hang on to them."
The Eyres have celebrated family birthdays in special ways since their children were small. "Because mine is in autumn, we always rake a big pile of leaves and jump in them," says Eyre. The year three of his nine children, now ages 16 to 30, left home, he opened the mail on his birthday to find three separate envelopes, each with a leaf inside. "It was each child's way of saying 'I'm still part of the family,'" he says.
The Friday-night tradition in the Pritz household, in Glenside, PA, includes two pizzas, a movie in the living room, and everyone -- Mom, Dad, and their four kids, ages 2 to 7½ -- on the floor in pajamas. "It's a simple ritual, but we look forward to it all week. I grew up going to Friday-night drive-in movies with my family," says mom Denise. "I hope my kids remember our movie nights as happily as I remember the drive-in."
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- Story Ideas
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BEIRUT (AP) — Five unarmed U.N. truce monitors toured the battered city at the heart of the Syrian uprising on foot Saturday, encountering unusually calm streets after weeks of shelling as a throng of residents clamored for foreign military help to oust President Bashar Assad.
Their foray into a chaotic crowd in the city of Homs highlighted the risks faced by the observers, protected only by bright blue helmets and bulletproof vests. It came as the U.N. Security Council voted Saturday to expand the mission to 300 members in hopes of salvaging an international peace plan marred by continued fighting between the military and opposition rebels.
The observers, members of an eight-member advance team that has been on the ground a week, were seen on amateur video Saturday walking through rubble-strewn deserted streets lined by gutted apartment buildings. Activists reported only sporadic gunfire, but no shelling, and said troops had pulled armored vehicles off the streets. Two observers stayed behind in Homs to keep monitoring the city, after the rest of the team left Saturday evening.
The mission approved Saturday, initially for 90 days, is meant to shore up a cease-fire that officially took effect 10 days ago, but has failed to halt violence. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has accused Assad of violating the truce, and said Saturday that “the gross violations of the fundamental rights of the Syrian people must stop at once.” Rebel fighters have also kept up attacks.
It’s the first time the Security Council authorized unarmed U.N. military observers to go into a conflict area. Saturday’s resolution gave Ban the final say on when to deploy them, based on his assessment of the situation.
A previous observer team, dispatched by the Arab League at the start of the year, withdrew after a month, unable to halt the fighting.
Western diplomats put the onus on Syria to make the mission work. The U.S. ambassador, Susan Rice, warned that the U.S. would pursue sanctions if Assad doesn’t comply. Britain’s envoy,Mark Lyall Grant, said that “the mission will fail in its task if the regime continues to violate its commitments and obstructs the work of the mission.”
The truce and the observer mission are part of special envoy Kofi Annan’s plan for ending 13 months of violence and launching talks between Assad and those trying to oust him. Syria’s opposition and its Western supporters suspect Assad is largely paying lip service to the cease-fire since full compliance could quickly sweep him from power.
So far, the regime has ignored such provisions and instead continued attacking opposition strongholds, though on a smaller scale than before the truce deadline.
Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari, told the Security Council that Syria informed Annan on Saturday that it has withdrawn troops and heavy weapons from urban centers, but he did not make clear when it occurred. Opposition activists said that in some areas, such as Homs, armored vehicles were moved off the streets Saturday, but remained near populated areas.
Rice, in the toughest speech on Syria yet, warned that if Assad doesn’t make good on all commitments or obstructs the monitors’ work, the United States would pursue other “measures,” which in diplomatic language usually means sanctions.
“Let there be no doubt. We, our allies and others in this body are planning and preparing for those actions that will be required of all of us if the Assad regime persists in the slaughter of the Syrian people,” she said, adding the U.S. will not wait 90 days to take these measures if Syria keeps flouting its obligations.
Despite the violations, the international community sees Annan’s plan as the only way forward.
Russia and China have shielded their ally Syria against Security Council condemnation, Western powers oppose military intervention and Gulf country have failed to keep promises of funding rebels.
On Saturday, five observers toured rebel-held areas in Homs, a center of the uprising that has been battered by tank and mortar shells for weeks. Previously, the Syrian regime, citing security issues, had turned down a request by the observers to visit the city.
“We did not hear any shelling today,” said a Homs activist, who only identified himself as Abul-Joud, for fear of repercussions.
At one point, gunfire went off in the distance while the observers were in the Bayada neighborhood, accompanied by residents. The group ran into a house to take cover, according to Abul-Joud, who said he was walking with the observers. He said it did not appear the shots were aimed in the direction of the monitors.
In the Jouret el-Shayah neighborhood of Homs, observers were quickly thronged by residents who chanted, “The people want military intervention,” according to video broadcast on the Al-Jazeera satellite TV station.
The observers walked silently through the streets in amateur video from the same neighborhood, posted online Saturday. A man in military uniform, apparently a rebel, pointed to the destruction, telling the team that “it’s all destroyed buildings.” Dozens of residents chanted, “The people want to execute the president,” and “Freedom forever, against your will, Assad.”
A spokesman for the observers, Neeraj Singh, said two observers stayed on after Saturday’s tour “and have now been deployed in Homs as of this evening.” Their presence could discourage a resumption of regime shelling.
The advance team is to increase to 30 monitors next week, before the larger contingent arrives.
Under a preliminary agreement between the U.N. and the Syrian government, the enlarged mission will be able to walk and drive freely through the country. However, Syria has so far not agreed to a U.N. demand that observers use their own planes and helicopters, seen as a key to the mission’s success because it could reduce friction on the ground.
The challenges facing monitors became apparent this week when the advance team visited several hotspots. Large crowds of regime opponents surrounded the monitors, and government troops opened fire to disperse the protesters, in one instance while the observers were still present.
Reflecting concern about inadvertently setting off violence, the team decided not to go out on Friday, the main day for anti-government protests. The team leader, Col. Ahmed Himiche, said he and his men did not want to be “tools for escalation.”
Hilal Khashan, an analyst at the American University of Beirut, said he believes the regime will try to sabotage the larger mission because it could pose a threat.
The presence of observers “attracts large crowds and anti-regime demonstrations,” said Khashan. “If the observers spread throughout Syria, the extent of the protests will increase dramatically.”
Syria denies it is facing a popular uprising, claiming it is being targeted by a foreign-led conspiracy of criminals and terrorists. Ja’afari, the Syrian U.N. envoy, reiterated Saturday that the regime reserves the right to respond to “armed terrorist groups.”
Even Russia’s envoy appeared to be skeptical about the regime’s latest claims that it has pulled troops and tanks from Syria’s cities.
“If indeed this is the case, this is a very important step in implementation of the Kofi Annan plan,” said Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin.
Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed reporting.
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My first time posting on Think Atheist, so I thought some of you might find this to be interesting.
Ran across this today (http://worldviewwarriors.blogspot.com/2012/09/proof-of-worldwide-fl...)...a blog by the name of "Worldview Warriors" arguing for a biblical flood using this argument:
"The first obvious sign that a worldwide flood occurred is that there would be thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions of dead creatures buried underneath the surface of the earth. When we look at Geology, guess what? This is exactly what we find: thousands upon thousands and millions upon millions of creatures buried beneath the earth. Unfortunately, before secular humanists got their hands on the fossil record, creationists were poorly interpreting the fossils that were buried underground, which paved the way for secular scientists popularizing more scientific interpretations of the fossils. Today, creationists fight to set the record straight despite the fact that their interpretations are more reasonable and more logical than that of secularists."
"The first obvious sign that a worldwide flood occurred is that there would be thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions of dead creatures buried underneath the surface of the earth"
No, it's purely evidence that animals where buried and preserved. We would expect jumbled marine and non marine fauna buried together if it was evidence of a flood. This is very rarely the case, and when it does occur it is generally due to secondary processes such as slope failure or reworking of sediments.
The focus on fossils is also absurd, as the fossils should be taken in context with the rocks they are in, if you have a chalk layer tens of metres thick it is evidence of no (or very little) input of terrestrial material in comparison to the microfossils which make up the chalk.
In other words it's an irrelevant conclusion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignoratio_elenchi in that there are fossils, but it has nothing to do with a flood.
" Today, creationists fight to set the record straight despite the fact that their interpretations are more reasonable and more logical than that of secularists."
This is just plain bullshit, the creationists don't offer a model which allows the fossils to be properly integrated into geology, let alone make predictions off the fossil distributions. I'm a petroleum geologist, we use the fossil record to help date rocks, allowing us to compare different wells and make predictions from the depositional environment what exists outside these wells. This gets combined with imaging of the subsurface (seismic data). If we for example have a few wells which penetrate a delta system, we can expect further inland fluvial deposits and further outboard a slope setting, this allows us to predict where we are likely to have reservoirs, source rocks etc.
Evolution in the form of fossils doesn't stand alone as a science, it is integrated into geology, and when combined provides massive predictive capabilities. A flood would have different sedimentary patterns, would less fossils and a less differentiated fossil record.
Thanks Alex. I think the predictive element is always telling. You would think creationists, if their "science" was right, would make a killing doing what you do for a living. I'm guessing that is why they stick to Sunday school materials. :)
There's nothing I can say that wasn't covered by Alex. Darwin figured this out in the 19th century. It's only right that creationists follow suit.
He continues towards the end of his masterpiece to say:
God’s Word allows us to interpret Geology and the other sciences properly
He is just another YEC with little or no understanding of Science. The article is all wrong.
WTF?! “...(creationists’) interpretations are more reasonable and more logical than that of secularists.”? That’s the specious claim made by the author of the article upon which this post is based. That might be a defensible statement IF fossils were all found in the same layer; but they are found in strata spanning millions of generations. Further, the more recent the stratum, the more complex the organism. That fact can ONLY be explained by science-based geology (and, by extension, evolution).
To the extent that the flood stories are descriptions of real events and not just mythological, they are fully consistent with local floods and do not require a global inundation. And if the flood covered all the mountains on earth, as the Noachic account in Genesis clearly states, then either God hadn’t created Mt. Everest yet, or it was completely submerged. Given that the concept of the entire earth being covered by water five miles deep is ludicrous in the extreme, it is a logical conundrum no young earth creationist has ever been able to credibly explain.
The referenced article also argues that dinosaurs and people co-existed, and that preople called them “dragons.” The last dinosaur (or “dragon,” if he prefers) disappeared 65,000,000 years ago. The first humans appeared no more than 3,000,000 years ago, if that. So humans and dinosaurs never interacted. That’s based on radiometric and geological evidence that is virtually irrefutable. But, interestingly enough, this bozo doesn’t have anything to say about radiometric dating; I assume that’s because he is too ignorant to be able to address it cogently.
The title of the article upon which this post is based is “Proof of the Worldwide Flood.” But, ultimately, the author bases his conclusions on “God’s written revelation,” which, of course, doesn’t even remotely qualify as scientific evidence.
Actually Mt. Everest is about 8.8 kms high, and 5 miles is about 8 kms so not that far fetched really. But to cover Earth with water to such a height would require about 3 times the amount of water than there is on Earth. I did the calculations long back. Where did all that water come from, and where did it go? Thin air isn't a convincing answer :)
I don't know when you did your calculations, Akshay, but the measurements have been changed as of 1999. It was previously believed to be 29,028 feet, as determined in 1954 by averaging measurements from various sites around the mountain. The new elevation has been confirmed by the National Geographic Society as being 29,035 feet (c.5.5 miles, determined using GPS satellite equipment on May 5, 1999.
It would require 1,194,845,753,604,350,656,512 - (1+ sextillion) - gallons of water to cover the earth to the top of Everest (disregarding the "15 cubits" more), and Earth, according to the National Geological Survey, holds only 326 quintillion gallons of water on, in, under, and above, our planet.
I just subtracted the volume of a sphere of radius 8.8kms more than the radius of the Earth from the volume of the Earth. There was some miscalculation and the possible answers were 3 times and 300 times. I think after rechecking I decided it was 3 times. Was a while ago and it is possible I made a mistake. Will recalculate and get back to you.
Akshay - I think you will find this indispensable -- world.std.com/~reinhold/BigNumCalc.html
Is that Java? I hate Java!
Anyways, I wrote a Python program to do the job for me, and it seems 300 times was closer to the mark than 3.
If you take the height of Everest to be 8.848 kms, then it would require 424.719906281 times the amount of water present on Earth to cover the entire planet. But I rounded the height of Everest down to 8 kms to account for all the hills and mountains on the planet, as they take up space too. This brought the number down to 383.935470418 times.
You can find, and run, the program here -
It's closer to 3, 70% of the world is ocean, Mt Everest is 8.8km high.
8.8/3 is closer to the average depth of the ocean in km than 8.8/300...
Erm, I don't think it works like that. I don't really understand your logic.
You have to calculate the volume of the sphere of radius 8.8 kms more than the radius of Earth, and then subtract it from the volume of the Earth. Then I made an adjustment for the volume the various hills and mountains take up, and viola, the magic number comes out to ~384 times the water on Earth. The math is all there, and it's all correct.
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|MBA Program Overview|
Online - and On Your Schedule!
Throughout its history, Limestone College has provided individuals who didn't have the opportunity to pursue a higher educational goal with the chance to do just that. The MBA program is the newest Limestone College offering to reach out to those who aren't able to attend traditional graduate programs in their area. The courses offered via the Internet have the same content as those taught in traditional courses. The only change is in the delivery of that content. Through the use of computers and Internet technology, we're able to give students a viable option to earn a graduate degree around their busy schedule and life. And since its inception in 1996, our Internet program has been a huge success. Limestone College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate, baccalaureate, and masters degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033 - 4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Limestone College. Normal inquiries about the institution, such as admission requirements, financial aid, and educational programs should be addressed directly to Limestone College.
How It Works
The Limestone MBA program is unique in several ways. First, the program has been designed to take the best aspects of a traditional college MBA program as well as those from online programs. The MBA program includes three weekend seminars, which are held on the main campus in Gaffney, South Carolina. These seminars give you a great chance to meet fellow students, network with professors, and see the campus. To minimize any required time off from work, the three residencies typically run from 2:00pm on Friday to noon on Sunday.
The vast majority of courses in the MBA program are offered over the Internet. The major difference in the delivery of an Internet course and a classroom course is the separation of the student and the professor. There are no specific times that the student must be online and all lectures and assignments are delivered to the student via the Internet. While specific methodologies vary with the professor, the Limestone MBA program focuses on case studies and solving real world problems. The student will be required to take online exams with proctors that are approved by the College.
How To Get Started
The first step is to apply online. Since Limestone has cohorts starting throughout the year, once your application is approved, you will be given an opportunity to select when you start. You can select to start right away or to put it off for a number of months. The program has been built for you - on your schedule.
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For those of you who live on another planet and have not yet seen the Kony 2012 video, which, in a matter of days, has become one of the most viral media campaigns in history, do so now.
The thirty minute video uses Hollywood-quality effects and digital media tools to expose the plight of children in Uganda, revealing the war crimes and horrors they have suffered at the hands of LRA leader Joseph Kony. The Invisible Children sensation has triggered worldwide awareness, donations, support and of course, controversy.
Before focusing on the content itself, I wanted to point out the unmistakable ad-like ending of the clip, which encourages viewers to purchase the ‘Action Kit’ that includes bracelets, posters etc. The bracelets themselves are aimed at collecting more contributers; with an i.d. number on each one that unlocks the website and allows you to ‘join the mission’, as well as an extra one to share with a friend. Oh, and by the way, if you donate money through TRI, you can have the Action Kit for free.
That said, the campaign’s message is certainly admirable. Joseph Kony did commit the crimes stated in the video, and has been the source of terror throughout Uganda for many years. His actions, as part of the LRA, left long-lasting scars on the Ugandan people, and should not be ignored or forgotten. Besides, raising society to a more idealistic, more involved level is never a bad thing, and the uproar across the globe has been inspiring.
Still, reactions have been mixed. Numerous activists, bloggers, journalists and citizens of Uganda have lashed out at the video for its flashy style, pure emotional assault, and mostly accurate, though highly misleading, content. For example, Kony has not been active in Uganda for nearly a decade, nor has he been seen in over six years. The LRA still causes tremendous suffering, but has ventured outside of Uganda, and numbers at most in the hundreds.
Liz Wainwright, a photojournalist working in Uganda, shared her experiences and expressed her respect for Invisible Children. She did say, however, that “Most of the people working for Invisible Children are media professionals not development professionals. That’s important, but you need the expert input. It’s hard, I’m caught in the middle; I do admire them. They are having a great impact in northern Uganda….But then I don’t agree in the film itself. It was a little self-indulgent, emotive…”
Passionate writers have addressed this topic relentlessly over the past few weeks. Amber Ha, a blogger who focuses on similar issues worldwide, addressed Jason Russel of Invisible Children in a recent post.
She wrote: “Last year I went to Gulu, Uganda, where Invisible Children is based, and interviewed over 50 locals. Every single person questioned Invisible Children’s legitimacy and intention. Every single person. If anything, it seemed the people saw Invisible Children as a bigger threat than Joseph Kony at the time. Why is it the very people you are trying to “help” feel more offense than relief with your aid?”
She addressed several other issues that have been expressed by Ugandan natives as well, including the dramatically simplified conflict, the inevitably violent results, and the glorifying of the American activists, as opposed to the Ugandan people.
As I mentioned above, Ha is not alone in her approach. For at least half a decade, Northern Uganda has been subject to a precarious, but slowly stabilizing, peace. Many believe that the Invisible Children’s new video, along with the U.S. military involvement, will shatter the quiet and provoke a fresh wave of attacks. The Ugandans still suffer from the aftermath of Kony’s actions, both physically and psychologically, but the situation is complex.
Michael Wilkerson, a journalist who has reported from and lived in Uganda, wrote: ““It would be great to get rid of Kony. He and his forces have left a path of abductions and mass murder in their wake for over 20 years….” He concluded, however, with a statement saying “it is unclear how millions of well-meaning but misinformed people are going to help deal with the more complicated reality.”
Ugandan blogger and journalist Rosebell Kagumire posted a video response to the Kony 2012 video, revealing another reason for aggravation which likely represents the widespread feelings of Northern Ugandans:
Several other video reponses have been broadcast on YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms, and the topic is heavily debated on every major news site today. What do you think?Read More
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Winter 2006 Rapport: AGTS News
Back to Table of Contents
pages from the Winter 2006 Rapport (PDF, 240 KB,Download
AGTS Goes on AIDS Safari in South Africa
a South African
students witness the plight of South Africans afflicted by
the devastating AIDS pandemic.
In June 2005, Dr. Johan Mostert, AGTS counseling professor,
led three AGTS students back to his native South Africa
on what has been called an “AIDS Safari.” The
two-week excursion allowed Nate Conrad, Eileen Deaver and
Kim Rozell to visit local churches involved in the fight
against AIDS, accompany a home-based care volunteer as
she made her rounds and work in an AIDS hospice for babies
who have been abandoned by dying parents. At the hospice,
babies are tested for AIDS, a 12-month process. If the
results are negative, they are put up for adoption.
In the wall surrounding one of the AIDS hospice centers
is a horizontal door that covers an opening into the
The instructions on the poster to the
right of the door read: “Is there life after birth?
Mothers-to-be in crisis, place your newborn baby in the ‘Door
of Hope’ anytime, day or night. We will care for
your baby.” Images at the bottom tell a mother
not to put the baby in a trash can, but to cut and tie
the umbilical cord and put the baby behind the door.
“Her name was Lizzy and she was
six weeks old,” remembers Kim Rozell. “She
was the youngest infant at the hospice and she has an amazing
story. She had been found abandoned in a black duffle bag
when she was four days old. No one knew where she came
from or how long she had been there, but she was still
wearing her hospital bracelet.
She captured my heart! I
still think about her and wonder if they have found a family
Swedish mother holds her adopted South African child.
“The particular hospice I was helping at was adopting
out one of the babies the day we visited,” said Kim, “so
I had the rare opportunity of being able to watch an adoption.
It was incredible to see the look on the new mother’s
face as she held the baby in her arms.”
visited AIDS patients with a community outreach worker” begins
“One patient, Leah, was in the final stages
of battling with AIDS. When we walked into the house, she
was lying on the dining room floor in front of a window.
She was thin and visibly weak. She did not have enough
energy to carry on a long conversation, but before we left,
we prayed with her.”
destitute mother of five, holding her grandchild, is dying
of AIDS. She wishes to finish building her home before
the rainy season begins. While the meager contents of her
home wait outside, her teenage sons are hard at work.
no income to purchase cement, they make their own clay
bricks and use only one nail in the supporting beam joints.
Unfortunately, the first heavy rains may undo all of their
Conrad, Eileen Deaver and Dr. Mostert enjoy lunch.
expresses how the trip has affected her. “Most
every day now I wear a beaded red ribbon so when people ask
about it I can tell them about the AIDS problem down here.
One in four people in South Africa is infected with HIV.
In other African countries, every other person is infected.
A million children are growing up without their parents and
one in five 15-year-olds will not live to see another year.”
Friday, May 5, 2006 9:07 AM
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Grinders for Grace raises $10,000 for Middletown's soup kitchen
MIDDLETOWN — The Amazing Grace Food Pantry this year raised $10,000 with the help of its annual “Grinders for Grace” event. This year’s event surpassed the 2011 one by nearly $1,000.
Organizer Claudia DeFrance said the event is possible thanks to the help given by the entire community. “Grinders for Grace” is in its sixth year, and this year volunteers made 1,200 meatball grinders.
“There was such fabulous support from the community,” DeFrance said Thursday. “Without the expertise of the volunteers, we could not have pulled it off.”
Rochelle Hughes, who DeFrance calls her “right hand” at the event, said $6,700 was from sales of the grinders, and the city has pledged to match the amount raised at 50 cents to the dollar. The final total raised should be $10,050. Hughes said Mayor Dan Drew has confirmed the pledge this year, just as the past mayors have done.
Hughes, who makes spreadsheets to track all the various statistics from the event, said 6,000 meatballs were made, for the total of 1,200 grinders. Approximately 535 grinders were delivered to local businesses, including several departments at Wesleyan University and 75 people to Aetna in Hartford. Another 600 grinders were picked up from the event by people in the community, including state Rep. Matthew Lesser. The event took place at St. Francis of Assisi in Middletown.
St. Vincent DePaul Place Executive Director Ron Krom said the grinder event is the biggest fundraiser of the year and it involves an incredible amount of community support
Margarito Rodriguez, owner of Puerto Vallarta in Middletown, was one of the main contributors, helping to home cook all the meatballs for the grinders.
Fred Terrasi, founding member of Grinder for Grace and the past president of the Italian American Civic Order, was also on hand at to help making the grinders.
See inaccurate information in a story? Other feedback and/or ideas for us to consider? Tell us here.
Location, ST | website.com
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Reports from Connecticut Group Editor Matt DeRienzo.
The Connecticut State Politics blog covers all the news from the seat of Connecticut's government and the state's elected leaders with original reporting from Journal Register Connecticut staff, links to stories from other media and blogs, press releases, statements and more.
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Ward Connerly, a conservative black businessman from California, serves as chairman of the American Civil Rights Coalition and the California Civil Rights Initiative, also known as Proposition 209, an anti-affirmative action ballot measure that passed in California in 1996. Connerly is a regular contributor to the conservative online publication Townhall.com.
Connerly owns a consulting firm based in Sacramento, California, called Connerly and Associates , that lobbies for construction firms. Construction firms stand to benefit from the elimination of affirmative action programs, since federal and state governments are required by law to maintain policies that increase opportunities for minorities when awarding contracts for construction, services and supplies. Often these policies result in the reservation of a percentage of such contracts for bidding specifically by women- and minority-owned businesses.
Anti-affirmative action ballot intiatives
Connerly spearheaded ballot initiative efforts in five states (Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma) to pass measures designed to dismantle affirmative action programs in those states. Affirmative action programs were put in place to help level the playing field for sectors of the population that have typically experienced discrimination, like minorities and women, in employment, contracts and education.
Connerly somewhat deceptively calls his measures "civil rights initiatives." For example, the measure being pushed in Colorado is called the "Colorado Civil Rights Initiative," while it would dismantle programs that were put in place for the purpose of assisting groups who have been oppressed by civil discrimination.
Allegations of fraud have been leveled at signature-gathering efforts for Connerly's measure in Colorado. Signature-gatherers for the "Colorado Civil Rights Initiative" reportedly have approached potential signers by asking them whether they oppose discrimination. If a person answers yes, they are then asked to sign a petition that they are told would end legal discrimination in their state. Many people who signed the petition under these conditions were horrified to find out later that they had actually signed on to support a measure that would end their state's affirmative action programs.
Colorado Unity, a coalition of traditional civil rights groups who are fighting Connerly's efforts, said their group received a number of complaints about how the signatures were being collected in Colorado. They reported that they are considering taking Mr. Connerly to court and filing a legal challenge with Mike Coffman, Colorado’s secretary of state. Bill Vandenburg, head of Colorado Unity, reported that Connerly's supporters targeted minority voters by canvassing for signatures at Denver’s Martin Luther King Day march and along light rail routes after presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama spoke at the University of Denver in January.
The Colorado Civil Rights Initiative Committee is headed up by Connerly's aide Diane Schachterle, who serves as director of public affairs at the American Civil Rights Institute, which shares the same Sacramento address as Connerly's American Civil Rights Coalition.
Oklahoma and Missouri
Fraud charges have also been leveled against Connerly's signature-gatherers in Oklahoma, according to the Joplin Globe. Critics of the petition drive in Oklahoma City have accused signature-gatherers of lying or being vague to voters about what they are signing. People, including labor leaders, thought they were signing a petition to protect civil rights, only to discover they actually signed for a measure that would do the opposite. A reader of the paper who had had a personal interaction with a signature-gatherer for the Oklahoma measure described it as follows:
I was approached at the post office here in Missouri week before last for this very same petition. When asked for clarification and additional info the petition holder was very vague in regards to what was being attempted in the petition other than it was to abolish some affirmative action in general. NO SPECIFICS. I didn't sign. The petition did not even contain a header or footer stating its real purpose. I didn't sign.
The Detroit News in 2006 reported that Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick filed a lawsuit against Ward Connerly in which he alleged Connerly engaged in widespread voter fraud to get a proposal to ban affirmative action on Michigan's 2006 ballot. The lawsuit stated that Connerly and his signature-gatherers "obtained signatures from 125,000 black and Latino voters by falsely telling them that the petition supported affirmative action."<Paul Egan Detroit Mayor Sues Over Affirmative Action Ballot Issue The Detroit News, June 22, 2006</ref> Stateline.org reported in 2006 that "Hundreds of witnesses said they had been told the measure would support affirmative action, rather than end it. Some who circulated the petition said they’d also been misled."
Compensation for engaging in anti-affirmative action campaigns
Ms. Magazine in its winter 2008 issue reports that "Connerly has been well compensated for his leadership of the anti-affirmative action crusade. An analysis of IRS filings shows that between 1998 and 2006, Connerly and his business Connerly & Associates received a total of $8.3 million from the two nonprofit organizations he founded in the late 1990s to promote his messages and campaigns -- nearly half of the $17.5 million in total revenues reported in that period by the two nonprofits. In addition to salary and benefits, Connerly receives expense accounts and fees for speaking, media interviews and consulting. In the last reported fiscal year, 2006, he received $1.6 million -- 66 percent of the $2.4 million in revenues his nonprofits generated that year."
Investigation by Congress
The large amounts of money that Connerly has been deriving from his nonprofit organizations may be illegal and has drawn the scrutiny of lawmakers. Federal tax law prohibits nonprofit organizations from enriching individuals or organizations. This law is meant to ensure that tax-exempt organizations serve the public, and not private, interest. Violations can result in the loss of a group's tax-exempt status and monetary penalties.
Connerly's excessive compensation from his nonprofits has drawn the attention of members of the U.S. Congress. In August 2006, Reps. John Conyers (D - Mich.) and Charles Rangel (D - N.Y.) asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate "possible excessive compensation practices ... It appears that [Connerly] may have been paid amounts far greater than the value of any services he may have rendered."
Criticism for Ku Klux Klan comments
Connerly, "who is pushing the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and helped to get similar measures passed elsewhere, was quoted in a documentary examining affirmative action" [making] "comments that appeared to welcome the Ku Klux Klan's support," the Associated Press reported November 5, 2006.
"In a video posted to the Web site YouTube.com, Connerly is shown saying, 'If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right, God bless them. Thank them for finally reaching the point where logic and reason are being applied instead of hate.'"
Connerly "defended his remark, saying he accepts support for banning affirmative action wherever he finds it."
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Katherine Spillar Ward Connerly Using Deceptive 'Civil Rights' Initiatives to Ban Affirmative Action Winter, 2008 issue
- ↑ Dan Frosch Colorado Petition Draws Charges of Deception New York Times, April 1, 2008
- ↑ Reginald Stewart "Antipreference" Diverse Issues in Higher Education, April 1, 2008
- ↑ Blacks unintentionally sign petition to eliminate affirmative action The Daily Voice, April 1, 2008
- ↑ Colorado Secretary of State State Committees Registered as of March 31, 2008 Accessed April 2 2008
- ↑ Malibu Times Pepperdine maintains it has right to offer minority scholarship, January 28, 2004
- ↑ Associated Press Oklahoma: Critics accuse petition gatherers of fraud The Joplin Globe February 21, 2008.
- ↑ Pauline Vu Affirmative action on Michigan ballot Stateline.org, August 29, 2006
- ↑ Associated Press Connerly Criticized for Klan Comments San Francisco Chronicle, November 4, 2006
Articles and other resources
- w:Ward Connerly in the Wikipedia.
- "Connerly Criticized for Klan Comments," Associated Press (San Francisco Chronicle), November 4, 2006.
- Bill Berkowitz, "Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihad: Founder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives", Media Transparency, January 30, 2007.
- Connerly Drops Florida Drive to End Affirmative Action, Ms. Magazine Feminist Newswire Daily News briefs, May 9, 2000.
- Alan Scher Zagier Affirmative action foe Ward Connerly takes barbs at Truman State Associated Press/KansasCity.com, March 28, 2008
Connerly & Associates, Inc.
2215 21st Street
Sacramento, CA 95818
Phone: (916) 456-4784
FAX: (916) 456-7672 Website: http://connerlyandassociates.com/
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June 22, 2011 marked a major shift in the regulatory environment. The SEC adopted rules for implementing the Dodd-Frank Act, yet they did not take these actions unilaterally. These necessary actions substantiate core provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. According to SEC Chairperson Mary L. Schapiro, “These rules will fill a key gap in the regulatory landscape.”
Changes to the Investment Advisers Act
As was mentioned on several occasions in this book, rules are created to interpret legislation passed by Congress. The SEC’s new rules enforced Congress’ legislative intent in passing the Dodd-Frank Act. Many changes to the Investment Advisers Act were authorized by Title IV of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Among other changes, the new rules:
- reallocated oversight of certain mid-sized advisors to state securities regulators;
- made changes to Form ADV and its instructions;
- repealed the private advisor exemption found in section 203(b)(3) of the Investment Advisers Act; and
- provided a new definition of assets under management.
The new rules help the SEC to identify which RIAs must make the transition to state registration.
Impact of Dodd-Frank on Mid-Sized Advisors
The Dodd-Frank Act created a new RIA category referred to as “mid-sized advisors”, and it shifted primary responsibility for regulatory oversight of mid-sized advisors to the states. Mid-sized advisors are defined as those firms with assets under management that range from $25 million to $100 million.
The SEC adopted Rule 203A-5 to ease the transition from SEC to state registration. Mid-sized advisors registered with the SEC as of July 21, 2011, must remain registered with the Commission until January 1, 2012. All advisors registered with the SEC as of January 1, 2012, regardless of size, must file a one-time amendment to their Form ADV no later than March 30, 2012. This filing generally coincides with the advisor’s annual updating amendment filing if their fiscal year ends in December and will require them to update all of the items in Form ADV. Mid-sized advisors no longer eligible for SEC registration must switch to state oversight and withdraw their federal registrations by June 28, 2012. Since Wyoming does not regulate RIAs, an investment advisor with its principal place of business in that state, must be SEC-registered unless the firm is exempt from registration with the Commission.
Before switching from SEC to state registration, however, a mid-sized advisor should refer to the investment advisory laws for that state to determine if the firm is exempt from registration. If the mid-sized advisor is not required to register with the securities regulator of the state in which the firm maintains its place of business, it should remain SEC-registered. Mid-sized advisors should also remain SEC registered if the state in which the firm maintains its principal place of business does not subject advisors to an examination. For example, New York does not currently conduct examinations of advisors, so mid-sized RIAs domiciled in that state must be SEC-registered. It remains to be seen if other states will not be conducting examinations of RIAs.
Rule 203A-2 contains exemptions from the prohibition on SEC registration. The start-up exemption applies to advisory firms who expect to be eligible for SEC registration within 120 days of their registration approval date. There is a multi-state exemption for RIAs required to register in at least 15 states. RIAs in that category may choose to register or remain registered with the SEC.
Rule 203A-1 was adopted to prevent an RIA from being forced to frequently switch between SEC and state registration as the value of its assets under management change. The SEC has set up a buffer zone for mid-sized RIAs with assets under management which rise above or fall below the $100 million threshold. The new rule raised the threshold to $110 million, at which time the advisor must register with the SEC. If an advisor is already SEC-registered, the firm does not need to withdraw its registration until its assets under management fall beneath the $90 million threshold.
Mid-sized advisors eligible for a Rule 203A-2 exemption, along with advisors to a registered investment company or business development company under the Investment Company Act, may not rely on the buffer. Those entities are required to register with the SEC, regardless of the amount of their assets under management. In addition, those advisors that register with the SEC because they expect to have $100 million in assets under management within 120 days may not rely upon the buffer.
Under the new rules, the SEC amended the multi-state advisor exemption to align the rule with the Dodd-Frank requirements. This exemption now permits all investment advisors required to register as an investment advisor with fifteen or more states to register with the SEC. The previous requirement was that the advisor needed to be registered in at least thirty states.
An RIA relying on the multi-state advisor exemption must withdraw from SEC registration when it is no longer required to be registered in at least fifteen states. Advisors are only required to assess their eligibility for SEC registration annually.
As we saw in Differences Between State and SEC Regulation of Investment Advisors, NASAA launched a coordinated review program on November 29, 2011, easing the transition process for RIAs switching from SEC to state registration. The program is available to SEC-registered investment advisory firms who must switch to state registration in four to fourteen states.
Regulatory Assets under Management
The new Form ADV instructions refer to “regulatory assets under management,” instead of the traditional term, “assets under management.” Regulatory assets under management include securities portfolios for which RIAs provide continuous and regular supervisory or management services.
Assets must be included in the calculation, even if they are:
- family or proprietary assets;
- assets managed without compensation of any kind; or
- assets of foreign clients.
Revised instructions to Form ADV require an RIA to calculate its regulatory assets under management on a gross basis. An RIA may not deduct any unpaid outstanding loans or other accrued liabilities. An RIA should not deduct securities purchased on margin when calculating regulatory assets under management. The SEC’s rationale is that it does not matter if a client has borrowed money for purchasing a portion of the regulatory assets under management.
The SEC’s intent was to provide a uniform method for calculating assets under management to maintain consistency for registration purposes and risk assessment. Using a uniform method for calculating assets under management prevents RIAs from excluding assets in order to avoid registration or to remain state registered. In addition, the uniform method is intended to prevent inconsistent application of the Investment Advisers Act to RIAs managing the same amount of assets.
When the SEC implemented its new rules, they also revised the Form ADV instructions. RIAs must now provide the specific number of employees who are IARs or licensed insurance agents, whereas in the past, Form ADV required RIAs to select from a range of numbers. RIAs must also report the number and types of clients receiving advisory services. An approximate number of clients is acceptable if the firm has over 100 clients, and the approximate number of clients who are not United States persons must be reported.
There are new categories for business development companies, other investment advisers, and insurance companies. The RIA must answer questions regarding the types of clients it advises, specify the percentage each client type comprises in relation to the total number of clients, and report the approximate percentage of regulatory assets under management attributed to each client type.
As a result of the SEC’s new rules, pension consultants may be forced to transition from SEC to state registration. Only pension consultants providing investment advice to plans with assets exceeding $200 million may remain SEC-registered. Until now, a pension consultant was permitted to be SEC-registered if it provided investment advice to plans with $50 million or more in assets.
Family offices are entities established by affluent families for wealth-management and other services to members of the family. Historically, family offices were not required to register with the SEC, because there was an exemption provided to investment advisors with fewer than fifteen clients. This fifteen client exemption was repealed, so that the SEC could regulate hedge fund and other private advisors. Under the new rules, however, certain family offices still do not need to be registered as investment advisors.
A family office will be excluded from registration under the Investment Advisers Act if it:
- is wholly owned by family clients and is exclusively controlled by family members and/or family entities;
- does not hold itself out as an investment advisor to the public; and
- only provides investment advice to “family clients” as defined by the rule.
Generally, the term “family members” includes all lineal descendants of a common ancestor who are no more than ten generations removed from the youngest generation of family members. Lineal descendants include adopted children, stepchildren, foster children of a common ancestor, and descendants’ spouses or spousal equivalents. The family office is also permitted to advise key employees, charities, and certain family trusts, without losing its exemption from registration.
Those family offices not qualifying for the exclusion must register with either the SEC or the appropriate state securities regulator by March 30, 2012.
Hedge Funds and Private Equity Funds
As previously noted, advisors to hedge funds and private equity funds were entitled to a registration exemption if they had fewer than fifteen clients or funds and did not hold themselves out as investment advisers. These formerly-exempt advisors have until March 30, 2012, to register with the SEC, and the application must be filed by February 14, 2012, allowing forty-five days to review it.
The SEC also revised Form ADV instructions guiding advisors of private funds in determining their regulatory assets under management. The following steps must be taken by the advisor.
- The firm must include the value of any private fund over which it exercises continuous and regular supervisory or management services.
- The firm must include the amount of any uncalled capital commitments made to a private fund managed by the adviser.
- The firm must utilize the market value of private fund assets or the fair value of private fund assets where market value is unavailable.
This third instruction prevents an investment advisor from electing to value its assets based on their cost, which is likely to be lower than valuing assets based on their market value. As previously mentioned, the advisor must use the fair value of fund assets where market value is not available.
Amendments to Form ADV are intended to gather detailed information from advisors of private funds. This information includes conflicts of interest and identification of key service providers.
There were three new exemptions from registration created for advisors of private funds. These exemptions apply to:
- advisors solely to venture capital funds;
- advisors that only give advice to private funds with less than $150 million in assets under management; and
- certain foreign advisors that have no place of business in the U.S.
The first two groups in this list are referred to as exempt reporting advisors. Even though they are not required to register with the SEC, exempt reporting advisors are subject to strict reporting, recordkeeping, and other compliance obligations. Although exempt reporting advisors file the same Form ADV as RIAs, they only need to respond to certain items and questions. Exempt reporting advisors must file their first Form ADV between January 1, 2012 and March 30, 2012.
