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The Barbarian's Beverage: A History of Beer in Ancient Europe (Hardback)
$118.40 - Save $6.23 (4%) - RRP $124.63 Free delivery worldwide (to United States and
all these other countries) Usually dispatched within 48 hours
- Also available in...
- Paperback $42.03
Short Description for The Barbarian's Beverage This book presents all of the evidence for beer in ancient Europe, and demonstrates the important technological as well as ideological contributions made by the Europeans to the history of beer.
- Published: 07 January 2005
- Format: Hardback 224 pages
- ISBN 13: 9780415311212 ISBN 10: 0415311217
- Sales rank: 1,282,501
Full description for The Barbarian's Beverage
Comprehensive and detailed, this is the first ever study of ancient beer and its distilling, consumption and characteristics Examining evidence from Greek and Latin authors from 700 BC to AD 900, the book demonstrates the important technological as well as ideological contributions the Europeans made to beer throughout the ages. The study is supported by textual and archaeological evidence and gives a fresh and fascinating insight into an aspect of ancient life that has fed through to modern society and which stands today as one of the world s most popular beverages. Students of ancient history, classical studies and the history of food and drink will find this an useful and enjoyable read.
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Why one former Olympic gymnast stumps for the sport
If you've considered trying a spin class, here's a good reason to finally go for it: Cycle for Survival (CFS), owned and operated by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, is a high-energy, national spin event that wants you to get your sweat on...while raising money for research investigating rare types of cancer.
Over the last six years, CFS, along with their partner Equinox Clubs, has raised $28 million towards these studies. The cause has even found a dedicated fan and ambassador in former Olympic gold medalist Shannon Miller.
You might know Miller, 35, as one member of the "Magnificient Seven," the 1996 US Olympic Women's Gymnastics Team that won our country's first-ever gold team medal for the sport. But you probably didn't know that she's also a cancer survivor. "I was diagnosed in January of 2011 with a germ cell malignancy, which is a rare form of ovarian cancer," Miller tells Prevention.com. "It tends to strike women in their late teens and early 20s—but it can be very difficult to detect."
At the time, Miller admits, cancer wasn't on her radar. So she ignored some of the disease's tell-tale signs, including indigestion, bloating, and pelvic pain. "What woman thinks 'I’m bloated? I have cancer'," she says. "You think, 'Maybe I drank too many diet sodas,' and take some pepto."
Unfortunately, fizzy drinks weren't the culprit. Miller had a baseball-sized cyst that required treatment with surgery, plus aggressive chemotherapy. Today, she's got a clean bill of health, is expecting her third child, and is keen to see CFS raise even more money to investigate cancers like the one she suffered. "It's one of those things I could do to help,” Miller says. “I'm so passionate about raising funds for rare cancer research...maybe ovarian cancer doesn't get a ton of money [now], but we can."
Want to get involved? Check out cycleforsurvival.org for event dates and locations across the country. You might even find yourself hooked on a new workout—one that, according to Michele Stanten, a board member with the American Council on Exercise, is accompanied by major health perks and a ton of team spirit. "Unlike actual cycling, there are no worries about lagging behind the pack. Everyone finishes together. And everyone gets a great workout," she says. Follow Stanten's tips to get started:
Cushion your seat. If you're not accustomed to riding a bike, the seat might be uncomfortable. "This feeling eventually goes away, but consider wearing padded bike shorts. Or many clubs have gel-filled seat covers you can put directly over the bike saddle," Stanten says.
Stay hydrated. "Spinning works up a great sweat and the rooms are often warm, so always bring a water bottle to class," Stanten says. Her suggestion: A sports bottle with a pull top, so you can take frequent sips during the ride.
Pace yourself. Classes can be energetic and vigorous, but go at your own pace until you get the hang of things, Stanten suggests. "Don't get swept up in the class enthusiasm and ride beyond your comfort level."
Follow the golden rule of group classes. If the first instructor you ride with doesn't inspire you, try again. Like any group fitness class, spin programs vary in approach, music, and difficulty level—so give someone else a shot to find the right fit.
Questions? Comments? Contact Prevention's News Team.
Published February 2013, Prevention
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As chartered by the Congress of the United States, the Boy Scouts of America is a movement dedicated to supplementing and enlarging the education of youth. The merit badge program, which provides opportunities for youth to explore more than 100 fields of skill and knowledge, plays a key role in the fulfillment of this educational commitment.
A vital part of the BSA's advancement plan, the merit badge program is one of Scouting's basic character-building tools. Through participation in the program (which may begin immediately upon registration in a troop or team), a Scout acquires the kind of self-confidence that comes only from overcoming obstacles to achieve a goal. Instruction is offered in everything from animal science and public speaking to swimming and communications, providing a young man with invaluable career, physical, and interpersonal skills.
Each merit badge subject is outlined and explained in a pamphlet that contains short, introductory information written for Boy Scouts/Varsity Scouts by recognized authorities. More than a million pamphlets are sold yearly, and many are used as approved reference texts in libraries and school curricula.
People who are knowledgeable about the various merit badge subjects are selected, approved, and trained by council and district advancement committees to serve as merit badge counselors. For example, a dentist might be asked to serve as a counselor for the Dentistry merit badge. A counselor must not only possess the necessary technical knowledge but have a solid understanding of the needs, interests, and abilities of Scouts. A counselor must also be a registered adult with the BSA.
When a Scout has an interest in earning a particular merit badge, he obtains his Scoutmaster's/Varsity Scout Coach's approval and identifies another Scout with similar interests to become his partner. They are then directed to the appropriate merit badge counselor. The counselor reviews the badge requirements with the young men and decides with them what projects should be undertaken and when they should be completed. After the counselor has certified that the Scouts have qualified for the merit badge, it is presented to them at a troop/team meeting and can be applied toward rank advancement.
To qualify for the Eagle Scout Award, Scouting's highest advancement rank, a Scout must—along with meeting five other requirements—earn a total of 21 merit badges, including First Aid, Citizenship in the Community, Citizenship in the Nation, Citizenship in the World, Communications, Personal Fitness, Emergency Preparedness OR Lifesaving, Environmental Science, Personal Management, Camping, Hiking OR Cycling OR Swimming and Family Life.
To meet the changing interests of boys, new merit badges are added from time to time. The most recent is Composite Materials in 2006. In addition, all merit badges are reviewed and revised periodically.
For an enhanced listing of the 124 current merit badges offered by the BSA, with figures on numbers earned plus links to requirements and resources, go to Current Merit Badges.
Interested in joining our Troop??? E-mail us at firstname.lastname@example.org
Last Updated: June 19. 2010
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In 1938 Aston Villa's players defied an order to give the Nazi salute while touring Germany. They would be disgusted to see Villa fans giving it today.
An Aston Villa fan who gave a Nazi salute to opposing supporters would have the club’s heroes from the 1930s turning in their graves.
James Doyle made the “deeply offensive” gesture to Spurs fans – a club which has a large Jewish following – during a Boxing Day clash at Villa Park.
Doyle, a 22-year-old driver’s mate from Hodge Hill, admitted committing a religiously aggravated public order offence.
District Judge Jan Jellema, sitting at Birmingham Magistrates Court, banned him from football matches for three years and ordered him to pay a £155 fine.
He told him: “Though you may well have been going along with others at the time, you now understand how deeply offensive your behaviour was to others.”
It would have been deeply offensive to the renowned Villa team of 1938, which famously defied orders to give the salute while touring in Germany.
At the time Aston Villa was one of the most famous football clubs in the world. Everyone wanted to see the legendary claret and blue team managed by Jimmy Hogan.