The Big Picture
Cost of compliance plays a major role in decisions made by advisory firms. In situations where an RIA has the ability to choose between state or SEC registration, the firm may try to anticipate which regulatory oversight will be less burdensome. For example, some state securities regulators are conducting examinations of RIAs registered in that state, but do not have an office there. Historically, the state where an RIA has its principal place of business conducts any examinations that occur. If an RIA may be subject to examinations by some or all of the states in which it is registered, the firm may choose SEC registration if it qualifies for the multi-state advisor exemption.
Conversely, if regulatory oversight of SEC-registered investment advisors becomes oppressive, a firm might choose to remain state registered for as long as possible. It might even turn down clients if their assets will make the difference between state and SEC registration.
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(UPI) -- A shortfall of 100,000 U.S. primary care doctors is expected by 2020, mainly because the pay is about half that of specialists, a non-profit group said.
New doctors soon learn specialties offer higher pay -- primary care doctors make about $212,840, compared with $384,467 for specialists -- greater stature and shorter hours, not to mention making it easier to cover educational debt, the Medical Group Management Association calculated.
Dr. Daniel Podolsky, president of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said the medical school does not broach the issue of physician shortages, but medical students hear about it, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Podolsky said his medical school served many missions, which included not only primary care doctors but medical researchers and subspecialists that were in short supply, but the students make the choices for their career path.
Dr. Troy Fiesinger, president of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, recommended sending students into rural areas for a month or two early in medical school.
"We have to get them out of the big hospitals and into communities where we need doctors," he told The Morning News. "Without them, there's going to be a huge strain on our healthcare system."
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In this edition, we focus on communities in Southern California trying to better themselves and the health of their residents. First up, correspondent Vince Gonzales goes to the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights to see what people are doing to curb the great amount of pollution caused by nearby factories, freeways and railroads. More than an environmental issue, residents and researchers see it as a matter of environmental justice.
Next, Angie Crouch looks at the lack of green space in Los Angeles, one of the most park poor cities in the country.
Finally, as part of our ongoing series on elder care, Your Turn to Care, we highlight a group of volunteers that are part of the "village" movement and discover how they are assisting senior citizens.
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MINOT, N.D. — The flooding Souris River appears to be leveling off in Minot.
National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Ayd says only slight changes in the river's level are expected Sunday. He says a storm that hit Minot on Saturday night had little effect.
Ayd says a river crest may not be declared until late Sunday.
Early Sunday the river was less than 7 feet above major flood stage. The river's levels didn't change during the night by more than fractions of an inch.
North Dakota National Guard soldiers are monitoring a submerged pedestrian bridge to make sure it doesn't break loose in the river channel.
Guard commander David Sprynczynatyk says the bridge has been trapping debris and could harm nearby levees. If it comes loose, soldiers will remove it.
© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Could someone please advice.
I do some light gym work and I am a novice at moutain hill climbing. My friend and I did a 10 mile treak around Pen-y-Fan Horshoe route in Brecon Beacons - there are four peaks and teh highes is PenyFan at around 2900 feet. I had a backpack on about 7-9 pounds in weight
Going up was fine apart from having to stop to get my breath and legs being heavy but made it and thoroughly enjoyed the trek.
I do not use any poles although seen a lot of people on this walk with them.
On the way down I guess I was using the same lead leg and looking back now after some reviews, I think I may have been bit heavy on the feet on the way donw, not sure.
I have never had any knee injury and as I say the ascent was fine. The problem began on the way down which is rather steep in that my right knee began to ache and it was aching initially on the outside. From what I have read, it sounds like it could be the Iliotibial band (IBT) problem)
Anyway I tried altering my lead leg, tried going sides ways but the pain was still there.
As time went on, the pain in the right knee was complete (describe later) it then began in the left nad knee starting at the outside.
The trek was 10.5 miles for 7 hours.
By the end, it was extremely painful to even walk down any descent, I was almost hobbling with the pain on every step. If I stopped and stood still, there was no ache or pains, it only began once I began to descend again, knee after knee!
The feeling of the pain was asif it was then inside, all I can describe it as a feeling of, one can imaging like to upside down capital T together, I mean as if its bone on bone with teh pain feeling radiating inside but started from the outside.
There is no swelling, no pain on the knee cap, no problem squatting or kneeling. If I press on the nobbly bit on the outside of each knee, I can feel a tender bit but not as painful as it was.
A few days later, I am as if nothing has happened apart from I can just about feel the slight pain beginning as I walk down a few flights of stairs.
On searching google, there seems to be a lot of comments on runners knee and painful knees on descending but they then talk about all these fancy knee problems that leave me stunned as to what my problem was
Would anyone have any idea as to what my problem was with my description. Any tips on what I can do to try to stop or minimise this from happening again?
Thansk in advance
PS thE views were fantastic as the weather was really good
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Just an hour into the opening session of IBM Connect in Florida and Kathy Brown let out a sigh.
Company executives and Hollywood actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt were singing the praises of social media in the workplace but, for Brown, something just wasn't right.
Then, in plain sight, it hit her. The images on the stage's backdrop. She was blunt on Twitter: "2 Female 'characters' on background. Both wore skirts and one had a pink phone. Really!?"
Later, she tweeted: "Make that 3."
And then: "Finally a woman shown in pants. Tight ones. With her ass facing the crowd."
"That's not how women have to be depicted," said Brown, an IT consultant and Lotus and BlackBerry developer, the following day.
"I'm not saying don't have a woman up there [on screen]," she added. "I'm saying just think about it. Is this making the women look like they don't know what they are talking about?"
A member of Nerd Girls, a networking group for women who work with IBM's Lotus software, Brown is encouraging change in the way women are perceived across the industry.
According to the group, women in IT face challenges that are in your face, alternatively subtle, or barely noticed by anyone except those on the receiving end. Yet they are real.
Francie Tanner, a technical director for software company Panagenda, said she'd been mistakenly identified as a "booth babe" when attending conferences.
"The individual stories are all the same," Tanner said of her female colleagues. "Being the odd man - or woman - out. We have to try a little harder. We have to show up and sit down in the middle of the boys and say 'Here I am.'"
Gabriella Davis runs a London-based IT consultancy with her husband. At client meetings she's been mistaken for a note-taker rather than a potential project's lead contact. The "assistant", it turns out, is often her husband.
"Men [often] find it very uncomfortable to see another man working as my assistant," Davis said. "[Being female] does require having a level of confidence that a lot of men don't need to have. You cannot doubt yourself. You cannot for one second think you are not the authority in the room."
It's important to note that IBM announced Brown, Tanner and Davis as "champions" at this year's Connect conference in Orlando, Florida. Their industry authority is as real as some of the misperceptions about them. The Nerd Girl network formed in 2008 at an IBM Lotusphere event when conference organisers - women - noticed the gender split and encouraged the group's development by inviting the women to host sessions and panels.
The group now exists through LinkedIn and Twitter and hosts Skype chats. It has seen the end of booth babes at conferences (exhibitors at the event signed a contract banning the use of models) and witnessed Nerd Girl merchandise prove popular among male and female attendees.
"It doesn't take much encouragement," said Davis. "Nerd Girls is not about gender, it is about celebrating differences. Just be fair and not diminishing and demeaning."
Last November, the chief of Australia's agency for Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace, Helen Conway, said technology firms needed to do more for women. She said the industry also needed to combat the popular perception that it offered a working environment that, while not actively hostile, could be tacitly unwelcoming to women.
The New York-based writer attended the event in Florida as a guest of the company.
- FFX Aus
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CHULA VISTA Now is the time for Chula Vista homeowners to take advantage of what remains of a federal grant that can help them pay for home energy upgrades.
The city of Chula Vista in 2009 received a three-year grant from the federal government to promote upgrades that would make homes more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The funds for the city’s Home Upgrade, Carbon Downgrade program expire this summer, said Chula Vista Environmental Resources Manager Brendan Reed.
The program contained three primary components:
• A rebate program with local appliance stores for high-efficiency appliances.
• A local home retrofit incentive to nearly match state incentives provided by Energy Upgrade California.
• Zero-interest revolving loans for homeowners who still couldn’t afford to pay for energy upgrades even with the incentive.
The city has given out more than 2,500 appliance rebates, provided retrofit incentives for 213 homes and loaned money to 11 homeowners seeking upgrades. Although the rebate program and the loan program are tapped out, Reed said, limited grant money remains for the retrofit incentive.
“This is the best opportunity to get the most incentive amount,” he said. “This is the time. We’re coming to the end. This is it. The program, regardless of how much money we have left, will be ending this summer.”
To push home energy upgrades, the city collaborated with Community HousingWorks to purchase an average home in Chula Vista, before partnering with Consol and San Diego Gas & Electric to lead a team in giving it an energy overhaul. Residents were then invited to periodic open houses at the showcase home, so they could see up close some of the options for improving home energy use.
Saturday was one of the last opportunities for residents to tour it before it is sold. The final viewing is scheduled for June 26.
The home showcases everything from solar panels and a high-efficiency heating system to insulation, air, attic and duct sealing. It also features double-paned windows, Energy Star-qualified appliances and LED lighting throughout, along with a couple of surprises: bamboo flooring and recycled glass countertops.
“A lot of folks played a role in the home, and the idea was to really make home energy upgrades visible and tangible and give an opportunity for residents to kick the tires,” Reed said. “It’s hard to imagine some of these things until you’re in the home, see the different technologies and then it’s a little more translatable to that person’s home.”
The showcase house has proved a great marketing tool, said Bob Coleman, associate program manager of Better Buildings for the California Center for Sustainable Energy. His organization has taken leadership of leading tours and informing visitors about the various resources available to them for their own home energy assessments and upgrades.
“This particular house was done in a way that is reasonable and affordable for most people to do, as far as the energy efficiency side of it,” Coleman said. “Generally somebody doesn’t live in a house and do everything at once. People of normal means don’t have the kind of resources to do that. This is a good demonstration of what people with typical means could do, progressively of course.”
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As I understand it, the target market is people who will spend a lot of money on a grill and like nice toys - the type of people who shop at places like frontgate.com. The target market by-and-large consider themselves good cooks (at least outdoors), but that does not mean they use a scale; they probably don't bake much if any. They probably have all sorts of nice cookbooks. If they like pizza, maybe they have the A16 cookbook which like just about all the others gives volumetric measurements only. The vast majority of people simply don't scale ingredients. Look how many people come here having never used a scale for making pizza - sure many learn better once they get here, but they have to get here first.
I know what you're saying, Craig, and you're probably right in a lot of ways. In fact, you're talking about someone I know.
But take a trip back in time, to when you first started using a scale and bakers' percents, or when you first understood how much better and easier it was to use a scale instead of measuring cups.
It was a revelation, right?
Knowing what you know now, is there any reason why you would ever choose to measure your dough ingredients by volume rather than weight, as long as you have a scale available to use? How about everyone else? Would y'all ever choose to make pizza dough without a scale if you had one available?
Why or why not?
Similarly, would you put cornmeal in your deep dish dough? Or would you tell someone they should put cornmeal in their deep dish dough? Why or why not? It's almost the same thing.
Regular people need to know that the way they measure ingredients for baked goods is a bad way of measuring, and that it takes more work only to achieve less precise results. But they're never going to know if people like us keep letting it slide.
We can tell them how to do it the right way or we can tell them how to do it the wrong way. If we keep telling them the wrong way, even though we would never consider going back to doing it the wrong way ourselves, they're never gonna learn, and we will have passed on a chance to give them something valuable that no one else will give them.
Bert, please go buy a scale and experience the revelation.
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(As race) X-Men #107 (1977)
Aerie, Shi’ar Galaxy
The Shi'ar have advanced technology which allows them to travel through space on a vast scale, light speed transportation, teleportation technology, light based energy technology, hologram technology, cloaking technology, and Stargate space-warping technology that allows for instantaneous travel between galaxies. They also have advanced robotics, genetic, medical, and sentient technology.
Adult Shi'ar typically range from between 5 to 8 feet tall. They are bilaterally symmetric, with two legs and arms terminating with feet and hands respectively. Shi'ar hands have four independently moving fingers with opposable thumbs. Shi'ar has heads with two forward facing eyes, giving them precise stereoscopic vision. Shi'ar typically is covered in short tufts of feathers over some parts of their bodies but exhibit thicker tufts of feathers on their elbows and on top of their heads. The average Shi'ar can also lift approximately 1 ton, are slightly denser giving them enhanced durability, and endurance.
Since no Earth human except for Major Christopher Summers has ever piloted a spacecraft to the Shi’ar Galaxy, its exact location remains unknown. It is, however, believed to exist within the area of space containing the galaxy known on Earth as M-31 (Andromeda Galaxy). The Shi’ar now control all known inhabited worlds within their galaxy. Their principal rivals for control of the galaxy were the Mephitisoids who are now fully under Shi’ar domination. The Shi’are Empire is relatively young compared to those of the Kree and Skrulls, for the Shi’ar achieved control of their entire galaxy comparatively recently, and their empire is still in its main expansionist stage. Deathbird and the large Shi’ar military complex are both in favor of expanding Shi’ar rule into other galaxies, although during her short reign Lilandra Neramani proved to be a moderating influence on such ambitions. The recent changes in the possession of the Shi’ar throne, however, as well as the process of adjusting to governing a galaxy-wide empire have kept the Shi’ar too occupied with internal affairs to pursue further conquests.
The Kree, Shi’ar, and Skrull Empires are three major interstellar empires in the known universe. The Shi’ar have diplomatic relations with both the Kree and Skrulls, and due to the great distance between galaxies and the age-old hatred between Kree and Skrulls, have managed to avoid wars with them.Imperial Guard, comprised of specially powered beings from throughout the Empire, act as enforcers of Imperial Law. An elite corps of the Guard protects and carries out the personal directives of the majestor or majestrix. A much larger division, called the Borderers, aids governors of conquered worlds in enforcing Shi’ar law on those worlds. The Shi’ar has an enormous interstellar fleet, used for military and exploratory purposes. Non-Shi’ar from loyal worlds was allowed to serve in the space fleet in positions below command levels. Members of conquered races that are regarded as primitive or of dubious loyalty are often used as slaves. Rebel leaders are consigned with criminals to “slave pits”.
The eldest living heir to the Shi’ar throne was the female known as Deathbird who had been exiled for the crime of regicide. The throne went to her next oldest sibling, D'Ken Neramani who proved to be insane and nearly destroyed the universe with M’krann Crystal. His younger sister, Lilandra, then grand admiral of the imperial fleet, opposed him, and civil war erupted. Lilandra next ascended the throne, but was deposed in a coup led by Deathbird aided by the Badoon and the Brood. The High Council was dissolved, and most of its members killed. Deathbird now rules alone.
Shi’ar technology is extraordinary advanced. Besides their advanced warp-drive starships, the Shi’ar can travel instantaneously between even galaxies using a space-warping device called the Stargate, which demands, however, far more energy than warp-drive starships.The Shi’ar have known of Earth for many years and have secretly stationed observers there ever since it became widely known that it lay at a cross-roads for hyperspatial routes within the Milky Way Galaxy and between that galaxy and those of the Kree, Shi’ar, and Skrulls. The Shi’ar tends to regard Earth humans as primitives, but some Shi’ar have begun to alter that opinion due to contact with Earth’s X-Men. Former majestrix Lilandra has even taken an Earth human, Charles Xavier as her consort.
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PWSA to implement new fees for fire-suppression system
Share with others:
Starting next year, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority expects to boost revenue by more than $200,000 annually by billing customers for special water lines used for fire-suppression systems.
About 1,000 buildings, including those used by universities and hospitals, are among those to be charged the fee, Jim Good, the authority's interim executive director, said after a board meeting Friday.
About 95 percent will be charged $17 per line per month, while others with especially big buildings will pay more because larger lines are required to serve them, Mr. Good said. The authority adopted the fee in 2006, but never implemented it, he said.
The fee is for water lines that run between the authority's main and fire-suppression systems in customers' buildings.
For the next three years, half of the money collected through the fee will go to Chicago-based Veolia Water North America, the management firm retained in July to improve the authority's operations and finances.
Under the authority's contract with Veolia, the firm receives $150,000 a month, a portion of extra revenue or savings it identifies for the agency and additional, one-time payments for meeting "key performance indicators." Mr. Good, a Veolia employee, discovered the "fire line" fee wasn't being implemented.
Customers already have been notified of the fee and will be sent a reminder before year's end. While some have asked questions about the fee, Mr. Good said, none have complained.
The board approved a list of seven key performance indicators for Veolia.
The indicators focus on capital projects, communication, customer service improvements, compliance, finance, safety and leadership and training.
If Veolia meets all of the goals in each category, it would receive a one-time payment of $450,000.
"These are really critical, core components of what as an authority we want to do," city Councilman Patrick Dowd, an authority board member, said.
"We want a more responsive authority."
Another board member, Robert Jablonowski, said the accountability push was one of the best initiatives he had seen at the agency in more than five years.
The board retained Veolia after a string of controversies related to finance, personnel and storm-water management.
Mr. Good praised authority workers for the work they did in advance of Hurricane Sandy -- including the cleaning of catch basins repeatedly blamed for flooding in eastern neighborhoods.
First Published November 10, 2012 12:00 am
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Management of the Navigation Aids Network
- Tabled Date:
- Tuesday 17th June 2003
- Report Number:
- Transport and Regional Services
- Australian Maritime Safety Authority
The audit reviewed the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's management of the navigation aids network, which is an important factor in shipping safety. The objectives of the audit were to determine whether AMSA's management of the network provides for the strategic needs of marine navigation in Australian waters, and whether AMSA's management was efficient and effective. The audit focused on AMSA's strategic planning, the management of revenue and expenditure to support the network, its contract management practices, and its accountability and performance reporting arrangements.
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Most Christians don’t even know this, but though Gentile Christians, we do have dietary commands that we are to follow. They are most decidedly scant, which is all the more shame that most Christians don’t even know them, much less concern themselves with keeping them. God gave to Noah one dietary command for His people to keep which was reiterated by the apostles:
“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” Genesis 9:3,4
“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or eating the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.” (Acts 15:28, 29)
What’s off the diet:
1) Food offered to idols. Hardly a problem in this day and time.
2) Eating blood.
3) Eating the meat of stangled animals.
I know this will be a hard blow to those of you who like their meat cooked somewhat rare, but God doesn’t want us eating blood. Honoring God is definitely more important than our meat preferences. If what you like out of rare meat is having moist, juicy food, there are other ways of having moist meat than leaving it bloody. Some ideas include: using meat tenderizer or a good marinade, using some good sauce like steak sauce or barbecue sauce, or getting more tender cut of meat. Always put God first in every aspect of your life and He will bless you. God bless. Rachael
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Have a Dining Etiquette Question?
Submit it to us through our contact us page.
The Etiquette Scholar blog answering you dining etiquette questions.
Saving Money Dining Out
Is there a pricey restaurant that you have always wanted to visit but have not because you think you cannot afford it? Take heart. Chances are you can if you employ these money-saving tips.
Visit the restaurant for lunch because the cost of that meal in most establishments is approximately two-thirds that of the dinner price.
Take advantage of early-bird specials.
Have your cocktails and postprandial drinks at home because alcohol can increase the cost of a meal by 50 percent.
Remember this German proverb: "He who keeps his eyes shut must open his purse." Before sitting down, scrutinize the menu and query the maitre d'. You may discover, for example, that the cut-rate fixed-cost meal limits you to a hackneyed table d'hote dinner such as cream pea soup, roast chicken, and vanilla ice cream. Dishes of more than routine interest in this type of restaurant usually require surcharges.
Unless you want a full meal, you are better off ordering ala carte than table d'hote. The latter is no bargain when, for instance, you would normally have skipped the soup or dessert. Besides, the difference in price between ordering the table d'hote special and the identical items on the a la carte list is sometimes so negligible that the saving does not justify your sacrificing freedom of choice. Occasionally the saving is nonexistent. I've seen menus where thetally ofthe ala carte items is less than the ballyhooed table d'hote price.
If the restaurant has a hefty bread-and-butter charge, ask if this supplemental cost would be waived if the waiter removed the bread and butter from the table. Many restaurants acquiescethough, admittedly, some do it more gracefully than others.
Ifyou are willing to forfeit gastronomic variety, it is possible to eat in most luxury restaurants for a relative pittance. I've seen corporate presidents spend only ten dollars ordering a hamburger and a cup of coffee in the exclusive 21 Club, where dinners average about fifty dollars per person. Luncheon salads and omelettes are among the other comparatively low-priced items that are frequently available in deluxe restaurants. A more creative alternative is to order something kooky, such as a plain baked potato accompanied by a glass of dry Madeira garnished with a carrot stick. The waiter, thinking you are on a trendy new diet, will probably not even bat an eyelash.
If you can't afford the food but want to experience the ambiance of a famous restaurant, drop by for a cocktail.
Should you be hosting someone in a high-price restaurant and your guest is eyeing the exorbitant filet mignon, casually steer him or her in the right direction by casually remarking, "I understand the sole is great here."
When comparing prices of restaurants of equal quality, take into consideration portion size. One trick of the trade is to serve abnormally small amounts. By slicing the apple pie into seven rather than the traditional six slices, restaurateurs increase their revenue on that item by 17 percent. By cutting the pie into eight parts, they augment their apple-pie sales income by 33 percent without spending an extra penny.
Ethnic restaurants, for the most part, are well suited for dollarwatching diners. While establishments featuring classic Japanese, French, or Northern Italian cuisines can be prohibitively costly, those serving cuisines such as Chinese, Indian, Mexican, and Southern Italian should not scuttle too many budgets.
Some people practice an even less expensive way of eating out. They graze the mobbed bars that offer free hors d'oeuvres (not exactly a dietitian's dream) without buying a drink. Then there is the professional dining companion who is always quick to accept an invitation but slow to reciprocate.
- Mike Lininger, Editor, Etiquette Scholar
If you find any typographical errors, inaccuracies, or inconsistencies, or if you just have something to add, please email us.
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You are herecontent / Obama's Base Pact With Columbia Accelerates "Dangerous Trend"
Obama's Base Pact With Columbia Accelerates "Dangerous Trend"
OBAMA’S BASE PACT WITH COLOMBIA ACCELERATES “DANGEROUS TREND”
By Sherwood Ross
The Obama administration’s pact to use seven Colombian military bases accelerates “a dangerous trend in U.S. hemispheric policy,” an article in The Nation magazine warns.
The White House claims the deal merely formalizes existing military cooperation but the Pentagon’s 2009 budget request said it needed funds to improve one of the bases in order to conduct “full spectrum operations throughout South America” and to “expand expeditionary warfare capability.”
“With a hodgepodge of treaties and projects, such as the International Law Enforcement Academy and the Merida Initiative, Obama is continuing the policies of his predecessors, spending millions to integrate the region’s military, policy, intelligence and even, through Patriot Act-like legislation, judicial systems,” writes historian Greg Grandin, a New York University professor.
Although much of Latin America is in the vanguard of the “anti-corporate and anti-militarist global democracy movement,” Grandin writes, the Obama administration is “disappointing potential regional allies by continuing to promote a volatile mix of militarism and free-trade orthodoxy in a corridor running from Mexico to Colombia.” Grandin’s article in The Nation’s February 8th issue is titled, “Muscling Latin America.”
The fountainhead of this effort is Plan Colombia, a multibillion-dollar U.S. aid package that over the past decade “has failed to stem the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States,” Grandin says, noting that more Andean coca was synthesized into cocaine in 2008 than in 1998.
Underlying the anti-drug fight, however, is a counterinsurgency struggle for control of “ungoverned spaces” via a “clear, hold and build” sequence urged by the U.S. military to weaken Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces(FARC). The Bush White House condoned the right-wing paramilitaries who, along with their narcotraficante allies “now control about 10 million acres, roughly half of the country’s most fertile land,” Grandin reports. They also spread terror in the countryside and are responsible for many killings and for driving peasants from their land.
Grandin reports that the paras “have taken control of hundreds of municipal governments, establishing what Colombian social scientist Leon Valencia calls ‘true local dictatorships,’ consolidating their property seizures and deepening their ties to narcos, landed elites and politicians.”
What’s more, “The country’s sprawling intelligence apparatus is infiltrated by this death squad/narco combine, as is its judiciary and Congress, where more than forty deputies from the governing party are under investigation for ties to (the right-wing) AUC (United Self Defense Forces).
“Colombia remains the hands-down worst repressor in Latin America,” Grandin asserts. “More than 500 trade unionists have been executed since (Alvaro) Uribe took office. In recent years 195 teachers have been assassinated, and not one arrest has been made for the killings. And the military stands accused of murdering more than 2,000 civilians and then dressing their bodies in guerrilla uniforms in order to prove progress against the FARC.”
Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities fighting paras who have seized land to cultivate African palm for ethanol production have been evicted by mercenaries and the military, Grandin says. “From Panama to Mexico, rural protesters are likewise targeted. In the Salvadoran department of Cabanas,” he observes, “death squads have executed four leaders---three in December---who opposed the Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining Company’s efforts to dig a gold mine in their community.”
Obama could reconsider the Pentagon’s base deal and Plan Colombia, Grandin writes, “But that would mean rethinking a longer, multi-decade, bipartisan, trillion-dollars-and-counting ‘war on drugs,’ and Obama has other wars to extricate himself from---or not, as the case may be.”
“Unable or unwilling to make concessions on these and other issues important to Latin America---normalizing relations with Cuba, for instance, or advancing immigration reform---the White House is adopting an increasingly antagonistic posture,” Grandin explains. He notes that after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Brazil, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Latin Americans to “think twice” about “the consequences” of engagement with Iran. An Argentine diplomat responded, “The Obama administration would never talk to European countries that way.”
(Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based publicist who formerly reported for the Chicago Daily News and worked as a columnist for wire services. Reach him at firstname.lastname@example.org)
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Concepts and prototypes : Austin Allegro
Some photos taken during the Allegro’s development…
Harris Mann sketch shows, perhaps, how it was always meant to be: the car here is sleek, characterful and good looking.
Before ADO67 became a fully-fledged project, this facelifed ADO16 was investigated. There was a revised Hydrolastic suspension system under development for ADO16, but this was cancelled by the Leyland management after the takeover of 1968. This car would have clothed the revised mechanicals.
Different frontal treatments were investigated for ADO67 - the left-hand option was abandoned infavour of that on the right. Would the quad-headlight arrangement have worked better? You decide.
|Alternative frontal treatment for the Allegro GT model. Did the 1750 version (with a single carb) deserve the “GT” badge? Austin obviously thought not.
||The grille on this 1970 mock-up was solid because the intention was for the Allegro to have its radiator side mounted, like the Mini and ADO16.
The most infamous item from the Series 1 Allegro was the Quartic steering wheel: George Turnbull insisted that this David Bache creation should be added to the new small Austin (as drawn by Paul Hughes).
Full-size clay model from 1969 shows how the two- and four-door versions would look.
The finished article.
This is ADO68/67, an Allegro-based coupe proposal produced for project Condor in 1970.
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Tasmania's police force has taken the unusual step of asking the public to stop alerting it to every "abusive or harassing" comment posted to Facebook or other social media sites.
The force said it was "increasingly receiving complaints" about material posted to the sites.
However, it sought to clarify that "the use of technology to undertake some conduct does not in itself create an offence".
"If the conduct complained of would not amount to an offence if it occurred off-line, then it is not an offence simply because in a particular instance it was undertaken with the aid of digital technology," the department noted.
"For example, complaints have been received about comments posted on Facebook which are abusive or harassing. If this behavior occurred in a public place it would not be a reportable offence.
"It is not the role of Tasmania Police to censor internet content."
Acting inspector Luke Manhood urged the public to lodge complaints directly with Facebook.
"Police should be contacted only where the content relates directly to a crime," he said.
Copyright © iTnews.com.au . All rights reserved.
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Gutting Public Education: Neoliberalism and the Politics of Opportunism
Friday 25 June 2010
by: Anthony DiMaggio, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
America's political and economic elites have declared a war on working, middle-class and poor Americans. Now that war is coming to a head with the draconian cuts in education, among other vital services, under the economic recession. Progressive critics of Republicans and Democrats have attacked the return of "Hooverian economics" in recent years - understood as the do-nothing approach to dealing with the economic crisis and declining state budgets. Political officials stubbornly refuse to either raise taxes or increase federal or state spending, so as to stimulate economic demand and fill in annual state deficits, at a time when the private sector is unable to produce an economic recovery. Keynesian government spending - which aims at stimulating economic demand during times of recession and depression - has received support at one level or another from most economists, but has become taboo at a time when officials worship at the altar of "budget cuts" and fiscal austerity. Neoliberal policies have long been known to be extremely destructive in less developed countries where they have been implemented for decades. Now, these same policies are appearing in the US and are set to decimate social services along with any lingering economic vitality.
The Hooverian approach should more accurately be classified, not as a "do nothing" approach to dealing with the economy and budgets, but as a "do much against" American workers policy - one that aims at gutting vital social services such as education, health care, police and public transit services, spending for the disabled, and other areas of state services and employment. Quite cynically, subsidies to corporate elites in the form of the 2008 TARP bailout are given urgent priority, while officials speak of the need to "tighten our belts" when it comes to sacrificing access to quality education.
The Obama administration initially responded to the 2008 economic collapse by pushing a $787 billion stimulus package. The initiative helped plug holes in state deficits and stave off mass firings, but it was much weaker than many had hoped, as two-thirds of economists surveyed felt that Obama should have spent more to effectively deal with the crisis. The 2009 stimulus was too meager to fill all the gaps in declining state budgets, although a much larger package may have helped spur economic growth and pull the US out of recession. From 2009 through 2010, the stimulus helped compensate for between 30 to 40 percent of the budget gaps in the states, although it is projected to cover just 20 percent or less over the next fiscal year. Attempts by the Obama administration to push a new stimulus have crashed and burned in Congress, as conservative Democrats and Republicans stymied a recent Senate proposal for a $140 billion package designed to cover aid to states, unemployment benefits and state Medicare shortfalls. The losers in this victory for neoliberalism are the needy throughout the states who are living in poverty or in danger of losing their jobs. The American Association of School Administrators estimates that the number of jobs lost in the next school year from budget cuts (275,000) will roughly equal those originally preserved by the stimulus (300,000).
While the stimulus saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, efforts to "balance budgets" are succeeding in wiping away the progress made. The state of New York is projected to lose nearly 15,000 teachers next year and an additional 2,600 staff in light of the $1.4 billion in planned cuts supported by Governor Patterson. In Illinois, approximately 20,000 teachers will lose their jobs, while Democrats in the state Congress demand fiscal discipline in the name of "efficiency" in government and "low taxes." In total, some 45 states have put in place spending cuts, according to a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). While the organization estimates that 30 states have increased their taxes - either on a more minor or comprehensive level - only eight states bothered to initiate major tax increases in an attempt to cover budget shortfalls.
The CBPP offers what should be a well known truth regarding the recent state budget cuts:
"These cuts," rather than balancing budgets and stabilizing the economy, "have deepened states' economic problems because families and businesses have less to spend ... Cuts to state services not only harm vulnerable residents but also worsen the recession - and dampen the recovery - by reducing overall economic activity. When states cut spending, they lay off employees, cancel contracts with vendors, reduce payments to businesses and nonprofits that provide services and cut benefit payments to individuals. All of these steps remove demand from the economy."
To put this removal of demand into better context, state and local governments have wiped out more than 210,000 jobs since August of 2008, ensuring that those who are unemployed will no longer provide to the tax base and will become far more careful and conservative in their spending in the future. The cuts are also unlikely to balance budgets since the state will continue to lose a major part of its tax base as a result of the mass firings.
Republican officials have tried to obscure the negative economic and social effects of the budget cuts. In Illinois, the Republican Governors Association is spending hundreds of thousands promoting an ad that attacks Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for pushing a one percent income tax increase that the state "can't afford," while simultaneously criticizing the governor for promising job cuts should the tax increase fail. Such hypocrisy demonstrates the contempt in which neoliberal politicians hold for the American people. The state of Illinois already has among the lowest taxes in the Midwest and Republican and Democratic efforts within the state to keep taxes low are directly fueling the mass firings. This reality is obscured, however, in Republican political advertising and propaganda.
In the arena of higher education, the recent budget cuts are merely the latest in a sustained assault on the public university. The shift from majority tenured professors to majority adjunct faculty over the years was no accident; it represented a deliberate policy on the part of university administrators to dismantle basic protections for workers in higher education. As the New York Times reported in 2007, "the shift from a tenured faculty results," among other things, "from financial pressures [of state officials looking to cut education spending budgets]," and "administrators' desire for more flexibility in hiring, firing and changing course offerings." The desire for increased "flexibility," it should be recognized, is a nice way of saying that state employees should be permanently insecure in their jobs.
For those who may reject this depiction of higher ed as melodramatic or conspiratorial, one need look no further than the deteriorating state of academia today. Thirty years ago, nontenured professors accounted for 43 percent of all teachers in higher ed; that number had increased to a startling 70 percent by 2007. Most nontenured professors I've spoken to are forced to scrounge in search of course offerings at multiple institutions. When they manage to find work, they typically are paid within the range of $15,000 to $30,000 a year, despite possessing either a master's degree or Ph.D.
University administrators are able to deceive the public regarding the pitiful pay of adjuncts by deliberately misreporting earning figures. The National Education Association's spring 2010 issue of the Advocate, for example, uncritically prints the figures released by university administrators, claiming that the "average" instructor or lecturer at a college in Illinois makes approximately $46,000 a year (similar numbers are printed for colleges in other states too). Having taught in the Illinois higher education system for the last five years, I can personally testify that, out of the countless instructors I have known, I have never met a single teacher who was paid anything close to that figure. The fact of the matter is that university administrators have been paying adjuncts near poverty wages for years and effectively obfuscating this reality in the numbers they provide to the public.
Tragically, the establishment of adjuncts as a mainstay of the university is just the first stage of the comprehensive plan to destroy public education as we know it. According to a 2005 survey, 53 percent of college presidents openly admit that they want to get rid of tenure altogether. The massive budget cuts across states can be seen as the next step in accomplishing this goal. Since tenured professors are notoriously difficult to fire, adjuncts are inevitably suffering the most from the recent cuts in higher education, as they work for little and are the first to be fired. What few tenured professors remain (in light of the mass firing of adjuncts) are being asked to pick up the slack in terms of increased class sizes. In short, the assault on the last remnants of tenure is well under way.
Tenured and tenure-track professors have been content over the years to go along with the assault on higher ed, failing to recognize that they are the ultimate target of college administrators. Marc Bousquet argues in the Chronicle for Higher Education: "Contrary to the assumptions of most observers, faculty in the [higher education] tenure stream have seriously harmed themselves and the profession by their lazy complicity with the two-tiered system of majority contingent employment. And they foolishly excuse their complicity by assigning blame to any cause but their own failure of responsibility to the profession ... American faculty aren't leftists; they're liberals, deeply influenced by market ideology and fantasies about meritocratic education outcomes. They work in institutions that manufacture and legitimate steep economic inequalities that hamper the progress of other egalitarian commitments in ethnicity and gender." It was only inevitable that this neoliberal system would eventually target the privileged, tenured few who now remain.
The neoliberal agenda is characterized by an open declaration of war on the majority in pursuit of corporate welfare for the few. American politics is increasingly consumed by an obsession with ever increasing military spending (itself a boon for corporate military contractors), pursued alongside promises of tax cuts for the rich that inevitably eviscerate budgets for social welfare spending. National and state governments set aside trillions every year for the wealthy in the form of patent protections for pharmaceuticals, agribusiness subsidies, corporate bailouts, and other forms of corporate welfare. These same governments then cry poor when it comes to funding programs such as Medicare and education. Neocolonial foreign wars drive up the debt unsustainably, but it is the average American who is left to suffer when it comes time to fire educators and other state employees.
The situation, thankfully, is not hopeless. There is nothing inevitable about social spending cuts. Chicago's public school students and teachers are proving this in their recent walkout in protest of planned education budget cuts. As recently as last week, Chicago public school teachers picketed in opposition to a city school board plan that would throw out thousands of teachers, while increasing class sizes. Their chants of "yes to need, no to greed" in opposition to neoliberal rollback should serve as inspiration for teachers across the country. After all, the only thing currently standing between public employees and mass unemployment is organization and activism.
This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
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Family-owned LaLonde Equipment Rental reacted quickly to Southern California's slump and is hot on the growth track again.
When a 10-mile stretch of the 405 freeway on the west side of Los Angeles — known as the busiest freeway in the United States — was to be shut down for nearly 60 hours one weekend in July so an overpass could be knocked out, the fear of the whole metropolitan area of L.A. being locked in insufferable gridlock was so great the weekend was called “carmageddon.” Residents were advised to carry water, food and medicine with them if they ventured out that weekend into what was hyped as an apocalyptic event.
So what happened? Everybody stayed home and as a result, the freeways and streets of L.A. were almost empty.
But some of the employees of LaLonde Equipment Rental weren't home — they were on the jobsite. The heavy equipment rental specialist, that offers equipment with operators as well as bare, sent a wheel loader and an excavator to the carmageddon jobsite, arriving 12 hours in advance for inspection. One excavator, armed with a hydraulic breaker, worked on top of the bridge, while a wheel loader placed dirt under the bridge so falling chunks of concrete wouldn't damage the freeway below. The closely watched job — observed by thousands via television and live mini-cam — was pulled off without a hitch, in less time than expected. Monday morning the freeway was open and running normally.
“Carmageddon” was just one of many important jobs in Southern California that LaLonde Equipment Rental played a role in. The company helped update the international terminal at the Los Angeles Airport — which handles more origin and destination flights than any other terminal in the world — as well as helping expand the taxiways on the tarmac outside. It helped plan and build border fences along the U.S.-Mexico border, figuring out how to maneuver large excavators into steep canyons and ravines in terrain so rugged it took a full day just to get a machine in to the area.
Not a lot of people know it exists or how to pronounce its name, but family-owned LaLonde Equipment Rental has grown to become a major player in the ultra-competitive heavy equipment rental scene in California. And during the past few years, when the collapse of the Southern California housing market has been legendary, LaLonde has found a way to adapt and adjust and become one of the region's leading independent equipment rental players, narrowly missing being listed as one of the 100 largest rental companies in North America (it is listed at No. 101).
Now a second-generation rental company run by president Janelle Reusch and her brother Brian LaLonde, vice president, the company has about 80 pieces of earthmoving equipment, ranging from 17,000-pound mini-excavators to 175,000-pound excavators. LER employs 30 full-time operators, and about half of its rentals include operators, a unique niche in today's rental industry. It happened with the “carmageddon” project and it happens on many jobs — customers call and ask for operators because they have a level of experience and expertise that is highly desired.
“Our operators are probably the best in the industry,” says LaLonde. “They are usually better than the employees the contractor has, so our guys stay busy because customers call and request them by name every day. [The contractors on the 405 closure] were doing 12-hour shifts, so they wanted their guy on 12 hours and then have one of our guys, his name is Kirt, on for the other 12 hours.”
“It would have been next to impossible to try to find somebody with those types of skills at night under those conditions,” says Jason Groom, vice president sales/field operations. “That's what makes it unique for us; that's why they come to a company like ours.”
The experience level of the LaLonde operators is a major strength.
“Our average operator has over 30 years of experience and a lot of times they are also out there as a voice for the best application on how to get it done,” says Reusch. The highly skilled and experienced operators are also valuable to LaLonde Equipment because of their ability to represent the company on the jobsite. They essentially act as unofficial sales staff, developing relationships with contractors. The ability to advise and suggest on the best way to do jobs creates trust and an atmosphere of collaboration so that customers not only call back and ask for LaLonde to be present on the next job, but they'll ask for specific operators by name.
Casual conversation on the jobsite often leads to future rentals. “They are not all professional salespeople, but they are there having lunch with the guys,” says LaLonde. “And if someone says, ‘we need a wheel loader, they'll say ‘you want me to call the office and see if we have one available?’”
The presence of skilled operators also helps reduce service calls. LER has eight people in the shop and three mechanics with full-time service trucks. “We like our operators to have their own field trucks and bring extra items with them, so if a hose blows, or some other part needs to be replaced, they have the tools right then and there to change the hose or perform other repairs,” Reusch says.
The operators often bring attachments along that might be needed for a particular job so that additional rentals might develop as the job progresses.
Customers are attracted to LaLonde because of its highly skilled operators, but also because the company buys new equipment and has a relatively young fleet. In an era when many heavy-equipment jobs are done by government agencies, having new or almost-new machines with environmentally compliant engines is a great advantage.
For LaLonde Equipment, having newer equipment also rewards their operators and helps them to be more productive with well-maintained, almost-new equipment with enclosed cabs.
“That was a decision we made a couple of years back,” says LaLonde. “Our goal was to go to the best machines available and in Southern California, that's not very common because everyone has open-ROPS machines. For our employees, over their life, being in an environment that's air-conditioned, not breathing in the dust is going to be that much better for them.”
“We're constantly thinking about that operator in the seat, whether it's our operator or somebody else's operator,” adds Reusch. “What do they want to be comfortable to get the job done and be most productive?”
Although owners LaLonde and Reusch are relatively young, LaLonde Equipment Rental is not the new kid on the block. The company was founded by their parents Rudy and Mary Lou LaLonde in 1966 when Rudy, fresh out of the army, bought his first tractor and began operating the machine himself with a farm-disk attachment, plowing fields to keep the weeds down. He eventually got into grading work and began buying more machines and renting them.
Rudy and Mary Lou LaLonde didn't really want or expect their children to follow them into the equipment business. “They wanted us to be doctors and lawyers,” says LaLonde. “We ended up all coming back and all being in this industry. There are not really a lot of industries like this, it's a unique industry.”
In addition to LaLonde and Reusch taking over the family business, their three brothers — David, Darrin and Michael — are also in the construction business, with David and Darren running a grading company and Michael an equipment dealership.
Brian LaLonde grew up not particularly expecting to be in the equipment rental business. He studied business with a management degree at Loyola Marymount University on the west side of Los Angeles. “I definitely did not think I'd be where I am right now,” he says. “I thought I'd go through my four years at LMU and then interview with some Fortune 500 company and go to work.”
LaLonde graduated, started job-hunting and had a few interviews when the LaLonde Equipment accounts payable person went out on maternity leave. Once she came back, somebody else was taking a leave, so he took that person's spot and then somebody was needed in another area, and LaLonde kept filling in until he learned the whole business.
“I ended up taking everybody's spot and learning the whole business within a year and a half,” he says. “At that point they thought, ‘Maybe we can use him here, he's pretty versatile now.’”
Reusch, on the other hand says she knew for years she'd end up with the company. “I love tractors,” she says. “I love working in a male industry, I have four brothers myself. And there's just something about the competitive nature of construction, and what can you get done and how can you get it accomplished, or can you do it faster, better, more productive? I just love it.”
Reusch, a mother of three girls, also loves “to talk tractors with my daughters and talk about taking down bridges or building roads or just building the community around us.”
Groom, the third part of the LaLonde Equipment Rental management triumvirate, is not a family member but also comes from a construction equipment family.
“My dad didn't really want me to go into the construction business and I started my first two years at junior college studying drafting,” Groom says. “That was going to be my major but it wasn't something I got excited about.”
Soon, however, Groom, working for another equipment company, found he loved operating construction equipment and continued to work as an operator for 15 years. He eventually decided to look for opportunities on the management end and developed a friendship with Brian LaLonde and Reusch and joined the staff, helping develop the company in marketing, sales and field operations. Among the many roles Groom plays with the company is devoting a lot of time to lending his expertise to customers, often playing an advisory role as they figure out the best way to use the equipment and accomplish jobs — what machines, attachments, buckets or breakers to use for particular applications.
LaLonde Equipment's unique niche of specialized inventory also puts them into the position of being providers to their competitors. The national rental companies such as United Rentals, RSC Equipment Rental, Sunstate Equipment and others compete with LER but typically won't have the wide-ranging variety of heavy construction-oriented equipment and will therefore become customers as well. The local Caterpillar dealer sells to LaLonde and also rents from it.
“We're not likely to get into scissorlifts or light towers, at least not at this stage of the game, but we're going to be in our unique niche in that we have over 150 attachments,” LaLonde says. “You can't just get in the excavator business. We have attachments that cost over $100,000, so it takes a lot to build that up and get to where we are.”
The concentration on the specialized segment enables the LaLonde staff to deal with challenges unique to the niche. Some of the challenges faced by heavy-equipment rental specialists are common to other rental companies but more extreme. For example, permits are required on all deliveries because of the size of the delivery trucks, which are not allowed on Southern California freeways during commuting hours. “So often now it's a 7 o'clock meet in the middle of the center median of the freeway, and you have to be able to get the customer what they need when they need it because of closures and other regulations,” says Reusch, referring to situations where being a few minutes late might cause lengthy and costly delays.
Adjusting to recession
If one thinks of heavy construction equipment with an emphasis on home building, operating in the recent recession, one would assume a very difficult stretch of time for any equipment rental company, especially in hard-hit Southern California. However, for LaLonde Equipment, not only did it manage to adjust and find different types of jobs to keep it going, but the recession hit earlier than for most.
“We did have the same decline that everybody else had, being so heavily into housing, but it came early for us because with operated rental, we're the first people that they downsize,” says LaLonde. “A lot of operated rental is in demand when a contractor gets so busy he doesn't have enough personnel, so they go to an operated rental company. So we are early in the curve. We started seeing declines in 2006 and we bottomed out in 2008 and started to improve in 2009.”
Seeing the decline early in the housing construction cycle, LER shifted gears and found increased demand in airport work, freeway construction, ports, bridges and other segments.
With young and aggressive leadership, the LaLonde family is looking ahead to expansion opportunities. Like any relatively small company, LER has to consider if it has staff to manage a new branch plus be able to handle increased service costs.
The company could head north, perhaps to Bakersfield; south to San Diego; or east into the Inland Empire, all areas they are considering. “As we set up new regions, it's all about lowbeds and mechanics,” says LaLonde. Although the company has equipment rented out as far away as Sacramento, about 400 miles to the north, for the most part the company's reach is within Southern California, areas that can be driven to within a couple of hours.
LER also hopes to enlarge and expand the fleet with items such as large compaction rollers, wheeled excavators or other niche product markets. With the economy hopefully in an upswing as far as heavy equipment is concerned and a positive, aggressive management team, LaLonde Equipment Rentals appears to be in good shape for the coming years.
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When the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell filed the brief supporting the court case claiming that healthcare reform is unconstitutional, it was hailed as united opposition by the GOP to Obama’s new healthcare law. However, there were a few names missing from the brief.
McConnell recently filed the brief in Florida federal court. The brief argues that the individual mandate section of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA, is not constitutional. Those who oppose the individual mandate believe that it gives too much power to Congress, allowing them to regulate the activities of the American people.
Happy To Sign
Thirty-one of McConnell’s GOP colleagues agree with filing the brief and were happy to sign their names. However, the remaining GOP members did not feel the same way.
photo credit: jetheriot
“Where, as in this case with respect to the PPACA’s Individual Mandate, Congress legislates without authority, it damages its institutional legitimacy and precipitates divisive federalism conflicts like the instant litigation,” claims those who signed the brief. “The long term harms that the PPACA may do to our governmental institutions and constitutional architecture are at least as important as are the specific consequences of the PPACA.”
The explanations range from obvious to speculative for the GOP members who decided not to sign the brief. Among the abstainers are three members who will not be around next year.
Senator George Voinovich of Ohio is up for retirement and is no willing to become excessively political in his last days. The same may be true for Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, although his office remained mute when asked why he did not sign the brief.
The Senator’s spokesperson, Otto Heck said, “We are not going to be able to talk about that.” When he was asked why not, he simply said, “We just aren’t going to talk about that.“
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Windows 8 has arrived! Some hate it, some love it. Personally, I am an advocate for it. There may be some computers still for sale with Windows 7 preloaded, but the majority now will be loaded with Windows 8. Some people have been scratching their heads as to how to use this OS when they are first greeted by the new Start screen. Did you want a manual for that? Read on past the jump for information on where to get a decent manual…ahem…errr..e-Book. It’s available free…and only for a very limited time!
Now that you have the reader, go get your book: The How-To Geek Guide to Windows 8. Enjoy! Make sure it still is free with a price of $0.00 before “purchasing” it. It should be listed like the photo below:
From the book Description:
Learn Everything About Windows 8 the Easy Way
The How-To Geek Guide to Windows 8 is the book that’s easy enough for anybody to understand,
but covers everything in such detail that serious geeks will find it useful as well.
Microsoft has completely revamped the look and feel of its Windows operating system,
and you’re going to need a guide to help you understand what’s new, different,
and how you can tweak Windows 8 for what you need.
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The revelation last week by Communications, Science and Technology deputy minister January Makamba, in his article published by our sister newspaper, The Guardian on Sunday, as a commentary on an opinion published two weeks ago, is both shocking and appalling.
The minister, in his article, claimed to have authentic and reliable data from the regulator, Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), to back his claims that mobile phone companies have been evading paying taxes for some years now—thanks to a lack of technology to detect their actual revenues.
According to the minister, in the year 2010 mobile phone companies in Tanzania earned $1 billion (Sh1.6trillion), but paid only $1.7 million (Sh2.7 billion) in taxes. But, during the same period, Kenya earned $78.3 million from mobile phone companies, Uganda made $31.3 million while Rwanda collected $14 million nearly ten times what the Tanzania government earned.
If this is the situation, then the public has the right to know why mobile phone service providers are shortchanging the government in paying tax while making trillions of shillings? One would rightly go further and demand to know what measures the government and the Tanzania Revenue Authority have taken to recover the unpaid taxes.
Cellphone service firms are supposed to pay Value Added Tax (VAT) and Corporation Tax for those which have made a profit, plus other taxes as stipulated by the country’s laws. It’s therefore appalling to note that Kenya collected fifty times what Tanzania did from mobile phone companies as taxes in 2010.
As the deputy minister put it, “Surely, you could argue that Kenya’s economy is bigger than ours, but Rwanda - a much smaller economy compared to ours and with only two mobile companies - collected more than what Tanzania earned.”
When you consider that the total number of mobile phone subscribers in Tanzania is far bigger than the population of Rwanda, which has about 11.5 million people, it is an insult to our intelligence to make us believe the country could collect more taxes from the mobile phone service subsector than we did.
It is estimated that Tanzania has about 15 million mobile phone subscribers, though some statistics show that the number could actually be closer to 20 million.
This, coupled with the fact that there are seven (not two) telecom companies operating in the country, namely Vodacom, Airtel, Tigo, Zantel, TTCL, Sasatel and Benson Informatics, it is pretty obvious that the government is getting a raw deal from the firms in terms of tax revenue.
The number of Rwanda’s total mobile users was 4.4 million by February, this year, barely a fifth of the number of users in Tanzania, but still garnered more taxes from its mobile phone operators than Tanzania.
Something must be seriously wrong somewhere – which calls for urgent and effective measures to curb this massive tax evasion in the mobile industry. It defies logic and morally rubs the wrong way for anybody who earns $1 billion to pay the government peanuts in taxes.
It might be a tax paradox to some people, but to us it’s just another one of those fishy deals which have been rocking this country for so many years. The public demands full explanation from TRA about why mobile companies have been taking the government for a ride when it comes to tax payment.
To be fair to all, including the mobile phone companies, we call upon the government to form a special committee to investigate these allegations so that, at the end of the day, fairness and justice is done.
The industry should be thoroughly investigated by an independent body, formed either by the government or the National Assembly, in order to establish the truth about the tax dues from these companies.
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Best Known For
Believe it or not, comedian Andy Kaufman was banned from Saturday Night Live, but beloved for his portrayal of Latka Gravas on the sitcom Taxi.
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Born in New York City on January 17, 1949, Andy Kaufman began performing at age 8. His later stand-up routine was unorthodox, but it caught the attention of Hollywood, and he was soon appearing on TV, including on a new show called Saturday Night Live, Van Dyke and Company, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show, The Dating Game and the comedy show Fridays. In 1979, Kaufman made a now-famous appearance in a show at Carnegie Hall,
after which he arranged for the entire audience of 2,800 people to be bussed to a Manhattan café for milk and cookies. Around this time, he landed the role of Latka Gravas, an auto mechanic of indeterminate nationality, on the hit sitcom Taxi. Kaufman also appeared on the big screen, including in the films In God We Trust (1980) and Heartbeeps (1981), before his death in 1984.
Performance artist and comedian Andy Kaufman was born in New York City January 17, 1949. Raised in the affluent suburb of Great Neck, Long Island, New York, Kaufman early on began practicing his unorthodox brand of comedy, staging a make-believe television show in his bedroom and performing at children's birthday parties from the age of 8. He graduated from high school in 1967 and received a 4-F deferment from the military draft after failing the psychological portion of the test. Early on, Kaufman embraced the practice of transcendental meditation, which became an important fixture in his life and helped him gain the courage to perform. While studying at Boston's Grahm Junior College, where he majored in television and radio production, Kaufman wrote, produced, directed, and starred in his own program, Uncle Andy's Funhouse, on a campus TV station.
In 1971, Kaufman was 'discovered' by Budd Friedman, owner of the Improvisation Comedy Club, while doing a stand-up routine in a Long Island nightclub. He began performing at improv locations in both New York and Los Angeles, confronting his often confused audiences with a strange kind of performance art—he once read F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby aloud until his entire audience walked out; another time, he appeared on stage with a sleeping bag and slept his way through the act. With an array of bizarre foreign accents, dead-on impersonations of Elvis Presley, and a strange obsession with professional wrestling, Kaufman won fans—and rabid critics—in large numbers. Through his stand-up, he met the comedic actors Carl Reiner and Dick Van Dyke; their manager, George Shapiro (later co-executive producer of the hit sitcom Seinfeld), agreed to represent Kaufman as well.
Kaufman made his national TV debut in 1974 on The Dean Martin Comedy Hour. In 1975, the NBC executive Dick Ebersol saw Kaufman's stand-up routine and invited him to audition for a new comedy program called Saturday Night Live. Kaufman made his first of 14 appearances on the show during its first-ever broadcast on October 11, 1975, when he lip-synched "The Theme from Mighty Mouse." The most notorious of the many characters Kaufman portrayed on SNL was the self-proclaimed undefeated Intergender World Wrestling Champion, an ultra-chauvinistic character who offered women $1000 if they could pin him in a wrestling match.
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An unsolved crime never fails to fascinate us, especially when it involves the death of a celebrity. Over the years many famous individuals, from movie stars to politicians to rockers, have died in mysterious circumstances. Conspiracy theories and accusations of foul play abound, but we may never know fact from fiction. Here's a look at some of the most famous mysterious deaths.
Mysterious Deaths 28 people in this group
Famous Capricorns 500 people in this group
Famous Actors 960 people in this group
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The city of
Ravenna is planning to buy a new fire truck to replace the city's current, unsafe truck with money from a USDA Rural Development grant.
The $37,000 grant will be added to $212,500 from the city for the purchase.
"We are very
pleased to receive this grant. It will help us to better serve the
community and surrounding area," said Ravenna Mayor Peg Dethlefs.
Roberta Mues, community programs specialist with USDA Rural Development, said the new fire truck will help keep the city's firefighters safe. She said, "Fires are very
dangerous. Time is essential thus having a top functioning vehicle is
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Fedora 18 features an installer that is rewritten and redesigned from the ground up. This summary is meant to help you understand why the installer has been rewritten, what improvements the new installer will bring, what to expect when you work with the new installer, and some known issues with the installer that will be resolved in later releases of Fedora.
Why rewrite the installer?
After many years of maintaining and developing the pre-Fedora 18 installer, the installer development team determined that a rewrite of the installer was necessary for a myriad of reasons, including the following:
- The previous installer had an aging (around 13 years old) infrastructure that was difficult and time-consuming to maintain and improve, constraining new feature development. One current install team developer refers to the old infrastructure as "an incredible mess."
- The performance of the old installer left a lot to be desired. Long-term tasks could not be performed in the background. This required long wait times and pauses throughout the installation experience. For example, as CPU and time-intensive tasks were processed, the UI would freeze for several moments until a given processing task completed.
- The previous UI was not very responsive. This manifested in various ways, including a failure of the UI screens to redraw when the display was changed between a TTY and back to the UI.
- The text-only version of the installer interface was a completely separate codebase, which increased the maintenance burden of the installer. This also increased the amount of work needed to implement new features as they would need to be written twice, once for each codebase.
- The previous codebase was not written in a modular fashion. This caused issues where similar functionality in different modes (for example, GUI vs kickstart) used different logic and resulted in inconsistencies for users.
- The automated kickstart mode of the installer was separate and incompatible with the UI modes of the installer. A separate utility, system-config-kickstart, was created solely to provide a UI for creating kickstarts since the existing UI could not be used for this purpose without a completed install.
- The live media method of installation used a different codepath than the installer than the DVD method, causing maintenance and development difficulties and resulting in an inconsistent and at times buggy user experience.
- The old installer's interface had a 'point of no return' past which any changes you'd made to your storage configuration could destroy data on your disk(s) and you couldn't go back to change it. Since the UI followed a linear path, this exact inflection point occurred close to the middle of the screen flow and required a rather discouraging pop-up dialog to explain the impact.
- In previous versions of Fedora, the installer's interface followed a wizard design pattern , consisting of multiple linear screens with occasional nested modal pop-up dialogs. (See diagram below) While nothing is inherently problematic with wizards as a design pattern, the sheer number of screens required by the installer made it unwieldy. You could end up several screens into the process and need to go back and change something on an earlier screen, requiring a lot of clicking and screen flipping to go back and return to where you left off. Multiple modal nested dialog windows also made it confusing at times to interact with certain screens, in particular the partitioning-related screens.
New installer improvements in Fedora 18
In order to address these and other issues, the installer development team changed the UI model from a linear wizard-based model to a hub and spoke model. Essentially, the installer UI has been distilled into two main menus, from which you can optionally visit various option screens. Each menu list out each sub-screen and summarizes the choices selected for each sub-screen so you can skip screens that you don't need to configure if you'd like. See the diagram below for a visual illustration of how the hub and spoke model works.
The new installer available in Fedora 18 addresses a number of issues that were difficult to solve in the old codebase:
- The new installer is written in a modular fashion, so there aren't multiple copies of code that does the same thing scattered around the codebase.
- Long-running tasks can be performed in the background as you use the installer. For example, when you first start the installer and land on the first screen for language selection, the installer is - in the background - attempting to auto-detect your network settings and set up a network connection for you.
- The UI of the new installer has been written in such a way that it does not block and freeze up while waiting for CPU and time-intensive tasks to process.
- The new installer is primarily based on kickstart, whether or not you are using the automated & unattended kickstart option to install, the text user interface, or the graphic user interface. All three, in addition to the live media installation method, share a common codebase, providing a more consistent experience across installation methods as well as a more easily-maintained codebase. Eventually, the plan is to auto-detect any kickstart files available to a system during install and offer to pre-fill the fields in the UI with the values in the kickstart to help save users time.
- With the change to a hub-and-spoke model rather than a linear wizard model, the new UI allows users to entirely skip screens that they aren't interested in interacting with, streamlining the install process to only those screens that are most essential for installation to proceed.
- When the feature is completed for Fedora 19, the new installer will allow you to complete firstboot while the installer downloads and installs Fedora to your computer, helping to further streamline the install process. If you opt to not complete firstboot during installation, it will appear after you reboot the system.
What to expect when using the new installer
Known installer issues
Please refer to the Common_F18_bugs page for information on single specific bugs (there is useful information on several particular installer bugs here, and we recommend that you read it before installing Fedora 18). This section will concentrate on more generic issues, mainly features that are missing or incomplete in Fedora 18 due to lack of development time but will be improved or restored in Fedora 19.
Enterprise storage technologies missing from interactive installation
Support for some enterprise storage features is missing from the interactive installer interface in Fedora 18. This includes technologies like multipath and FCoE: generally speaking, if you had to use the 'Specialized Storage Devices' screen in Fedora 17 and earlier, your setup may not be supported in the Fedora 18 interactive installer. Kickstart-based installs can use these features as always. The missing support will be added back for Fedora 19.
Custom partitioning does not handle some complex configurations
The custom partitioning tool in Fedora 18 is able to handle a wide range of storage cases, including various raw partition formats, LVM, LUKS encryption, software RAID, btrfs, and various combinations. However, it was not possible in the time available to ensure that every possible advanced configuration combining these supported technologies was handled. If you have a complex storage configuration which does not appear to be handled correctly by the new installer, possible workarounds including using a kickstart, or in some cases preparing the drive with a partition tool like parted before installing Fedora. Please be aware that it is safe to experiment as much as you like with the partitioning screens in the new installer: no actual changes will be written to disk until you return to the hub screen and click the Begin Installation button. If you are not confident that you were able to achieve your desired configuration, you can simply reboot the system at any time before clicking that button and no changes will have been made.
As part of the changes for the new installer, some hard-coded information about various internationalization (i18n hereafter) scenarios was removed. The long-term plan is that such information should be provided in some more appropriate forum - ideally some kind of distribution-neutral, upstream project where any application (an OS installer or otherwise) which might be able to benefit from it could use it. However, in the short term, it means that the i18n experience in Fedora 18 may not be quite as polished as that in earlier releases. Specifically:
- The names of languages and locations on the Welcome screen are taken from the CLDR database. In some cases these may not reflect real-world use as well as the tweaked list of names used previously. For instance, those who read and write Simplified Chinese typically use the zh_CN locale wherever they live, and those who read and write Traditional Chinese typically use the zh_TW locale: in previous Fedora releases, these locales were labelled Chinese (Simplified) and Chinese (Traditional) to reflect this. Based on the CLDR database, they are now labelled geographically as Chinese (China) and Chinese (Taiwan).
- Previous Fedora releases offered only a subset of possible keyboard layouts to the user at installation time, but each of these options was tweaked to produce an optimal configuration. when you selected one of the keyboard types the installer knew about, it configured an appropriate console layout and X keyboard layout: in cases where users typically configure both a 'native' and a U.S. layout and switch between them in order to enter both 'native' and Roman characters, the installer would configure both X layouts and a keyboard combination to switch between them. The new installer does not have this special knowledge any more: the Keyboard spoke simply allows you to configure any combination of all the X layouts available in Fedora, and any layout switch combination you like if you configure more than one. This is more flexible, but requires a little more work and knowledge on the user's part.
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Nhan Dan – On April 10, the Presidential Office announced the President's decree promulgating the Ordinance on merging legal documents, which was passed by the National Assembly's Standing Committee on March 22nd.
The ordinance, including four chapters and 20 articles, will take effect on July 1st, 2012.
The ordinance stipulates the jurisdiction and responsibility of central state agencies in merging legal documents and the process for merging to ensure that the legal system is simple, clear, easy to execute and efficient.
The ordinance was developed in response to the Politburo Resolution No.48/NQ-TƯ on the Strategy to build and complete the Vietnam law system, with a vision to 2020.
The merging of legal documents must ensure conformity with the Constitution and relevant laws and the unity of the nation's legal system. The promulgation of the ordinance also contributes to realising the country's commitments to building a unified, transparent and accessible legal system.
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Hack attack spills web security firm's confidential data
Barracuda Networks injected with ultimate irony
Try this for irony: The website of web application security provider Barracuda Networks has sustained an attack that appears to have exposed sensitive data concerning the company's partners and employee login credentials, according to an anonymous post.
Barracuda representatives didn't respond to emails seeking confirmation of the post, which claims the data was exposed as the result of a SQL injection attack. Screenshots showed what was purported to be names, email addresses and phone numbers for Barracuda partners from organizations including Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts and the UK's Hartlepool College of Further Education.
The spilled contents also included what appeared to be the email addresses and hashed passwords of Barracuda employees authorized to log in to the company's content management system. The passwords appeared to be hashed using the MD5 algorithm that is slowly being phased out in favor of algorithms that are considered more secure alternatives. It was unclear if the hashed passwords were salted to prevent them from being cracked using various free tools available on the internet.
SQL injections are the most common form of web-based attack and have been used as the starting point for an untold number of breaches, including the one that exposed data for more than 130 million credit cards when confessed hacker Albert Gonzalez broke into credit card processor Heartland Payment Systems. SQL injection techniques were also the cornerstone in a recent attack on HB Gary, the disgraced security firm that exposed tens of thousands of proprietary emails.
SQL injection attacks exploit poorly written web applications that fail to scrutinize user-supplied data entered into search boxes and other fields included on the targeted website. By passing database commands to the site's backend server, attackers can harness the vulnerabilities to view and even modify the confidential contents.
In all, 22 databases with names including new_barracuda, information_schema and Marketing were exposed, according to the post, which was published on Tuesday. The post indicated that the company's web apps ran on the ASP.net platform. ®
Late on Monday evening, Barracude issued a response to the hack here.
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Nov 12, 2012
How would Old Glory look with 30 stars instead of 50? As far-fetched as it may sound, the White House might soon be forced by its own rules to examine the question.
On Nov.7, the day after President Barack Obama was re-elected, the White House’s website received a petition asking the administration to allow Louisiana to secede.
The Louisiana petition has collected more than 12,300 signatures in four days. A separate effort from Texas has 15,400 supporters.
This article was posted: Monday, November 12, 2012 at 6:39 am
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Home secretary Theresa May said that allowing police and intelligence services to access the information was essential in combating criminals using new technology.
However, Tory MP David Davis branded the move as "incredibly intrusive" and a strategy that would only hit the "innocent and incompetent".
Currently in draft form, the Communications Bill has been branded a "snooper's charter" by privacy campaign groups for its new measures for storing user data.
Under present laws, communications service providers are required to store records of phone and text chatter, along with email on their own servers for 12 months.
But the new plans would extend that to a broader range of data, including webmail, voice calls over the internet, online gaming and use of social networks such as Facebook. Web visits would be recorded under the plans, but this would not extend to logs of individual page views.
Wary of expected opposition, the government has made the concession that local authorities would be stripped of their current powers to access phone call data.
But the bill is still likely to face wide ranging opposition in Parliament, with many Lib Dem and Conservative MPs ready to back Davis's call for the legislation to be watered down or scrapped entirely.
Speaking today on BBC Breakfast, May insisted that the measures were not about snooping on people, but rather about stopping illegal activity.
"It's not about the content, it's not about reading people's emails or listening to their telephone calls," she said.
"This is purely about the who, when and where made these communications and it's about ensuring we catch criminals and stop terrorists."
But Rachel Robinson, the policy officer at rights group Liberty, expressed concern about the plans.
"It's good that local councils won't be able to watch the entire population but even law enforcement should be targeting suspects - not all citizens," she told the BBC.
"Just like the internet, any private home can be a crime scene, but should we install hidden cameras and microphones in every bedroom in the land?"
The police and security services have long called for more powers to help them track and detect criminals and terrorists who use social media and online gaming services to communicate with each other.
Writing in the Times today, Metropolitan Police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said that the new powers were essential in waging "total war on crime".
He warned MPs that police risked losing ground on criminals unless the legislation was passed.
"Put simply, the police need access to this information to keep up with the criminals who bring so much harm to victims and our society," said Hogan-Howe.
Under the proposed measures, officers would still need to obtain a warrant to gain access to the communications. But government would be able to request any service provider, including Virgin Media, BT and Sky, to retain data about internet usage.
The last Labour government was forced to scrap plans to create a single, UK-wide database of internet data following protests, and May said that there no plans to resurrect this proposal.
But Tory backbencher David Davis, a former shadow home secretary and prominent civil liberties advocate, has slammed the proposals.
"If they really want to do things like this - and we all accept they use data to catch criminals - get a warrant. Get a judge to sign a warrant, not the guy at the next desk, not somebody else in the same organisation," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"The only people who will avoid this are the actual criminals, because there are ways around this - you use an internet cafe, you hack into somebody's WiFi, you use what's called proxy servers, and they are just the easy ways."
Jim Killock, the executive director of the Open Rights Group, claimed that the government was trying to "bury bad news" in the snooping bill by announcing it on the day of David Cameron's appearance at the Leveson inquiry.
"Today Cameron is appearing at the Leveson Inquiry, and at the same time the government is releasing its plans to snoop on the internet," he said. "This is a very bad sign that they want to 'bury bad news'."
The ORG intends to hold an emergency briefing with Privacy International and Big Brother Watch in Committee Room 18 at Parliament at 2pm today (June 14) to discuss the proposals with journalists and MPs.
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Just hours after accepting the presidential nomination of the Republican party, Mitt Romney is headed to Louisiana for a more sober occasion: He will tour the damage left by Hurricane Isaac.
Update at 11:42 a.m. ET. President Obama also announced that he would visit the affected areas on Monday.
NPR's Ari Shapiro reports Romney hopes to console the victims of the floods. Ari filed this report for our Newscast unit:
"This New Orleans trip was a last-minute addition to the schedule.
"Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were originally planning to campaign together in Florida and Virginia before spending tonight in Ohio.
"Now Ryan will visit Virginia on his own, while Romney flies to the gulf.
"The campaign says Romney and Louisiana governor Bobby Jindall will meet with first responders, thank them for their work, and see areas impacted by the storm in Lafitte, Louisiana.
"Hurricane Isaac forced Republicans to cancel the first day of their convention in Tampa on Monday.
"The storm caused flooding and destroyed homes in Mississippi and Louisiana.
"Visiting the devastation gives Romney an opportunity to look presidential as he surveys relief efforts and consoles victims.
"He'll be there before President Obama has had an opportunity to make a similar post-Isaac trip."
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George and his bands were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
George and his band were known for inventing new sounds through funk: a twist on soul that included psychedelic guitar, deep bass grove, and bizarre sound effects.
Some of George's biggest inspirations were Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Sly Stone.
George often called himself "The Referee".
Clinton's band The Parliaments renamed themselves to "Funkadelic" in 1968.
George's music group stayed together and worked long distance when he moved from Newark to Detroit.
George was raised in Plainfield, New Jersey.
His music career when he began a doo-wop group called The Parliaments in a barbershop.
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"As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right." 1 Samuel 12:23
I have always been fascinated by stories about the people God has chosen to use in significant ways. Two of my heroes are Charles and John Wesley. Charles penned hundreds of hymns, many of which are still sung by Christians all over the world. After observing the coronation of the King of England and hearing the masses lining the streets and singing the praises of the King, Charles penned the words, “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise.” His brother John committed his life to taking the gospel to England and through frontier America on horseback. You and I are in debt to John Wesley today for his passion for the gospel.
But I’m even more impressed when I consider the heroic faith of their mother, Susanna. The mother of 19 children, she understood the importance of raising a godly generation, in spite of a profligate husband who was almost never home. With all of her hardships, she would have had every excuse to complain and wallow in self-pity and bitterness, but instead she faithfully prayed for her children and instilled in them a desire to serve the Lord. Every day she gathered her children around her and read them the Bible and taught them His ways. Her life exemplifies the words of Samuel: “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right” (1 Samuel 12:23).
One of God’s plans for our homes is to provide an environment for grooming the next generation for godly impact, and you can count on it that Satan is not happy about that plan. Throughout history, we can see his efforts to dead-end the generational impact of God’s people. Beginning with Adam and Eve, children have been at risk. The murder of Abel at the hands of his very own brother is proof that Satan will do anything to extinguish the impact of godly offspring. And he hasn’t stopped.
The high cost of living has made two-career families common place today even among followers of Christ. Many families need two careers just to survive. As a result, quality time with our kids can suffer. Leaving our children to entertain themselves at the computer, which is a lot less painful than playing Chutes and Ladders with them on the floor, puts their hearts at jeopardy to the junk that the Internet offers. Our kids are in danger of suffering long term damage because of what they click on to. Not to mention what we permit them to see on TV, listen to on their iPods, or who we let them run with.
Parenting is big-time business and among life’s toughest assignments. Whenever things got really tough in our household, my wife Martie and I used to look at each other and say, “This too shall pass!” And that’s just the point, it passes really fast. You have the next generation in your grasp for just a fleeting season. Make the most of it. As they say, carpe diem—seize the day!
Is there another Susanna Wesley in the house? It’s your turn! Who knows what great things God has in store for your kids or the young people under your influence.
- In what ways have you observed Satan’s attempts to thwart generational impact in your country? In your neighborhood? In your home?
- Read Proverbs 3:1-6. According to this passage, whether you are reading from the perspective of a child and/or a parent, what can you do to help raise a godly generation?
- Children learn more from what they see in us than from what they hear from us. What important truths can your children learn by what they see in your life? Be specific.
- When was the last time you admitted that what your children saw you do was wrong and that you desired to be a better follower of Jesus?
- When was the last time that you admitted that you failed them and that you were committed to being a better parent?
- Do you want to be well liked by your children or do you want to be respected? Remember, parenting is not a popularity contest. True love sometimes says no.
- Are there organizations in your area that share God’s hope and help with families in crisis? Ask God to show you how you can get involved.
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IF THE chairman of platinum miner Lonmin, Roger Phillimore, was not on a plane to South Africa on Friday evening, he should be ashamed of himself.
In the wake of easily the worst state-on-citizen violence in South Africa since we became a democracy in 1994, protesting mineworkers at Lonmin’s Marikana mine near Rustenburg have shattered the company’s share price and sharply inflated the global price of platinum. That is almost a sideshow to the nearly 50 deaths that the strike has triggered so far — 34, according to the most recent confirmed figures, in a hail of police bullets at the mine on Thursday afternoon.
Lonmin may not be directly responsible for the violence accompanying the strike, but it has wide and deep duties that it is spectacularly failing to fulfil. It has a duty to its shareholders, to its customers, to its staff, to the mining industry in South Africa generally and, ultimately, to all South Africans.
But it is nowhere to be seen. Its CEO, Ian Farmer, is ill in hospital. Its spokesman appears not to be available. The chairman resides in England. Is he on holiday along with the rest of Europe?
Lonmin needs to be a part of the solution to an intractable problem at the mine. It isn’t new. The new Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) is slowly taking apart the venerable National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in the platinum industry, mine after mine. That fact, on its own, should be enough to raise alarm bells throughout the South African body politic.
The NUM is the thoughtful, considered heart of the union movement here. Cyril Ramaphosa and Kgalema Motlanthe, for instance, come out of it. As a union it is a powerful voice of reason in an often loud and rash movement.
It appreciates and values private capital and strong companies. Business everywhere should be hoping the union finds a way to defend itself effectively from Amcu’s attacks.
For the moment, though, it is being left to the police and the two competing unions to try to hold down the peace, and that’s not good enough.
For a start, the strike is ostensibly about pay, an issue neither the police nor the unions can solve. Second, business, just for the sake of it, needs to be seen to stand up at a moment of crisis like this in South Africa and be damned well counted.
The strike and the tragedy of Thursday will be with us for a very long time. It represented a failure of our new society on many levels, most strikingly the inability of the majority black establishment (of which the NUM and the ruling African National Congress and union umbrella Cosatu are leaders) to come to terms with the majority of black, marginalised, poor and desperate people.
Amcu was bred around beer and fires in deepest rural Pondoland in the Transkei. Sick and tired of watching NUM officials get cars and offices at the mines they worked for, they were determined to make their own luck.
Pondoland is a generally quiet place, but its people are deeply traditional and deeply fierce when roused. There is not going to be any stopping Amcu.
That means a solution to the violence has to be found at a high level, and that it has to recognise, for the NUM and for Cosatu and the ANC itself, the extremely uncomfortable truth that there is a power building in the land over which they have little or no influence, and which itself has little or no respect for the powers that be.
For President Jacob Zuma, Amcu represents an entirely new challenge.
He made a name for himself as a conciliator in KwaZulu-Natal, but they were his "own" people. He is also a Zulu. In Amcu, he confronts a fearless group of displaced, disempowered and discontented men who owe him nothing and expect nothing from him.
Driven by antiquated beliefs in witchcraft and sorcery, they believe in the powers of "sangomas" to make them invincible. Try reasoning with that.
Here’s a test for Mr Zuma — we all have a real interest in him passing.
More in this section
- Licensing bill to be redrafted after avalanche of disapproval
- Saxonwold ANC ‘to act against Atul Gupta’
- Gupta brothers are merely a symptom, not the problem
- Burger King fires up its grill in Cape Town
- Health insurance plan, price regulation soon, says minister
- Courts reel in SARS ‘fishing expeditions’ against taxpayers
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If the Rhode Island ACLU could tap any two figures to headline its 50th anniversary event, it might choose Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. And so it has.
William Hutchinson, Rhode Island College professor emeritus and actor, and Marilyn Meardon, storyteller and actor, will play the eminent Rhode Islanders, joining a religion scholar and attorneys in a panel discussion on the separation of church and state.
"Free to Believe: Defending Religious Freedom in Rhode Island" will take place September 24 at 7 pm at a church founded by Williams in 1638: the First Baptist Church in America, 75 North Main Street, Providence. Admission is free.
Local attorneys who brought landmark church/state cases before the federal Supreme Court will discuss the history and legal positions of the American Civil Liberties Union on the subject, as well as what the US Constitution has to say. Moderating the discussion will be Stephen Marini, professor of religion at Wellesley College, and also participating will be Brown University chaplain Rev. Janet Cooper-Nelson.
There have been two cases on the subject in Rhode Island successfully brought before the US Supreme Court. In 1990, in Yang v. Sturner, the Court ruled in favor of a Hmong family whose son was autopsied despite their religious beliefs. Two years later, in Weisman v. Lee, a public school's practice of incorporating an invocation and benediction into their graduation ceremony was ruled unconstitutional.
But whatever the jurisprudence, the separation of church and state remains contested ground.
The First Amendment to the Constitution instructs Congress to "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
"The phrasing is ambiguous," said Marini. "No one quite knows what 'respecting' means. And 'establishment of religion' is taken to mean the government working as an agency to promote the exclusive privilege of one religion over at the other; or any religion over another; or religion over non-religion, or vice versa. It's a very broadened kind of cumbersome category.