Even the feared Third Reich, then flexing its muscles on mainland Europe before the full horrors of the Nazi regime, wanted to see Villa take on the best Germany had to offer.
But Villa’s heroes, abhorred by the ruthless reputation of Hitler’s henchmen, decided they would have nothing to do with the diplomatic niceties designed to placate Hitler and his cronies, and diplomats from the Foreign Office.
Instead of performing a Nazi salute to satisfy the German dignitaries, Villa’s heroes responded with a two-fingered gesture. It was the day the boys from Birmingham really managed to kid Mr Hitler.
Villa had agreed to tour Germany long before Hitler’s horrors began to surface, so it was with some concern that Hogan’s heroes took on a German Select XI.
Only days before, an England side including Villa centre-forward Frank Broome had played against Germany in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.
Before the game, the Three Lions, acting on advice from the Foreign Office, performed a Nazi salute to a packed house of 110,000, who roared their approval. England went on to win 6-3.
The players had been told that the political situation between Britain and Germany was so sensitive that it needed “only a spark to set Europe alight”.
So the England team reluctantly complied with the request.
On the following day, Villa played the first game of a three-match tour in the same stadium against an even stronger German Select XI, which included players from the recently annexed Austria.
The Villa stars were also advised to make the Nazi salute – but they refused.
What was seen as a lack of manners was heavily criticised in the German press after the game, especially as Villa triumphed 3-2.
But the controversy did not rest there.
Following fierce representations from the German Government, British diplomats were far more insistent in their demands that the Villa players pay tribute to their hosts before the next game in Stuttgart.
But again the boys from Brum turned the tables, and not just by winning the match 1-0.
Villa’s forward Eric Houghton later recalled: “The FA fella in charge of the England team had come to our manager and said ‘We’ve had a chat about it and we think it would be better if your players gave the Nazi salute to be really friendly’.
“We had a meeting about this, and George Cummings and Alec Massie said ‘There’s no way we’re giving the Nazi salute.’ So we didn’t give it in Berlin.
“It did leave a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth for them.
“At the next game in Stuttgart both teams gave the Nazi salute.
“But we went to the centre of the field and gave them the two-finger salute instead.
“They cheered like mad.
“They thought it was alright. They didn’t know what the two fingers meant.”
Hitler’s hierarchy failed to understand the typically English gesture and the Villa players went down in history as the team that defied the Nazis.
For many Villa fans, the ‘True Brit’ gesture and courage in the face of adversity were key factors that set Villa apart from the country’s other top clubs.
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The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) is an Institute established through the KICD Act No. 4 of 2013 of the laws of Kenya.
The Institute’s core function is to conduct research and develop curricular for all levels of education below the university. The Institute also develops print and electronic curriculum support materials, initiates and conducts curriculum based research, organizing and conducting in-service and orientation programmes for curriculum implementers.
It also evaluates vets and approves the curricular and curriculum support materials for basic and tertiary education, as well as offering curriculum based consultancy services in basic and tertiary education and training.
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RESERVATION AND VOTES?
India is known for unity in diversity. The country of different colors. colors of creativity, colors of festivals, colors of culture, colors of tradition, colors of life.
But these colors are being named after religion, named after castes-everyone knows for what and whose benefit... certainly not for benefits of common man.
The fact remain India is divided into pieces by boundaries of reservations intended not really for upliftment of lower caste or of minority… reservation just to earn votes.
We Indians are suffering from the same old divide and rule policy adopted by the British. The same policy is adopted by our political leaders and they who fool the public. Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, ST, SC, and OBC.
How much further are we going to keep dividing ourselves? The lure of reservation quota for backward classes and minorities to public is slowly killing our mindset and our system. More and more incompetent, ignorant and lazy people are getting into our system everywhere. How long will this discrimination go on?
I would like to directly blame the Central Govt who don't want Lokpal to be a reality. Cunning minds in the parliament just diverted the debate from anti-corruption law to a religious issue.
The reservation is a sword that is used for cutting Unity.
Its a lollipop that is given to minority section, so that they will remain away from anti-corruption movement and would concentrate on issues of reservation of community.
all the minority section may it be a Muslim or christian, Sikh or other, be aware these politicians are just using the religion factor for earning votes and notes. Same is the case with Hindus.. hindu's are divided into schedule caste, scheduled tribes and OBC for what.?
Enough! It is only creating a valley of distances. The reservation is main cause for caste and religious discrimination and the reservation policy has became threat to unity of the country.
Tt has become a style of earning votes by dividing society into Hindu, Muslim, Christians, Sikhs, and so on.
but time has come to show them we don't want reservation on basis of caste and religion. we are India. we may be poor, middle class or rich. Dear politicians if you people are really bothered about country, please don't divide us.. you want to give Reservation give it to all section on basis of economic condition.
Stop the age old tactics of Divide and Rule.
Caution : Beware of the pretense of secularism.. which is actually dividing India.. political party who are dividing and luring minorities are more dangerous.We dont want any more partition. British did it with Bengal.. and selfish politician did it in 1947. Base was religion. so stop it now.
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When a private zoo on a small island on Lake Skadar in Montenegro was flooded, Nikica, an 11-year old hippopotamus, seized the opportunity for freedom. As waters rose, she was able to bob to the top of her enclosure and escape. Though currently being tracked by zoo officials, the two-tonne hippo could pose a threat to people. Villagers have been warned to keep a safe distance. “When I left my house to feed my cow, I saw a hippo standing in front of the stall,” said a farmer, Nikola Radovic. “I thought I was losing my mind.”
Watch the video footage of Nikica here below.
To learn more about hippos, see Animal Fact Guide’s article: Hippopotamus.
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Area of Emphasis
Democracy and Justice Studies students select from one of five emphases options. When selecting an emphasis students are encouraged to consult with the DJS advisor and to examine their own career goals. Each emphasis has its own supporting and upper level courses.
- American Studies addresses social problems, public issues, social ideas and strategies for change with respect to contemporary American society.
- International Studies focuses on issues of development, inequality and social justice.
- Law and Justice Studies examines law and legal systems, both in the United States and around the world, and their relationship to justice and democracy.
- Women’s and Gender Studies explores historical and contemporary perspectives on women and gender in the U.S. and internationally.
- Students with defined interests may create their own 12 credit individual emphasis in consultation with the DJS advisor.
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Podium Coaching Blog
Cain’s blather: why his words fail to connect with audience
Another burst of blather from beleaguered US presidential hopeful Herman Cain.
Cain is the Republican wannabe who has spent most of his campaign doing damage limitation after a series of allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour.
Trouble is, his damage limitation causes more damage – because he’s seen as fudging his message.
He has a reputation as an orator. But when he’s on the defensive he shows us clearly why his communication skills desert him.
Today he gave us a great example.
“We have to do an assessment as to whether or not this is going to create too much of a cloud, in some people’s minds, as to whether or not they would be able to support us going forth.”
We all distrust blather and bafflegab. We appreciate straight talk, and when we don’t get it we get suspicious.
Cain’s message today contains several devices we should avoid if we want to be perceived as straight talkers.
- ‘We have to do an assessment…’ Cain has taken a perfectly good verb (to assess) and swaddled it in so much padding that it loses it’s power and clarity. How often do we see phrases like ‘We have to have a meeting…’ when we really mean ‘Let’s meet…’
- ‘as to whether or not…’ The Plain English Campaign constantly fights against these overloaded constructions. What Cain means is ‘if’. The Plain English Campaign has a great web site packed with examples of clunky constructions and crystal clear alternatives.