"Any time a state, for example — we got a lot of these lately — either a state agency or county or town, fires someone because they're supposed to work on Saturday but they observe the Sabbath on Saturday, that becomes 'establishment,' because you're imposing an orthodoxy on people," he said.
He continued. "And then you get, in places like Kansas, the red zone of the country, arguments that the teaching of evolution in public schools is the imposition of a secular religion on the citizens of the state, and they have sued to stop it on religious grounds, on establishment grounds. So it's a category that tends to be used a lot of different ways."
Frankly, the Founding Fathers could have been clearer.
"The logic of the amendment is the problem," Marini said. "The one clause is the inverse of the other. It doesn't always make sense then, when a case comes along, which clause should we apply; do they contradict each other. It's very oddly phrased, the way the founders did."
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Amendments to Teacher Employment, Dismissal, and Tenure Act, C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-101 et seq.
The Teacher Tenure Act may be repealed or amended so as to apply to all teachers, as long as a police power objective which is not mentioned in the present act is articulated as the basis. Additionally, although a mandate to create specific pilot projects embodying differing procedure for the dismissal of teachers would be unconstitutional, the general assembly could turn the issue back to local control and allow any school district to experiment with different approaches at its option.
AG Alpha No. ED AD AGAMN
March 29, 1984
Calvin M. Frazier
Commissioner of Education
Department of Education
303 West Colfax Avenue
Denver, CO 80203
RE: Amendments to Teacher Employment, Dismissal, and Tenure Act, C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-101 et seq.
Dear Dr. Frazier:
I am writing in response to your request for a formal legal opinion concerning amending or repealing the Teacher Tenure Act.
QUESTIONS PRESENTED AND CONCLUSIONS
Without addressing any specific legislation or policy objective, your inquiry raises two questions:
- Can the general assembly substantially change the status of someone who is already a tenure teacher by repealing or amending the Teacher Employment, Dismissal, and Tenure Act, C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-101 et seq.?
My conclusion is that under certain circumstances the general assembly may substantially change or repeal the Teacher Tenure Act so as to apply to tenure teachers.
- Can the general assembly amend the Tenure Act to allow different dismissal and review procedures to be utilized?
My conclusion is that the legislature can provide the opportunity for such pilot projects, but may not mandate them.
The initial inquiry must be whether the Teacher Tenure Act provides contractual rights to those teachers who have gained tenured status, i.e., a vested property right, or whether this legislation merely is a statement of legislative policy curtailing the power of local school districts. See Phelps v. Board of Education of the Town of West New York, 300 U.S. 319 (1937); Indiana ex rel. Anderson v. Brand, 303 U.S. 95 (1938). Several Colorado Supreme Court cases indicate that the Teacher Tenure Act provides contractual rights to those teachers who have already gained tenure status. Maxey v. School District, 158 Colo. 583, 408 P.2d 970 (1965). Accord Marzec v. School District, 142 Colo. 83, 349 P.2d 699 (1960). See Howell v. Woodlin School District, 198 Colo. 40, 596 P.2d 56, 60 (1979) ("by its nature /the grant of tenure/ engenders a reasonable and objective expectancy of continued employment ... even though not a guarantee under all circumstances" and is a "constitutionally protected property right.").
The prohibition against passing laws which impair the obligation of contracts applies only to those contractual rights which have vested. In this instance the right of tenure would vest when the teacher entered the fourth year of continuous teaching as provided by C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-112.
Vested rights, however, do not "accrue to thwart the reasonable exercise of the police power for the public good." Lakewood Pawnbrokers, Inc. v. Lakewood, 183 Colo. 370, 517 P.2d 834 (1974) and Ohlson v. Phillips, 304 F. Supp. 1152 (D. Colo. 1969), aff'd, 397 U.S. 317, reh'g denied, 397 U.S. 1081. This is because all rights are held subject to the police power and neither the state nor its political subdivisions can contract the police power away. Colorado Postal Telegraph Co. v. The City of Colorado Springs, 61 Colo. 560, 158 P. 816 (1916). "In short, the Contract Clause does not require a state to adhere to a contract that surrenders an essential attribute of its sovereignty." United States Trust Co. v. New Jersey, 431 U.S. 1, 16 (1977).
Legislation enacted in regard to educational issues falls within the police power of the general assembly. In Lujan v. Colorado State Board of Education, 649 P.2d 1005, 1017 (Colo. 1982), the court stated
We recognize unequivocally that public education plays a vital role in our free society. It can be a major factor in an individual's chances for economic and social success as well as a unique influence on a child's development as a good citizen and his future participation in political and community life.
See also Weissman v. Board of Education of Jefferson County, 190 Colo. 414, 547 P.2d 1267 (1976). Because legislation concerning teacher tenure is integrally related to the quality of the educational system it falls within the police power of the state. As such the Teacher Tenure Act may be modified or repealed without violating the contract clause as long as the modifications are a reasonable exercise of the police power.
In Anderson v. Brand, supra, the United States Supreme Court was faced with a similar set of circumstances as are raised by your inquiry. There, the Indiana legislature attempted to repeal the Teacher Tenure Act as it applied only to townships, leaving it intact as it applied to municipalities. The Teacher Tenure Act at issue provided for cancellation of teacher tenure for incompetency, insubordination, neglect of duty, immorality, justifiable decrease in teaching positions, or other good and just cause. The United States Supreme Court held that the repeal of the Teacher Tenure Act as to teachers employed by the townships was not a legitimate exercise of the police power and was an unconstitutional impairment of obligations. In so holding, the court stated,
Our decisions recognize that every contract is made subject to the implied condition that its fulfillment may be frustrated by a proper exercise of the police power, but we have repeatedly said that, in order to have this effect, the exercise of the power must be for an end which is in fact public and the means adopted must be reasonably adapted to that end ....
303 U.S. at 109. The court further opined that the reasons for tenure cancellation already provided in the statute covered every conceivable basis growing out of deficient performance and diminution of the school requirements, and therefore the prior act covered all legitimate police power considerations. Additionally, the court determined that the partial repeal of the Teacher Tenure Act, affecting only some of the teachers, weighed against a legitimate exercise of the police power.
In Walsh v. School District of Pennsylvania, 334 Penn. 178, 22 A.2d 909 (1941), the court approved a reduction in salary to tenure employees as a legitimate exercise of the police power citing the Anderson decision. The court concluded that "for a justifiable public purpose applying to all school districts the repeal of the tenure act /in Indiana/ might have been effectively accomplished" and stated,
/We/ do not think it possible to conclude that the Supreme Court of the United States in pointing out the express reservation of power to terminate the contracts in question denied the existence of unexpressed power in the Indiana legislature to wipe out the entire system of teacher's tenure if it thought it proper and necessary to do so.
Id. at 914-915. See also United States Trust Co. v. New Jersey, supra.
C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-116 provides the permissible reasons for dismissal of a tenure teacher based upon the teacher's conduct, and C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-112(3) provides for cancellation of an employment contract with a tenure teacher due to reduction in teaching positions. C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-116 mirrors the provision of the Indiana tenure law which the Anderson decision indicated encompassed all of the legitimate police power concerns of the state in regard to deficient teacher performance. Thus, repeal or amendment of the Colorado teacher tenure law on the grounds that the legislature is exercising its police power concerning inadequate teacher performance may be unconstitutional.
Anderson and Walsh, however, support the position that as to teachers who have already obtained tenure status, the provisions of the Teacher Tenure Act could be substantially changed or entirely repealed if necessary for a legitimate police power objective and if done in a reasonable manner. However, determining a legitimate police power objective which has not been addressed in the present Teacher Tenure Act will be difficult.
If your concern is that the Act does not adequately express the possible justifications for revoking tenured status on an individual basis, the legislature could further define the term "other good and just cause." C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-116.
If the amendments would alter the dismissal procedures provided by the Act the issue is whether the modifications would violate the prohibition against retrospective laws. Colo. Const. art. II. sec. 11. Where a statute affects only a procedural change the retrospective laws prohibition is not triggered. Continental Title Company v. District Court, 645 P.2d 1310 (Colo. 1982); Smith v. Putnam, 250 F. Supp. (D. Colo. 1965). However, the dismissal procedures must afford minimal due process.
Your second question asks whether the tenure law dismissal procedures could be less than uniform statewide and whether pilot projects could be initiated to determine the best procedure.
Pilot projects have been upheld in the social services area when time and place are limited and when entered into to determine the comparative efficiencies of differing models. Greater New York Hospital Ass'n v. Blum, 634 F.2d 668 (2d Cir. 1980). The Colorado General Assembly has enacted legislation providing for special projects when unique circumstances were present. E.g., C.R.S. 1973, 30-17-206 (Supp. 1983).
Pilot projects in education raise issues concerning the Colorado constitutional mandates that the general assembly shall not pass local or special laws providing for the management of common schools, and that the general assembly shall provide for the establishment of a "thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state." See Colo. Const. art. V, sec. 25 and art. IX, sec. 2.
A statute is not special legislation when it is general in its operation upon all those in a like situation. Bushnell v. Sapp, 194 Colo. 273, 571 P.2d 1100 (1977). However, it is not enough that the language of the law appears to be general in application if in fact the effect of the law is to legislate in a special manner. See In Re School Districts, 26 Colo. 136, 50 P.2d 173 (1899). The term "management," found in the constitutional provision, has been defined as: "the act of managing; the manner of treating, directing, carrying on or using for purpose; conduct; administration; guidance; control; as, the management of a farm." In Re Consolidation of School Districts, 23 Colo. 499, 502, 48 P. 647 (1897). That court held that management is to have its comprehensive meaning, for example, "the compensation and place of education of teachers to be employed."
Presumably, the procedures to revoke tenure status would be included in the concept of management. Thus, if the legislature mandated that certain school districts be pilot projects to determine the most efficient system of dealing with tenure teachers' dismissals, this would violate the constitutional mandate against the legislature enacting special laws regarding the management of common schools. However, if the legislation merely allowed any school district, at its option, to try a different approach, under an optional state framework, presumably this would not be a special law. See, e.g., C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-105 (in regard to teacher salaries).
The issue exists, however, whether allowing pilot projects or allowing different approaches to dismissal procedures would violate the constitutional mandate that the general assembly "provide for the establishment of a thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state." See Colo. Const. art. IX, sec. 2. Justice Erickson in his special concurrence in Lujan supra states:
A general and uniform system, we think, is "at the present time, one in which every child in the state has free access to certain minimum and reasonably standardized educational and instructional facilities and opportunities to at least the 12th grade -- a system administered with that degree of uniformity which enables a child to transfer from one district to another within the same grade without substantial loss of credit or standing and with access by each student of whatever grade to acquire those skills and training that are reasonably understood to be fundamental and basic to a sound education."
Id. at 1028. In Lujan, the court found that "art. IX, sec. 2 of Colo. Const. is satisfied if thorough and uniform educational opportunities are available through state action in each school district." Id. at 1025 (emphasis added). The court also noted particular statutes which implemented the thorough and uniform mandate of the Colorado Constitution, including C.R.S. 1973, 22-60-101 et seq., which creates a uniform teacher certification program; the Teacher Tenure Act however was not mentioned. The court noted that "the historical development of public education in Colorado has been centered on the philosophy of local control" and "local control provides each district with the opportunity for experimentation, innovation, and a healthy competition for educational excellence." Id. at 1021-1023. Thus, the method for revoking teachers' tenure status need not be resolved in a uniform manner throughout the state, as long as minimal due process is guaranteed.
A final concluding caveat should be added. This opinion addresses only the general implications of amending the Teacher Employment Dismissal and Tenure Act, C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-101 et seq., as no specific language or policy objective has been presented in your inquiry. Ongoing legal advice and assistance will be necessary if any new tenure legislation is to be drafted which will be both workable and consistent with the principles set forth in this attorney general opinion.
It is my opinion that the Teacher Tenure Act may be repealed or amended so as to apply to all teachers, as long as a police power objective which is not mentioned in the present act is articulated as the basis. Additionally, although a mandate to create specific pilot projects embodying differing procedure for the dismissal of teachers would be unconstitutional, the general assembly could turn the issue back to local control and allow any school district to experiment with different approaches at its option.
Very truly yours,
AG Alpha No. ED AD AGAMN
AG File No. OHR8400766/AMN
TERM OF OFFICE
22-63-101 et seq.
Colo. Const. art. II, sec. 11
Colo. Const. V. sec. 25
Colo. Const. IX sec. 2
EDUCATION, DEPT. OF
C.R.S. 1973, 22-63-101 et seq. may be modified or repealed as to tenure teachers as if for a legitimate police power rationale. Dismissal procedures may vary throughout the state as long as minimal due process is guaranteed.
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Two months after apparently squelching an insurrection, the leadership of the World Jewish Congress is facing renewed calls in its ranks for an independent audit and increased accountability.
Isi Leibler, a senior vice president of the organization whose public appeals for improved governance and transparency regarding WJC financial dealings prompted his dismissal in September, has refused to step down, and he seems to have found allies among the leadership of the Swiss branch of the WJC.
There is plenty of commentary to be offered on the obsessive response of America’s media to the death of Michael Jackson. You have to hand it to Congressman Peter King, who, albeit it in a very undiplomatic way, expressed what many are feeling. At the very least, Michael Jackson was an accused pedophile, a bizarre caricature of a self-loathing Black man whose hatred of his own skin and features led him to multiple acts of self-mutilation, a serious substance abuser, and, to put it generously, a very, very strange version of an adult. From whence all the adoration?
History is written by the winners, and so is the Torah. Korach is depicted as a bad guy, when an honest reading of the last three-and-a-half books of the Torah suggest that Moses was a singularly uninspiring leader, a less poetic speaker than most any prophet that followed, and just begging for a challenge from Korach or anyone else. Whatever Korach’s failings, the tragedy of the Korach story is that a more suitable challenger to Moses was surely intimidated into silence by the heavy-handed obliteration of Korach.
Sick of donning those goofy, “clown shoes with holes” known as Crocs — but can’t resist the obvious comfort factor? Well, there’s a new plastic sandal in town, and it’s direct from Israel. The Hoki sandal, popularized by Tel Aviv-based former executive producer Shlomit Slavin, has hit boutiques on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg and Park Slope, and can be purchased online at Ravinstyle.com.
In print, the Middle East is a political hotspot of clashing ideologies. The music streaming out of the region, however, reveals that a harmonious cross-cultural interchange is also at work there and in countries to the west along the Mediterranean coast.
Wedding bells (er, accordions) may be heard this weekend on "Sex and the City."
It seems the Klezmatics, perhaps America's best-known klezmer ensemble, recently taped a few numbers for an episode of the HBO hit series that features the WASPy and svelte Charlotte York, newly converted to Judaism, apparently headed for the chupah with her latest paramour, the pudgy Jewish lawyer Harry Goldenblatt.
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- Story Ideas
- Send Corrections
Every Monday about 15 inmates gather inside a classroom at the Chester County Prison’s work release center with one goal in mind, becoming a better parent.
They are joined by about 20 volunteers from area churches for a faith-based mentor program known as the Malachi Dads. The program, part of the broader Family Re-entry Initiative, is a 12-part series of sessions based in Scripture that aims to prepare men on the inside for life after prison.
Steve Pacinelli, the director of Malachi Dads and the Family Re-entry Initiative (FRI), began volunteering at the prison in Jan. 2008 and started the local chapter of Malachi Dads on July 19, 2010. He says the program is designed to teach men how to be better fathers after their release and reduce the likelihood that they will end up back behind bars.
“A father will always be a father, and that’s what we teach,” Pacinelli said, adding that the initiative hopes to build healthy families instead of leaving area children with a legacy of crime and broken homes. “It’s about being a better parent, it teaches them how to be a father and reconnect with their children.”
The men who participate in Malachi Dads spend two hours each week learning how to successfully re-enter society, and eventually rejoin their families. After 12 weeks they graduate from the program, but their relationship with Malachi Dads does not end there. Each inmate is paired with a mentor who continues to provide one-on-one counseling for six months after their graduation.
Pacinelli said the same group of about 20 volunteers has been with Malachi Dads since its inception, and that without them the program could not have been successful.
“The volunteers are the backbone of the program, it’s them that makes it all work,” Pacinelli said.
Pacinelli’s volunteer work was not the first time he found himself behind Chester County Prison’s walls. He served time in state prison from 2002 to 2006 for theft and related offenses. Pacinelli says a 2002 stint in Chester County Prison helped turn his life around when he found his faith behind the prison’s walls.
“I was rehabilitated,” Pacinelli said, adding that the religious and counseling programs available to him during his time at the Chester County Prison inspired him to get involved with mentoring and counseling programs upon his release. “I paid my debt to society and now I’m giving back and having a positive impact on these men and women. I just had a passion to come back and help these people.”
In addition to building stronger families, Pacinelli said the Family Re-entry Initiative and Malachi Dads is intended to show the court system that the inmates involved are actively seeking to better themselves during their time in prison. He said that the courts and criminal justice system as a whole are becoming increasingly aware of the program and its efforts, and that results are already starting to show.
“Chester County is on the cutting edge of reentry programs,” Pacinelli said. “FRI and Malachi Dads has had a significant impact on the deduction of the recidivism rate in Chester County. I know we’re having an impact.”
More than anything, Pacinelli says the goal is to give current inmates a real shot at re-entering society successfully, like he did. He spoke about the challenges facing convicts when they are released from prison.
“They face a lot of obstacles when they get out,” Pacinelli said. “They obviously paying for their own mistakes, but it’s very tough on someone coming out of prison.”
Inmates currently participating in Malachi Dads say the initiative has already helped them prepare for their eventual release from prison, and hope it can continue to grow.
“It’s affected me in so many positive ways,” one inmate wrote in a letter to the Daily Local News. “It has motivated me to turn away from the street life I used to live. It has motivated me to be a productive father to my son and a productive member of society.”
Follow Daily Local News staff writer Michael N. Price on Twitter @MikePriceWrites and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/michaelnprice
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State council awards grants to local organizations
BISMARCK - The N.D. State Council on Developmental Disabilities has awarded nine grants totaling over $319,000 to five North Dakota organizations, including two from Minot, that serve individuals with developmental disabilities and family members. Grant funds are intended to support employment, education, early intervention and community supports for persons with developmental disabilities.
The N.D. Center for Persons with Disabilities at Minot State University was awarded grant funding to support three projects that improve employment outcomes for people with significant disabilities, educate North Dakotans about disability-related topics through a statewide outreach campaign, and strengthen and direct support workforce by offering professional training and certification to those who support people with disabilities.
Pathfinder Parent Center of Minot also received grant funding from the council for the creation of a user-friendly website for parents of special education students and for its 2013 Parent Involvement Conference.
Other organizations receiving grants were The Arc of Bismarck, Family Voices of North Dakota in Edgeley and The March of Dimes in Fargo received support for its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Family Support Project.
"The financial assistance these grants provide to organizations support services and programs that make a world of difference in the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families," said Cheryl Hess, the council's executive director.
The council advocates for policy changes that promote choice, independence, productivity, and inclusion for North Dakotans with developmental disabilities. It also supports projects and activities that maximize opportunities in these areas for consumers and families. For information about the council, go online to (www.ndcpd.org/SCDD) or contact Hess at 328-4847 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
- Jill Hambek
NDDHS encourages celebration of Red Ribbon Week
BISMARCK - The N.D. Department of Human Services' Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services encourages communities and schools to come together and participate in Red Ribbon Week, which is an alcohol and drug prevention awareness campaign taking place Oct. 21-28.
"Red Ribbon Week is an excellent time for schools and community organizations to showcase their substance abuse prevention efforts," said Pamela Sagness, prevention administrator with the department. "We can assist the youth in our communities to make healthy choices."
The department's Prevention Resource and Media Center is featuring two new activity books geared toward kindergarten through eighth-grade students that focus on alcohol and drug prevention. There is also a Red Ribbon Week Toolkit available to assist schools, community groups, businesses and faith-based organizations in hosting substance abuse prevention activities. The toolkit provides a list of free resources, ideas, youth activities, planning tools and media templates to kickoff Red Ribbon Week. The toolkit was sent to all North Dakota schools and youth residential centers last year and is available online at (www.nd.gov).
The prevention website listed above also has additional activities that can be used to weave alcohol and other drug prevention efforts into classrooms and other settings.
For more information or to request a copy of the Red Ribbon Week toolkit, contact the Prevention Resource and Media Center at 328-8919, toll free at 800-642-6744, ND Relay TTY at 800-366-6888, or go online to the website listed above.
- Jill Hambek
Businesses honored for supporting opportunities
BISMARCK - The N.D. Department of Human Services' Division of Vocational Rehabilitation has recognized seven North Dakota businesses for their continued work to support and inspire individuals with disabilities in the workplace and for their ongoing working partnership with the division.
The 2012 Employer of the Year award winners include Walmart, Minot; Medora Convenience Store, Medora; Lindsey Implement Inc., Williston; KXND Fox 26, Bismarck; Hugo's Family Marketplace, Grand Forks; Triumph, Inc., Jamestown; and North Dakota State College of Science (NDSCS) Campus Connection, Wahpeton.
"These organizations are business champions," said Russ Cusack, director of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. "Their support and progressive attitudes are the reason why North Dakota is the leader in employment of individuals with disabilities."
Award recipients were selected based on a nomination process that included a review of each organization's innovative approach to offering employment opportunities to people with disabilities, as well as an organization's commitment to community service and other charitable contributions.
The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation works to assist individuals with disabilities to maximize their employment opportunities and helps North Dakota business owners and employers find solutions to disability-related issues.
For information on services available to help employers and employees address disability-related issues, contact the N.D. Department of Human Services' Division of Vocational Rehabilitation at 701-328-8950, toll free at 800-755-2745, TTY 701-328-8968, ND Relay TTY 800-366-6888 or go online to (www.nd.gov/dhs/dvr).
- Jill Hambek
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SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is letting users vote on whether they should get to cast ballots before future changes to policies for privacy and data-collection, following pressure from regulators to improve transparency.
More than 30 percent of the company's more than 1 billion members need to vote in favor of retaining their voting rights for Facebook to continue the practice, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company said on its website. If that threshold isn't met, Facebook said, it would be nonbinding.
Facebook, owner of the world's largest social network, last month proposed rolling back voting options for users, shifting controls on messaging and combining data from affiliates, including newly acquired mobile photo-sharing service Instagram. Privacy groups, including Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy, sent a letter to Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg asking him to stop the changes.
"We've heard from many of you," Elliot Schrage, vice president of communications, public policy and marketing, said in the post. "We are grateful that you took the time to share your thoughts."
The vote comes after the company on Nov. 21 announced updates to the policies. Facebook said Monday that it consulted with regulators about the proposed changes and further "clarified some of our proposals," according to the post.
The changes will improve how Facebook manages the governance process and better reflects the growing size of its user base, the company has said. Among other things, the changes would give users more detailed information about shared data, including reminders about what's visible to other people on Facebook.
A third-party service provider's application will facilitate the voting, and an independent auditor will examine the tabulation. Voting will end Dec. 10 at 3 p.m.
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LAKE TAHOE and#8212; In what officials are calling a fortunate coincidence, regional boat inspectors last week intercepted a vessel with more than 40 adult zebra mussels on it from entering Lake Tahoe.
Inspectors discovered the 2001, 29-foot-long Sea Ray boat at the Meyers roadside station on April 18, said Jonelle Bright of the Tahoe Resource Conservation District. The mussels were primarily found in and around the engines on the back of the boat; inspectors also found some unidentified weeds.
The boat was decontaminated numerous times using the district's standard 140-degree water hot water blasts and other measures, said TRCD spokesman Pete Brumis, and was then quarantined. It has since been returned to the owner and cleared to launch into Lake Tahoe.
The owner, a Tahoe Basin resident, bought the boat from someone in Minnesota and was told it had not been in any water since fall 2011, Brumis said. The owner was cooperative during the inspection, and it's believed he had no knowledge he was transporting invasive stowaways.
It is unlawful to knowingly transport invasive species into Lake Tahoe, Brumis said, and people who do would likely be subject to fines from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
The invasive species were discovered during training last week for the roughly 40 inspectors who begin work Monday for the 2012 boating season on Lake Tahoe, Brumis said. During training, a number of pre-arranged boats come through to be inspected, and the Sea Ray just happened to be infested.
and#8220;It was a complete coincidence,and#8221; Brumis said.
Last August, inspectors at the Spooner Summit roadside station prevented a vessel with 37 quagga mussels on it from entering Lake Tahoe. Similarly, the boat owner was cooperative, according to previous reports.
Lake Tahoe instituted boat inspections in 2008 to prevent the introduction of invasive species like quagga and zebra mussels into the lake. The locust-like mollusks could wreak havoc on Tahoe's environment and economy, according to previous reports.
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WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "The administration is manufacturing an FAA 'funding crisis' in a smoke-and-mirrors attempt to divert attention away from the real issue -- the need to address the problems that constrain capacity, efficiency, and new technology adoption," said Phil Boyer, President of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the world's largest aviation organization, speaking in anticipation of the president's fiscal year 2008 budget to be submitted to Congress next week.
"They are attempting an end-around Congress to put the world's safest, most efficient, and largest air traffic control system into the hands of airline barons who've flown their own businesses into bankruptcy," Boyer said at the National Press Club Feb. 1.
Briefing reporters on what AOPA sees as the key items to watch for in the budget submission, Boyer said the FAA budget proposal would set the stage for a radical new user-fee based funding system and dramatic tax increases for aviation users. The proposed funding changes could significantly decrease congressional authority for FAA spending and oversight, and reduce or eliminate taxpayer support for and control of the FAA's critical public safety functions.
"The administration's two-year refrain has been that the FAA is running out of money and that it must 'tie its revenue to its costs,'" said Boyer. "That's a bogus justification for user fees. The money will be there from the taxes paid into the aviation trust fund."
The major portion of the FAA's budget traditionally has been paid for from the aviation trust fund, which gets its revenue from federal excise taxes on aviation fuel (much like highway gas taxes), and taxes on airline tickets and air cargo bills. About 25 percent of the agency's budget has been funded from the general fund because of benefits to the general public from a safe, regulated air transportation system.
"This system has worked well for nearly four decades and will continue to meet what the FAA says it will need for future modernization," said Boyer. Boyer said that if the current funding system were continued, the surplus in the aviation trust fund will exceed
But the FAA doesn't yet know what modernization will look like or what it will cost.
"We strongly support modernizing the air transportation system to reduce costs and improve efficiency, but the FAA doesn't have a final system design. They just think that whatever it is they pick, it will cost as much as
And it is airline control of a future air traffic control and funding system that particularly upsets the nation's private pilots and aircraft owners. Various user fee proposals circulated through government circles would create an airline-dominated board that would remove spending decisions from Congress. The airlines would have a strong hand in determining what they charged themselves and other minority system users.
AOPA says the administration's proposed FAA refinancing bill is a "manufactured crisis based on flawed financial assumptions about the viability of the current funding system and the cost of the...
While the legislative language likely will not be introduced until mid- to late February, aviation trade groups will be looking for clues that suggest the FAA will push for a new system of user fees...
No User Fees, More Money for ATC and Airports
A proposal to reform and fund the nation's air traffic system in the future would eliminate passenger ticket taxes and reduce costs for airlines.
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Last night was Prom. Yesterday was insanity day. We had our seniors out most of the day to get ready for Prom. Some of the sophomores were at a Field Day, the Ballet Folklorico dance team was performing somewhere, there were AP Tests, and we were getting ready to prep for Yearbook Day! Too much craziness for one day. So, after another 16-hour day, it was time to sleep. Now, it is time for cool links!
1 – As a yearbook advisor, I’m always on the lookout for a way to sell more yearbooks. I think I may have found an advantage. According to businesspundit.com, women make 70 percent of consumer purchases. That is not a typo – 70 percent. So, even though they are about 52 percent of your student body, the girls or the moms will make the decision to buy most of your yearbooks. This may explain why girls dominate yearbook staffs. Yearbooks are a consumer purchase. They’re just more into it.
Women Make 70 Percent of Consumer Purchases
2 – If you teach video production or broadcast journalism, then you know how difficult it can be to get cutaways or b-roll. Then you’ve got to watch this video. (mildly not safe for school)
3 – Is journalism about access? In some ways it seems that the only journalism making any money these days (business, sports, entertainment) is about access. Adam Westbrook takes this debate up with a piece on his blog.
4 – I love PHDcomics.com and this one is spot on.
Things You'll Never See In A Newspaper
5 – The JEA has a good presentation about the reasons why students should think internet publishing first.
6 – With Youtube changing from FLV to HTML5 on their site, I need a new way to download Youtube videos to use in class. I prefer to use the Google Chrome browser, but you will need to download Firefox for this one, the Easy YouTube Video Downloader. It works pretty good and lets you choose several formats to save your videos in.
7 – Dateline: Silver Age is an homage to both the “Silver” Age of Comics and to the many journalists who have had to pen a headline in a newspaper. I love the site, it is so much fun.
Police Baffled By Newspaper Headlines
8 – When you are creating a web site, you need that site to run in a lot of places. I’m not talking about Denver and Boston, but Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Explorer. And you need it to run on mobile devices too. Noupe.com has a terrific list of sites that can help you optimize your web site for every type of browser and platform.
9 – I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but the SnapFactory Blog has some great tutorials, called Digital Photography 1-on-1. They are for beginning and intermediate photographers. They are available on their Youtube channel too.
10 – Want a simple way to develop grid-based web design systems? Webdesignledger has everything you need – tons of links for grid based web design tools. And who doesn’t like to design on a grid?
11 – Wired Magazine is stepping up for fair use. In an online article, they note a study that says Fair Use of copyright material adds nearly $7 Trillion to the US economy alone. So, I wonder just how much damage has the DMCA done to our economy?
12 – Where do computer threats come from? You’d be surprised.
Where Computer Threats Come From
13 – Just funny.
14 – I’m a big fan of Rebooting The News, which comes from the author of Scripting The News. I love his idea of creating three simple rules for computer standards that are similar to the rules for robotics by Isaac Asimov.
Have a great Yearbook Week and I hope you get your books in soon or finish your Fall books soon.
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- Painting a Car - Can't Choose The Right Color?
Can't Choose the Right Color?
Veteran painters and restorers will tell you that color appears differently on different shapes. What looks good on one vehicle might look horrible on another. Anyone who has painted a car a non-stock color has been faced with the fear that it won't look good on the finished project. The solution to that problem is to buy a plastic model of the car and assemble the body parts!
From an automotive paint supplies shop, purchase small quantities (pints or sometimes half-pints) of the color(s) you're considering. There's no need to spray the paints onto the model—just brush it on fairly thick. Once the model is coated you'll instantly know how the car will look in full scale. If you don't like the color, coat it with another sample.
Second Chance Garage, THE Online Auto Restoration Resource. We show you how to take it apart, fix it up, and put it back together...all while having fun doing it. Subscribe today and get access to How-To's, Auto-Biographies, Beginner's Corner, Auto Theory, Monthly Tips, Dr. Crankshaft, and many Feature articles. All written by those who have done it for those who are doing it!
Because Eastwood/Second Chance Garage have no control over component design, processes, procedures, or over the qualifications of any user of information presented in this website, in no event will Eastwood or Second Chance Garage LLC be liable for any direct, indirect, special, or consequential damages, included but not limited to personal injury or any other damages arising out of the use or misuse of any information presented in this website.
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When I showed up to Hito Steyerl’s presenation “Art As Occupation 3.00″ at Import Projects in Schöneberg, I expected (this year’s Berlin Biennale in mind) to hear about the Occupy! movement and its ties to contemporary art. Instead, Steyerl began her presentation – a rolling mix of linguistic links, sociological observations, and politics – with a disclaimer that the talk was not inspired by those occupiers of Zuccotti Park. The talk, she said, came out of her ongoing interest in the so-called militarization of everyday life (she published an essay on this theme in the e-flux journal last year), combined with popular risings in 2011 that predated Occupy! Steyerl had in mind the sense of ‘occupation’ in its two everyday senses: a job and a military takeover of a space. I recalled, once she began her slideshow, how the theme of aesthetics and military occupation goes back a long way: think of Louis Althusser’s example for how individuals become ‘subjects’ (a policeman shouting, ‘hey, you there!’ to a passer by), or Friedrich Kittler’s thesis that major advances in media and technology arose from the military.
Steyerl’s main point was the following: in today’s economic climate, the category of labour is increasingly replaced by that of ‘occupation.’ She glosses the term (in both senses) as a space for “endless mediation, indeterminate negotiation, with no real outcome.” She means that terms of contractual labour (I hire you to paint my fence) have been increasingly replaced, colonised, or occupied by forms of work-life, where what constitutes one’s job is uncertain or malleable. A military occupation is politically decisive, yet it often has a lot to do with armed individuals simply standing there. And, to follow this link, what do gallery assistants or museum attendees really get paid for, if not a kind of spatial occupation of the aesthetic sphere? What is the product of their labour?
The discrepancies in the way salaried employees and blue-collar labourers think of work has been theorized, for one, by Siegfried Kracauer in The Salaried Masses. But Steyerl’s question makes intuitive sense when you look at the differences in the way young people in art-related jobs get paid. When I was beginning to work in New York as a freelance writer and researcher, my gigs were project-based and bounded by a specific and final product. But a salaried registrar at a gallery may be able to have a longer tether to his occupation – take a sick day here and there, have a long lunch, read Gawker at his computer – without immediately jeopardizing his status as ‘on the job.’ This isn’t meant to belie the amount of work put in by people at the workplace; crucially, the terms of a workplace contract frequently operate on an intangible, symbolic level. It’s an extended form of Marx’s alienated labour. Often, office work means simply being there in case anything comes up. Labour becomes symbolic potential. Hence the usefulness of the term ‘occupation.’
To illustrate these links, Steyerl looked at two art-world examples: the intern and the museum attendant. She flashed an image of an intern, eager yet skittish, behind a cage-like glass interior, holding up a sign showing that it’s her first day. The unpaid intern is, for Steyerl, an example of the “transition from labour to occupation.” The intern, because he or she doesn’t receive payment, is a symbolic marker for the nebulousness of occupational roles; the intern is both inside the space of labour and forced out of it (in a symbolic glass cage). After all, ‘intern’ also means (in my dictionary) to ‘confine, especially for political or military reason.’ (Incidentally, Steyerl noted, a freelancer is one who ‘sells his lance,’ a mercenary.)
One of Steyer’s best examples was that of the museum guard. She pointed out that many museum attendees, standing around venerated works of art, are indeed military veterans, since the private security industry caters to (among others) veterans who can apply their combat training to more docile institutional roles. If we’ve entered an age of privatization, where intelligence, surveillance, prisons and security forces are mostly conducted by private contractors, then it’s important to keep in mind how militarization and privatization directly affect the art world’s own spheres of uncertain symbolic exchange.
Text by Pablo Larios
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We develop followers of Jesus, engaged learners and good citizens.
St. Martin of Tours School is a parish school rich in the tradition of Catholic education and committed to academic excellence.
Together with the family and parish community, we are dedicated to creating a positive future. Together, we teach the gospel and practice Christian virtues.
Together, we value the dignity and uniqueness of each person and promote a warm and welcoming community.
Together, we challenge our students and ourselves to think critically, to express ourselves creatively, and to act responsibly as we become true disciples of Jesus.
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The core philosophy of The Connors Group is that all investment decisions should be objective and based on quantified information. The Machine Advisor contains over 28,000 active investing strategies developed by Connors Research over the past 9 years. These investing models are quantified and statistically validated using historical, simulated trades. Many of these models are being used today by some of the most successful money managers and hedge funds.
The limitations of passive investing and conventional asset class diversification were clearly illuminated during the 2008 financial crises. The objective of active investing is to out-perform the benchmarks with significantly lower risk. This objective can be achieved using strategies that build on a few of the concepts developed in the rapidly growing field of Behavioral Finance.
The Machine Advisor also provides an alternative to the outdated, conventional asset allocation methodologies. Many asset classes have become increasingly correlated since 2008. This severely limits the usefulness of the asset allocation approach and the conventional implementation of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT).
The models within The Machine Advisor are designed to have much lower correlations to the market. Strategy-level diversification thus tends to provide much better portfolio risk mitigation capabilities than traditional asset-level diversification.
The Machine Advisor has been developed to allow financial professionals and their clients to leverage the theories of some of the greatest minds in finance in a practical, easy-to-use, and completely objective manner.
The models within The Machine Advisor quantify, for individual investment decisions, the concepts developed by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman (author of Thinking, Fast and Slow a New York Times Top 10 Book for 2011) and others.
The work of Kahneman and Amos Tversky in the 1970′s explained some of the short comings of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) and lead to the creation of the field of study now called Behavioral Finance. In short, Behavioral Finance explains the fundamental human behavior that drives investors to overreact to news or events and to act irrationally at times.
Investors consistently tend to buy stocks, bonds, and other investments after their prices have increased substantially because they “want to get in on the action” and don’t like seeing other investors profit while they are on the sidelines. Likewise, our very human nature causes us to systematically sell assets that are undervalued and have essentially had their prices “marked down.”
This irrational “herd” behavior was particularly evident in the two major bubbles in the 2000′s. During the dot-com bubble investors bought high flying internet stocks at 100 or more times their forward earnings. The housing bubble and subsequent sub-prime credit crises revealed the irrationality of both individual and professional investors.
While the theories of behavioral finance have only recently started to find their way into the mainstream, these concepts have been used by the world’s best traders and investors for as long as markets have existed.
Warren Buffet is famously quoted as saying “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful.” Sir John Templeton advised investors to “invest at the point of maximum pessimism.” And Lord Rothschild is said to have stated that “the time to buy is when there’s blood on the streets.”
The great investors have always known how to profit from temporary market inefficiencies caused by the human behaviors described by Behavioral Finance.
The models in The Machine Advisor take this a step farther and quantify these human behaviors that play out every day in price action in the financial markets. There are three basic types of models in The Machine Advisor that quantify three different aspects of this fundamental human behavior:
Each of the over 28,000 models in The Machine Advisor quantifies one of these behaviors. The methodology provides precise quantified entry and exit signals to buy and sell equities and ETFs such that active investors can potentially profit from these basic human behaviors instead of being hurt by them.
Modern Portfolio Theory has come under significant scrutiny over the past decade as many of its assumptions have been proven to be, at best, only partially true. Despite these questionable assumptions MPT can still provide a useful framework for investors.
By modifying a few of the assumptions in MPT and implementing it within the context of Behavioral Finance we can provide a framework for successful investing in a world where humans do not always behave rationally.
The most fundamental tenet of MPT remains its most useful ingredient – investors have the greatest opportunity for success if they build portfolios of diversified components. The cliche, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket,” is as true today as when the phrase was first uttered.
The concept is simple and intuitive as the following graphic shows.
Portfolios will exhibit reduced volatility when non-correlated investments are combined. Investments that move in tandem together are considered highly correlated. Investments are considered non-correlated if they do not move together and their movements are instead random. In a perfect world investments would have negative correlation and move in opposite directions while each investment still provided a positive return.