- he repeats the cumbersome ‘as to whether or not’ construction, further confusing listeners who are already struggling to understand him. Your audience has one chance to receive, process and understand your message. Keep it simple.
- ‘going forth.’ Few people use that phrase in conversation. We’re more likely to say ‘going forward’, or ‘in the future’. Anyway, since the sense is implicit, the phrase is redundant.
If you want to be more able than Cain as a communicator, remember:
- Keep it simple
- Keep it conversational
- Let verbs work their magic
- Don’t send five words to do the work of one
- Strip out every word that’s not working hard
How to spot an email scam: 6 tips to keep you safe
An invitation dropped into the Podium Coaching inbox the other day. It was a request for Podium’s Halina St James to speak at a university in England.
Halina is a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, so the request was not unusual.
But it was a scam. It was a variation on an email fraud that a lot of people are aware of, and some have fallen victim to.
So we thought we’d devote this blog to a list of warning signs when you receive an email that you are uncertain about.
1 – Look at the language, grammar and punctuation.
Halina’s invitation started:
“I am Prof. Joe Elliot from the KEELE UNIVERSITY Here in London UK. We want you to be our guest Speaker at this Year Bird college Seminar.”
The style, and the eccentric capitalization and spacing, is a real give-away. Over-emphatic language and heavy capitalization are good clues that a letter is a scam.
2 – Look for anything that seems odd.
Because we lived in England, we know that Keele University is not based in London.
3 – Look carefully at the email address.
Our invitation asked us to reply to universityof firstname.lastname@example.org. Would a university have a gmail address? Unlikely.
3 – Do a little research.
A quick online search showed no Prof. Joe Elliot on the staff at Keele. The letter we received also said the website was being updated – but a quick trip online proved this to be untrue.
4 – Alert your friends.
Enough of our friends have been caught to persuade us that even smart people sometimes fall for email scams and hoaxes. In this case the author of the email indicated Halina was being approached because of her profile on the legitimate CAPS website. Maybe others in the organization are being targeted, too.
5 – Do not open attachments or click on links.
Sometimes the email is bait to get you to a fake website where you are asked to give personal information. Identity theft is a massive problem.
6 – Be skeptical.
If an offer sounds too good to be true – it probably is. The whole process of figuring out our invitation was a scam didn’t take very long. The most important thing is to read carefully with your head, not your heart.
If you apply these tests and are still unsure, you might want to check out some of the web sites dedicated to exposing scams and hoaxes. The RCMP has some great information about scams, particularly the ones purporting to come from banks. Hoax-slayer is another good source of information.
Show a little respect when communicating bad news
Mark Timney, president of healthcare giant Merck, sat down recently to write to staff about some bad news: the company needed to get rid of 13,000 jobs.
But Timney didn’t want the news to sound too gloomy.
So he decided to avoid words like ‘layoffs’, or even ‘jobs’, in his 550 word memo.
In fact he decided to present the removal of 13,000 jobs as an opportunity, writing that it was “the opportunity for employees in the aforementioned select areas to proactively hand-raise and be considered for separation”.
Hmmmm, sounds so much better.
By now Timney was warming to his task. “Our strategy, which remains unchanged, reinforces the need for us to change our underlying operations and enables our ability to grow.”
Now that’s getting a little confusing.
C’mon bosses. Confusing AND patronising employees is not going to make the job-reduction process any easier. It’s going to make it harder.
You employ people because they are smart: certainly smart enough to know that talking about ‘vacancy management’ is just sugar-coating a pink slip.
Euphemisms are counter-productive. At Podium Coaching, we believe that if you are giving bad news, you should play it straight: help people understand why the changes are happening. Keep the language simple, conversational, respectful.
Getting people to engage with a difficult business decision is hard enough. Blowing smoke in their face isn’t going to help.
Say what you mean – and mean what you say
by Halina St James
A friend of mine just got her Visa statement. She had a charge for $50.95 for ‘retail interest’. At first she thought she bought something and just had a senior moment remembering what it was. But she was sure she didn’t buy anything for that amount.
So she called Visa. She was right. She hadn’t bought anything. The $50.95 was interest charged for being two days late on a $2000 payment.
My friend was incensed. One reason was the wording ‘retail interest’. It wasn’t clear. In her mind, Visa was covering up the real reason for the charge, which was interest for a late payment. She admitted to being 2 days late with her payment but ‘retail interest’ really irritated her. It smacked of cover-up.
How often do we try to cover up our real meaning with some fluffy euphemism. Somebody ‘passes’. They don’t die. We have ‘sanitary engineers’ not garbage collectors. We say ‘adult entertainment’ instead of pornography, ‘armed intervention’ instead of war.
Just a few minutes on Google resulted in some mind numbing phrases such as ‘unable to operationalise the customer request’ (meaning the sales person was not helpful). Apparently ‘outsourcing’ is now ‘bestshoring’. And if you’re stealing from a company, you’re ‘liberating captive assets’.
Playing the euphemism card is a dangerous game. People will sense you’re up to something. The best thing to do is to say what you mean, and mean what you say. Keep your language simple and honest. You will be a more powerful, less misunderstood communicator.
By the way, my friend cut up her Visa and moved her money out of the bank into a credit union.
How to hold an audience, without props or gimmicks
If you can make global economics interesting for more than an hour to a non-specialist audience, you have to be doing something right as a speaker.
Hats off to Scotiabank chief economist Warren Jestin for doing just that today at a luncheon in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
And he did it without notes, or charts, or slides.
At the end of the session, at least one member of the audience was heard to say ‘I wish I could make a presentation like that.’
So let’s just look at some of the things that helped Warren Jestin engage with his audience:
- He made sure we knew where he was taking us: the euro crisis, the problems in the US, the Canadian economy, and the prospects for investors. Several times he reminded us of the route map of the speech.
- He was authentic: histrionics and laugh-out-loud jokes are not his style. He’s quietly understated, but with occasional sunbeams of dry wit.
- He used short labels or memorable phrases to summarise his points: ‘mathematically impossible’ for the debt crisis in Greece; ‘no-one’s having adult conversations’ for the inability to drag the US from the brink of recession.
- He knew his audience – interested investors but generally not financial professionals. He used appropriate, conversational language – avoiding jargon.
- He had a logical structure that enabled him to flow from point to point effortlessly.
- He pulled the various elements together at the end to give his audience a succinct and relevant takeaway.
Jestin’s performance was a gentle reminder that we don’t need elaborate props or podium-thumping dramatics to engage an audience.
All you need is a passion for a topic, and a genuine desire to share that passion with others.
As we remind people in Podium Coaching presentation skills workshops – have something to say, believe in it, say it simply, and shut up.
Great advice for nervous public speakers
“All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If I could just say a few words … I’d be a better public speaker.” — Homer J. Simpson
And my third big idea is… oh, I forgot it
In case you didn’t see it, here’s the moment Republican Rick Perry went from US presidential hopeful to hopeless.
In last night’s candidates’ debate he promised to eliminate three federal agencies. But he couldn’t remember their names.
After the debate, his communications advisor tried to spin it as a ‘stumble of style, not substance.’ You be the judge.
How talented young dancers can boost your next presentation
Our home town of Halifax, Nova Scotia, knows all about sad farewells. It’s a navy town, where long goodbyes and anxious waits are part of military life.
There’s a long tradition of families waving loved ones off on missions around the world; missions of peace, and missions of war.
In the last few years Halifax dockside has seen anxious farewells and joyful reunions after conflicts in the Persian Gulf (Iraq), the Gulf of Aden (fighting piracy), to Haiti after the earthquake, and most recently in the Mediterranean (Libya).
These stories of military deployments are stories of comradeship, of bravery, of duty.
But they are also love stories. Stories of families divided, fearful, apprehensive, wondering if their lives will ever be the same…
That story of sadness and fear was the story that played out on a polished hardwood floor in a dance studio in Halifax over the weekend.
Talented ballroom dancers Brenton Mitchell and Julie Poirier (ranked 11 in Canada) played out their homage to all military families at two full-house performances. The shows were fund-raisers, to help Brenton and Julie raise the $30,000.00 it costs these amateurs to compete each year at the highest level of international dance.
Dance tells stories, just as songs tell stories. Stories help us make sense of our lives and our world.
If you are in the communication business, you have to be in the story business. Story takes complexity and makes it understandable; it takes forgettable information and makes it memorable.
Next time you have to make a speech or presentation, do what Julie and Brenton do so well… tell a story. Your audience will do what they did for our talented dancers – give the ultimate reward of a standing ovation.
Live microphone catches world leaders in ‘liar’ gaffe
Oops. French President Nicolas Sarkozy thinks Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is a liar. And he told US President Barack Obama so at the G20 summit.
“I can’t stand him any more, he’s a liar,” said Mr Sarkozy.
President Obama replied: “You may be sick of him, but me – I have to deal with him every day.”
Two men who should know better ignored one of the basic rules of our media training sessions… don’t speak out of turn when there are microphones present.
It was supposed to be a private conversation, ahead of a news conference by the French and US leaders. Journalists had been given translation boxes – but told not to plug them in.
Which is a bit like giving kids candy and telling them not to eat it.
If you don’t want to see your words in headlines or hear them broadcast – don’t say them. If you see a microphone, assume it is ‘live’ and someone is listening.
(The BBC has a good report on the incident on their web site).
Why did the chicken cross the road?
‘Deregulation of the chicken’s side of the road was threatening its dominant market position. The chicken was faced with significant challenges to create and develop the competencies required for the newly competitive market. Gobbledygook Consulting convened a diverse cross-spectrum of road analysts and best chickens along with Gobbledygook consultants with deep skills in the transportation industry to engage in a two-day itinerary of meetings in order to leverage their personal knowledge capital, both tacit and explicit, and to enable them to synergize with each other in order to achieve the implicit goals of delivering and successfully architecting and implementing an enterprise-wide value framework across the continuum of poultry cross-median processes.’
OK, it’s an old joke… Isn’t it?
It’s just a little worrying that, while most of us laugh at that sort of self-important, hyper-inflated, babble there are some who still think grandiose language is the way to impress a client or audience.
Join Podium, and Kevin and his students, in fighting against gobbledygook. What horrors have you seen recently? Send us examples. We’ll give an e-copy of our Presentation Skills book to the best (worst) example.
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Anne Arundel County Health Department officials confirmed yesterday 14 more pneumonia cases at two elementary schools, just days after finding an initial batch of six cases at a third elementary school.
Health officials said they have X-ray confirmations of 11 pneumonia cases at Arnold Elementary and three at Cape St. Claire Elementary, in addition to the previous six at Oak Hill Elementary in Severna Park.
"The health officer was just telling us it's the season for these kinds of infections to start happening, and it spreads quickly when you have 200 students in close quarters with each other," said schools spokesman Bob Mosier.
All three schools have begun thoroughly cleaning classroom desktops and lunchroom tables and giving lessons on the importance of hand washing and covering the mouth and nose when coughing, Mosier said.
Cape St. Claire Elementary sent letters home to parents yesterday about the infection and how to guard against it. At Arnold Elementary, letters were sent home Oct. 15. Oak Hill began sending letters home in late September and sent two more in October.
The bacterial infection is characterized by coughing, fever, sore throat and headaches. Symptoms can take as long as 30 days to appear, but it is easily treated with antibiotics, said Dr. Katherine Farrell, deputy health officer with the county Department of Health.
Last month, Anne Arundel school and health officials had another scare after reports of 28 staphylococcus infections in four high schools: Severna Park, Glen Burnie, Old Mill and Chesapeake. Many of the cases were reported after an initial batch at Severna Park, which fanned concern among parents who complained about what they called dingy athletic facilities at high schools.
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March 4, 2009
The 2009 Crimes Against Women Conference in Dallas Texas this week has been quite interesting. I’ve picked out some “make you think” quotes from the conference to share with you all:
Over four million women are victims of a violent crime each year in the United States.
Female homicide victims are more than twice as likely to have been killed by husbands or boyfriends than male victims are to have been killed by wives or girlfriends.
Three women and one man are killed everyday in the USA from domestic violence.
One out of three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.
From Casey Gwinn:
The most dangerous men in the world do not leave marks. The most experienced batterers are the ones that don’t leave marks, even with sexual abuse.
From Jim Tanner:
Sex Offenses are generally the SAME
- Secretive – they are done privately
- Abusive – there is denigration of the victim
- Manipulative – the offender exercises control
- Emotionless – the offender has no empathy
90% of the time, the victims know the offender.
From Jim Savage and Kristen Howell:
Women are more likely to be injured from domestic violence than by car wrecks, muggings, and rapes combined.
Help women stay safe from the most likely attacker: her partner.
The very skills that allowed a woman to survive the relationship are different than the skills needed to leave the relationship. …Help her develop a different skill set. She’s got the fortitude, we simply must equip her with a different skill set to move her through the stages of change.
Help her to understand the game – passive capitulation is key to survival, but it is a killer to her soul.
Women can protect themselves by not looking like an easy target. In a letter written shortly before his escape from the Glenwood Springs jail, Ted Bundy said, “I have known people who… radiate vulnerability. Their facial expressions say, “I am afraid of you.” These people invite abuse… By expecting to be hurt, do they subtly encourage it?”
Kathy Broady LCSW
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TIVOLI (AP) - Macaroni and cheese again? Students at a Texas junior high school staged a four-day boycott of cafeteria food last week to press for more menu choices and healthier alternatives.
About 30 students at Austwell-Tivoli Junior High School in Tivoli, Texas, near the Gulf Coast, shunned the cafeteria’s offerings and brought their lunches from home for four days last week, The Victoria Advocate reported over the weekend.
They demanded less menu repetition and more choice in what is served, including salads. President of the seventh-grade class Mckenzi Simmons said “boycott” was a vocabulary word in a recent Texas history class, and that students put what they’d learned into action.
“All we wanted was for our voice to be heard and a chance at change,” said Mckenzi, 12.
Superintendent Antonio Aguirre said his Austwell-Tivoli Independent School District offers free lunch to students and staff because a large portion of the district is deemed low-income by the state.
Aguirre defended the school’s menus, saying they are based on policy set by the Texas Department of Agriculture — which provide specific nutritional guidelines for foods like fruits and vegetables, portion sizes and fried foods.
But he also saluted the students for harnessing the “power of their own learning.”
“Kids will say, `When am I ever going to use this stuff?”‘ Aguirre said about some classrooms. “Maybe those girls are our leaders of tomorrow. Somebody has to jump up and do something different.”
On Wednesday, Mckenzi and the class vice president sent a letter to their principal, Stephen Maldonado, on behalf of their class, calling for less repetition in lunches and a choice of a salad. That same day, another letter she sent to the principal emphasized their stance.
“We have tried other solutions before,” the letter read. “However, seeing as there has been no change or consideration, we have come to this option. Once again, if we have hurt anyone’s feelings we are sincerely sorry, as it was unintentional.”
The students believe their demands have been heard and plan to now halt the boycott.