The problem with the conventional implementation of MPT is that the assets typically utilized have become more and more correlated over time. The advantages of strategic and tactical asset allocation have been largely negated by the increased correlations and reduced returns of the standard assets used.
The “lost decade” for equities has been well documented. The returns for the broad market and most of the typical equities sectors have been flat since 2000. More importantly, the correlations of the asset classes typically used for classical portfolio allocation have increased substantially as shown on the following table.
Most equity sectors are now correlated 85-95% or more with the S&P 500, significantly diminishing their value for diversification purposes. Even non-equity asset classes such as commodities, bonds, and REITs have seen their correlations increase.
Likewise, the following graphic demonstrates that correlations of country ETFs have increased substantially over the past decade and continue to trend upward.
So if conventional asset allocation is not the solution, what is?
The Machine Advisor offers a new way to provide the advantages of portfolio diversification. The benefits of diversifying investments promised by MPT can still be achieved by utilizing strategy (i.e. model) diversification instead of, or in addition to, asset class diversification.
The Machine Advisor allows financial professionals to build portfolios from diversified strategies with lower and more stable correlations to the broad market. The table below compares the correlations of typical asset classes used for MPT portfolio development compared to the active investing strategies available with The Machine Advisor.
Many active investing strategies have half the correlation of the typical equity asset classes. Of these classes used in conventional asset allocation, only bonds and gold provide decent non-correlated diversification. The Machine Advisor allows for bonds and gold to be added to active investing strategies to provide a complete solution for MPT 2.0.
The Machine Advisor provides financial professionals with over 28,000 active investing strategies (i.e. quantified models) that can be blended into well diversified portfolios. There are 7 categories of strategies:
Each strategy group leverages certain principles from the field of Behavioral Finance. As Kahman, Tversky, and others in the field have shown, basic human behaviors repeatedly manifest themselves in price movements of the financial markets.
These strategies attempt to identify equities that are in the early stages of a trend. These strategies benefit from the “herd” mentality.
The strategies trade low volatility stocks that tend to be large cap, “story” stocks. A recent example of one of these extended trends has been Apple (AAPL).
These strategies rely on concepts from academic studies which show persistency in prices, especially in low volatility stocks. The three main components of the strategies are: 1) momentum going into a stock; 2) low historical volatility; and 3) multiple trailing stops to identify trend change.
These trends tend to last many months and the average hold time for these positions is 6 to 9 months (though some trades can last over a year and some positions may be exited well before the 6 month period).
These strategies trade, on average, between 20 and 50 times per year.
When the general market is in a broad down trend these strategies tend to move to cash as there are few, if any, trending stocks.
These strategies are similar to the Equity Trend Following strategies except that they trade low volatility ETFs rather than low volatility stocks. Some models trade a general universe of unleveraged ETFs and other models trade only the Country ETFs. Inverse ETFs are not included in these models.
The ETF Trend Following strategies typically hold ETF positions for periods of 2 to 5 months. The strategies tend to trade between 10 and 100 times per year.
Whereas the previous trend following strategies attempt to identify behavior motivated by investor greed that is likely to result in a protracted upward trend, these strategies attempt to identify the opposite – investor fear that is likely to continue for a period of time.
These strategies also look at low volatility ETFs. Only unleveraged ETFs are considered. No inverse ETFs are considered.
These strategies hold a maximum of either 5 or 10 positions. They typically hold the positions for 1 to 3 months (down trends are typically not as persistent as upward trends).
These strategies may only trade a few times a year in a bull market environment, but they may trade 40 or more times in a year like 2011 or 2008.
The Selective Value strategies look to identify intermediate term opportunities in S&P 500 stocks. These strategies will generally hold positions between 1 and 3 months.
These strategies attempt to identify stocks which are under-valued due to investor over-reactions to news or market conditions. These positions have historically provided high probability opportunities over the 1 to 3 month timeframe.
These strategies will move into cash if market conditions indicate – based on the quantified model – that the market could become more over-sold in the short term.
These strategies typically trade between 10 and 150 times a year.
Weekly Rotational strategies are quantified models that identify equities that have a high statistical probability of being under-valued (i.e. over-sold) in the short term. These are long only strategies. The models trade either the S&P 500 stocks or a dynamic universe of low volatility stocks (large cap or mid cap stocks).
These strategies trade on a defined frequency of once a week. Different models trade on different days of the week. Models will hold a maximum of 10 to 20 positions at any one time. Each of the positions held is rotated the following week.
If the general market conditions signal a high statistical probability of the broad market becoming more over-sold in the short term, the models may move partially or completely into cash.
These strategies will generally trade between 200 and 500 times per year on average (round trip trades). Different models will have different activity levels and corresponding levels of exposure to the market.
The Semi-Monthly Rotation strategies are similar to the Weekly Rotation strategies with respect to the behavior that they target and the model construction. The primary difference is that the Semi-Monthly Rotation strategies will rotate the stock holdings twice per month rather than weekly.
The Semi-Monthly strategies are only available with S&P 500 stocks. These strategies generally trade between 100 and 200 times per year.
The Machine Advisor has been developed to allow financial professionals and their clients to leverage the theories developed by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahman, Amos Tversky, and others in the field of Behavioral Finance.
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Connors Research, LLC, the research affiliate of The Connors Group, owns a proprietary, core database of over 11 million equity trades – a unique, hand-groomed repository of data on short-term market behavior. Connors Research continually adds to and improves this data, and uses it to create model-driven, quantitatively validated trading methodologies.
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Please review our more comprehensive Risk Considerations at:
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Beaverton planning reservoir for South Cooper Mountain
on November 20, 2012 at 2:34 PM, updated November 20, 2012 at 3:38 PM
Beaverton is assessing locations for a new 5-million-gallon reservoir to serve South Cooper Mountain after its annexation.
A new reservoir would probably be completed about three years from now and cost between $5 million and $6 million, said David Winship, principal engineer in the city's public works department.
Beaverton would likely pay for the new reservoir by selling water revenue bonds, which could increase water rates, Winship said.
The city is already paying off three water-revenue bond issues. Beaverton's City Council raised water rates in August to $10 a month for the average single-family home and $2.67 for every 100 cubic foot of water consumed.
The city currently stores around 28 million gallons of water in five reservoirs. Stored water is used for fire protection, emergencies and times of peak demand.
Beaverton is in the process of annexing an additional 544 acres on South Cooper Mountain. The city has a 5.5-million-gallon reservoir on the top of Cooper Mountain already, but it will need about 4 million new gallons of storage to meet demand as that area is developed, Winship said.
The South Cooper Mountain area currently has no access to public water, he said.
"The current water and sewer systems in the area under consideration for annexation ... are running at maximum capacity," wrote Alan and Ashetra Prentice in a letter to the city last week. The Prentices live in Aloha and are neighbors of the area being annexed.
The 544 acres on South Cooper Mountain are part of Area 6B, a 1,776-acre swath of land that Beaverton hopes to annex.
In addition to the 4 million gallons needed for the South Cooper Mountain area, the rest of Area 6B would require about 3 million new gallons of storage, Winship said.
"The population numbers haven't been nailed down, so these are preliminary" estimates, he said.
The majority of the projected new storage wouldn't be necessary until construction and new development got underway on the land, he said.
The city also plans to spend $900,000 to extend its water line on Southwest Scholls Ferry Road in anticipation of Area 6B's annexation. This fiscal year's budget includes $225,000 for the project.
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1408 SPs, 200W TDP
Last modified on Friday, 10 December 2010 15:36
We managed to score more details regarding the upcoming AMD Cayman based cards. By the looks of it, some things have changed since the last slides, which we saw back in November. According to the latest specifications, the HD 6950 ended up clocked at 800MHz for the GPU and has 1408 Stream Processors, 22 SIMDs (two SIMDs less than the HD 6970) and 88 Texture Units.
The info that we now have looks solid and it appears to be what AMD has been telling its partners and selected press about its upcoming Cayman based HD 6970 and the HD 6950 cards. The HD 6950 is capable of delivering 2.25 TFLOPs of compute power and uses the VLIW4 shader architecture, same as the HD 6970.
The GDDR5 memory on HD 6950 cards ended up clocked at 1250MHz (5.0Gbps) and paired up with a 256-bit memory interface, which is a bit lower than the 5.5Gbps on the HD 6970. The interesting thing is that both cards will be equipped with 2GB of GDDR5 memory.
The TDP, something that has been quite a debatable topic recently, is set at 200W. Note that 200W is AMD's PowerTune Maximum Power whereas typical gaming power is set at 140W. Idle TDP is set at 20W, same as the HD 6970. The card needs two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors and has two DVI, two mini-DP and an HDMI output.
The card has already found its way to some of the press guys, and should launch on 15th of December.
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First Sikh temple opens in Upstate
A new Sikh temple opened in South Carolina.
The Upstate Sikh Society held an official opening celebration of the first Sikh temple in the northwestern part of the state. Officials say the new temple in Duncan has been under construction for two years.
Organizers of the grand opening say the event was a way to experience food, music and culture from the Punjab part of northern India.
Until now, Sikhs in the Upstate have worshiped in homes or other temples throughout the Carolinas.
Gov. Nikki Haley was raised in the Sikh faith but now identifies herself as Christian.
Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Rahm Emanuel's Judaism Through His Rabbi's Eyes
Rabbi Asher Lopatin talks with Beliefnet about the religious observance of the White House chief of staff.
BY: Alana B. Elias Kornfeld
New White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel isn’t only known for playing hardball (he’s been called a “profane, hyperactive attack dog”). The former Chicago politician and chairman of the House Democratic caucus, is also known for something far more enlightened: his religious commitment to Judaism.
Beliefnet recently spoke with Rabbi Asher Lopatin of Chicago's Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation--a modern Orthodox synagogue where Emanuel and his family are members. Lopatin, who famously gave Emanuel permission to take a conference call on Rosh Hashanah (something prohibited by the laws of the holiday), offered insight into the “model congregant” and how his faith influences his public work.
Would you explain the difference between modern Orthodoxy and ultra-Orthodoxy for our readers?
Modern Orthodoxy believes that there are a lot of benefits to engaging the contemporary world outside of Judaism. It encourages engagement--and even struggling--with the parts of the outside world that seem strange. Whereas, I think I should say that more traditional, or maybe ultra-Orthodoxy, really has a negative attitude towards the outside world and basically feels that the more you can isolate yourself from the outside world, the better.
How would Emanuel classify himself in terms of his religious affiliation?
I think you’d have to ask him. Even though Rahm and his family are members of our modern Orthodox synagogue, that doesn’t mean necessarily that they would classify themselves as modern Orthodox. I do know that he and the family are close to a Conservative rabbi in the D.C. area, Rabbi Jack Moline. And I think they were involved with Rabbi Moline’s synagogue. I know that the Emanuel children go to a community Jewish day school, the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School, which doesn’t classify itself with any movement.
There’s been a lot of talk about Orthodox ascendancy in politics, mostly as a politically and religiously right-wing endeavor. But now we have Rahm Emanuel, a very significant counterbalancing individual entering into a very important role in American politics. How do you see this changing the status quo?
Well, I’m not sure I agree with all the assumptions in the question. I believe that, within the Orthodox world, there is a sense that modern Orthodoxy’s on the defensive and the decline and ultra-Orthodoxy’s on the offensive and the ascendancy.
And I think that just the fact that Rahm Emanuel and his family are members of a modern Orthodox synagogue has to help modern Orthodoxy and give it a higher profile. I think we see that that a modern Orthodox synagogue can foster people that really can make a difference in this world.
But I think in some ways it shows the broader Jewish world and the non-Jewish world that Orthodoxy itself is not about hiding from the world, but it’s about really engaging the world and being a good citizen of the world.
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5:53 pm May. 9, 2012
New York's most prominent gay elected official, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, said she welcomed President Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage, and that he is "of course" invited to her May 19th wedding.
Bouyant and at times misty-eyed, Quinn said Obama's endorsement was "historic" and "a game-changer," and made gay, lesbian and transgender people "stand a little taller."
The endorsement came one day after voters in North Carolina approved a ban on same-sex marriage, which Quinn said was upsetting and hurtful.
"No matter if you're the speaker of the City Council or a 13-year-old girl, that hurts," she said. "Who likes to think of people not liking them? Who likes to think of people not liking them just because of who God made you to be who you are when you wake up in the morning? It's something that eats at you, whether you want to admit it or not."
Obama's endorsement sent a powerful, and personal, message to the public, she said.
When I asked her how important an issue this may be for voters in November, Quinn said, "I hope it's important for voters. I hope voters see this, whether or not you see marriage equality as right or wrong, I hope they see this as a brave movement."
Later, in a television interview with Fox News, Quinn said that when she and her longtime partner, Kim Catullo, "walk down that aisle, it's going to feel like the president is supporting us [and] that is an amazing feeling. To feel that you're not just supported by your city, you're not just supported by your state, you're actually supported by the president of the United States ... It's a feeling of support and affirmation and equality that just wasn't there before the president said this."
Later, Quinn told me she heard the news of Obama's endorsement during a meeting of the New York City Council's Democratic conference at City Hall. At the time, they were discussing fines for taxi and livery cars. When the delegation heard the news, she said, the members burst into applause, then went back to discussing taxis.
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About the Photographer
American, b. 1948 Evanston, IL
Bob Thall is known for formally rigorous and deadpan portrayals of the urban and suburban landscape in Chicago, photographing in black and white and using a view camera. Chicago (Near O'Hare) is part of a series he produced in the 1990s focusing on the "edge cities" of Chicago — the quickly constructed suburban communities near O’Hare International Airport surrounding both Chicago and its older ring of suburbs on the northwest side. Capturing the sleek artificiality of these recent developments, the image conveys the power, pervasiveness and emptiness of suburban corporate architecture. This work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in 1999 and published in the monograph The New American Village (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).
In the mid-1980s, Thall participated in the Changing Chicago Project, one of the largest documentary photography projects ever organized in an American city. The project was sponsored by the Focus/Infinity Fund of Chicago, founded by photographer and philanthropist Jack Jaffe, and launched in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Farm Security Administration documentary project. Thirty-three photographers of various styles were employed to create a multifaceted record of the city's diverse urban and suburban neighborhoods and inhabitants, culminating in concurrent exhibitions across Chicago’s major museums and a book entitled Changing Chicago: A Photodocumentary (University of Illinois Press, 1989). Many of Thall’s photographs documenting infrastructure and architecure on the south side of Chicago are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Photography and formed part of the Changing Chicago Project.
Bob Thall was born in Chicago in 1948. He completed a BA and MFA in photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has been on faculty at Columbia College Chicago since 1976 and is currently chair of the photography department. Thall is a recipient of a John F. Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1998). His work is held in many collections, including the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; J. Paul Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Los Angeles; Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In addition to The New American Village, monographs include The Perfect City (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), City Spaces: Photographs of Chicago Alleys (Center for American Places, 2002), and At City's Edge: Photographs of Chicago's Lakefront (Center for American Places, 2005).
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Chris writes in response to the previous post;
"Your definition of the East End must be different from mine; I've always considered the East End to start at Aldgate East and extend to the docks area but not much further beyond (which would be East London but not the East End)."
"The East End had a much higher housing density than the City (bugger all housing), central London (again, pretty much bugger all). Further out, the housing density is lower. So any raid on the docks would be likely to damage more housing than elsewhere."
Hmmm. For the first, I've highlighted the old London boroughs that Chris may consider the East End - but I've included Hackney in the North, which some may dispute. Secondly, the civilian deaths figures for each of the old boroughs is from the CWGC. Now of course this includes deaths from V1s and V2s later in the war, but if Chris' point about housing density is correct, I'd expect the 'East End' totals to be much higher. In fact, Stepney and Westminster look like they were hit equally hard. And five out of the six boroughs with over 1,000 dead are South of the river.
I need the areas of each borough to present the data as deaths/km2, and correlate this with the total bomb tonnage to present a conclusive answer.
CIVILIAN DEATHS BY BOROUGH WWII - CWGC
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Top White Papers
osOpinion: Win32 API on Linux? Yes please.May 30, 2000, 05:20 (15 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Matt Zobian)
[ Thanks to Kelly McNeill for this link. ]
"Is having the Win32 API (Application Programming Interface) available on Linux a good thing? Perhaps in ten years this will no longer be an issue, but right now the answer is "you bet."
"Enough has already been written about the very real problem of getting ISV's (Independent Software Vendors) to port their popular apps to Linux. To deny that this is a problem is to deny that the Windows monopoly exists."
"The financial barrier to doing a complete re-write of a commercial app, e.g. Quicken, to Linux is simply daunting. Having the Win32 API implemented on Linux would effectively eliminate that barrier. Windows-based apps could be inexpensively ported and would greatly broaden the appeal of Linux to many, many users. A virtuous cycle would then ensue, and Linux would reach its potential as an operating system for the future."
0 Talkback[s] (click to add your comment)
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I sometimes wonder if I come off as a too-harsh critic of Northshore Schools. I spend most of my days thinking about how to improve educational outcomes in our state and district, and I realize NSD is doing very well compared to the rest of the state, which is, as a whole, DISMAL.
This article points out how well NSD is doing, despite the terrible budget climate, with lots of quotes from Superintendent Francois:
In 2010, the district announced new Goals and Performance Measures. We have made great strides at replacing curriculum and revamping the Honors (now Challenge) Program in junior and senior high school. Starting next year, almost all Challenge courses will be self-select: the student, with guidance from parents and lots of data from the district, chooses whether to enroll in more rigorous courses.
In my last blog, I mentioned how important it is for students to take Algebra 1 by 8th grade, as this allows them to take enough math in high school to meet rigorous college admissions requirements. One of the new Goals is to increase the percentage of kids finishing Alg 1 by 8th grade. Here is an update from last year on that goal:
District-wide, in this school year, only about 30% of students will complete Alg 1 by the end of 8th grade (which is up from 25% last year). This is better, but not good enough, which is one of the reasons the district has wisely opened Challenge up further.
So only 30% of students (and less than 15% of Hispanic and black students) are on a math track that will get them fully prepared for college. Compare that to Bellevue, Lake Washington and Issaquah SDs, in which 8th grade Alg 1 is the typical track –greater than 90% of their students meet this goal.
I want to throw this out to you for your thoughts. Federal Way SD AUTOMATICALLY enrolls students who pass the MSP/HSPE into advanced classes. Parents can opt their kids out, but few do. Results show that even kids who weren’t “A” students are both passing the rigorous classes and demonstrating deeper learning. Should we do this here? That would put 77% of all students into 8th grade Alg 1, and more than 90% of HS kids into AP English classes.
Do you think we ought to raise the bar even higher in Northshore?
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Thinking Seriously About Haiti
On January 27, 2010, shortly after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, faculty members from the departments of African American Studies, Philosophy, and Political Science spoke about the sources of poverty and autocracy in Haiti and about how Haiti has been affected by U.S. policy and history.
Faculty panelists, left to right: Ruth Groff (standing), J. D. Bowen, Katrina Thompson,
Stefan Bradley, and Michael Barber, S. J.
J.D. Bowen, from the Department of Political Science, speaks.
Student interest exceeded the capacity of the room.
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The full Department of Justice Inspector General (DOJ/IG) report from the ‘Fast and Furious’ disaster was released on the 19th of September. Coming on the heels of the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, which ended its month-long campaign around the United States last a week earlier, it is timely to think about several present-day realities: the paralysis afflicting policy makers around the topic of gun control, the Obama administration’s doubling down on Drug War policies, and the ongoing violence that affects people in Mexico, the U.S. and many communities in Central and South America.
Our government plays a crucial role in facilitating gun violence in Mexico (as well as throughout the region and in the U.S. itself), both by refusing to push for sensible gun control laws and by failing to enforce the laws already in place. Between the calendar years 2007 and 2011, almost 70% of the 99,000 firearms that were recovered in Mexico and submitted to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were U.S.-sourced. U.S.-sourced here means that the firearms were manufactured in the U.S. or they were legally imported into the U.S. under the auspices of a federal firearms licensee (FFL).
These numbers are likely to be very low estimates, as they only count guns successfully confiscated and turned over to the ATF for tracking, and they indicate that the U.S. is a huge part of the problem. Rather than engaging in a serious review of current drug policy, the Obama Administration has focused on defending itself against allegations surrounding the “Fast and Furious” scandal, contributing to the paralysis that we have been seeing with policy makers around the issue of gun control, and even today this Administration continues to express enthusiasm for the War on Drugs in its current form.
When it comes to sensible gun control laws, it is clear that new laws are needed. Here is another excerpt from the DOJ/IG report:
It is legal for a non-prohibited individual in Arizona to purchase an unlimited number of firearms from an FFL at any time. It is also legal for a non-prohibited person to pay for firearms in cash and to then transfer, sell, or barter those firearms to a non-prohibited third party. (pp. 139-140)
It seems to me that ‘unlimited number of firearms’ is precisely what the movement towards sensible gun laws is trying to fight against—and if you have any doubt, consider that the 5 individuals in the Fast and Furious case purchased over 100 guns each, and the one with the most purchases bought 723 weapons!
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| Hysterectomy Resources for Dayton, OH |
If you are looking for specific information about hysterectomy in Dayton, OH, this page will provide added resources for your quest. Read on for specific local information about hysterectomy, surgery options, doctors, hospitals, patient testimonies and more from HysterSisters.com members.
What is a hysterectomy?
A hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus, otherwise known as the womb. Rarely is a hysterectomy an emergency surgery. There is usually considerable time to research and explore options for discussions with your personal surgeon.
Read more about hysterectomy.
Most importantly, if you have been told you need a hysterectomy and you have explored the alternative treatments for your diagnosis, there is important information you need to know.
|Miami Valley Hospital
1 Wyoming St
Dayton OH 45409
|Good Samaritan Hospital
2222 Philadelphia Dr
Dayton OH 45406
HysterSisters Hysterectomy Articles
Options to Hysterectomy
Hormone and Menopause
Intimacy after Hysterectomy
Fitness after Hysterectomy
Ask A Doctor
Your first decision - What type of hysterectomy is best for you?
Different types of hysterectomy are tailored to a specific set of health needs and surgeon skills. With today's advancing technology and experienced surgeons, most women are candidates for minimally invasive surgery. Minimally invasive surgery typically allows for faster recovery and fewer complications. Vaginal hysterectomy, laparoscopic hysterectomy, and robotic hysterectomy are examples of minimally invasive hysterectomy options.
Ask your surgeon: Am I a candidate for minimally invasive hysterectomy? If the answer is no, ask "Why not?". Seek a second opinion of a specialized GYN surgeon for additional surgery options.
Read more about the different hysterectomy types:
da Vinci¨ Hysterectomy
Open Incision - Abdominal Hysterectomy
| ||Dale William DROLLINGER MD.|
Suggestion by Debbie W. :
"I went to Dr. Drollinger as a new patient (I had been going to my family doctor for gyn related things) and he examined me took the time to get some test results and then we sat down in his office and...(Read More)
| ||Percy FRASIER MD.|
Suggestion by Pamela :
"I had went into the doctors office with Pain and he sugessted that i have a complete Hysterectomy Well they scheduled it and it was scheduled on 8-8-07 (My Birthday) He did a good Job They even sang...(Read More)
| ||Bruce Jeremy BERNIE MD.|
Suggestion by Teresa :
"Not only Dr. Bernie but his entire staff walked me through every step of the way of my total hysterectomy with efficiency professionalism patience and compassion. He suggested and explained the le...(Read More)
| ||Max A CLARK DO.|
Suggestion by J :
"I would recommend Dr. Clark for a number of reasons. First if you are in need of a GYN/ONC you won't find a better one. He takes time to be sure you understand everything that is going on . He is...(Read More)
| ||Caroline E PETERSON DO.|
Suggestion by Sharon P :
"I am truly grateful to find a very skill and knowledgeable female doctor for this type of medical need. She is full of life and energy and always helpful. I would strongly recommend her!!...(Read More)
| ||Tiffany N HALL MD.|
Suggestion by Lynda Chapman :
"She was extremely empathetic and caring. She made it easier for me to have a complete hysterectomy at the age of 33. She made it as pain free as possible and ensured that I was completely educated a...(Read More)
| ||Trisha A PACHIANO DO.|
Suggestion by Chrissy :
"This doctor has been by my side through a lot. She is always researching new things to see if they may help my issues. She prays before surgery and she puts the patients safety before anything else. S...(Read More)
| ||Stephen George ENGLAND MD.|
Suggestion by Alecia :
"Dr England has delivered both of my children. The first was an emergency c-section and the second as a scheduled c-section. He is an excellent surgeon....(Read More)
Get a Second Opinion - ALWAYS!
HysterSisters recommends that you get more than one opinion when your doctor suggests a hysterectomy. You may have a trustful long-standing history with your doctor and feel horrified that we suggest such a thing! This isn't a slap in the face for your personal physician but a smart thing for every patient to do.
Set up an appointment with a different surgeon in a different practice and even perhaps in a different town. Take your records with you but also ask for an exam. Ask if the first recommendation is appropriate. Ask for alternative suggestions.
Get a third opinion. You might find the third suggests an even less invasive solution or an alternative treatment to completely avoid surgery.
The key is for you, the patient, to get all the information you can before you agree to surgery. You cannot change your mind once the surgery is done. There are no money back guarantees if the surgery is not the cure for your problem. Be smart. Do your homework.
Read more about getting a second opinion: Give Me A Second.
The internet's premier woman-to-woman support site for hysterectomy information, support and recovery, Hyster Sisters: is truly a labor of love culling the combined wisdom of thousands of Hyster Sisters around the world who have faced hysterectomy firsthand, before hysterectomy, after hysterectomy, treatment options, surgical procedures, hormonal issues and a step-by-step guide through the weeks before and after surgery.
Latest Discussions from the HysterSisters OH forum :
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State List : AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY
|
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|
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We’ve all grown up watching this cuddly bunch. Sesame Street has taught us how to spell, how to share and how to be a good friend. But now the gang is teaching us what a billion looks like. After reaching 1 billion views on YouTube, SesameStreet released this video of The Count singing the catchy tune, ”You”s in YouTube.”
Last month, Sesame Street put out a call to get fans to help them reach one billion views on their channel. Fans worldwide came to the rescue and helped them hit their target!
According to USA Today, this is the first non-profit organization and children’s media company to reach this milestone. Since launching their YouTube channel more than four years ago, they average almost a million hits a day. Amazing!
|
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|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.andpop.com/2013/03/07/sesame-street-hits-1-billion-views-on-youtube/
|
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|
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|
U.S.-Mexico Tourist and Travel Groups Urge Texas Department of Public Safety to Alter Tone of Misleading Mexico Travel Alerts
Both American and Mexican tourist and travel industry groups alike have one message for the Texas Department of Public Safety : travel to Mexico is still safe and enjoyable.
Shannon Stowell, president of the Adventure Travel Trade Association, said, "Out of roughly 2,500 municipalities, only 80 are currently recording problems with drug violence, it's a very acute problem versus a ubiquitous problem."
These groups met with the Texas Secretary of State's office and DPS last week to ask the Texas Department of Public Safety to restrict its dramatic Mexico travel alerts, saying the state's current warning is too broad and is hurting business. With less than 5 percent of Mexico affected by cartel and drug violence, they want future DPS travel warnings to clarify what parts of Mexico actually pose a threat to tourists and want to emphasize that popular tourist destinations, such as Cancun, Los Cabos and Cozumel, are not dangerous for Americans.
"If you look at federal travel warnings, they are very editorial free, just reportage on the facts. But the one that came out of Texas had what I would call an inflammatory message. It was an unfair blanket statement," Stowell said. "It's a damage to our membership."
Most recently, a DPS travel warning issued for spring break encourages Texans to avoid the country altogether. DPS Director Steven C. McCraw said in the statement, "Our safety message is simple: avoid traveling to Mexico during Spring Break and stay alive." DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said Tuesday that the organization does not have any plans to revise its travel warning.
President of the Travel Leaders/Main Street Place Travel in Fort Worth, Terry Denton, said, "After that warning came out, we saw a dramatic increase of people coming to our office asking questions and expressing concern. In many cases, we could alleviate any fears and concerns they had by sharing our knowledge of statistics and geography."
Karen Bavoso, a travel agent for the Houston-based Woodlake Travel Services, said clients who choose to cross the border, love it. Of the DPS Mexico travel alert, she said, "It's kind of like they're saying, 'There's trouble in Texas.' Well, where in Texas? Texas (and Mexico) are huge. We advise our clients to be safe no matter where you go. You can be robbed anywhere.”
|
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|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
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|
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|
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Three Kurdish women, including one of the founders of a militant group battling Turkish troops, have been "executed" at a Kurdish centre in Paris.
One of the victims was reported to be Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
All three were reportedly shot in the head, but police would not immediately confirm this.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who visited the pro-Kurdish centre in Paris where their bodies were found, said the deaths are "without doubt an execution." He called it a "totally intolerable act."
Hundreds of people, including Kurds, gathered on the street where the centre is located.
Police and firemen discovered the bodies at about 1:30 am today at the Kurdistan Information Centre.
In Turkey, Huseyin Celik, the deputy chairman of Turkey's ruling party, said the attack appeared to be the result of "an internal feud" within the PKK, but did not provide any evidence to back the claim.
Turkey has resumed talks with the PKK with the goal of convincing the group to disarm.
Mr Celik suggested that the murders were an attempt to derail those talks.
The conflict between PKK and Turkish troops has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the rebels - who are seeking self-rule for Kurds in south-east Turkey - took up arms in 1984. Turkey's Western allies also label the group a terrorist organisation. The Kurdish minority comprises more than 20% of Turkey's 75 million people.
|
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|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/world-news/kurdish-rebels-shot-dead-in-paris-28956827.html
|
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|
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21st century youth provision
The Northwest is in dire need of more and better facilities for young people to go to in their leisure time. When asked, young people have made the modest request that they would like:
- Somewhere to go
- Something to do
- Someone to talk to
OnSide is in the business turning this request into a reality by offering youth provision that is reflective of the needs of young people in the 21st Century.
How are we going to do this?
OnSide has developed the Youth Zone Model. A Youth Zone is a working name for a type of world-class centre for young people, which OnSide recommends as a flagship facility for every town and city.
The model is is based on the success of Bolton Lads and Girls Club, which is used by over 3000 children and young people every week. BLGC is a safe modern place, where young people feel welcome, can meet their friends and be themselves.
Over the next few years, our aim is to build as many new modern iconic Youth Zones as we can.
|
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|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.onsidenorthwest.org/about-u/what-we-do/
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|
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ROUND ROCK, Texas -- There's a new proposal to make the roads safer, by cutting down on distracted drivers.
The City of Round Rock is trying to tackle motorists who text and drive. Unlike Austin, texting behind the wheel is still legal in Round Rock. Now the city is looking into ways to reduce it.
City Councilman John Moman is proposing "texting zones." He says the paved areas would be "pull-off" zones away from lanes of traffic, giving people a chance to put their car in park and send a text or make a quick call.
Councilman Moman says they will need TX-DOT's support to make the project a reality and begin the planning process.
He will be bringing up the idea to them to see if it could work, and how much it would cost.
|
<urn:uuid:13e4f22d-4b99-48f3-91f3-a476deccfbb7>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.kvue.com/news/Round-Rock-Councilman-proposes-texting-zones-190554281.html
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Believe it or not, you can still buy a George W. Bush “Elite Force Aviator” 12-inch action figure to commemorate his 2003 aircraft carrier “Mission Accomplished” photo op prematurely celebrating victory over Iraq. Amazon.com offers them for $74.99, plus shipping and handling.
As Republican fetishes go, nothing will ever top it.
So let’s say you wanted to market a Mitt Romney action figure to enhance the GOP candidate’s chances among voters who play with dolls. How would you dress the thing? There appear to be several possibilities, none very flattering.
No warrior poses, of course, because Romney sat out Vietnam as a Mormon missionary in Paris, where he learned to speak French but converted not a soul. Now he’s keen for war with Iran, about which one thing’s certain: no son or grandson of his will serve.
A Gov. Mitt doll could only resemble a statue of the Roman god Janus, usually depicted with two faces symbolizing his ability to see the past and the future. In Romney’s case, both faces would signify extremely flexible convictions. As Massachusetts governor, Mitt was all for government-imposed health insurance mandates; now he’s categorically opposed.
It’s been fascinating watching the candidate explain how money paid to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue in lieu of buying health insurance is a “penalty,” while money shelled out to the IRS under identical circumstances constitutes a “tax.”
Who does he think he’s fooling? Back in 2009, when Romney wrote a USA Today column urging President Obama to adopt a health care mandate, he called it a “tax penalty.” You provide proof of health insurance or you pay a penalty. How hard is that?
To be fair, Obama’s been similarly evasive. To be even fairer, the Massachusetts tax penalty is much higher than “Obamacare’s” — half the cost of a yearly health insurance premium, assessed on state income taxes.
Observing this ludicrous spectacle, former Bush speechwriter Matt Larimer predicts that Romney can’t help but be “haunted throughout the campaign by unforced errors to explain his various shifts: the weak evasions to questions, the odd explanations, the bizarrely unnecessary misstatements.”
“Name a single controversial political position Romney has taken in his career that he has stuck to,” Larimer asks, “regardless of the political consequences, regardless of the criticism he’s received. Anyone?”
Um, not me.
You vote for Romney, you have no idea what you’re getting. Absolutely none. However, there are signs the candidate may actually benefit from his sheer lack of conviction. Robert Draper reports in the New York Times Magazine that when focus groups are informed that Romney champions Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan, thus… “‘ending Medicare as we know it’ — while also advocating tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the respondents simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing.”
Then how about a Job Creator Mitt doll, depicting Romney as Romney wishes to be seen? Once again, costuming is a problem. I’m extremely fond of that PR photo of Romney and his Bain Capital colleagues grinning maniacally with $20 bills hanging out of their pockets and stuck in their ears. But there’s nothing duller than a middle-aged stiff in a blue business suit.
You could dress him up like Scrooge McDuck, top hat, pince-nez and spats, except that the Disney tycoon wore no pants — the better to dabble in his bullion pool, I suppose. Besides, Romney’s avarice is of a distinctly contemporary kind. The 19th- and 20th-century industrialists that the Disney character satirized actually built things — railroads, oil and mining empires, automobiles, etc.
Outfits like Bain Capital are products of the computer age, and of financial deregulation. They don’t make things. They accumulate wealth through stock speculation, tax arbitrage, currency manipulation, “outsourcing” and “offshoring” jobs, basically manipulating money with no regard for the companies or communities affected.
Successful investments are one thing. But if there’s money to be made by acquiring a company, borrowing against its assets and driving it into bankruptcy — that’s OK, too. A recent Vanity Fair article on Romney’s finances lists a half-dozen “formerly healthy companies” Bain treated that way during his tenure. The scandal is what’s legal.
Vanity Fair also documents that fully 55 pages in Romney’s 2010 tax return — the only one he’s condescended to release — “are devoted to reporting his transactions with foreign entities.” The candidate has multi-million dollar bank accounts in such foreign tax havens as Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, etc. He’s got upwards of $100 million stashed in a tax-free IRA supposedly limited to $30,000 yearly deposits.
So here’s my suggestion: dress the Mitt Romney action figure in the national costumes of the countries where his money lives — lederhosen for the Swiss accounts, a Jimmy Buffett beach-bum outfit for the Caymans, an all-white cricket uniform for the Bahamas, etc.
Then, win or lose, Job Creator Mitt can visit his money in style.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of “The Hunting of the President” (St. Martin’s Press, 2000). You can e-mail Lyons at firstname.lastname@example.org.
© 2012 Gene Lyons
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://columbiadailyherald.com/sections/opinion/columns/romney-doll-dressed-impress.html
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A Diceless, Resource Allocation Super Hero RPG
The Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game is a superhero role-playing game that was released in 2003 by Marvel Comics. It’s designed to be a diceless roleplaying game, though it avoided the categorical nature of diceless roleplay set up by the Amber Roleplaying Game and instead used resource allocation for task and combat resolution. This decision was driven by a desire to wed the storytelling aspects of rpgs to the resource contests of collectible card games. Marvel Comics assumed the two markets were compatible, because of the fantasy nature of the games and probably because both rpg gaming and ccg gaming are seen as geek pastimes.
Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game Supplements
Besides the core book, two supplements were released: Guide to the X-Men and Guide to the Hulk & Avengers. The game line had slated sourcebooks called Guide to Spider-Man’s NYC and Guide to Wolverine, but these were never released. A fan-published Unofficial Guide to Spider-Man’s New York since has been produced, because many fans thought a look at the Marvel Universe’s version of New York City would have been illuminating.
Diceless Superhero Role Playing
Dice rolls and randomness were replaced in by a resource allocation system using red stones. Depending on their stats, each player received a certain number of maximum red stones. When a task needed to be performed or a melee action need to be taken, the player would allot a certain number of red stones to performing this action. The red stones represented energy.
When a task or unopposed action is being performed, the player must overcome both a Difficulty Level and a Resistance factor. The difficulty rating stated where a character’s base stat associated with that task had to be to have a chance to perform the task at all. Clear that hurdle and you can attempt to perform the task. Resistance is how many stones you need to succeed.
Combat and Red Stones
In an opposed situation between two characters, success is determined by which player allotted more stones to the task. The degree of success is determined by how many stones the winner won the contest by. After the end of a game round (counted in “panels”, not actions), a certain number of red stones would regenerate, determined by several factors.
When combat occurs, a player has to allocate stones to attack, defense, and power usage (often damage). Defense stones work against all attacks that round, while certain powers avoid a defense. When an attacked succeeds, health is lowered by the difference in the number of stones between winner and loser of that panel. When health reaches zero, the character is stunned. Subsequent attacks might cause a coma or death, though a character with some Health remaining can choose to be knocked unconscious, instead of being beaten down to zero health.
Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game Line Cancellation
Before the Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game came out, its overseers didn’t help themselves in role-playing circles by stating in interviews that probability-resolution systems were a thing of the past and that traditional dice-based rpg games were too complex. This earned the game few fans in the traditional role-playing game market and probably caused a certain amount of critical backlash (or fan resistance) when the game first appeared in stores.
While the resource-driven aspects to the game were designed to draw in fans of collectible card games and living card games, most CCG and CG fans didn’t enjoy the role-playing aspects of the Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game. Thus, the game fell between two proverbial chairs by alienating both its main target audiences in one way or another.
Despite that fact, sales were strong by current standards of the role-playing game industry. The game books didn’t have sales figures approaching those for Marvel Comics’s main product, though. MU executives probably had unrealistic sales goals, given that comic books are much cheaper than role-playing game supplements. The unrealistic nature of Marvel Comics’ expectations were highlighted when it was learned they were disappointed MURPG didn’t sell as well as the core rulebook of the latest Dungeons & Dragons edition (considered an impossible dream before the advent of D&D 4th Edition and its rival, Pathfinder). When a new Marvel Comics CEO came on-board, the Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game was cancelled.