Also Check Out:
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- Some Offended By Half-Staff Flag For Whitney Houston
- Son Of Willie Nelson Works To Make His Own Mark
- Call Of Duty Game Leads To Prank Lewisville 911 Call
- Sign Linguage: The Best Jeremy Lin Fan Signs
(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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They of the Great Rocks-2
This approximate true color image taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows "Adirondack," the rover's first target rock. Spirit traversed the sandy martian terrain at Gusev Crater to arrive in front of the football-sized rock on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2004, just three days after it successfully rolled off the lander. The rock was selected as Spirit's first target because its dust-free, flat surface is ideally suited for grinding. Clean surfaces also are better for examining a rock's top coating. Scientists named the angular rock after the Adirondack mountain range in New York. The word Adirondack is Native American and is interpreted by some to mean "They of the great rocks."
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell
+ Medium resolution version of this image
+ High resolution version of this image
+ Print this image and caption
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CLARKDALE, AZ, Mar 04, 2013 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Verde Canyon Railroad's handsome FP7 engines, two of only ten still operating in North America, celebrate their 16th anniversary powering Clarkdale's scenic excursion train. Their maiden voyage in 1997 marked the start of a new chapter of an illustrious career. Manufactured by General Motors Electromotive Division in LaGrange, Illinois in 1953, these iron horse beauties were originally built for service on the Alaska Railroad.
Colorado-based Mountain-Diesel purchased the engines from the Alaska Railroad and exhibited them in a California museum before leasing them to the Wyoming-Colorado Railroad in 1988. Here they powered a scenic excursion operation which, due to cold winters and remote location, offered a very brief tourist season. In November 1996, locomotives 1510 and 1512 left the Wyoming-Colorado line and headed south to their new home in sunny Clarkdale, Arizona, where different scenery and a novel paint scheme welcomed them to a new career as the muscle for the Verde Canyon Railroad.
On March 8, 1997 the FP7s, decked out in their new eagle-motif, powered the Verde Canyon Railroad for the very first time. In the years since, these midcentury-style classics have become an iconic emblem of Arizona, symbolic of Clarkdale and the Verde Valley. These impeccably maintained locomotives are popular with rail fans worldwide. Verde Canyon Railroad celebrates the 60th birthday of engines 1510 and 1512 this spring, cheering these classics on to many more years of honored service on National Train Day, May 11.
From the moment you arrive at the Verde Canyon Railroad depot, you will be transported to an earlier age -- the age of the iron horse, when the train depot was the hub of every small town in America. A visit to the John Bell Museum set in a 1940's boxcar near the depot, where rare photos and artifacts from mining and railroad history are displayed, rounds out a superb railroad experience. Then you will be able to hop aboard the fully-restored vintage train that will take you through Verde Canyon.
Verde Canyon Railroad runs all year with a schedule that varies seasonally. The depot is located in Clarkdale, 25 minutes from Sedona and two hours north of Phoenix, making Verde Canyon Railroad the perfect Arizona day trip. For an overnight stay, check out our Room, Ride and Meal packages at verdecanyonrr.com. Call 800-293-7245 or book online now.
It's not the destination, it's the journey
Contact: Teresa A. Propeck 623-374-3185 Email Contact
SOURCE: Verde Canyon Railroad
Copyright 2013 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.
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|Where Recommendations are Based on Scientific Evidence|
Join our Health and Nutrition Info
DNA Cell Biol. 2003 Mar;22(3):217-24.
A major co nstituent of green tea, EGCG, inhibits the growth of a human cervical cancer cell line, CaSki cells, through apoptosis, G(1) arrest, and regulation of gene expression.
A co nstituent of green tea, (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) has been known to possess antiproliferative properties. In this study, we investigated the anticancer effects of EGCG in human papillomavirus (HPV)-16 associated cervical cancer cell line, CaSki cells. The growth inhibitory mechanism(s) and regulation of gene expression by EGCG were also evaluated. EGCG showed growth inhibitory effects in CaSki cells in a dose-dependent fashion, with an inhibitory dose (ID)(50) of approximately 35 microM. When CaSki cells were further tested for EGCG-induced apoptosis, apoptotic cells were significantly observed after 24 h at 100 microM EGCG. In co ntrast, an insignificant induction of apoptotic cells was observed at 35 microM EGCG. However, cell cycles at the G1 phase were arrested at 35 microM EGCG, suggesting that cell cycle arrests might precede apoptosis. When CaSki cells were tested for their gene expression using 384 cDNA microarray, an alteration in the gene expression was observed by EGCG treatment. EGCG downregulated the expression of 16 genes over time more than twofold. In co ntrast, EGCG upregulated the expression of four genes more than twofold, suggesting a possible gene regulatory role of EGCG. This data supports that EGCG can inhibit cervical cancer cell growth through induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest as well as regulation of gene expression in vitro. Furthermore, in vivo antitumor effects of EGCG were also observed. Thus, EGCG likely provides an additional option for a new and potential drug approach for cervical cancer patients.
PMID: 12804120 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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In the 1980s, when it was President Reagan's challenge to face down the mad dictator of Libya, he referred to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi as both a "mad dog" and "Looney tunes," a Warner Brothers cartoon series with a cast of nutty and humorous characters. But in today's situation in Libya, the movie analogy should be changed to Goldfinger, the deranged and super-rich villain of a James Bond movie who deploys his billions to pay off a retinue of mercenary thugs.
Today, Libya contains the Arab world's Blofeld, the Goldfinger villain, a megalomaniac tyrant apparently willing to murder hundreds of his own people to demonstrate the point that his people "love" him. One of his Western-educated sons, Saif, alternately winked at the camera or ranted in public that "rivers of blood" would be shed as his father took the needed measures to suppress political opposition. Of course, Muammar Gaddafi had already insisted in public that his political opponents had probably all been deluded into criticizing him by hallucinogenic drugs slipped by agents of al-Qaeda into their instant Nescafe when they weren't watching.
If ordinary Libyans weren’t, in reality, being beaten and murdered by the Gaddafi regime for their actions, the situation would almost read like the subtext of a twisted Hollywood thriller: political unrest in the Arab world metastasizing into murderous mayhem in the one Arab country whose ruling tyrant is manifestly delusional and has been in power for more than four decades. But this isn’t fiction. No matter how you look at it, the situation in Libya is a tragedy for the Arab world and a slap in the face of all human beings who aspire to orderliness and decency in government.
It isn't clear yet how many Arabs have died amid the tsunami of political unrest that has swept their countries since a street vendor in Tunis named Mohamed Bouazizzi touched off the regional protests by immolating himself last December 17 in public. Since then by far the biggest political change has been the overthrow of the Mubarak regime in Egypt. But even in Cairo's Tahrir square, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak revolt, there was a sour taste amid the jubilation at a change in government secured through public protest. The most grotesque evidence of this was a posse of pro-Mubarak thugs riding horses or camels headlong into crowds of demonstrators. Much more sinisterly, hidden from the eyes of reporters' cameras, Western women reporters like CBS correspondent Lara Logan were being groped and sexually molested by Egyptian men supposedly celebrating Mubarak's downfall. It raises a very important question: what kind of civilization will the Arab world construct upon the ruins of one-man or oligarchic autocracy?
This isn't just an academic issue. It was highly significant that the leaders of the anti-Communist demonstrations in Eastern Europe in 1989 were constrained by the awareness that it wasn't simply political change they were seeking but an alteration of the moral landscape. "When we come to power" -- I paraphrase Czech dissident playwright Václav Havel, later president of the Czech Republic, in one of his speeches prior to the fall of Communism in his country -- "we must not conduct a witch-hunt of our former Communist persecutors." Pause. Then the crowd in Prague's Wenceslas Square started chanting back in unison, "We are not like them, we are not like them." A moral self-discovery was in process. Czechs didn't want to become the same human types as those who had earlier been their Communist rulers.
What was the Egyptian equivalent of this self-discovery? When Egyptian women protested in Cairo's Tahrir Square for better political and human rights for women, they were outnumbered and shouted down by belligerent men. Oh, and a statistic worth knowing -- especially for women tourists to Egypt -- is that 93 percent of Egyptian women report having been manhandled in public settings; and 98 percent -- can you imagine, 98 percent? -- of foreign women have reported the same thing in Egypt.
And since the international media spotlight has turned toward Libya, it is becoming terrifyingly apparent the women of that country are routinely subjected by brutes of the Gaddafi regime to the most brutal forms of sexual debasement and assault, with seemingly no social or judicial recourse. Case in point: an unnamed Libyan woman ventured into the five-star Rixos Hotel in Tripoli last weekend, where members of the foreign media were staying, and began shouting that she had been detained and raped by militiamen loyal to Gaddafi. “Look what Gaddafi’s militia has done to me,” she screamed, raising her black robe to reveal deep scratch marks, blood, and bruises on her cheeks and thigh. The woman was instantly and forcibly silenced by government security guards, who wrestled a coat over her head and whisked her away. Journalists who tried to intervene were beaten and had their cameras confiscated or destroyed. No one has seen the woman since, and today we learn that she is being sued for slander by her alleged assailants. Let us pray to God that she, and others like her, will soon be released unharmed.
It is deeply discouraging that, in the Arab world, half of the entire population is regularly subjected to mistreatment that would be utterly intolerable, indeed illegal, in any orderly democratic society. I use the word "orderly" advisedly. It is surely delusional to assume that a mere change of regime, even the overthrow of it after four decades of an autocracy, will lead to the kind of life that is decent for most of the citizenry.
It took centuries of slow, incremental change in the West to reach the point where self-government could be managed without gross abuses. Part of it was social habituation to the rule of law: the concept that no one could claim political privilege to be above the law. And part of it was a habit of decent behavior towards that half of the human race which is female, an attitude reinforced by the then-dominant Christian teaching that women should be honored.
But in the Arab world, an important question should be raised: if half the entire population is being abused by the other half, what hope is there for the benefits of democratic rule? As we look back on the recent observance of International Women's Day, it is a question worth asking.
A version of this commentary originally appeared in OneNewsNow.com.
Dr. David Aikman was a journalist with TIME Magazine for 23 years, and is now a Professor of History at Patrick Henry College. He has authored more than a dozen books, including Jesus in Beijing (Regnery, 2003), Billy Graham: His Life and Influence (Thomas Nelson, 2006) and The Delusion of Disbelief (Tyndale, 2008). His latest book is The Mirage of Peace (Regal), and he is currently working on a book about the end of Christian America.
Reprints: Anyone may reprint an article from the American Roundtable, provided that they include a link to the original article on the Roundtable website, as well as a link to Patrick Henry College's donation page.
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May 24, 2012 The value of outstanding student loans in America just past the $1 trillion mark, we sat down with economists Robert Reich and Neal McCluskey to discuss America's newest crisis.
Apr 6, 2012 People age 60 and older owe more than $36 billion in student loans. Tess discusses the latest debt bubble with Marketplace Education correspondent Amy Scott.
Apr 5, 2012 We have a 529 plan and also the option to take out a subsidized Stafford loan. Does it make sense to take out the loan and leave the 529 money alone, then pay off the Stafford loan after graduation? (I'm thinking that the 529 would still collect interest for a few more years, while there is now interest on the loan for a few more years.) Thank you! Gabrielle, St, Paul, MN
Mar 6, 2012 The amount U.S. graduates owe on education loans could become a bigger drag on the economy than the nation's total credit card debt.
Feb 24, 2012 MSN's Liz Weston discusses tax rebates, student debt and how to negotiate the foreclosure process.
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Joined: 16 Mar 2004
|Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:58 am Post subject: Nanotechnology the new frontier for IT power India
|Nanotechnology the new frontier for IT power India
India is hoping nanotechnology could provide a new thrust to its booming economy and to become a world leader in this market, officials say.
Bangalore, India's science and information-technology capital, is at the forefront of a five-year initiative designed to help India become a global nanotechnology hub, using the country's vast scientific pool and low costs.
"Nano is the boom science of the 21st century," said M.N. Vidyashankar, who oversees technology industries in Karnataka, of which Bangalore is the capital.
"It will become the key emerging technology in the 21st century," he told AFP at a nanotechnology conference hosted by the state government earlier this month.
The government has said it plans to spend 10-billion rupees (254-million dollars) to engineer applications using nanotechnology, which scientists say will create lighter, stronger, cleaner and cheaper materials.
Nanotechnology stems from the Greek word nanos, meaning dwarf, and centres on control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. It is the manipulation or use of materials and devices so minute that nothing can be built any smaller.
"The talk of the day is nanotechnology with its wide applications," T.K. Bhaumik, chief economist at India's biggest private company Reliance Industries, told AFP.
"We're looking at it," he said. "The company is interested in any upcoming opportunity and nanotech is one of them."
Scientists caution the development period could be prolonged.
"It's easy to spot the commercial potential of a research finding in nanotechnology, but the time to market is very long," said Anthony K. Cheetham, an expert at the materials science department at Britain's Cambridge University.
But angel investors - affluent individuals who fund start-ups - pledged capital to six promising business projects at the Bangalore conference, said Vidyashankar, declining to identify them on grounds of confidentiality.
The worldwide market for nanotech-engineered consumer goods -- from cosmetics and sporting goods to consumer electronics -- is forecast to grow to one-trillion dollars by 2015 from an annual 15-billion dollars now, he said.
Already, nanotechnology has given the world materials used to make tennis balls that last longer, rackets that are stronger, golf balls that fly straighter and car wax that gives greater shine, says the US-based National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN).
The Indian Institute of Science and the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore are setting up the first of three national nanotechnology institutes on a sprawling campus.
And about 60 scientific institutions will help build "nano clusters" nationwide to develop applications for industrial products, agriculture, healthcare and drinking water, said Thirumalachari Ramasami, secretary in the federal department of science and technology.
"What nanotechnology has done is to create a new excitement in the scientific world," said C.N.R. Rao, India's foremost expert in the field.
"It has captured the imagination of a generation of scientists."
Nanotechnology could lead to the creation of materials with 10 times the strength of steel and only a fraction in weight, or shrink all the information available in India's libraries into a device the size of a sugar cube.
It can be used to treat diseases by sending tiny robots into human bodies, said Rao, who heads the Indian prime minister's scientific advisory panel and will guide the five-year nanotech mission.
"Nanotechnology will have as much impact on our lives as transistors and chips," said the Karnataka government's Vidyashankar.
"It's extremely important to the economy of our country and has the capacity to create new, affordable products that will dramatically improve performance."
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Roger Scruton's Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously about the Planet is an outstanding book on the environment that shows how moral philosophy can be translated into policy. It is a massively comprehensive book that leaves no stone unturned in relation to rationalities and approaches that have been proposed to protect the environment, analysing them from many angles. There are two expectations behind his meticulous inquiry into the physical and the moral aspects of choices. The first is that it will provide all the facts needed to understand environmental problems; the second is that such understanding will recreate the moral connection between individuals and their immediate environment. As Scruton points out, this moral connection is already latent in humans and is based on the need for nurture and safety. These two expectations lead to what Scruton calls oikophilia, which literally means the love of one's home, which is the key to unlock the moral connection that motivates people to look after their environmental resources in a spirit of stewardship.