As you might imagine, the production value was off the charts. The art, taken from the best of Hulk, Avengers, and X-Men art over the past several years, was excellent. The books were beautiful and certainly made me want to like Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game. I’m a huge fan of Amber Diceless Roleplaying and continue to wait for a time I can find a group of players to enjoy Nobilis with me. That being said, I didn’t like the resource management aspect of the game either.
|
<urn:uuid:ad2a961b-b757-4420-9581-e35e00022f86>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.superherorpgs.com/marvel-universe-roleplaying-game/
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The Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff writes that the Department of Health and Human Services has decided to “punt” on the “monumental” task of dictating exactly what types of coverage those who get health insurance through the individual market or small employers must purchase. HHS has decided to let each state decide for its own residents what constitutes “essential health benefits.” It was a shrewd move: under the guise of decentralized decision-making, HHS is offering to let state officials take the blame for an inevitably controversial decision and the inevitable higher costs that will result. Yay, federalism! States have until the end of this month to decide just how much coverage they are going to help ObamaCare force their citizens to purchase.
Kliff reports that many states are now wrestling with the unanswerable question, “What health-care benefits are absolutely essential?”
Is acupuncture essential health care? Weight-loss surgery? Under Obamacare, states choose…
California legislators say acupuncture makes the cut. Michigan regulators would include chiropractic services. Oregon officials would leave both of those benefits on the cutting-room floor. Colorado has deemed pre-vacation visits to travel clinics necessary, while leaving costly fertility treatments out of its preliminary package…
A Virginia advisory board recommended that the state adopt a plan that includes speech therapy and chiropractic care. A District subcommittee has endorsed a plan pegged to an existing BlueCross BlueShield package, and public comment remains open through Friday Sept. 28…
Of course, an objective definition of “essential” coverage is impossible. Like “medical necessity,” the only way to determine whether health coverage is “essential” is if the benefits exceed the costs. That is an inherently subjective question that no legislator or regulator, state or federal, can or should try to answer for a diverse population of consumers. When they do, health care providers invariably hijack the process, demanding that consumers be required to purchase coverage of their services. Since the legislators/regulators are handing out benefits while consumers and taxpayers shoulder the costs, the result is predictable: health insurance premiums rise.
Thanks to HHS’s punt, providers now have an even greater incentive to lobby states to mandate coverage of their services. If a state creates its own list of “essential health benefits,” then any benefits the state mandates will be eligible for federal subsidies. If not, the cost of state-mandated benefits continues to fall on consumers or employers, who tend to complain. (Again, shrewd. Corrupt and irresponsible. But shrewd.)
But since ObamaCare is on the books, and HHS gave states a choice, what should states do?
The choice is identical to what states face with regard to health insurance Exchanges: states have the option to implement part of ObamaCare themselves, but no matter what they decide, Washington is ultimately running the show.
The federal government will not let states pick a menu of “essential health benefits” or establish an Exchange with fewer regulatory controls than HHS would impose itself. Since less regulation than the federal government would impose is not an option, implementing these parts of the law can only lead to more regulation, fewer choices, and higher costs. And of course, state officials will take the blame when ObamaCare starts increasing costs and denying care to people. There is simply no good reason for states to assume this impossible, harmful, and thankless task.
Instead of doing the feds’ dirty work, states should use this opportunity to show how ObamaCare rigs the game against states and consumers alike. State officials that want to rid the nation of ObamaCare should submit to HHS a “benchmark” EHB plan that they know HHS will refuse. It could be either the most affordable health plan they can find in their individual or small group markets, or a plan that state officials designed themselves. Leave out benefits that HHS considers dealbreakers. Push the deductible as high as you dare. Allow annual or lifetime limits. The less coverage you include in your EHB benchmark, the more choice consumers will have and the lower the premiums will be. Submit such a proposal to HHS and dare them to reject it. Let your voters see that under ObamaCare, choice is a mirage. Dare HHS to explain why they rejected affordable health plans and forced the Treasury to subsidize more-expensive health plans.
Alternatively, state who are not inclined to confrontation can tell the Obama administration the same thing they should say with regard to health insurance Exchanges: it’s your stupid law, you implement it.
|
<urn:uuid:b65d5090-f780-4f27-9be8-03e59e7e3511>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.cato.org/blog/tags/small-group-market
|
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|
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EVANSVILLE — Soon after some final environmental cleanup work is finished, a portion of the old Greyhound Bus Station in Downtown Evansville will open for business again as a regional office of Indiana Landmarks.
The building at Third and Sycamore streets has been closed since 2007, when Greyhound moved its local operation to the nearby Metropolitan Evansville Transit System station.
The city took ownership, and public and private investments are bringing it back to life.
Under an agreement reached last year, Indiana Landmarks, which is described as the largest statewide nonprofit historic preservation organization in United States, is to be the main provider of $750,000 in private funds for the station's restoration.
City government's contribution, $250,000, is from Downtown Tax Increment Financing funds.
Removal of asbestos and lead-based paint — a job involving local contractors Preferred Environmental Solutions and Crane Environmental Solutions — will be finished in a few days.
That will allow Indiana Landmarks to take ownership and move into the mezzanine area. Options for use of the rest of the building then will be explored.
"Indiana Landmarks is intent on taking possession, and we will start restoration from that point forward," said Stewart Sebree, director of the agency's regional operations.
Indiana Landmarks has no permanent office in Southwestern Indiana. Sebree and Philip Hooper, director of the Department of Metropolitan Development, said the former bus station will be ideal.
Hooper said having a Downtown office in a well-known location will allow Indiana Landmarks to have a greater impact in Vanderburgh County and else where in the region.
"The hope is still that the southwest office would expand and they would expand their programs here," Hooper said. "In Indianapolis, they are a very substantial community development partner. They will buy vacant homes, stabilize the exterior, put it on the market.
"They are essentially a community development organization that works with philanthropic dollars, not federal dollars. It's a great addition you can make to your toolbox."
The Greyhound building will be open to the public once Indiana Landmarks opens its office.
Being Downtown, Sebree said, "will help us spread the word, plus let the folks see the restoration of a great historic landmark in Downtown Evansville."
Although future uses, haven't been determined, Sebree said there will be a tie-in between the old bus station and the nearby Farmers Market which runs every summer.
Officials also noted the planned Bicentennial Park, adjacent to the bus station between Sycamore and Vine streets. "There certainly will be a lot of synergy," Hooper said.
|
<urn:uuid:c55e1d65-6a62-4e22-93a5-bb548a7128be>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/sep/19/greyhound-herp/
|
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|
en
| 0.962072
| 543
| 1.515625
| 2
|
| Harvard Business Review
Evaluating the CEO
This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. After Kaufman became a CEO, he was struck by how perfunctory the board was in its feedback on his performance. The chair of the compensation committee would pop by his office following the year-end board meeting, congratulate him on the company's making its numbers, and then hand him an envelope containing the details of his comp package before walking out the door. The entire exchange would last no more than 10 minutes. That sort of review was a big contrast from the intense evaluations Kaufman received as a senior executive--assessments based on input from many sources and on multiple dimensions of his performance. As chief executive, all of sudden his total worth was summed up in just three or four financial measures. Although CEOs should have autonomy, reducing performance management to only financial measures makes little sense. All the financial incentives in the world won't transform CEOs into better decision makers. And bad decisions can bring companies down. Boards have an obligation to shareholders to ensure that companies are led well, and the sooner they can spot problems with leaders' performance, the better. With that in mind, Kaufman encouraged Arrow Electronics, where he was CEO for 14 years, to adopt a formal process that obliged independent directors to talk to executives and observe operations firsthand. Directors considered CEO performance in five key areas: leadership, strategy, people management, operating metrics, and relationships with external constituencies. As a result, they picked up on problems Kaufman might not have noticed, provided counsel that made him a stronger leader--and avoided disasters along the way.
Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Motivation and Incentives;
Kaufman, Stephen P. "Evaluating the CEO." Harvard Business Review 86, no. 10 (October 2008).
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Last night was a special night for a lot of people. For the Ravens players. For the staff and coaches of the team. For the fans. For the city of Baltimore.
After a hard fought Super Bowl game, the Baltimore Ravens are World Champions! However, one player has been a champion in a lot of people's hearts for a long time, including mine. Brendon Ayanbadejo courageously stood up in support of marriage equality over four years ago. He lives by a saying that has guided my social justice work: The rights you take for granted are only valid if you fight to give those same rights to others.
As an unwavering ally, he has used his platform as an NFL player to fight for the rights of all people, especially the gay and lesbian community. I have followed Brendon's journey fighting for equality off-the-field, and could not be more proud of him. I had the chance to speak with the Super Bowl champ and wanted to share with you all our conversation about marriage equality, his upbringing and his message to the President.
Hey Brendon, It is nice to speak you, my brother.
Thanks Russell, it is a pleasure to speak with you as well.
I know your time is limited, but I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your incredible commitment for equality. If you could describe equality, how would you describe it?
Equality means that every single person, no matter your race, creed, sexual orientation, advantages or disadvantages, are all treated equally.
What personal experiences made you want to come out and support gay marriage when you knew you would probably be one of the only football players to do so? What type of discrimination or things did you see that really made you want to make a change?
Being a '70s baby and growing up in the '80s and '90s, I witnessed firsthand the rise of the African-American community into mainstream America. All of a sudden when I was in junior high school and going into high school, black was the cool thing to be. Everybody wanted to be black and embrace black people. Prior to that in the '60s, my parents would not have been allowed to get married due to interracial marriage laws and today this issue is relevant once again, however, it's not about race. It is about sexual orientation and whom you choose to love, which is no different than a black person loving a white person. Same sex couples should legally marry whomever they fall in love with. So the same plight for equality that affected me in the '60s is relevant again today, it doesn't affect me this time, but it will affect people I love and care about. This isn't a fight for gay rights, this is a fight for human rights.
How homophobic is the NFL culture? Do you see the tide changing significantly with the acceptance of gays and legalization of gay marriage in certain states?
The NFL culture has come a long way from four years ago. The younger generation of players are a lot more open-minded, forward thinking and accepting of the LGBT community.
What do you think the NFL can do to make players who might be on the down low feel comfortable? What steps can the NFL take to make homosexuality acceptable period?
I don't think this is a question of what the NFL can do, I think it is more of a question of what everybody in sports can do to be more accepting of the LGBT community. With organizations like Athlete Ally, we are starting to change the way and encourage our LGBT brothers and sisters to stick with sports and keep on playing all sports in general and not be bullied out of the sport that they love.
How hard has it been being one of the only players to support gay marriage in such a "macho" sport?
Being the first pioneer publicly accepting same-sex marriage in the three major sports was difficult at first but the more people scrutinized me and ridiculed me, the stronger I became for the issue. It was like lifting weights; the resistance made me stronger, stand taller and speak louder for LGBT rights!
If you could say one thing to President Obama, what would you tell him?
The first thing I would say to Obama is “what the heck took you so long!” (he laughs) Secondly, I would tell him that I am so proud and especially happy for my two children that we have an African-American president in office and they get to look up to him and realize that anything is possible. But then again, it is not such an impossibility because you have already made it come true.
Congrats on that Super Bowl win, my man. Go get some rest. You deserve it.
Thank you! I am very happy for my team, the organization, the fans and the city of Baltimore. They have been incredible to me and my family! Now it is time to make sure all families can share in the same opportunities that we can. Our work has just begun!
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The subject of traveling with crematory remains has been in the news recently. As part of our standard operating procedures, TSA has a clear process for screening crematory remains. Our Officers routinely conduct these types of screenings throughout our nation’s airports.
Passengers may transport crematory remains as part of their carry-on property or checked baggage. Some airlines do not allow crematory remains as checked baggage, so check with your airline first.
If carrying on the crematory remains, they are subject to screening and must pass through the X-ray machine. If the X-ray Operator cannot clear the remains, TSA may apply other, non-intrusive means of resolving the alarm. Under no circumstances will an officer open the container, even if the passenger requests this be done. If the officer cannot determine that the container does not contain a prohibited item, the remains will not be permitted.
We understand the emotional stress passengers may be under when transporting the remains of a loved one. Our guidelines for traveling with crematory remains is not intended to make this already emotionally difficult process more complex than needed. However, crematory remains are one of the many sensitive items that could be exploited by someone wanting to conceal a dangerous item.
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Hockey shin guards have a simple yet vital purpose. Of all the body parts, your shins are probably the most likely target of sticks, pucks and skates. Without shin pads, you wouldn't last very long in a hockey game. It would only take one shot or chop with a stick across the knees to convince you that proper leg protection is pretty important.
There are varying level of protection offered with the many models and brands of hockey shin guards that we carry. It's safe to assume that you'll get more all-around protection from higher-priced shin guards. As the price increases, you get more calf protection, a greater number of straps to secure the pads to your legs, higher quality materials in the shell and interior, more breathability and flexibility, greater durability and a more comfortable fit. Look at a single line of shin guards from any given manufacturer and compare each model from bottom to top and you'll be able to see the differences in coverage and quality.
Measuring for shin guards is pretty simple. Take a tape measure from the center of your knee cap down to the crease where your ankle and shin meet at the top of your foot. If you plan to wear your shin guards tucked into the tongues of your skates, subtract an inch. If you're going to wear the shin guards on the outside of your tongues, you can pretty safely use the measurement that you just took from knee cap to ankle.
It's important to make sure that your shin guards are neither too long nor too short. If they're too long, your skates will push them up and your knee caps will not be centered in the knee cap cup of the shin guards, which is uncomfortable and likely to cause your pads to shift around leaving the sides of your knees exposed. If your shin guards are too short, the bottom of your shins and top of your ankles will be left exposed to errant hockey pucks, hockey sticks and skates.
Make sure to grab a few rolls of hockey shin tape before you check out and browse through the rest of our hockey protective gear.
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|Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013 - 6:30 AM
"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry"
Ai Weiwei is arguably the most internationally celebrated Chinese artist of the modern era. The inscrutable bearded visionary burst onto the scene with vast conceptual installations such as his eight million hand-painted ceramic sunflower seeds inside Tate Modern and went on to design the iconic Bird's Nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics. But at heart, Ai Weiwei is a troublemaker with a serious agenda: to challenge the oppression of the Chinese people by their government with rebellious and irreverent gestures. D
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Every startup has an elevator pitch, but what comes next? Do potential investors’ eyes glaze over when you get beyond the quick, punchy one liner and try to REALLY describe your company? Successful fundraisers tell a complete, engaging story and close the deal.
Last week, the WSJ ran a great article on the value of college humanities courses, and used comments from a successful entrepreneur to make their case. I have to confess that I almost ignored the article, thinking that it was one more elaborate defense of worthless, expensive humanities departments that should be defunded in favor of more math, science, CS, and business classes. I was wrong, and the article was a good reminder that telling your company’s full story is a critical element in raising capital.
Malauzai is an example of a company that tells its’ story well. The company builds a SaaS mobile banking platform for community banks. Malauzai, founded by Tom Shen, is in the midst of raising a series A round to fuel rapid growth. The core idea is very simple—give community banks a powerful, customizable platform that allows bank customers to bank via their smartphones.
The bigger story? Tom does a great job laying out his heartfelt conviction that community banks are critical to the economy and the fabric of local communities. He then takes that emotionally gratifying picture—local bankers battling it out with the likes of Citicorp to serve their communities—and builds on it with the idea that Malauzai software turns the local bankers into formidable competitors armed with new technology that the big guys are slow to adopt.
It all flows into a great story. Mobile is important. Community banks are an essential part of the financial landscape. With the right technology, they can compete with the Megabanks and Wall Street. And Malauzai collect a monthly per user fee for each consumer. What’s not to like?
And the story gets better as you dig deeper. Tom has had two exits in bank technology. One of his early investors is a key banking software provider with hundreds of customers. Several members of his Board have very deep experience in the bank technology space. They have 100 customers on the platform already, and they are so excited about the product that they put it on billboards. It all hangs together.
The net result? A very attractive package, and a story that is easy to comprehend.
Does your investor pitch tell a story, or is it a disconnected jumble of elevator pitch, market sizing, technology and financials? People like and relate to stories on an emotional level. Learn to tell yours.
Steve Reich is a veteran entrepreneur and Angel investor in Southern California. Through his experiences with Digital Insight, LeisureLink, and Treasury Services, he has been with startups from launch to IPO. Reich has been funded by VC firms such Clearstone Venture Partners, Mission Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and General Atlantic. Steve is also an active member of the Pasadena Angels, and regularly mentors young companies. Steve's expertise includes leading winning sales teams, brand marketing, and operations management. He has extensive experience in business to business sales, SaaS technology, and eCommerce. Follow Steve at his blog at http://granitecreekblog.wordpress.com/. .
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The Quebec Convention Centre's first event-an 1,800-person dinner attended by the likes of Canada's Prime Minister Jean Cretien and Quebec's Premier Lucien Bouchard-was a test the center and its staff passed with ease.
The August gala celebration marked the end of ten years of planning and more than two years of construction. To thank Quebec City residents for their patience and support, the center hosted an open house weekend. Local attractions set up booths-many of them interactive-in the 75,000-square-foot exhibit hall, and visitors got to take a peek at the center's abundant meeting space: the 34,000-square-foot ballroom, accommodating up to 3,000 persons and divisible by three; 30 breakout rooms, which can be configured to seat up to 370; and the glassed-in foyer, with a breathtaking view of the city and the Laurentian Mountains. Overall, the center can accommodate 4,000 delegates or two groups of 1,600.
The 120 video monitors located in prefunction areas and function room entrances can be used for signage, messaging, or advertisements by exhibitors. A videoconferencing network services all meeting rooms, and there is a simultaneous translation system (up to eight languages) in the convention hall. The facility meets the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
More than 3,000 hotel rooms are within walking distance of the new convention center, including the 565-room Quebec Hilton and the 377-room Radisson Gouverneurs Quebec, both connected to the center by an underground passageway. Loews Le Concorde, with its 200-seat, revolving rooftop restaurant, has 422 rooms. The 613-room Chateau Frontenac, built in 1893, is where FDR and Winston Churchill formulated D-Day-and left the plans, recovered by a member of the hotel staff.
At Jean-Lesage International Airport, a $9 million project to construct a new tower and rebuild runways is set for a June 1997 completion.
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MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – Job seekers wishing employers would add more jobs in the month of May had their hopes dashed. Employers across the country added just 54,000 jobs in May, the fewest jobs added in eight months.
For South Florida, especially Miami-Dade County, the stagnant hiring picture in May was not what job seekers were hoping to see.
Overall, the national unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1 percent. But investors and economists were trying to determine if the May numbers were an anomaly or were signs of a chronic problem.
The deepest job cuts in May were in local governments, which cut 28,000 jobs, of those, 18,000 were in education. But this wasn’t unexpected; cities and counties have cut jobs for 22 straight months and have shed 446,000 since September 2008.
Economists pointed to higher gas prices sapping consumer cash as one of the reasons the job market is slowing. Consumer spending drives several elements of the U.S. economy, and as gas prices rise, and wages don’t keep up with inflation, the overall economy remains sluggish.
Still, there are some industries that are managing to keep hiring while the economy sputters. Health care and mining industries are two of the areas that continue to hire despite sluggish consumer spending.
For South Floridians, the tourism industry continues to show solid gains as foreign tourism continues to boom as the dollar remains weak around the world.
But, as long as the housing market remains depressed, the construction industry, which fuels South Florida, will remain dormant and keep thousands of workers on the unemployment line.
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Front Page Titles (by Subject) COMMODIANUS. - Ante-Nicene Fathers. Volume 4: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Part First and Second
Return to Title Page for Ante-Nicene Fathers. Volume 4: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Part First and Second
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COMMODIANUS. - A. Cleveland Coxe, Ante-Nicene Fathers. Volume 4: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Part First and Second
Ante-Nicene Fathers. Volume 4: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Part First and Second, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Revised and Chronologically arranged with brief prefaces and occasional notes by A. Cleveland Coxe (New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885).
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INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO THE INSTRUCTIONS OF COMMODIANUS.
As a poetical work the following prose version probably does it no injustice. His versification is pronounced very crabbed, and his diction is the wretched patois of North Africa. But the piety and earnestness of a practical Christian seem everywhere conspicuous in this fragment of antiquity.
THE INSTRUCTIONS OF COMMODIANUS IN FAVOUR OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE,
(expressed in acrostics)
My preface sets forth the way to the wanderer, and a good visitation when the goal of life shall have come, that he may become eternal—a thing which ignorant hearts disbelieve. I in like manner have wandered for a long time, by giving attendance upon heathen fanes, my parents themselves being ignorant.1 Thence at length I withdrew myself by reading concerning the law. I bear witness to the Lord; I grieve: alas, the crowd of citizens! ignorant of what it loses in going to seek vain gods. Thoroughly taught by these things, I instruct the ignorant in the truth.
In the law, the Lord of heaven, and earth, and sea has commanded, saying, Worship not vain gods made by your own hands out of wood or gold, lest my wrath destroy you for such things. The people before Moses, unskilled, abiding without law, and ignorant of God, prayed to gods that perished, after the likenesses of which they fashioned vain idols. The Lord having brought the Jews out of the land of Egypt, subsequently imposed on them a law; and the Omnipotent enjoined these things, that they should serve Him alone, and not those idols. Moreover, in that law is taught concerning the resurrection, and the hope of living in happiness again in the world, if vain idols be forsaken and not worshipped.
THE WORSHIP OF DEMONS.
When Almighty God, to beautify the nature of the world, willed that that earth should be visited by angels, when they were sent down they despised His laws. Such was the beauty of women, that it turned them aside; so that, being contaminated, they could not return to heaven. Rebels from God, they uttered words against Him. Then the Highest uttered His judgment against them; and from their seed giants are said to have been born. By them arts were made known in the earth, and they taught the dyeing of wool, and everything which is done; and to them, when they died, men erected images. But the Almighty, because they were of an evil seed, did not approve that, when dead, they should be brought back from death. Whence wandering they now subvert many bodies, and it is such as these especially that ye this day worship and pray to as gods.
And Saturn the old, if he is a god, how does he grow old? Or if he was a god, why was he driven by his terrors to devour his children? But because he was not a god, he consumed the bowels of his sons in a monstrous madness. He was a king upon earth, born in the mount Olympus; and he was not divine, but called himself a god. He fell into weakness of mind, and swallowed a stone for his son. Thus he became a god; of late he is called Jupiter.
This Jupiter was born to Saturn in the island of Breta; and when he was grown up, he deprived his father of the kingdom. He then deluded the wives and sisters of the nobles. Moreover, Pyracmon, a smith, had made for him a sceptre. In the beginning God made the heaven, the earth, and the sea. But that frightful creature, born in the midst of time, went forth as a youth from a cave, and was nourished by stealth. Behold, that God is the author of all things, not that Jupiter.
OF THE SAME JUPITER’S THUNDERBOLT.
Ye say, O fools, Jupiter thunders. It is he that hurls thunderbolts; and if it was childishness that thought thus, why for two hundred years have ye been babies?1 And will ye still be so always? Infancy is passed into maturity, old age does not enjoy trifles, the age of boyhood has departed; let the mind of youth in like manner depart. Your thoughts ought to belong to the character of men. Thou art then a fool, to believe that it is Jupiter that thunders. He, born on the earth, is nourished with goats’ milk. Therefore if Saturn had devoured him, who was it in those times that sent rain when he was dead? Especially, if a god may be thought to be born of a mortal father, Saturn grew old on the earth, and on the earth he died. There was none that predicted his previous birth. Or if he thunders, the law would have been given by him. The stories that the poets feign seduce you. He, however, reigned in Crete, and there died. He who to you is the Almighty became Alcmena’s lover; he himself would in like manner be in love with living men now if he were alive. Ye pray to unclean gods, and ye call them heavenly who are born of mortal seed from those giants. Ye hear and ye read that he was born in the earth: whence was it that that corrupter so well deserved to ascend into heaven? And the Cyclopes are said to have forged him a thunderbolt; for though he was immortal, he received arms from mortals. Ye have conveyed to heaven by your authority one guilty of so many crimes, and, moreover, a parricide of his own relations.
OF THE SEPTIZONIUM AND THE STARS.
Your want of intelligence deceives you concerning the circle of the zone, and perchance from that you find out that you must pray to Jupiter. Saturn is told of there, but it is as a star, for he was driven forth by Jupiter, or let Jupiter be believed to be in the star. He who controlled the constellations of the pole, and the sower of the soil; he who made war with the Trojans, he loved the beautiful Venus. Or among the stars themselves Mars was caught with her by married jealousy: he is called the youthful god. Oh excessively foolish, to think that those who are born of Maia rule from the stars, or that they rule the entire nature of the world! Subjected to wounds, and themselves living under the dominion of the fates, obscene, inquisitive, warriors of an impious life; and they made sons, equally mortal with themselves, and were all terrible, foolish, strong, in the sevenfold girdle. If ye worship the stars, worship also the twelve signs of the zodiac, as well the ram, the bull, the twins, as the fierce lion; and finally, they go on into fishes,—cook them and you will prove them. A law without law is your refuge: what wishes to be, will prevail. A woman desires to be wanton; she seeks to live without restraint. Ye yourselves will be what ye wish for, and pray to as gods and goddesses. Thus I worshipped while I went astray, and now I condemn it.
OF THE SUN AND MOON.
Concerning the Sun and Moon ye are in error, although they are in our immediate presence; in that ye, as I formerly did, think that you must pray to them. They, indeed, are among the stars; but they do not run of their own accord. The Omnipotent, when He established all things at first, placed them there with the stars, on the fourth day. . . . And, indeed, He commanded in the law that none should worship them. Ye worship so many gods who promise nothing concerning life, whose law is not on the earth, nor are they themselves foretold. But a few priests seduce you, who say that any deity destined to die can be of service. Draw near now, read, and learn the truth.
Let your Mercury be depicted with a Saraballum, and with wings on his helmet or his cap, and in other respects naked. I see a marvellous thing, a god flying with a little satchel. Run, poor creatures, with your lap spread open when he flies, that he may empty his satchel: do ye from thence be prepared. Look on the painted one, since he will thus cast you money from on high: then dance ye securely. Vain man, art thou not mad, to worship painted gods in heaven? If thou knowest not how to live, continue to dwell with the beasts.
Ye make Neptune a god descended from Saturn; and he wields a trident that he may spear the fishes. It is plain by his being thus provided that he is a sea-god. Did not he himself with Apollo raise up walls for the Trojans? How did that poor stone-mason become a god? Did not he beget the cyclops-monster? And was he himself when dead unable to live again, though his structure admitted of this?2 Thus begotten, he begot who was already once dead.
APOLLO THE SOOTHSAYING AND FALSE.
Ye make Apollo a player on the cithara, and divine. Born at first of Maia, in the isle of Delos, subsequently, for offered wages, a builder, obeying the king Laomedon, he reared the walls of the Trojans. And he established himself, and ye are seduced into thinking him a god, in whose bones the love of Cassandra burned, whom the virgin craftily sported with, and, though a divine being, he is deceived. By his office of augur he was able to know the double-hearted one. Moreover rejected, he, though divine, departed thence. Him the virgin burnt up with her beauty, whom he ought to have burnt up; while she ought first of all to have loved the god who thus lustfully began to love Daphne, and still follows her up, wishing to violate the maid. The fool loves in vain. Nor can he obtain her by running. Surely, if he were a god, he would come up with her through the air. She first came under the roof, and the divine being remained outside. The race of men deceive you, for they were of a sad way of life. Moreover, he is said to have fed the cattle of Admetus. While in imposed sports he threw the quoit into the air, he could not restrain it as it fell, and it killed his friend. That was the last day of his companion Hyacinthus. Had he been divine, he would have foreknown the death of his friend.
Ye yourselves say that Father Liber was assuredly twice begotten. First of all he was born in India of Proserpine and Jupiter, and waging war against the Titans, when his blood was shed, he expired even as one of mortal men. Again restored from his death, in another womb Semele conceived him again of Jupiter, a second Maia, whose womb being divided, he is taken away near to birth from his dead mother, and as a nursling is given to be nourished to Nisus. From this being twice born he is called Dionysus; and his religion is falsely observed in vanity; and they celebrate his orgies such that now they themselves seem to be either foolhardy or burlesquers of Mimnermomerus. They conspire in evil; they practise beforehand with pretended heat, that they may deceive others into saying that a deity is present. Hence you manifestly see men living a life like his, violently excited with the wine which he himself had pressed out; they have given him divine honour in the midst of their drunken excess.
THE UNCONQUERED ONE.
The unconquered one was born from a rock, if he is regarded as a god. Now tell us, then, on the other hand, which is the first of these two. The rock has overcome the god: then the creator of the rock has to be sought after. Moreover, you still depict him also as a thief; although, if he were a god, he certainly did not live by theft. Assuredly he was of earth, and of a monstrous nature. And he turned other people’s oxen into his caves; just as did Cacus, that son of Vulcan.
Whence, again, has Sylvanus appeared to be a god? Perhaps it is agreeable so to call him from this, that the pipe sings sweetly because he bestows the wood; for, perhaps, it might not be so. Thou hast bought a venal master, when thou shalt have bought from him. Behold the wood fails! What is due to him? Art thou not ashamed, O fool, to adore such pictures? Seek one God who will allow you to live after death. Depart from such as have become dead in life.
Hercules, because he destroyed the monster of the Aventine Mount, who had been wont to steal the herds of Evander, is a god: the rustic mind of men, untaught also, when they wished to return thanks instead of praise to the absent thunderer, senselessly vowed victims as to a god to be besought, they made milky altars as a memorial to themselves. Thence it arises that he is worshipped in the ancient manner. But he is no god, although he was strong in arms.
OF THE GODS AND GODDESSES.
Ye say that they are gods who are plainly cruel, and ye say that genesis assigns the fates to you. Now, then, say to whom first of all sacred rites are paid. Between the ways on either side immature death is straying. If the fates give the generations, why do you pray to the god? Thou art vainly deceived who art seeking to beseech the manes, and thou namest them to be lords over thee who are fabricated. Or, moreover, I know not what women you pray to as goddesses—Bellona and Nemesis the goddesses, together with the celestial Fury, the Virgins and Venus, for whom your wives are weak in the loins. Besides, there are in the fanes other demons which are not as yet numbered, and are worn on the neck, so that they themselves cannot give to themselves an account. Plagues ought rather to be exported to the ends of the earth.
OF THEIR IMAGES.
A few wicked and empty poets delude you; while they seek with difficulty to procure their living, they adorn falsehood to be for others under the guise of mystery. Thence feigning to be smitten by some deity, they sing of his majesty, and weary themselves under his form. Ye have often seen the Dindymarii, with what a din they enter upon luxuries while they seek to feign the furies, or when they strike their backs with the filthy axe, although with their teaching they keep what they heal by their blood. Behold in what name they do not compel those who first of all unite themselves to them with a sound mind. But that they may take away a gift, they seek such minds. Thence see how all things are feigned. They cast a shadow over a simple people, lest they should believe, while they perish, the thing once for all proceeded in vanity from antiquity, that a prophet who uttered false things might be believed; but their majesty has spoken nought.
OF AMMYDATES AND THE GREAT GOD.
We have already said many things of an abominable superstition, and yet we follow up the subject, lest we should be said to have passed anything over. And the worshippers worshipped their Ammydates after their manner. He was great to them when there was gold in the temple. They placed their heads under his power, as if he were present. It came to the highest point that Cæsar took away the gold. The deity failed, or fled, or passed away into fire. The author of this wickedness is manifest who formed this same god, and falsely prophesying seduces so many and so great men, and only was silent about Him who was accustomed to be divine. For voices broke forth, as if with a changed mind, as if the wooden god were speaking into his ear. Say now yourselves if they are not false deities? From that prodigy how many has that prophet destroyed? He forgot to prophesy who before was accustomed to prophesy; so those prodigies are feigned among those who are greedy of wine, whose damnable audacity feigns deities, for they were carried about, and such an image was dried up. For both he himself is silent, and no one prophesies concerning him at all. But ye wish to ruin yourselves.
OF THE VAIN NEMESIACI.
Is it not ignominy, that a prudent man should be seduced and worship such a one, or say that a log is Diana? You trust a man who in the morning is drunk, costive, and ready to perish, who by art speaks falsely what is seen by him. While he lives strictly, he feeds on his own bowels. A detestable one defiles all the citizens; and he has attached to himself—a similar gathering being made—those with whom he feigns the history, that he may adorn a god. He is ignorant how to prophesy for himself; for others he dares it. He places it on his shoulder when he pleases, and again he places it down. Whirling round, he is turned by himself with the tree of the two-forked one, as if you would think that he was inspired with the deity of the wood. Ye do not worship the gods whom they themselves falsely announce; ye worship the priests themselves, fearing them vainly. But if thou art strong in heart, flee at once from the shrines of death.
Ye say that the Titans are to you Tutans. Ye ask that these fierce ones should be silent under your roof, as so many Lares, shrines, images made like to a Titan. For ye foolishly adore those who have died by an evil death, not reading their own law. They themselves speak not, and ye dare to call them gods who are melted out of a brazen vessel; ye should rather melt them into little vessels for yourselves.
Ye call the mountains also gods. Let them rule in gold, darkened by evil, and aiding with an averted mind. For if a pure spirit and a serene mind remained to you, thou thyself ought to examine for thyself concerning them. Thou art become senseless as a man, if thou thinkest that these can save thee, whether they rule or whether they cease. If thou seekest anything healthy, seek rather the righteousness of the law, that brings the help of salvation, and says that you are becoming eternal. For what you shall follow in vanity rejoices you for a time. Thou art glad for a brief space, and afterwards bewailest in the depths. Withdraw thyself from these, if thou wilt rise again with Christ.
THE DULNESS OF THE AGE.
Alas, I grieve, citizens, that ye are thus blinded by the world. One runs to the lot; another gazes on the birds; another, having shed the blood of bleating animals, calls forth the manes, and credulously desires to hear vain responses. When so many leaders and kings have taken counsel concerning life, what benefit has it been to them to have known even its portents? Learn, I beg you, citizens, what is good; beware of idolfanes. Seek, indeed, all of you, in the law of the Omnipotent. Thus it has pleased the Lord of lords Himself in the heavens, that demons should wander in the world for our discipline. And yet, on the other hand, He has sent out His mandates, that they who forsake their altars shall become inhabitants of heaven. Whence I am not careful to argue this in a small treatise. The law teaches; it calls on you in your midst. Consider for yourselves. Ye have entered upon two roads; decide upon the right one.1
OF THOSE WHO ARE EVERYWHERE READY.
While thou obeyest the belly, thou sayest that thou art innocent; and, as if courteously, makest thyself everywhere ready. Woe to thee, foolish man! thou thyself lookest around upon death. Thou seekest in a barbarous fashion to live without law. Thou thyself hymnest thyself also to play upon a word, who feignest thyself simple. I live in simplicity with such a one. Thou believest that thou livest, whilst thou desirest to fill thy belly. To sit down disgracefully of no account in thy house, ready for feasting, and to run away from precepts. Or because thou believest not that God will judge the dead, thou foolishly makest thyself ruler of heaven instead of Him. Thou regardest thy belly as if thou canst provide for it. Thou seemest at one time to be profane, at another to be holy. Thou appearest as a suppliant of God, under the aspect of a tyrant. Thou shalt feel in thy fates by whose law thou art aided.
OF THOSE WHO LIVE BETWEEN THE TWO.
Thou who thinkest that, by living doubtfully between the two, thou art on thy guard, goest on thy way stript of law, broken down by luxury. Thou art looking forward vainly to so many things, why seekest thou unjust things? And whatever thou hast done shall there remain to thee when dead. Consider, thou foolish one, thou wast not, and lo, thou art seen. Thou knowest not whence thou hast proceeded, nor whence thou art nourished. Thou avoidest the excellent and benignant God of thy life, and thy Governor, who would rather wish thee to live. Thou turnest thyself to thyself, and givest thy back to God. Thou drownest thyself in darkness, whilst thou thinkest thou art abiding in light. Why runnest thou in the synagogue to the Pharisees, that He may become merciful to thee, whom thou of thy own accord deniest? Thence thou goest abroad again; thou seekest healthful things. Thou wishest to live between both ways, but thence thou shalt perish. And, moreover, thou sayest, Who is He who has redeemed from death, that we may believe in Him, since there punishments are awarded? Ah! not thus, O malignant man, shall it be as thou thinkest. For to him who has lived well there is advantage after death. Thou, however, when one day thou diest, shalt be taken away in an evil place. But they who believe in Christ shall be led into a good place, and those to whom that delight is given are caressed; but to you who are of a double mind, against you is punishment without the body. The course of the tormentor stirs you up to cry out against your brother.
THEY WHO FEAR AND WILL NOT BELIEVE.
How long, O foolish man, wilt thou not acknowledge Christ? Thou avoidest the fertile field, and castest thy seeds on the sterile one. Thou seekest to abide in the wood where the thief is delaying. Thou sayest, I also am of God; and thou wanderest out of doors. Now at length, after so many invitations, enter within the palace. Now is the harvest ripe, and the time so many times prepared. Lo, now reap! What! dost thou not repent? Thence now, if thou hast not, gather the seasonable wines. The time of believing to life is present in the time of death. The first law of God is the foundation of the subsequent law. Thee, indeed, it assigned to believe in the second law. Nor are threats from Himself, but from it, powerful over thee. Now astounded, swear that thou wilt believe in Christ; for the Old Testament proclaims concerning Him. For it is needful only to believe in Him who was dead, to be able to rise again to live for all time. Therefore, if thou art one who disbelievest that these things shall be, at length he shall be overcome in his guilt in the second death. I will declare things to come in few words in this little treatise. In it can be known when hope must be preferred. Still I exhort you as quickly as possible to believe in Christ.
TO THOSE WHO RESIST THE LAW OF CHRIST THE LIVING GOD.
Thou rejectest, unhappy one, the advantage of heavenly discipline, and rushest into death while wishing to stray without a bridle. Luxury and the shortlived joys of the world are ruining thee, whence thou shalt be tormented in hell for all time. They are vain joys with which thou art foolishly delighted. Do not these make thee to be a man dead? Cannot thirty years at length make thee a wise man? Ignorant how thou hast first strayed, look upon ancient time, thou thinkest now to enjoy here a joyous life in the midst of wrongs. These are the ruins of thy friends, wars, or wicked frauds, thefts with bloodshed: the body is vexed with sores, and groaning and wailing is indulged; whether a slight disease invade thee, or thou art held down by long sickness, or thou art bereaved of thy children, or thou mournest over a lost wife. All is a wilderness: alas, dignities are hurried down from their height by vices and poverty; doubly so, assuredly, if thou languishest long. And callest thou it life when this life of glass is mortal? Consider now at length that this time is of no avail, but in the future you have hope without the craft of living. Certainly the little children which have been snatched away desired to live. Moreover, the young men who have been deprived of life, perchance were preparing to grow old, and they themselves were making ready to enjoy joyful days; and yet we unwillingly lay aside all things in the world. I have delayed with a perverse mind, and I have thought that the life of this world was a true one; and I judged that death would come in like manner as ye did—that when once life had departed, the soul also was dead and perished. These things, however, are not so; but the Founder and Author of the world has certainly required the brother slain by a brother. Impious man, say, said He, where is thy brother? and he denied. For the blood of thy brother has cried aloud to Me to heaven. Thou art tormented, I see, when thou thoughtest to feel nothing; but he lives and occupies the place on the right hand. He enjoys delights which thou, O wicked one, hast lost; and when thou hast called back the world, he also has gone before, and will be immortal: for thou shalt wail in hell. Certainly God lives, who makes the dead to live, that He may give worthy rewards to the innocent and to the good; but to the fierce and impious, cruel hell. Commence, O thou who art led away, to perceive the judgments of God.