Oikophilia works, Scruton explains, by promoting human resilience, autonomous associations, market solutions, effective tort law, aesthetic side-constraints which emerge from open discussions among citizens, biodiversity, natural beauty, local autonomy, serious research, and a regime of pricing and feedback that return the costs of environmental damage to those who create them. These are precisely the kind of things `which have a healthy environment as their effect'. This long list of things is, of course, part of the conservative morality which Scruton recommends. It comes with a huge problem: to overcome the hostile attitude of the left-wing mind set of the radical greens that tend to rebuff conservatism and to equate the market with attributes like consumerism, selfishness and greed.
There are arguments in favour of conservatism in most chapters of this book. In those arguments it is posited that the individualism at the core of conservatism, which combines freedom with responsibility, is complemented by other values such as respect for customs and traditions, namely those in the spheres of inherited affections, national sovereignty, free enterprises and civic initiatives. It is also argued that it is worth maintaining the things that were built into society at great cost, such as English common law, which has enabled society to cope with environmental problems long before the state began to legislate against them. The conclusion of the argument for conservatism is that tradition is precisely the source of practical knowledge that helps us know what to do in order to accomplish something successfully. Any suggestion that the author could be trying to appease the left-wing greens is dispelled completely by his summing up at the end of the book in the two appendices, where he posits some bold ideas that have the potential to attract other types of contrary reactions.
Green Philosophy examines a number of the most pertinent environmental problems, shows how such problems were tackled in the past, and reveals the mistakes that were made in the process. In Scruton's view, both the radical greens and governments have limited visions of environmental problems and their habit of imposing top-down prescriptions for the environment disrupts the social equilibrium necessary for people to act morally as temporary trustees of the environment. To Scruton, these top-down solutions often either exacerbate the problem or create new problems in the process. If environmental problems are to be taken seriously, he argues, they should be subjected to public debate and accountability. Scruton makes the point that, in the recent past, people had control of their environment and an awareness of the risks it faced through their use. Removing control of the local environmental away from individuals is disingenuous since they are precisely the ones who hold the key to solving the problems relating to it. According to Scruton in order for people to regain control of their environment they must first relearn how `to turn on the moral equipment' which will enable them to value what they have and to protect what they value.
Scruton's Green Philosophy is a solid starting point for all public discussions surrounding the environment. In it, the author accepts that some environmental problems are so large that they have no realistic solution and the best that can be done is to manage them with the aim of putting them on the path of equilibrium. Global warming and the dwindling fisheries of the oceans are perhaps the two most notorious examples of large-scale problems.
Scruton's solution for the problem of dwindling fisheries is to divide up the shoreline into plots and allocate property rights to each. He cites two examples of autonomous fisheries management that worked, the Lofoten fishery in Norway, which survived for centuries without outside regulation, and the system of `individual transferable quotas' (ITQs) adopted by Iceland and New Zealand. Scruton is a fierce critic of the Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union (EU). He reminisces about a time past when each country in the coastal waters of Europe had their customary sovereign rights. Scruton fails to acknowledge that in the case of Great Britain and Denmark, accepting the Common Fisheries Policy was a pre-requisite to joining the EU. Therefore, his suggestion of returning to a system of property rights which would bring the good stewardship needed to safeguard the fisheries resource is nigh on impossible for a country within a transnational organization such as the EU. Furthermore, Scruton's assessment of the problems of the oceans and the disappearance of fisheries and the stocks on which they depend, fails to take into account the existing body of scientific knowledge on the subject, omitting to suggest feasible ways of tackling the problems associated with the Common Fisheries Policy.
Scruton's coverage of global warming is much better than his account of the oceans and their dwindling fisheries, and includes the entire spectrum of informed opinions, both past and present. He accepts the trend of global warming, that to a greater extent it is anthropogenic, and that there is a need to reduce carbon emissions. He explains the basis of the international solution proposed under the Kyoto treaty, known as cap and trade solution, as an attempt to create a market that will assign a price to emissions based on the logic of supply and demand. Although he recognises the market oriented solution underpinning Kyoto, Scruton is sceptical about cap and trade schemes due to their lack of transparency, which, in his view, is an invitation to corruption. Another reason why he opposes Kyoto is that it targets producers and not consumers, who, he believes, are ultimately responsible for the problem of carbon emissions. He proposes an alternative solution to the problem of global warming, by the introduction of a flat-rate carbon tax on all products regardless of their origin and to use this tax to finance research on cleaner technologies.
An overview of Scruton's suggestions to manage environmental problems is provided in the last chapter of Green Philosophy, entitled Modest Proposals. Here, Scruton reiterates that the state should not undertake tasks that could be better undertaken by the citizens. In his view, what the state should do is to help citizens to act effectively, through deregulation for example. The first step of any environmental policy should be to devise a scheme for putting a price on pollution and waste that serves as a deterrent. The chapter, however, is followed by two appendices. Appendix I, Global Justice, is a philosophical examination of the problems of bringing justice to the environment, especially the so-called intergenerational justice, that seeks to save the environment for future generations. In the second Appendix, How Should We Live, Scruton delineates the difficulties of moral judgements and the tensions that exist between the pursuit of happiness and sense of duty. He also points out that in the modern era, when overpopulation became the greatest source of pressure on the environment, one of the greatest tensions is that between the virtue of charity towards the poor and the virtue of unburdening the planet. The starkest example is the campaign against DDT that took place after the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, whose success led to an increase in the population of the malaria-transmitting mosquito, which in turn caused a huge increase in the number of African children who died of malaria.
One of the lessons of this book is that all actions designed to solve environmental problems in the present must be thought through to prevent a tragedy further down the line. For that, one must think seriously about the planet and reject top-down prescriptions and agendas about the environment. This, of course, requires the practice oikophilia, demonstrated by actions such as participation in civic associations, creation of sustainable neighbourhoods and respect for tradition. In the case of environmental justice, truth is not enough: only the whole truth will do. Many comprehensive books on the environment that have appeared before now have incurred errors due to incomplete visions. This is not the case of Scruton's Green Philosophy -- His polymath credentials have allowed him to uncover all the pertinent dimensions necessary for the care of our planet.
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Protect Your Good Name
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Jan 15, 2013
A ‘Hush Rush’ keeps the T-45 flying
The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s Propulsion and Power Test Methods and Facilities Division has a reputation for meeting challenges.
When a recent potential shortage of engines for the T-45A Goshawk trainer fleet threatened to impact the Navy’s ability to train its strike aviators, the team was called into action. The T-45 is used for intermediate and advanced portions of the Navy and Marine Corps pilot training program.
Safety problems with the Low Pressure Turbine blades in the F405 engine that powers the T-45 forced a redesign of the old blades, which ended production early last year. But the redesign created a new
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A father’s escape inspires gripping war tale
Although they are Jewish, 11-year-old Gustave's parents believe they are safe in Paris—until Nazis occupy the city in 1940. Now Gustave must leave his best friends behind as his family flees to Saint-Georges, where life isn't much easier: Food is scarce, a classmate bullies Gustave and the Nazis are getting closer. After befriending a young girl in the French Resistance, Gustave develops a plan that could reunite him with his friends—and maybe even get them all to America, where they can finally be safe.
This suspenseful first novel was inspired by author Susan Lynn Meyer's father, whose own family escaped from the Nazis in France. Meyer, an English professor at Wellesley College, answered questions for BookPage about Black Radishes (recently named a Sydney Taylor Honor Book for its authentic portrayal of the Jewish experience), touching on her family's fascinating history, her obsession with research and what's up next for Gustave.