O FOOL, THOU DOST NOT DIE TO GOD.
O fool, thou dost not absolutely die; nor, when dead, dost thou escape the lofty One. Although thou shouldst arrange that when dead thou perceivest nothing, thou shalt foolishly be overcome. God the Creator of the world liveth, whose laws cry out that the dead are in existence. But thou, whilst recklessly thou seekest to live without God, judgest that in death is extinction, and thinkest that it is absolute. God has not ordered it as thou thinkest, that the dead are forgetful of what they have previously done. Now has the governor made for us receptacles of death, and after our ashes we shall behold them. Thou art stripped, O foolish one, who thinkest that by death thou art not, and hast made thy Ruler and Lord to be able to do nothing. But death is not a mere vacuity, if thou reconsiderest in thine heart. Thou mayest know that He is to be desired, for late thou shalt perceive Him. Thou wast the ruler of the flesh; certainly flesh ruled not thee. Freed from it, the former is buried; thou art here. Rightly is mortal man separated from the flesh. Therefore mortal eyes will not be able to be equalled (to divine things). Thus our depth keeps us from the secret of God. Give thou now, whilst in weakness thou art dying, the honour to God, and believe that Christ will bring thee back living from the dead. Thou oughtest to give praises in the church to the omnipotent One.
THE RIGHTEOUS RISE AGAIN.
Righteousness and goodness, peace and true patience, and care concerning one’s deeds, make to live after death. But a crafty mind, mischievous, perfidious, evil, destroys itself by degrees, and delays in a cruel death. O wicked man, hear now what thou gainest by thy evil deeds. Look on the judges of earth, who now in the body torture with terrible punishments; either chastisements are prepared for the deserving by the sword, or to weep in a long imprisonment. Dost thou, last of all, hope to laugh at the God of heaven and the Ruler of the sky, by whom all things were made? Thou ragest, thou art mad, and now thou takest away the name of God, from whom, moreover, thou shalt not escape; and He will award punishments according to your deeds. Now I would have you be cautious that thou come not to the burning of fire. Give thyself up at once to Christ, that goodness may attend thee.
TO THE WICKED AND UNBELIEVING RICH MAN.
Thou wilt, O rich man, by insatiably looking too much to all thy wealth, squander those things to which thou art still seeking to cling. Thou sayest, I do not hope when dead to live after such things as these. O ungrateful to the great God, who thus judgest thyself to be a god; to Him who, when thou knewest nothing of it, brought thee forth, and then nourished thee. He governs thy meadows; He, thy vineyards; He, thy herd of cattle; and He, whatever thou possessest. Nor dost thou give heed to these things; or thou, perchance, rulest all things. He who made the sky, and the earth, and the salt seas, decreed to give us back again ourselves in a golden age. And only if thou believest, thou livest in the secret of God. Learn God, O foolish man, who wishes thee to be immortal, that thou mayest give Him eternal thanks in thy struggle. His own law teaches thee; but since thou seekest to wander, thou disbelievest all things, and thence thou shalt go into hell. By and by thou givest up thy life; thou shalt be taken where it grieveth thee to be: there the spiritual punishment, which is eternal, is undergone; there are always wailings: nor dost thou absolutely die therein—there at length too late proclaiming the omnipotent God.
RICH MEN, BE HUMBLE.
Learn, O thou who art about to die, to show thyself good to all. Why, in the midst of the people, makest thou thyself to be another than thou art? Thou goest where thou knowest not, and ignorantly thence thou departest. Thou managest wickedly with thy very body; thou thirstest always after riches. Thou exaltest thyself too much on high; and thou bearest pride, and dost not willingly look on the poor. Now ye do not even feed your parents themselves when placed under you. Ah, wretched men, let ordinary men flee far from you. He lived, and I have destroyed him; the poor man cries out εὕρηκα. By and by thou shalt be driven with the furies of Charybdis, when thou thyself dost perish. Thus ye rich men are undisciplined, ye give a law to those, ye yourselves not being prepared. Strip thyself, O rich man turned away from God, of such evils, if assuredly, perchance, what thou hast seen done may aid thee. Be ye the attendant of God while ye have time. Even as the elm loves the vine, so love ye people of no account. Observe now, O barren one, the law which is terrible to the evil, and equally benignant to the good; be humble in prosperity. Take away, O rich men, hearts of fraud, and take up hearts of peace. And look upon your evil-doing. Do ye do good? I am here.
Consider the sayings of Solomon, all ye judges; in what way, with one word of his, he disparages you. How gifts and presents corrupt the judges, thence, thence follows the law. Ye always love givers; and when there shall be a cause, the unjust cause carries off the victory. Thus I am innocent; nor do I, a man of no account, accuse you, because Solomon openly raises the blasphemy. But your god is your belly, and rewards are your laws. Paul the apostle suggests this, I am not deceitful.
If place or time is favourable, or the person has advanced, let there be a new judge. Why now art thou lifted up thence? Untaught, thou blasphemest Him of whose liberality thou livest. In such weakness thou dost not ever regard Him. Throughout advances and profits thou greedily presumest on fortune. There is no law to thee, nor dost thou discern thyself in prosperity. Although they may be counted of gold, let the strains of the pipe always be raving. If thou hast not adored the crucifixion of the Lord, thou hast perished.1 Both place and occasion and person are now given to thee, if, however, thou believest; but if not, thou shalt fear before Him. Bring thyself into obedience to Christ, and place thy neck under Him. To Him remains the honour and all the confidence of things. When the time flatters thee, be more cautious. Not foreseeing, as it behoves thee, the final awards of fate, thou art not able ever to live again without Christ.
TO THE GENTILES.
O people, ferocious, without a shepherd, now at length wander not. For I also who admonish you was the same, ignorant, wandering. Now, therefore, take the likeness of your Lord. Raise upward your wild and roughened hearts. Enter stedfastly into the fold of your sylvan Shepherd, remaining safe from robbers under the royal roof. In the wood are wolves; therefore take refuge in the cave. Thou warrest, thou art mad; nor dost thou behold where thou abidest. Believe in the one God, that when dead thou mayest live, and mayest rise in His kingdom, when there shall be the resurrection to the just.
MOREOVER, TO IGNORANT GENTILES.
The unsubdued neck refuses to bear the yoke of labour. Then it delights to be satisfied with herbs in the rich plains. And still unwillingly is subdued the useful mare, and it is made to be less fierce when it is first brought into subjection. O people, O man, thou brother, do not be a brutal flock. Pluck thyself forth at length, and thyself withdraw thyself. Assuredly thou art not cattle, thou art not a beast, but thou art born a man. Do thou thyself wisely subdue thyself, and enter under arms. Thou who followest idols art nothing but the vanity of the age. Your trifling hearts destroy you when almost set free. There gold, garments, silver is brought to the elbows; there war is made; there love is sung of instead of psalms. Dost thou think it to be life, when thou playest or lookest forward to such things as these? Thou choosest, O ignorant one, things that are extinct; thou seekest golden things. Thence thou shalt not escape the plague, although thyself art divine. Thou seekest not that grace which God sent to be read of in the earth, but thus as a beast thou wanderest. The golden age before spoken of shall come to thee if thou believest, and again thou shalt begin to live always an immortal life. That also is permitted to know what thou wast before. Give thyself as a subject to God, who governs all things.2
OF THE TREE OF LIFE AND DEATH.
Adam was the first who fell, and that he might shun the precepts of God, Belial was his tempter by the lust of the palm tree. And he conferred on us also what he did, whether of good or of evil, as being the chief of all that was born from him; and thence we die by his means, as he himself, receding from the divine, became an outcast from the Word. We shall be immortal when six thousand years are accomplished. The tree of the apple being tasted, death has entered into the world. By this tree of death we are born to the life to come. On the tree depends the life that bears fruits—precepts. Now, therefore, pluck3 believingly the fruits of life. A law was given from the tree to be feared by the primitive man, whence comes death by the neglect of the law of the beginning. Now stretch forth your hand, and take of the tree of life. The excellent law of the Lord which follows has issued from the tree. The first law is lost; man eats whence he can, who adores the forbidden gods, the evil joys of life. Reject this partaking; it will suffice you to know what it should be. If you wish to live, surrender yourselves to the second law. Avoid the worship of temples, the oracles of demons; turn yourselves to Christ, and ye shall be associates with God. Holy is God’s law, which teaches the dead to live. God alone has commanded us to offer to Him the hymn of praise. All of you shun absolutely the law of the devil.
OF THE FOOLISHNESS OF THE CROSS.
I have spoken of the twofold sign whence death proceeded, and again I have said that thence life frequently proceeds; but the cross has become foolishness to an adulterous people. The awful King of eternity shadows forth these things by the cross, that they may now believe on Him.1 O fools, that live in death! Cain slew his younger brother by the invention of wickedness. Thence the sons of Enoch2 are said to be the race of Cain. Then the evil people increased in the world, which never transfers souls to God. To believe the cross came to be a dread, and they say that they live righteously. The first law was in the tree; and thence, too, the second. And thence the second law first of all overcame the terrible law with peace.3 Lifted up, they have rushed into vain prevarications. They are unwilling to acknowledge the Lord pierced with nails; but when His judgment shall come, they will then discern Him. But the race of Abel already believes on a merciful Christ.
THE FANATICS WHO JUDAIZE.
What! art thou half a Jew? wilt thou be half profane? Whence thou shalt not when dead escape the judgment of Christ. Thou thyself blindly wanderest, and foolishly goest in among the blind. And thus the blind leadeth the blind into the ditch. Thou goest whither thou knowest not, and thence ignorantly withdrawest. Let them who are learning go to the learned, and let the learned depart. But thou goest to those from whom thou canst learn nothing. Thou goest forth before the doors, and thence also thou goest to the idols. Ask first of all what is commanded in the law. Let them tell thee if it be commanded to adore the gods; for they are ignored in respect of that which they are especially able to do. But because they are guilty of that very crime, they relate nothing concerning the commandments of God save what is marvellous. Then, however, they blindly lead you with them into the ditch. There are deaths too well known by them to relate, or because the heaping up of the plough closes up the field. The Almighty would not have them understand their King. Why such a wickedness? He Himself took refuge from those bloody men. He gave Himself to us by a superadded law. Thence now they lie concealed with us, deserted by their King. But if you think that in them there is hope, you are altogether in error if you worship God and heathen temples.
TO THE JEWS.
Evil always, and recalcitrant, with a stiff neck ye wish not that ye should be overcome; thus ye will be heirs. Isaiah said that ye were of hardened heart. Ye look upon the law which Moses in wrath dashed to pieces; and the same Lord gave to him a second law. In that he placed his hope; but ye, half healed, reject it, and therefore ye shall not be worthy of the kingdom of heaven.
ALSO TO THE JEWS.
Look upon Leah, that was a type of the synagogue, which Jacob received as a sign, with eyes so weak; and yet he served again for the younger one beloved: a true mystery, and a type of our Church. Consider what was abundantly said of Rebecca from heaven; whence, imitating the alien, ye may believe in Christ. Thence come to Tamar and the offspring of twins. Look to Cain, the first tiller of the earth, and Abel the shepherd, who was an unspotted offerer in the ruin of his brother, and was slain by his brother. Thus therefore perceive, that the younger are approved by Christ.
AGAIN TO THE SAME.
There is not an unbelieving people such as yours. O evil men! in so many places, and so often rebuked by the law of those who cry aloud. And the lofty One despises your Sabbaths, and altogether rejects your universal monthly feasts according to law, that ye should not make to Him the commanded sacrifices; who told you to throw a stone for your offence. If any should not believe that He had perished by an unjust death, and that those who were beloved were saved by other laws, thence that life was suspended on the tree, and believe not on Him. God Himself is the life; He Himself was suspended for us. But ye with indurated heart insult Him.
OF THE TIME OF ANTICHRIST.4
Isaiah said: This is the man who moveth the world and so many kings, and under whom the land shall become desert. Hear ye how the prophet foretold concerning him. I have said nothing elaborately, but negligently. Then, doubtless, the world shall be finished when he shall appear. He himself shall divide the globe into three ruling powers, when, moreover, Nero shall be raised up from hell, Elias shall first come to seal the beloved ones; at which things the region of Africa and the northern nation, the whole earth on all sides, for seven years shall tremble. But Elias shall occupy the half of the time, Nero shall occupy half. Then the whore Babylon, being reduced to ashes, its embers shall thence advance to Jerusalem; and the Latin conqueror shall then say, I am Christ, whom ye always pray to; and, indeed, the original ones who were deceived combine to praise him. He does many wonders, since his is the false prophet. Especially that they may believe him, his image shall speak. The Almighty has given it power to appear such. The Jews, recapitulating Scriptures from him, exclaim at the same time to the Highest that they have been deceived.
OF THE HIDDEN AND HOLY PEOPLE OF THE ALMIGHTY CHRIST, THE LIVING GOD.
Let the hidden, the final, the holy people be longed for; and, indeed, let it be unknown by us where it abides, acting by nine of the tribes and a half . . . ; and he has bidden to live by the former law. Now let us all live: the tradition of the law is new, as the law itself teaches, I point out to you more plainly. Two of the tribes and a half are left: wherefore is the half of the tribes separated from them? That they might be martyrs, when He should bring war on His elected ones into the world; or certainly the choir of the holy prophets would rise together upon the people who should impose a check upon them whom the obscene horses have slaughtered with kicking heel; nor would the band hurry rashly at any time to the gift of peace. Those of the tribes are withdrawn, and all the mysteries of Christ are fulfilled by them throughout the whole age. Moreover, they have arisen from the crime of two brothers, by whose auspices they have followed crime. Not undeservedly are these bloody ones thus scattered: they shall again assemble on behalf of the mysteries of Christ. But then the things told of in the law are hastening to their completion. The Almighty Christ descends to His elect, who have been darkened from our view for so long a time—they have become so many thousands—that is the true heavenly people. The son does not die before his father, then; nor do they feel pains in their bodies, nor polypus in their nostrils. They who cease depart in ripe years in their bed, fulfilling all the things of the law, and therefore they are protected. They are bidden to pass on the right side of their Lord; and when they have passed over as before, He dries up the river. Nor less does the Lord Himself also proceed with them. He has passed over to our side, they come with the King of heaven; and in their journey, what shall I speak of which God will bring to pass? Mountains subside before them, and fountains break forth. The creation rejoices to see the heavenly people. Here, however, they hasten to defend the captive matron. But the wicked king who possesses her, when he hears, flies into the parts of the north, and collects all his followers. Moreover, when the tyrant shall dash himself against the army of God, his soldiery are overthrown by the celestial terror; the false prophet himself is seized with the wicked one, by the decree of the Lord; they are handed over alive to Gehenna. From him chiefs and leaders are bidden to obey; then will the holy ones enter into the breasts of their ancient mother, that, moreover, they also may be refreshed whom he has evil persuaded. With various punishments he will torment those who trust in him; they come to the end, whereby offences are taken away from the world. The Lord will begin to give judgment by fire.
OF THE END OF THIS AGE.
The trumpet gives the sign in heaven, the lion being taken away, and suddenly there is darkness with the din of heaven. The Lord casts down His eyes, so that the earth trembles. He cries out, so that all may hear throughout the world: Behold, long have I been silent while I bore your doings in such a time. They cry out together, complaining and groaning too late. They howl, they bewail; nor is there room found for the wicked. What shall the mother do for the sucking child, when she herself is burnt up? In the flame of fire the Lord will judge the wicked. But the fire shall not touch the just, but shall by all means lick them up.1 In one place they delay, but a part has wept at the judgment. Such will be the heat, that the stones themselves shall melt. The winds assemble into lightnings, the heavenly wrath rages; and wherever the wicked man fleeth, he is seized upon by this fire. There will be no succour nor ship of the sea. Amen2 flames on the nations, and the Medes and Parthians burn for a thousand years, as the hidden words of John declare. For then after a thousand years they are delivered over to Gehenna; and he whose work they were, with them are burnt up.
OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
From heaven will descend the city in the first resurrection; this is what we may tell of such a celestial fabric. We shall arise again to Him, who have been devoted to Him. And they shall be incorruptible, even already living without death. And neither will there be any grief nor any groaning in that city. They shall come also who overcame cruel martydom under Antichrist, and they themselves live for the whole time, and receive blessings because they have suffered evil things; and they themselves marrying, beget for a thousand years. There are prepared all the revenues of the earth, because the earth renewed without end pours forth abundantly. Therein are no rains; no cold comes into the golden camp. No sieges as now, nor rapines, nor does that city crave the light of a lamp. It shines from its Founder. Moreover, Him it obeys; in breadth 12,000 furlongs, and length and depth. It levels its foundation in the earth, but it raises its head to heaven. In the city before the doors, moreover, sun and moon shall shine; he who is evil is hedged up in torment, for the sake of the nourishment of the righteous. But from the thousand years God will destroy all those evils.
OF THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.
I add something, on account of unbelievers, of the day of judgment. Again, the fire of the Lord sent forth shall be appointed. The earth gives a true groan; then those who are making their journey in the last end, and then all unbelievers, groan. The whole of nature is converted in flame, which yet avoids the camp of His saints. The earth is burned up from its foundations, and the mountains melt. Of the sea nothing remains: it is overcome by the powerful fire. This sky perishes, and the stars and these things are changed. Another newness of sky and of everlasting earth is arranged. Thence they who deserve it are sent away in a second death, but the righteous are placed in inner dwelling-places.
In few words, I admonish all believers in Christ, who have forsaken idols, for your salvation. In the first times, if in any way thou fallest into error, still, when entreated, do thou leave all things for Christ; and since thou hast known God, be a recruit good and approved, and let virgin modesty dwell with thee in purity. Let the mind be watchful for good things. Beware that thou fall not into former sins. In baptism the coarse dress of thy birth is washed. For if any sinful catechumen is marked with punishment, let him live in the signs of Christianity, although not without loss.1 The whole of the matter for thee is this, Do thou ever shun great sins.
TO THE FAITHFUL.
I admonish the faithful not to hold their brethren in hatred. Hatreds are accounted impious by martyrs for the flame. The martyr is destroyed whose confession is of such kind; nor is it taught that the evil is expiated by the shedding of blood. A law is given to the unjust man that he may restrain himself. Thence he ought to be free from craft; so also oughtest thou. Twice dost thou sin against God, if thou extendest strifes to thy brother; whence thou shalt not avoid sin following thy former courses. Thou hast once been washed: shalt thou be able to be immersed again?
O FAITHFUL, BEWARE OF EVIL.
The birds are deceived, and the beasts of the woods in the woods, by those very charms by which their ruin is ever accomplished, and caves as well as food deceive them as they follow; and they know not how to shun evil, nor are they restrained by law. Law is given to man, and a doctrine of life to be chosen, from which he remembers that he may be able to live carefully, and recalls his own place, and takes away those things which belong to death. He severely condemns himself who forsakes rule; either bound with iron, or cast down from his degree; or deprived of life, he loses what he ought to enjoy. Warned by example, do not sin gravely; translated by the laver, rather have charity; flee far from the bait of the mouse-trap, where there is death. Many are the martyrdoms which are made without shedding of blood. Not to desire other men’s goods; to wish to have the benefit of martyrdom; to bridle the tongue, thou oughtest to make thyself humble; not willingly to use force, nor to return force used against thee, thou wilt be a patient mind, understand that thou art a martyr.
Thou art become a penitent; pray night and day; yet from thy Mother the Church do not far depart, and the Highest will be able to be merciful to thee. The confession of thy fault shall not be in vain. Equally in thy state of accusation learn to weep manifestly. Then, if thou hast a wound, seek herbs and a physician; and yet in thy punishments thou shalt be able to mitigate thy sufferings. For I will even confess that I alone of you am here, and that terror must be foregone. I have myself felt the destruction; and therefore I warn those who are wounded to walk more cautiously, to put thy hair and thy beard in the dust of the earth, and to be clothed in sackcloth, and to entreat from the highest King will aid thee, that thou perish not perchance from among the people.
WHO HAVE APOSTATIZED FROM GOD.
Moreover, when war is waged, or an enemy attacks, if one be able either to conquer or to be hidden, they are great trophies; but unhappy will he be who shall be taken by them. He loses country and king who has been unwilling to fight worthily for the truth, for his country, or for life. He ought to die rather than go under a barbarian king; and let him seek slavery who is willing to transfer himself to enemies without law. Then, if in warring thou shouldst die for thy king, thou hast conquered, or if thou hast given thy hands, thou hast perished uninjured by law. The enemy crosses the river; do thou hide under thy lurking-place; or, if he can enter or not, do not linger. Everywhere make thyself safe, and thy friends also; thou hast conquered. And take watchful care lest any one enter in that lurking-place. It will be an infamous thing if any one declares himself to the enemy. He who knows not how to conquer, and runs to deliver himself up, has weakly foregone praise for neither his own nor his country’s good. Then he was unwilling to live, since life itself will perish. If any one is without God, or profane from the enemy, they are become as sounding brass, or deaf as adders: such men ought abundantly to pray or to hide themselves.
The enemy has suddenly come flooding us over with war; and before they could flee, he has seized upon the helpless children. They cannot be reproached, although they are seen to be taken captive; nor, indeed, do I excuse them. Perhaps they have deserved it on account of the faults of their parents; therefore God has given them up. However, I exhort the adults that they run to arms, and that they should be born again, as it were, to their Mother from the womb. Let them avoid a law that is terrible, and always bloody, impious, intractable, living with the life of the beasts; for when another war by chance should be to be waged, he who should be able to conquer or even rightly to know how to beware . . .
For deserters are not called so as all of one kind. One is wicked, another partially withdraws; but yet true judgments are decreed for both. So Christ is fought against, even as Cæsar is obeyed. Seek the refuge of the king, if thou hast been a delinquent. Do thou implore of Him; do thou prostrate confess to Him: He will grant all things whose also are all our things. The camp being replaced, beware of sinning further; do not wander long as a soldier through caves of the wild beasts. Let it be sin to thee to cease from unmeasured doing.
TO THE SOLDIERS OF CHRIST.
When thou hast given thy name to the warfare, thou art held by a bridle. Therefore begin thou to put away thy former doings. Shun luxuries, since labour is threatening arms. With all thy virtue thou must obey the king’s command, if thou wishest to attain the last times in gladness. He is a good soldier, always wait for things to be enjoyed. Be unwilling to flatter thyself; absolutely put away sloth, that thou mayest daily be ready for what is set before thee. Be careful beforehand; in the morning revisit the standards. When thou seest the war, take the nearest contest. This is the king’s glory, to see the soldiery prepared. The king is present; desire that ye may fight beyond his hope. He makes ready gifts. He gladly looks for the victory, and assigns you to be a fit follower. Do thou be unwilling to spare thyself besides for Belial; be thou rather diligent, that he may give fame for your death.
The souls of those that are lost deservedly of themselves separate themselves. Begotten of him, they again recur to those things which are his. The root of Cain, the accursed seed, breaks forth and takes refuge in the servile nation under a barbarian king; and there the eternal flame will torment on the day decreed. The fugitive will wander vaguely without discipline, loosed from law to go about through the defiles of the ways. These, therefore, are such whom no penalty has restrained. If they will not live, they ought to be seen by the idols.
OF THE SEED OF THE TARES.
Of the seed of the tares, who stand mingled in the Church. When the times of the harvest are filled up, the tares that have sprung up are separated from the fruit, because God had not sent them. The husbandman separates all those collected tares. The law is our field; whoever does good in it, assuredly the Ruler Himself will afford a true repose, for the tares are burned with fire. If, therefore, you think that under one they are delaying, you are wrong. I designate you as barren Christians; cursed was the fig-tree without fruit in the word of the Lord, and immediately it withered away. Ye do not works; ye prepare no gift for the treasury, and yet ye thus vainly think to deserve well of the Lord.
TO THE DISSEMBLER.
Dost thou dissemble with the law that was given with such public announcement, crying out in the heavenly word of so many prophets? If a prophet had only cried out to the clouds,1 the word of the Lord uttered by him would surely suffice. The law of the Lord proclaims itself into so many volumes of prophets; none of them excuses wickedness; thus even thou wishest from the heart to see good things; thou art also seeking to live by deceits. Why, then, has the law itself gone forth with so much pains? Thou abusest the commands of the Lord, and yet thou callest thyself His son. Thou art seen, if thou wilt be such without reason. I say, the Almighty seeks the meek to be His sons, those who are upright with a good heart, those who are devoted to the divine law; but ye know already where He has plunged the wicked.
THAT WORLDLY THINGS ARE ABSOLUTELY TO BE AVOIDED.
If certain teachers, while looking for your gifts or fearing your persons, relax individual things to you, not only do I not grieve, but I am compelled to speak the truth. Thou art going to vain shows with the crowd of the evil one, where Satan is at work in the circus with din. Thou persuadest thyself that everything that shall please thee is lawful. Thou art the offspring of the Highest, mingled with the sons of the devil. Dost thou wish to see the former things which thou hast renounced? Art thou again conversant with them? What shall the Anointed One profit thee? Or if it is permitted, on account of weakness, that thou foolishly profane . . . Love not the world, nor its contents. Such is God’s word, and it seems good to thee. Thou observest man’s command, and shunnest God’s. Thou trustedst to the gift whereby the teachers shut up their mouths, that they may be silent, and not tell thee the divine commands; while I speak the truth, as thou art bound look to the Highest. Assign thyself as a follower to Him whose son thou wast. If thou seekest to live, being a believing man, as do the Gentiles, the joys of the world remove thee from the grace of Christ. With an undisciplined mind thou seekest what thou presumest to be easily lawful, both thy dear actors and their musical strains; nor carest thou that the offspring of such an one should babble follies. While thou thinkest that thou art enjoying life, thou art improvidently erring. The Highest commands, and thou shunnest His righteous precepts.
THAT THE CHRISTIAN SHOULD BE SUCH.
When the Lord says that man should eat bread with groaning, here what art thou now doing, who desirest to live with joy? Thou seekest to rescind the judgment uttered by the highest God when He first formed man; thou wishest to abandon the curb of the law. If the Almighty God have bidden thee live with sweat, thou who art living in pleasure wilt already be a stranger to Him. The Scripture saith that the Lord was angry with the Jews. Their sons, refreshed with food, rose up to play. Now, therefore, why do we follow these circumcised men?2 In what respect they perished, we ought to beware; the greatest part of you, surrendered to luxuries, obey them. Thou transgressest the law in staining thyself with dyes: against thee the apostle cries out; yea, God cries out by him. Your dissoluteness, says he, in itself ruins3 you. Be, then, such as Christ wishes you to be, gentle, and in Him joyful, for in the world you are sad. Run, labour, sweat, fight with sadness. Hope comes with labour, and the palm is given to victory. If thou wishest to be refreshed, give help and encouragement to the martyr. Wait for the repose to come in the passage of death.
TO THE MATRONS OF THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD.
Thou wishest, O Christian woman, that the matrons should be as the ladies of the world. Thou surroundest thyself with gold, or with the modest silken garment. Thou givest the terror of the law from thy ears to the wind. Thou affectest vanity with all the pomp of the devil. Thou art adorned at the looking-glass with thy curled hair turned back from thy brow. And moreover, with evil purposes, thou puttest on false medicaments, on thy pure eyes the stibium, with painted beauty, or thou dyest thy hair that it may be always black. God is the overlooker, who dives into each heart. But these things are not necessary for modest women. Pierce thy breast with chaste and modest feeling. The law of God bears witness that such laws fail from the heart which believes; to a wife approved of her husband, let it suffice that she is so, not by her dress, but by her good disposition. To put on clothes which the cold and the heat or too much sun demands, only that thou mayest be approved modest, and show forth the gifts of thy capacity among the people of God. Thou who wast formerly most illustrious, givest to thyself the guise of one who is contemptible. She who lay without life, was raised by the prayers of the widows. She deserved this, that she should be raised from death, not by her costly dress, but by her gifts. Do ye, O good matrons, flee from the adornment of vanity; such attire is fitting for women who haunt the brothels. Overcome the evil one, O modest women of Christ. Show forth all your wealth in giving.
TO THE SAME AGAIN.
Hear my voice, thou who wishest to remain a Christian woman, in what way the blessed Paul commands you to be adorned. Isaiah, moreover, the teacher and author that spoke from heaven, for he detests those who follow the wickedness of the world, says: The daughters of Zion that are lifted up shall be brought low. It is not right in God that a faithful Christian woman should be adorned. Dost thou seek to go forth after the fashion of the Gentiles, O thou who art consecrated to God? God’s heralds, crying aloud in the law, condemn such to be unrighteous women, who in such wise adorn themselves. Ye stain your hair; ye paint the opening of your eyes with black; ye lift up your pretty hair one by one on your painted brow; ye anoint your cheeks with some sort of ruddy colour laid on; and, moreover, ear-rings hang down with very heavy weight. Ye bury your neck with necklaces; with gems and gold ye bind hands worthy of God with an evil presage. Why should I tell of your dresses, or of the whole pomp of the devil? Ye are rejecting the law when ye wish to please the world. Ye dance in your houses; instead of psalms, ye sing love songs. Thou, although thou mayest be chaste, dost not prove thyself so by following evil things. Christ therefore makes you, such as you are, equal with the Gentiles. Be pleasing to the hymned chorus, and to an appeased Christ with ardent love fervently offer your savour to Christ.
IN THE CHURCH TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
I, brethren, am not righteous who am lifted up out of the filth, nor do I exalt myself; but I grieve for you, as seeing that out of so great a people, none is crowned in the contest; certainly, even if he does not himself fight, yet let him suggest encouragement to others. Ye rebuke calamity; O belly, stuff yourself out with luxury. The brother labours in arms with a world opposed to him; and dost thou, stuffed with wealth, neither fight, nor place thyself by his side when he is fighting? O fool, dost not thou perceive that one is warring on behalf of many? The whole Church is suspended on such a one if he conquers. Thou seest that thy brother is withheld, and that he fights with the enemy. Thou desirest peace in the camp, he outside rejects it. Be pitiful, that thou mayest be before all things saved. Neither dost thou fear the Lord, who cries aloud with such an utterance; even He who commands us to give food even to our enemies. Look forward to thy meals from that Tobias who always on every day shared them entirely with the poor man. Thou seekest to feed him, O fool, who feedeth thee again. Dost thou wish that he should prepare for me, who is setting before him his burial? The brother oppressed with want, nearly languishing away, cries out at the splendidly fed, and with distended belly. What sayest thou of the Lord’s day? If he have not placed himself before, call forth a poor man from the crowd whom thou mayest take to thy dinner. In the tablets is your hope from a Christ refreshed.
TO HIM WHO WISHES FOR MARTYRDOM.
Since, O son, thou desirest martyrdom, hear. Be thou such as Abel was, or such as Isaac himself, or Stephen, who chose for himself on the way the righteous life. Thou indeed desirest that which is a matter suited for the blessed. First of all, overcome the evil one with thy good acts by living well; and when He thy King shall see thee, be thou secure. It is His own time, and we are living for both; so that if war fails, the martyrs shall go in peace. Many indeed err who say, With our blood we have overcome the wicked one; and if he remains, they are unwilling to overcome. He perishes by lying in wait, and the wicked thus feels it; but he that is lawful does not feel the punishments applied. With exclamation and with eagerness beat thy breast with thy fists. Even now, if thou hast conquered by good deeds, thou art a martyr in Him. Thou, therefore, who seekest to extol martyrdom with thy word, in peace clothe thyself with good deeds, and be secure.1
THE DAILY WAR.
Thou seekest to wage war, O fool, as if wars were at peace. From the first formed day in the end you fight. Lust precipitates you, there is war; fight with it. Luxury persuades, neglect it; thou hast overcome the war. Be sparing of abundance of wine, lest by means of it thou shouldest go wrong. Restrain thy tongue from cursing, because with it thou adorest the Lord. Repress rage. Make thyself peaceable to all. Beware of trampling on thy inferiors when weighed down with miseries. Lend thyself as a protector only, and do no hurt. Lead yourselves in a righteous path, unstained by jealousy. In thy riches make thyself gentle to those that are of little account. Give of thy labour, clothe the naked. Thus shalt thou conquer. Lay snares for no man, since thou servest God. Look to the beginning, whence the envious enemy has perished. I am not a teacher, but the law itself teaches by its proclamation. Thou wearest such great words vainly, who in one moment seekest without labour to raise a martyrdom to Christ.
OF THE ZEAL OF CONCUPISCENCE.
In desiring, thence thou perishest, whilst thou art burning with envy of thy neighbour. Thou extinguishest thyself, when thou inflamest thyself within. Thou art jealous, O envious man, of another who is struggling with evil, and desirest that thou mayest become equally the possessor of so much wealth. The law does not thus behold him when thou seekest to fall upon him. Depending on all things, thou livest in the lust of gain; and although thou art guilty to thyself, thou condemnest thyself by thy own judgment. The greedy survey of the eyes is never satisfied. Now, therefore, if thou mayest return and consider, lust is vain . . . whence God cries out, Thou fool, this night thou art summoned. Death rushes after thee. Whose, then, shall be those talents? By hiding the unrighteous gains in the concealed treasury, when the Lord shall supply to every one his daily life. Let another accumulate; do thou seek to live well. And when thy heart is conscious of God, thou shalt be victor over all things; yet I do not say that thou shouldest boast thyself in public, when thou art watching for thy day by living without fraud. The bird perishes in the midst of food, or carelessly sticks fast in the bird-lime. Think that in thy simplicity thou hast much to beware of. Let others trangress these bounds. Do thou always look forward.
THEY WHO GIVE FROM EVIL.
Why dost thou senselessly feign thyself good by the wound of another? Whence thou bestowest, another is daily weeping. Dost not thou believe that the Lord sees those things from heaven? The Highest says, He does not approve of the gifts of the wicked. Thou shalt break forth upon the wretched when thou shalt have gained a place. One gives gifts that he may make another of no account; or if thou hast lent on usury, taking twenty-four per cent, thou wishest to bestow charity that thou mayest purge thyself, as being evil, with that which is evil. The Almighty absolutely rejects such works as these. Thou hast given that which has been wrung from tears; that candidate, oppressed with ungrateful usuries, and become needy, deplores it. Besides having obtained an opportunity for the exactors, thy enemy for the present is the people; thou consecrated, hast become wicked for reward. Also thou wishest to atone for thyself by the gain of wages. O wicked one, thou deceivest thyself, but none else.
OF A DECEITFUL PEACE.
The arranged time comes to our people; there is peace in the world; and, at the same time, ruin is weighing us down from the enticement of the world, (the destruction) of the reckless people whom ye have rent into schism. Either obey the law of the city, or depart from it. Ye behold the mote sticking in our eyes, and will not see the beam in your own. A treacherous peace is coming to you; persecution is rife; the wounds do not appear; and thus, without slaughter, ye are destroyed. War is waged in secret, because, in the midst of peace itself, scarcely one of you has behaved himself with caution. O badly fortified, and foretold for slaughter, ye praise a treacherous peace,—a peace that is mischievous to you. Having become the soldiers of another than Christ, ye have perished.
TO THE READERS.
I warn certain readers only to consider, and to give material to others by an example of life, to avoid strife, and to shun so many quarrels; to repress terror, and never to be proud; moreover, denounce the righteous obedience of wicked men. Make yourselves like to Christ your Master, O little ones. Be among the lilies of the field by your benefits; ye have become blessed when ye bear the edicts; ye are flowers in the congregation; ye are Christ’s lanterns. Keep what ye are, and ye shall be able to tell it.
Exercise the mystery of Christ, O deacons, with purity; therefore, O ministers, do the commands of your Master; do not play the person of a righteous judge; strengthen your office by all things, as learned men, looking upwards, always devoted to the Supreme God. Render the faithful sacred ministries of the altar to God, prepared in divine matters to set an example; yourselves incline your head to the pastors, so shall it come to pass that ye may be approved of Christ.
TO GOD’S SHEPHERDS.
A shepherd, if he shall have confessed, has doubled his conflict. Moreover, the apostle bids that such should be teachers. Let him be a patient ruler; let him know when he may relax the reins; let him terrify at first, and then anoint with honey; and let him first observe to do himself what he says. The shepherd who minds worldly things is esteemed in fault, against whose countenance thou mightest dare to say anything. Gehenna itself bubbles up in hell with rumours. Woe to the wretched people which wavers with doubtful brow! if such a shepherd shall be present to it, it is almost ruined. But a devout man restrains it, governing rightly. The swarms are rejoiced under suitable kings; in such there is hope, and the entire Church lives.
I SPEAK TO THE ELDER-BORN.
The time demands that I alone should speak to you truth.
He is often admonished by one word which many refuse. I wish you to turn your hatred against me alone, that the hearts of all may tremble at the tempter. Look to the saying that truly begets hatred, (and consider) how many things I have lately indeed foretold concerning a delusive peace, while, alas, the enticing seducer has come upon you unawares, and because ye have not known how that his wiles were imminent, ye have perished; ye work absolutely bitter things, but that is itself the characteristic of the world; not any one for whom ye intercede acts for nothing. He who takes refuge from your fire, plunges in the whirlpool. Then the wretch, stripped naked, seeks assistance from you. The judges themselves shudder at your frauds . . . of a shorter title, I should not labour at so many lines. Ye who teach, look upon those to whom ye willingly tend, when for yourselves ye both receive banquets and feed upon them. For those things are ye already almost entering the foundations of the earth.
TO VISIT THE SICK.
If thy brother should be weak—I speak of the poor man—do not empty-handed visit such an one as he lies ill. Do good under God; pay your obedience by your money. Thence he shall be restored; or if he should perish, let a poor man be refreshed, who has nothing wherewith to pay you, but the Founder and Author of the world on his behalf. Or if it should displease thee to go to the poor man, always hateful, send money, and something whence he may recover himself. And, similarly, if thy poor sister lies upon a sick-bed, let your matrons begin to bear her victuals. God Himself cries out, Break thy bread to the needy. There is no need to visit with words, but with benefits. It is wicked that thy brother should be sick through want of food. Satisfy him not with words. He needs meat and drink. Look upon such assuredly weakened, who are not able to act for themselves. Give to them at once. I pledge my word that fourfold shall be given you by God.
TO THE POOR IN HEALTH.
What can healthful poverty do, unless wealth be present? Assuredly, if thou hast the means, at once communicate also to thy brother. Be responsible to thyself for one, lest thou shouldst be said to be proud. I promise that thou shalt live more secure than the rich man. Receive into thy ears the teaching of the great Solomon: God hates the poor man to be a pleader on high.1 Therefore submit thyself, and give honour to Him that is powerful; for the soft speech—thou knowest the proverb—melts.2 One is conquered by service, even although there be an ancient anger. If the tongue be silent, thou hast found nothing better. If there should not wholesomely be an art whereby life may be governed, either give aid or direction by the command of Him that is mighty. Let it not shame or grieve you that a healthy man should have faith. In the treasury, besides, thou oughtest to give of thy labour, even as that widow whom the Anointed One preferred.3
THAT SONS ARE NOT TO BE BEWAILED.
Although the death of sons leaves grief for the heart, yet it is not right either to go forth in black garments, or to bewail them. The Lord prudently says that ye must grieve with the mind, not with outward show, which is finished in the week. In the book of Solomon the promises of the Lord concerning the resurrection are forgotten if thou wouldest make thy sons martyrs, and thus with thy voice will bewail them. Art thou not ashamed without restraint to lament thy sons, like the Gentiles? Thou tearest thy face, thou beatest thy breast, thou takest off thy garments; and dost thou not fear the Lord, whose kingdom thou desirest to behold? Mourn as it is right, but do not do wrong on their behalf. Ye therefore are such. What less than Gentiles are ye? Ye do as the crowds that are descended from the diabolical stock. Ye cry that they are extinct. With what advantage, O false one, thou hast perished! The father has not led his son with grief to be slain at the altar, nor has the prophet mourned over a deceased son with grief, nor even has a weeping parent. But one devoted to God was hastily dying.
OF FUNERAL POMP.
Thou who seekest to be careful of the pomp of death art in error. As a servant of God, thou oughtest even in death to please Him. Alas that the lifeless body should be adorned in death! O true vanity, to desire honour for the dead! A mind enchained to the world; not even in death devoted to Christ. Thou knowest the proverbs. He wished to be carried through the forum. Thus ye, who are like to him, and living with untrained mind, wish to have a happy and blessed day at your death, that the people may come together, and that you may see praise with mourning. Thou dost not foresee whither thou mayest deserve to go when dead. Lo, they are following thee; and thou, perchance, art already burning, being driven to punishment. What will the pomp benefit the dead man? Thou shalt be accused, who seekest them on account of those gatherings. Thou desirest to live under idols. Thou deceivest thyself.
TO THE CLERKS.
They will assemble together at Easter, that day of ours most blessed; and let them rejoice, who ask for divine entertainments. Let what is sufficient be expended upon them, wine and food. Look back at the source whence these things may be told on your behalf. Ye are wanting in a gift to Christ, in moderate expenditure. Since ye yourselves do it not, in what manner can ye persuade the righteousness of the law to such people, even once in the year? Thus often blasphemy suggests to many concerning you.
OF THOSE WHO GOSSIP, AND OF SILENCE.
When a thing appears to anybody of no consequence, and is not shunned, and it rushes forth, as if easy, whilst thou abusest it. Fables assist it when thou comest to pour out prayers, or to beat thy breast for thy daily sin. The trumpet of the heralds sounds forth, while the reader is reading, that the ears may be open, and thou rather impedest them. Thou art luxurious with thy lips, with which thou oughtest to groan. Shut up thy breast to evils, or loose them in thy breast. But since the possession of money gives barefacedness to the wealthy, thence every one perishes when they are most trusting to themselves. Thus, moreover, the women assemble, as if they would enter the bath. They press closely, and make of God’s house as if it were a fair. Certainly the Lord frightened the house of prayer. The Lord’s priest commanded with “sursum corda,” when prayer was to be made, that your silence should be made. Thou answerest fluently, and moreover abstainest not from promises. He entreats the Highest on behalf of a devoted people, lest any one should perish, and thou turnest thyself to fables. Thou mockest at him, or detractest from thy neighbour’s reputation. Thou speakest in an undisciplined manner, as if God were absent—as if He who made all things neither hears nor sees.
TO THE DRUNKARDS.
I place no limit to a drunkard; but I prefer a beast. From those who are proud in drinking thou withdrawest in thine inner mind, holding the power of the ruler, O fool, among Cyclopes. Thence in the histories thou criest, While I am dead I drink not. Be it mine to drink the best things, and to be wise in heart. Rather give assistance (what more seekest thou to abuse?) to the lowest pauper, and ye shall both be refreshed. If thou doest such things, thou extinguishest Gehenna for thyself.
TO THE PASTORS.
Thou who seekest to feed others, and hast prepared what thou couldest by assiduously feeding, hast done rightly. But still look after the poor man, who cannot feed thee again: then will thy table be approved by the one God. The Almighty has bidden such even especially to be fed. Consider, when thou feedest the sick, thou art also lending to the High One. In that thing the Lord has wished that you should stand before Him approved.
TO THE PETITIONERS.
If thou desirest, when praying, to be heard from heaven, break the chains from the lurking-places of wickedness; or if, pitying the poor, thou prayest by thy benefits, doubt not but what thou shalt have asked may be given to the petitioner. Then truly, if void of benefits, thou adorest God, do not thus at all make thy prayers vainly.
THE NAME OF THE MAN OF GAZA.
Ye who are to be inhabitants of the heavens with God-Christ, hold fast the beginning, look at all things from heaven. Let simplicity, let meekness dwell in your body. Be not angry with thy devout brother without a cause, for ye shall receive whatever ye may have done from him. This has pleased Christ, that the dead should rise again, yea, with their bodies; and those, too, whom in this world the fire has burned, when six thousand years are completed, and the world has come to an end. The heaven in the meantime is changed with an altered course, for then the wicked are burnt up with divine fire. The creature with groaning burns with the anger of the highest God. Those who are more worthy, and who are begotten of an illustrious stem, and the men of nobility under the conquered Antichrist, according to God’s command living again in the world for a thousand years, indeed, that they may serve the saints, and the High One, under a servile yoke, that they may bear victuals on their neck. Moreover, that they may be judged again when the reign is finished. They who make God of no account when the thousandth year is finished shall perish by fire, when they themselves shall speak to the mountains. All flesh in the monuments and tombs is restored according to its deed: they are plunged in hell; they bear their punishments in the world; they are shown to them, and they read the things transacted from heaven; the reward according to one’s deeds in a perpetual tyranny. I cannot comprehend all things in a little treatise; the curiosity of the learned men shall find my name in this.1
I know nothing of the second poem of our author, and am indebted for the following particulars to Dr. Schaff.1
It is an apologetic poem against Jews and Gentiles, written in uncouth hexameters, and discusses in forty-seven sections the doctrine concerning God and the Redeemer and mankind. It treats of the names of Son and Father; and here, probably, he lays himself open to the charge of Patripassian heresy. He passes to the obstacles encountered by the Gospel, warns the Jews and the Gentiles to forsake their unprofitable devotions, and enlarges on the eschatology, as he conceives of it. Let me now quote textually, as follows:—
“The most interesting part of the second poem is the conclusion. It contains a fuller description of Antichrist than the first poem. The author expects that the end of the world will come with the seventh persecution. The Goths will conquer Rome and redeem the Christians; but then Nero will appear as the heathen Antichrist, reconquer Rome, and rage against the Christians three years and a half. He will be conquered in turn by the Jewish and real Antichrist from the East, who, after the defeat of Nero and the burning of Rome, will return to Judea, perform false miracles, and be worshipped by the Jews. At last Christ appears, that is, God himself (from the Monarchian stand-point of the author) with the lost Twelve Tribes [?] as his army, which had lived beyond Persia in happy simplicity and virtue. Under astounding phenomena of nature he will conquer Antichrist and his host, convert all nations, and take possession of the holy city of Jerusalem.”
This idea of a double Antichrist re-appears in Lactantius, Inst. Div., vii. 16 seqq.
This second poem was discovered by Cardinal Pitra in 1852. The two poems were edited by E. Ludwig, Leipzig, 1877 and 1878.
[1 ] [Sufficient evidence of his heathen origin.]
[1 ] [An index of time. He writes, therefore, in the third century.]
[2 ] We have changed marhus et into mortuus, and de suo into denuo.
[1 ] [He defers to the Canon Law and notes the Duæ Viæ.]
[1 ] [This is not Patripassianism. Nor does the “one God” of the next chapter involve this heresy.]
[2 ] [Here ends the apologetic portion.]
[3 ]Scil. “capite,” conjectural for “cavete.”
[1 ] [Or, “shadows forth Himself.”]
[2 ] “Eusebius tells of another Enoch, who was not translated without seeing death”—Rig. [See Gen. iv. 17, 18. S.]
[3 ] Et inde secunda terribilem legem primo cum pace revincit—Davis, conjecturally.
[4 ] [See Elucidation at end.]
[1 ] [The translator here inserts a mark of interrogation. The meaning is: lick up them (the wicked) who have persecuted them. Dan. iii. 22.]
[2 ] [Rev. iii. 14.]
[1 ] [Catechumens falling away before baptism must not despair, but persevere and remain under discipline.]
[1 ] Or, “If one prophet only had cried out to the world.”
[2 ] Sponte profectos.
[3 ] Deperdunt.
[1 ] [Compare Clement’s reproof, vol. ii. p. 423, this series.]
[1 ] [Prov. xxiii. 11.]
[2 ] [Prov. xv. 1.]
[3 ] [Mark xii. 42; Luke xxi. 2.]
[1 ] [Dr. Schaff says this Nomen Gazæi may indicate his possession of the wealth of truth, etc. But, if we read the acrostical initials of the verses backwards, we find the name Commodianus Mendicus Christi, which betokens his poverty also, in the spirit of St. Paul (2 Cor. vi. 10; also, Rev. ii. 9), which our author would naturally make emphatic here.]
[1 ]Hist., vol. ii. 855.
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10 Powerful Career Strategies for Women:
Advance Your Career, Increase Your Pay
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
Have you come a long way, baby? The general impression is that women are becoming incrementally more successful in the workforce -- and some of the news is good. Women are represented in the workforce in greater numbers than ever and holding a higher percentage of managerial and executive jobs than in the past. Women-owned businesses have doubled in the last dozen or so years. But some news is not so good.
The Government Accounting Office, for example, recently reported that in 1995 and 2000, full-time female managers earned less than full-time male managers in 10 industries, after controlling for education, age, marital status and race. Female managers in the communications industry made 86 cents for every dollar earned by males managers in 1995, but by 2000, the figure had dropped to 73 cents on the male-earned dollar. Similar drops were reported in entertainment and recreation services; finances, insurance, and real estate; business and repair services; retail trade; and other professional services. See more about pay equity and women's wage gaps.
Lack of pay equity and the ever-present glass ceiling continue to be obstacles to women's career success. But women have secret weapons, opportunities to deploy their special strengths, and the ability to adapt talents typically thought to be men's domain. If our 10 strategies seem to suggest male-bashing or a war between the sexes, that's not the intent. It's just about leveling the playing field in a work world that has been inequitable for women for far too long.
Here are 10 strategies women should consider for advancing their careers:
1. Get as much education and training as you canEducation is, by far, women's most powerful secret weapon, and we have been preparing for a sneak attack for at least the last decade. In 1975 a majority of the college degrees awarded went to men. This was true at the associate, bachelor's, master's, first professional, and doctorate levels. By 2000, a majority of the associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees were awarded to women, according to the Postsecondary Education Opportunity Research Letter. The Research Letter also reports that at the first professional and doctorate degree levels, the wide gap seen in 1975 has mostly closed, and within a decade a majority of these degrees also will be awarded to women.
"The story told by the data describe an extraordinarily broad and long-term shift in the proportion of higher education earned degrees from men to women," the Research Letter notes. "In a world increasingly dependent on the education and training provided by colleges and universities," the publication continues, "women are preparing for that world and men are not. We are heading into a world where the interests and values of women will gradually come to displace the interests and values of men. It will be a different kind of world as a result."
There you have it. The workplace may not have quite caught up, but women are making serious inroads in the "knowledge is power" equation, and our best hope to crash through that glass ceiling is to keep doing what we're doing.
Get the highest degree you can possibly manage. The old obstacles of lack of money and time need not deter women anymore because many new options for financial aid and distance learning are available. A very helpful resource for financial aid is the book Pathways to Career Success for Women: A Resource Guide to Colleges, Financial Aid, and Work.
Consider informal ways of educating yourself through, for example, joining professional organizations, attending conferences, and keeping up with trade publications in your field.
To the extent possible when seeking a job, look for companies that offer training programs and professional development opportunities. Make a point of asking in job interviews what kind of training is available. Your goal should be to develop a set of portable skills that are transferable and applicable to various career fields. Learn more about transferable skills. An excellent resource for learning how to leverage your education and training is Caitlin Williams' book, Successful Woman's Guide to Working Smart, particularly Chapter 4.
2. Be a surfer "girl"Women are in the majority, not only in most realms of higher education, but also in Internet use, comprising at least 52 percent of Internet users, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. Women are also more efficient in their Internet use; they spend less time surfing because they know what they're looking for.
Women are already harnessing the vast amount of information that the Internet puts at their fingertips. In an age where the amount of information available to us by 2010 is expected to be 10,000 times what it is today, it's hard to avoid the notion that knowledge is power, and women are well positioned for the power afforded by their efficient use of the information superhighway.
And women's command of the 'Net ties closely with their quest to overtake men in education. A recent report by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation found that distance- or online-learning is on the rise, and women make up the majority of students. Sixty percent of nontraditional online learners are over 25 and female.
The bottom line here is that women can stay on the cutting edge through continued dominance on the Internet and by taking advantage of online learning opportunities. A great place to get started is the distance-learning section of Quintessential Careers.
3. Leverage communication and interpersonal skillsNumerous recent studies have noted differences in the way men and women communicate and relate interpersonally. Women's way of communicating is not necessarily better than men's, but it may be better suited to newer styles of management. So-called "feminine attributes," such as the ability to build relationships with customers, strike up joint ventures, and partner with suppliers are increasingly important, says Janice Gjertsen, manager of business development for AOL's Digital City.
In her book Successful Woman's Guide to Working Smart, Caitlin Williams lists these changes in the workforce: more team-based work, increased customer contact, multiple demands, greater workforce diversity, higher expectations, and tighter timelines. "While successfully dealing with all these changes may call for different knowledge and technical expertise in each instance, the need to interact well with others is a constant across every single change we make...interpersonal competence is moving front and center as a requirement for organizational success today."
Generally speaking, more women than men are likely to earn the comment "plays well with others" on their workplace report cards. Women should deploy their strong interpersonal and communication skills at every opportunity and tout their accomplishments in this realm.
4. Plan your careerCareer planning is important for everyone, but especially for women because they generally have more twists and turns to negotiate along the road to career success than do men. If you have a road map, you'll be less likely to become derailed if you should, for example, decide to relocate to be with a significant other, have a baby, or suddenly need to care for an elderly parent.
Decide where you want to be five, 10, and 15 years from now. Build flexibility into your career plans to allow for changing circumstances. Your plan may need to change to accommodate those life changes, but your core plan with better equip you when that happens.
Tools to consider using as you plan your career include career assessments, a workplace values exercise, a personal mission statement, and a SWOT Analysis. Some helpful articles include:
- Building Your Career Portfolio: Four Career Investments for a Purposeful Lifetime
- Knowing Yourself and Knowing How to Create Your Own Good Luck Are Keys to Career Planning
5. NetworkWho are the more successful networkers, men or women? You might guess women because women seem like the natural talkers, while we tend to think of men as holding back. The facts indicate that men use networking more effectively than women, however. The results of a 1997 study conducted by EnterChange, an outplacement and career management consulting firm, and reported by Valerie Frazee in Workforce magazine, show, for example, that women are more likely than men to find their next job through an ad in the classifieds, while networking is a more effective strategy for men than women. Does that mean that women should start scouring the classifieds? No, it just means that men and women should use their different styles to greatest advantage. Consider the following:
- Women's networks tend to be more egalitarian and inclusive than men's, according to writer Kathy Harvey, who describes a career consulting company's experience with asking women to list people who might form part of their network. Women were more likely to mention people at lower levels than themselves, as well as those at the higher echelons, while men tend to focus on people with power and influence. Men may benefit from network contacts with greater clout, but women can take advantage of wider and more diverse circles of contacts. Some experts also say women are better at sharing than men, so both men and women may be able to expect more career-based generosity from female members of their networks than either gender can from men.
- Women have traditionally been expected to devote more time to family and domestic responsibilities, thus lacking as much time as men to build networks. We're starting to see more women networking out there on the golf course, for instance, but that's a fairly new phenomenon. To be truly competitive in the networking arena, women may have to put more time into making contacts -- and may have to ask their male partners to take on a bigger share in juggling family life and work.
- The number of all-women networking groups is increasing enormously, in part to create the same kind of networks that are already entrenched for men. An all-woman networking group can be enormously beneficial to women seeking mentors and contacts who've already succeeded in breaking through the glass ceiling. These groups also can be an efficient way to deal with the time crunch that curtails women's networking. Increasingly, women are organizing networks within their own companies, often with corporate support. Two books by Catalyst, the nonprofit research and advisory organization that works to advance women in business and the professions, provide detailed information about creating women's internal networks. See details and reviews of these books.
To learn more about networking, check out The Art of Networking on Quintessential Careers, as well as Women's Networking and Professional Associations.
6. Find a mentorIf you do no other kind of networking, at least find yourself a mentor -- or let one find you. "While mentoring relationships are important for all organizational members, they are essential for women," writes Dorothy Perrin Moore in Careerpreneurs: Lessons from Leading Women Entrepreneurs on Building a Career Without Boundaries. "Mentors can both protect women from discrimination and help them learn what men supposedly learn from the 'old boy's network' about how to navigate their way past obstacles to their career success." Echoes Caitlin Williams, "The majority of women who have succeeded in their careers and reached position of influence credit their participation in some sort of mentoring effort for getting them where they are today."
A mentor is that one person who can guide you, help you, take you under his or her wing, and nurture your career quest. A Yoda to your Luke Skywalker. A Glinda the Good Witch to your Dorothy Gale. What separates a mentor from the average network contact is long-term commitment and a deep-seated investment in your future. Where a typical network contact might be associated with quick introductions, exchanges of business cards, and phone calls, your relationship with a mentor likely involves long lunches and time spent in the mentor's office. A mentor is often in a position you'd like to be in and has the clout and connections to guide you to a similar position. He or she is someone you probably have unusually good chemistry with who will share stories with you of his or her own climb to success. An effective mentor isn't afraid to criticize constructively.
To find a mentor, identify someone you admire, and test the waters by asking advice. Be sure to reveal as much of yourself as possible. Mentors are most likely to invest themselves in those in whom they see a little of themselves, which is why you should never approach a prospective mentor in state of desperation or helplessness. The mentor wants to work with someone he or she can respect. He or she may even desire to mold the protege in his or her own image, which is fine as long as the mentor is not too obsessive about it, and you are comfortable with the image into which you're being molded. You should have a good feel after a few meetings as to whether the rapport is right for a mentoring relationship. At that point, you can either come right out and ask the person to be your mentor, if that feels appropriate, or you can simply tell him or her how much you've benefited from the advice you've received so far and that you hope he or she will continue to share it with you. Although the mentor will tend to give a lot more than you do to the relationship, be sure to express regularly that you value and appreciate the mentor's guidance. The feeling of being needed and making a difference in a protege's life will often be a rewarding payoff for the mentor.
7. Cultivate and project confidenceWomen often suffer from a crisis of confidence in the workplace, especially when the environment is hostile or chilly to them. Caitlin Williams, author of Successful Woman's Guide to Working Smart, informally surveys women to whom she presents workshops, asking them "what one quality do you believe is the most important for your career success?" Confidence wins the top spot every time, Williams reports. The author, whose book provides numerous inventories and exercises for assessing and building confidence, suggests remembering past successes, believing in your ability (education and training play a big role here), knowing yourself, and seeking career encouragement (a mentor can help).
Williams also suggests creating a career portfolio as a great way to reinforce your sense of confidence. Learn more about creating a portfolio. You may also get a boost to your confidence from tracking your accomplishments. This article can help: For Job-Hunting Success: Track and Leverage Your Accomplishments.
8. Self-promoteOnce you've shored up your confidence, you need to make sure others know how terrific you are. "In today's workplace," Caitlin Williams writes," one of your keys to success is your ability to let others know who you are, what you have to offer, and how you can make a difference in their organization."
Self-promotion is not easy for women. "Many women are uncomfortable with self-promotion because it flies in the face of society's message that a woman is the support person who is supposed to put other needs ahead of her own," write Binnie Shusman Kafrissen and Fran Shusman in their book, Winning Roles for Career-Minded Women: Understanding the Roles We Learned as Girls and How to Change Them For Success at Work. But women need to toot their own horns because they can't depend on others to do it for them.
Make sure people within and outside your workplace know about your accomplishments. Submit news of accomplishments to your company newsletter and local newspaper. Let your boss know what you're up to. One professional we know sends out a monthly email to his boss and his boss's boss to keep them updated on his progress on various projects -- and to share any accomplishments and accolades from the previous month. Promote yourself as an expert on one or more topics and volunteer to speak to local organizations. Also check out our article, Using Key Marketing Tools to Position Yourself on the Job Market.
9. Incubate your talentsIf you have big dreams of career or entrepreneurial success, seek to spend some time working in organizations that will help you incubate your talents. This incubator concept is a centerpiece of Dorothy Perrin Moore's book, Careerpreneurs: Lessons from Leading Women Entrepreneurs on Building a Career Without Boundaries. Moore suggests that corporate incubators can help you gain exposure to customers, suppliers, and competitors; foster specific managerial, technical and planning skills; and learn how to do things better by working in less-than-optimal environments for sub-optimal managers. By spending a few years in a corporate environment specifically cultivating skills and making contacts, you can more easily propel yourself either to greater success in your next career move or to a position where you can start your own business.
10. Become a free agentIn a 1998 joint study by Catalyst and the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, women business owners cited four major reasons for leaving the private sector: lack of flexibility (51 percent); glass ceiling (29 percent); unhappiness with work environment (28 percent), and feeling unchallenged in their jobs (22 percent).
Other studies have shown different reasons for the bailout by women. "Bucking conventional wisdom, professional growth, power, and money were the big drivers in influencing women to leave corporate jobs in the past five years -- not the glass ceiling, balance, or personal life," according to Caroline Nahas, managing director at Korn/Ferry International, which in 2001 conducted a study, "What Women Want in Business," with the Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School and the Duran Group. Read more about the study.
No matter what women's reasons, corporate America's loss is apparently women's gain since women-owned businesses are being created at twice the rate of all businesses.
"Companies cannot afford to lose a generation of women leaders" Nahas says. "In today's world, talent is the primary source of competitive advantage. Even with the current wave of layoffs, the generation shift from Baby Boomers to the much smaller 35- to 44-year-old age group will leave us with a drought of seasoned talent," Nahas says.
But until corporations wise up or until women start using their growing educational advantage, entrepreneurship can be an excellent option for the woman who seeks career success but isn't finding it within organizational boundaries. If free-agency is a course you're considering (see if you're ready by taking our Consultant/Free Agent Quiz), you'll find abundant resources to get you started, including Moore's book, Careerpreneurs: Lessons from Leading Women Entrepreneurs on Building a Career Without Boundaries and our article, The Word is Out: Becoming a Free Agent is a Hot Career Path.
Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.
Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author, and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers, edits QuintZine, an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling in the job search at A Storied Career. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press), as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her personal Website or reach her by e-mail at kathy(at)quintcareers.com.
Maximize your career and job-search knowledge and skills! Take advantage of The Quintessential Careers Content Index, which enables site visitors to locate articles, tutorials, quizzes, and worksheets in 35 career, college, job-search topic areas.
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Another easy to measure aspect of a weblog post is the number of images embedded within it. The following contains a bar graph for each Boing Boing author showing the number of posts they made over the various quarters since 2000. The colour of the bar indicates the average number of images per post in that time period.
This graph show a number of interesting things. First of all, there were virtually no images in posts prior to about 4Q 2001. Looking at the data with a finer grained time scale (which isn't shown here) confirms that the first images occurred in October 2001.
Cory, Mark, and David averaged about .15 images/post in 2002. When Xeni started posting in late 2002 she averaged a much higher .5 images/post. There is also an obvious trend of more green over time for all the authors. In 2006, Xeni, Mark, and David averaged about .8 images/post with Cory having a somewhat lower images/post density of .5 .
This next graph shows how many posts had exactly n embedded images for each year. For example, in 2001 there were 2591 posts with no images, 123 posts with 1 image, and 3 posts with 2 images.
Not only are there more images/post over time but there are also many more multi-image posts in the later years.
Related Links:Boing Boing Analysis - Part 1 (Posts Over Time by Author)
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Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Follow the money
Economic theory uses a model for human behavior which is the homo economicus, "a being who inevitably does that by which he may obtain the greatest amount of necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries, with the smallest quantity of labour and physical self-denial with which they can be obtained.” If you look at the general behavior of people playing games, you'll notice that the homo economicus can be found there as well. People try to get maximum fun for minimum cost. So there are always lots of people in free-to-play games, but if a game comes along that costs money, players are nevertheless willing to pay for it, as long as it is more fun to them than what they could have gotten for free.
If you were a game designer looking for a mission statement, something like "providing the maximum fun to the maximum number of players" is a pretty good option. And because of the homo economicus players, this strategy also works quite well for making money, which you need to develop games in the first place. Most players want good-looking graphics, and that means hiring an army of artists and coders to make your game, if you want to go for the maximum fun category.
There has been a lot of criticism towards the game industry, accusing them of being unoriginal. Sequels, sequels, everywhere. Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, GTA 4, Halo 3, The Sims 3, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, not to mention the annual versions of various sports games. Why can't game companies be more original? Because game companies are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing, making the games that players want, and the players don't want original games.
Just look at action RPGs on the PC: There have been dozens of games between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3: Titan Quest, Sacred, Dungeon Siege, and many, many more. None of which sold as well as Diablo 2, and Diablo 3 will again outsell them all. The action RPGs from other developers often were more innovative and added new elements to the genre. But what the players really want is another Diablo.
It isn't the game companies that are to blame, but the players. Players vote with their wallet, and game companies just follow the money. The last game of Madden NFL will be made when players stop buying it. It isn't as if game companies don't release new games as well as sequels, it is just that sequels very often sell better. There are tons of original games out there, but you find them in the bargain bin, or distributed online from some independent company, because there simply aren't all that many people who want to buy such a game. Why would anybody expect Blizzard or EA to make a conscious effort to make a game nobody wants to buy? Why complain about a game like Diablo 3 being developed, if we already know that millions of people will buy it and enjoy it? A few people might have preferred Blizzard to develop a text MUD instead, but we all know that only a handful of people would have played it, even if the idea would certainly be original.
Adam Smith said "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." I can only add that it isn't from the benevolence of the game companies that we expect our fun either. The game that makes the most money is the game people were willing to spend the most money on, because it was the maximum fun for the maximum number of people. What the complainers really want is for big companies to spend millions on making a game that is in the little niche they prefer. Hey, I want Blizzard to make a $50 million turn-based strategy game! Not going to happen, because there aren't enough people like me around; I have to play cheap Russian remakes of King's Bounty. Complaining that the game companies make games for the majority and not just for you is just selfish.
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In that announcement we also released the video promo for an amazing event titled “Beats After Sunset”. This event was such a huge success and we encourage you all to come to next month’s event in order to enjoy all the festivities. As a follow up to our first production for the Bass Museum, BES Films is proud to release its second visual production in collaboration with the team at the bass; this one with a slightly different feel than our first.
BES Films brings you an intimate documentary short taken from the opening day of the fall exhibit entitled “Unnatural” showing now at the Bass Museum of Art.
Here’s a brief excerpt from the bass website about the exhibit:
The concept of nature has acquired a new relevance in the hyper-technological age, leading many artists to reflect on artificial environments, where one is unable to trust what is real and what is not. A significant number of artists today challenge the gap between traditional perceptions of “nature” and “culture.” In many cases, they introduce new understandings of the sublime that replace its Romantic and the related sense of awe with a diverse range of critical, political and poetic approaches.
UNNATURAL will present scientific, romantic, conceptual, poetic, sensual and ecological conceptions of nature through a variety of strategies that reflect advances in technology in the twenty-first century. The works in the exhibition question conventional means and methods of representing the natural world and metaphorically embody both the paradoxical longing to fuse with nature and the threat embedded in such fusion. The works in UNNATURAL thus reflect a cultivated, synthetic, manipulated nature, which includes allusions to science as manifestations of a reality oscillating between the real and imaginary.
The video is an excerpt from opening day featuring several of the artists displayed in unnatural. Take an exclusive look inside the museum walls and hear insights from these very talented multimedia artists regarding inspiration, interpretation and execution of these wonderful works of art. The Unnatural exhibit will be open at the bass museum of art from Sun 4 September – Sun 4 November. Tweet us @BESFilms and #unnatural in order to tell us what you think about this video and whether you’ll be taking a visit to see all the artwork! Make sure to Like the bass museum facebook page and let them know what you think of this art doc. You can always give a little back too if you’d like to see more work like this coming out of BES Films!
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Dear Friends at Bethlehem and Beyond,
I’m writing to invite you to an unusual conference. This Fall’s Desiring God National Conference is one of the most extraordinary we have conceived. Our expectations are very high that its effect will be mind-sharpening, heart-humbling, mouth-seasoning, backbone-strengthening, and Christ-acclaiming. Our theme is The Power of Words and the Wonder of God.
This conference is an overflow of our amazement at the significance of words. Think of it:
- The Son of God is called the Word (John 1:1)
- The universe was created with a word (Hebrews 11:3)
- All things are held in existence by Jesus’ word (Hebrews 1:3)
- God reveals himself to us through his word (1 Samuel 3:21)
- Jesus healed and cast out demons with a word (Matthew 8:16)
- Faith is sustained by words (Hebrews 3:13)
- We fellowship with God by the words of prayer
- We worship him through the words of song and confession and preaching
- Our relationships are all sustained and nurtured by words
- We speak our love to each other by words; kings rise and fall by their words
- Politics and news and entertainment and business and education and international relations and families and friendships—all are possible because of words.
Language is God’s idea. Words are his creation. They belong at the heart of who he is. They have huge potential for good—and catastrophic potential for evil.
The tongue, James says, is seemingly untamable. “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God” (James 3:9).
Every issue today—political, religious, educational, theological—relates to the way we use words—thinking them in our heads and speaking them with our mouths.
What would the world be like—the home, the church, the school, the public square—if words were used the way Jesus used them? That is not an easy question. We might be surprised.
We have asked Sinclair Ferguson, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, South Carolina, to set the stage with an exposition of James 3:1–12. This text is astonishing in the power it attributes to the tongue: “No human being can tame the tongue” (James 3:8).
Paul Tripp, who teaches at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia and counsels at the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation, has written wisely in his book War of Words on the crucial place of the heart in how we help or hurt each other with our words. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). We hope to love people better with our mouths because of this message.
Daniel Taylor, who teaches English Literature at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, is a lover of stories and has written about their power in his book Tell Me a Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our Stories. This power is more pervasive than you may think and touches the heart of the gospel.
Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, has agreed to tackle the knotty issue of tough and tender words, words in controversy, words in confrontation, words like Jesus and Paul used when they called people vipers and said, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed” (1 Corinthians 16:22).
Bob Kauflin, a worship pastor with Sovereign Grace Ministries, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, just wrote the book Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God. He will help us explore what happens to words when we put them with music and sing them. Why is the Western world so filled with singing? Just turn the knob on your radio. Hundreds of stations. And most of them are singing. What is this power?
The task I have set for myself is the question: “Is There Christian Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross.” Paul said, “Christ did not send me . . . with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17). Yet who can deny the eloquence of Paul and others in the Bible? What is this? Should we pursue it?
We will worship Christ together. We will think hard. We will pray. We will meet people who are serious about their minds and their hearts and their mouths. We will buy books. And I pray we will go home ready to obey the words, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6).
I would love to see you there.
with David Mathis, Executive Pastoral Assistant
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Rolling Blackouts Affect Brownsville Residents
POSTED: Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 4:28pm
UPDATED: Thursday, February 3, 2011 - 10:08am
Freezing temperatures are forcing residents all across Texas to crank up their heaters. The overload in electric use has prompted the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to request rolling blackouts among electric providers throughout the Lonestar State .
Here locally, that includes Brownsville's PUB. The goal is to conserve electricity.
At some point Wednesday you probably experienced loss of power, whether you were at home, work, or out and about on the roads.
The 30 minute blackouts started early this Wednesday morning.
"When the lights went out the first time we lit the candles and made sure we had the flashlight and candles." said a homeowner from the Los Ebanos subdivision.
He’s not alone, thousands of residents across the city also experienced darkness.
For those who had to get out and get on to work, the morning commute in some areas was congested.
Traffic signals at the intersection of Boca Chica and Paredes Line, among others, traffic took the power hit forcing drivers to temporarily navigate through the busy intersections with no guidance. On a couple of occasions near collisions, but within about five minutes officers arrived to direct traffic.
While some were off to work, others were out to run errands. One man and his wife experienced a black out at their home but didn't think the store they were trying to shop at would be without power too.
"It's a waste of my time looking for stores that are open." said the man.
He'd have to look beyond the shopping center off of Boca Chica to get what he needed because all the lights were out.
One clothing store let their customers continue to shop in natural lighting, but then decided to close. Within about 10 minutes in to the rolling blackout, the majority of the businesses chose to lock their doors until the electricity fired back up.
"They're closed, I didn't know that, but now I know it's closed." said a turned away shopper.
"I'm just trying to find a pair of gloves and everything is shut down." said a shopper braving the cold temperatures.
She'll definitely be needing those gloves. The temperatures are only expected to get colder and that means there's a possibility that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas may continue calling for the blackouts.
"If this cold snap continues like it is, and it's expected to get worse, if it continues, then they may be bumping up the amount of blackouts that will be happening." said Alicia Warner of Brownsville PUB.
News Center 23 will keep you up to date with the very latest regarding the rolling blackouts.
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- About Us
- DORA Home
DORA is dedicated to preserving the integrity of the marketplace and is committed to promoting a fair and competitive business environment in Colorado.
Consumer protection is our mission.
Although the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies was created in 1968, several of the Department’s divisions have been protecting Colorado citizens for many decades:
In 1877, state regulation of Colorado banks began one year after statehood was achieved, when the Colorado Legislature first codified the process by which banking associations could be chartered and operated.
In 1883, Colorado began to regulate insurance through the State Auditor’s Office. In 1913, the Colorado Department of Insurance, now known as the Division of Insurance, was formed in response to widespread growth in the industry.
In 1913, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission was created when the State Legislature created it as part of the passage of the Public Utilities Act of 1913.
In 1923, regulation of the offer and sale of securities to investors began through the Division of Securities.
The real estate industry has been regulated since 1925 through what is now the Division of Real Estate.
In 1931, Colorado began chartering credit unions, when the General Assembly passed the Credit Union Act. Regulation of credit unions, savings and loan institutions and trust companies is conducted by what is now known as the Division of Financial Services.
In 1951, Colorado became the third state to establish a civil rights agency, now known as the Colorado Civil Rights Division.
In 1968, the Department of Regulatory Agencies was created pursuant to the "Administrative Organization Act of 1968". The act moved the aforementioned agencies into one umbrella department. The act also created the Division of Registrations and moved many existing boards under its purview. Many of these boards have also been in existence for over a century. For example:
The Colorado State Board of Medical Examiners was created in 1881.
The Colorado State Board of Dental Examiners was established March 15, 1889.
The Colorado General Assembly created the State Board of Nursing in 1905.
The State Board of Accountancy has regulated the accounting profession in Colorado since 1907.
The Colorado Board of Optometric Examiners was created in 1913.
In 1977, Colorado passed the first Sunset Law in the United States. This law requires the periodic review of various agencies throughout state government. In 1985, the Colorado General Assembly passed the Sunrise law as a compliment to the Sunset law. This law requires that a review be conducted on all proposals to regulate previously unregulated occupations or professions. The Office of Policy, Research and Regulatory Reform, an office within the Executive Director’s Office of the Department of regulatory Agencies, conducts these reviews.
The Office of Consumer Counsel (OCC) was created by the General Assembly as a division of the Attorney General’s Office on July 1, 1984. OCC’s mission is the representation of residential, small business and agricultural utility consumers on certain utility issues before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.
Today, DORA includes nine separate divisions and the Executive Director’s Office. DORA’s divisions include over 40 boards, commissions, and advisory committees. The Division of Registrations alone regulates over 47 professions, occupations and businesses in the state totaling over 345,000 people.
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THE 4TH ANNUAL
GENERAL HOSPITAL FAN BUILD DAY! A SALUTE TO JOHN INGLE
What is Habitat for Humanity?
Habitat for Humanity seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. Habitat invites people of all backgrounds, races and religions to build houses together in partnership with families and individuals in need, as well as hope, lives and communities. Habitat for Humanity has built more than 400,000 houses around the world, providing more than 2 million people in more than 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter.
How are the Partner Homeowners Selected?
Habitat partner homeowners are selected through an application process that evaluates:
How does it work?
Through volunteer labor and donations of money and materials, Habitat for Humanity (HFH) builds and rehabilitates simple, decent houses with the help of the homeowner (partner) families and individuals. HFH houses are sold to partner homeowners at no profit, financed with affordable, no-interest loans. The homeowners' monthly mortgage payments are used to build still more HFH houses. HFH is not a giveaway program. In addition to a down payment and the monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest hundreds of hours of their own labor -- "sweat equity" -- into building their HFH house and the houses of others.
What is Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity (HFHFH)?
Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity (HFHFH) is an entertainment industry partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (HFH GLA) that launched in 2000 with a 20 house "blitz build." HFHFH was founded by Screenwriter, Director and Producer Randall Wallace (Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, Secretariat) to encourage the entertainment industry to support Habitat for Humanity's goal of eliminating substandard housing worldwide. HFHFH works with talent and industry leaders who support the organization through donations, volunteer hours and advocacy. Thousands of volunteers from the entertainment industry have helped build homes in the United States and around the world.
Are houses built by HFH GLA energy efficient (or are "green building" methods used in construction?)
HFH GLA is among a growing number of Habitat for Humanity affiliates that is incorporating Green Building elements that improve the affordability and sustainability for homeowners and the communities in which they live. We bring pragmatic aspects of affordable housing and Green Building to create tangible benefits like cost-savings and upkeep for families. HFH GLA is building long-lasting partnerships with recognized leaders in Green Building to create sustainable communities that improve the quality of life for homeowners now and in the future. Our ReStore diverts millions of pounds away from area landfills each year and works with deconstruction construction companies as well.
If I don't live in Los Angeles, how can I volunteer in my home town?
With more than 1,700 affiliates across the US and in more than 100 countries worldwide, every seven minutes, Habitat for Humanity helps a family improve their housing situation, in communities just like yours. If you are interested in volunteering locally with your home town Habitat for Humanity affiliate, please Click Here
Celebrating More Than 20 Years of Building Hope, Lives & Communities
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