“I was always fascinated, as a child, by the glimpses my father's stories gave me of what then seemed a faraway culture and time. I thought that other children might be as interested in both the humorous and the somber aspects of his French childhood as I was.”
That email made me ecstatically happy for about 48 hours and then completely panicked for the next 48—because I hadn’t actually written the novel yet and didn’t know if I could do it! Then I got over my panic and just sat down and wrote. When I finished the book I sent it to the editor who had wanted to see it. I didn’t hear anything for about 12 months, so meanwhile I started contacting agents and I also hesitantly started sending it out to two other editors. When it landed on the desk of Rebecca Short, editorial assistant at Delacorte (Random House), the magical “click” happened. Rebecca got the manuscript on a Friday afternoon. She read the manuscript over the weekend, sent it to her executive editor, Françoise Bui, who also read it on the weekend, and then it was sent on to the publisher, Beverly Horowitz, and on Monday, to my absolute astonishment, Rebecca called me to make an offer on the book! In the end, the original editor who had judged the contest decided to pass, but I am tremendously grateful for the email he sent me because it gave me the confidence and the boost I needed to make me write Black Radishes. Black Radishes was inspired by your father's experience during World War II. When did your father tell you the story of his childhood in France? I have vivid childhood memories of sitting with my five brothers and sisters at our round white dinner table and listening to my father tell stories about his French childhood. He is a great storyteller, and he told us lots of funny anecdotes about tricks that he and his friends and sister and cousins used to play, trouble they got into, funny details about French life, etc. Once, for example, he was severely rebuked by an adult for breaking himself a piece of bread at the table but then putting the loaf back on the bread board upside down—bread is so sacred in France that you must always treat it with respect! Only gradually, over the years, did I learn, bit by bit, why his family left France—that as Jews during the war their lives were in terrible danger. He didn’t say much about this aspect of his life—it was hard for him to talk about those things. I was always fascinated, as a child, by the glimpses his stories gave me of what then seemed a faraway culture and time, and I was stunned, when I understood it, to learn that anyone had hated my father and his family and people like them so much that their lives were threatened. I thought that other children might be as interested in both the humorous and the somber aspects of his French childhood as I was. But I want to make clear that Black Radishes is a novel, as my father would be the first to tell you. I felt that his life story was his to tell, and the events in my novel are fiction, although the historical situation is real. I borrowed (and transformed) some anecdotes of his, and my characters do follow the same route that my father’s family took in their escape from France—from Paris to the tiny village of St.-Georges-sur-Cher to Spain, through Portugal, and from there setting sail for the United States. Although life for Gustave and his parents is quite bleak while they live in Saint-Georges, Gustave maintains his adventuresome and brave spirit. Was this your father's attitude during the war? For my father, the biggest emotional challenge was actually leaving France. Although to some extent as a child he understood how grave the danger was, it was wrenching for him to leave behind his whole world—his country, his language and his close friends and relatives. Gustave in Black Radishes also experiences something of that loss. What is the biggest challenge in writing historical fiction? How do you know that you've done sufficient research? I absolutely love doing historical research. The hardest thing is getting myself to realize that it is time to stop doing research and to write! I’m also a literary scholar, and I often write about literary texts in relation to history. It was a surprise to me to realize how much more deeply and intimately I needed to know history in order to write historical fiction. I needed to know not just what big events occurred, of course, but the texture of daily life. For example, I needed to know just what the streets of Paris looked like in March of 1940, whether shops were open, what sort of mood people were in, in what ways war preparation and the absence of men of military age had affected daily life. That is much harder to find out about than what one might call “large-scale” historical information. I discovered that reading daily newspapers from the time was extremely helpful. I also interviewed people and read lots of memoirs. I felt a compelling need to get all the details right—like what chocolate bar wrappers looked like, what color the postcards issued by the Germans were, exactly what sort of papers you needed to cross the demarcation line, and where you would go to make a phone call if you didn’t have a phone in your home. (The answer to that last question is that you go to the post office.) I kept reading and reading as I wrote the first draft, and from time to time I went back and changed things when I realized I had made a slight slip-up. For example, at one point in the manuscript I mentioned that Gustave pushed up a window—but then I realized that French windows open outward! Also, the Germans periodically closed the demarcation line between the occupied zone of France and the unoccupied zone, in order to punish the French and show their power, and I wanted to be sure I didn’t have my characters crossing the line during a particular month when it was impossible to do so—although probably no one except me would ever notice a mistake like that. I was not familiar with black radishes prior to reading this book, yet they play a crucial role in the plot—Gustave and his family use them to bribe the Nazis guarding the demarcation line. You’re not alone—most Americans have never seen or tasted black radishes. I try to bring some along when I do a reading of the book so that people can see and taste one.
Black radishes are a delicacy in the region of France where the novel is set, and, as one of my father’s older cousins discovered during the war, they are also very popular with Germans. That aspect of the plot comes from something that really happened. This older cousin of my father had a Swiss passport, so he was able to cross the demarcation line between the two zones of France in a way that other French Jews could not. He was also something of a daredevil. He spoke fluent German, having grown up in Switzerland, and he would chat and joke in German with the guards at the line, in order to make them feel friendly toward him. He discovered that the Germans loved black radishes. On some occasions, he smuggled food or people across the demarcation line, making sure that he always had a few black radishes on hand to distract the Germans on guard. What other books would you recommend that children read if they are interested in the lives of Jewish children during World War II? It is hard to choose, but a few particular books come to mind. One very powerful book that I read recently was Fern Schumer Chapman’s Is It Night or Day? Chapman’s novel was inspired by her mother’s childhood—she was a Jewish girl in Germany whose parents sent her alone to the United States to live with relatives in a little-known program that allowed one thousand Jewish children (but not adults) into the United States during the war. The story of Tiddy’s terrible separation from her parents is wrenching, as is her courageous struggle to find a way to live in America. I was also very gripped by Nicole Sach’s A Pocket Full of Seeds and Renée Roth-Hano’s Tough Wood, both realistic, vivid and believable accounts of French Jewish girls who must go into hiding during the war. I loved Annika Thor’s A Faraway Island. It is about the experiences of Stephie, a Jewish girl from Vienna, who is sent to Sweden with her little sister to escape the Nazis. Thor delicately renders Stephie’s sadness and longing for her home and parents as she tries to adjust to a very different life on a Swedish fishing island and to the reserved, stern woman who has taken her in. The novel’s climax uncovers one heart-rending incident that happened to Stephie in Vienna and also reveals new emotional depths in her foster mother. It is beautifully done. Your “day job” is teaching Victorian and American literature at Wellesley College. How do you make time to write fiction, as well? It is hard—especially because I am also a mother. Sometimes I feel as if I am trying to juggle parenthood with two other full-time jobs! But I feel an urgent need to write, so I do it. I need blocks of time to focus on writing. I work best when I can write for 2-3 hours of uninterrupted time in the early morning, and I also need a lot of space before and after I write with a clear head in which to focus and work things out in my mind. The research and reading I can do in smaller interstices of time here and there, but I need a certain amount of space and calmness in my head to write. This spring, I am taking an unpaid leave from Wellesley College in order to work on my next novel. I won’t make nearly as much money from the book as I would from teaching, but I’ve worked full-time ever since I graduated, except for a few months after my daughter was born, so I keep telling myself that it is not irresponsible to my family to earn less for half a year. We’ll still manage to pay the mortgage and cover health insurance! You have already signed a deal to write a companion novel to Black Radishes, to be titled Green and Unripe Fruit. What will this story be about? The new book follows Gustave as he and his family come to New York in 1942. Gustave struggles to adjust to life in this strange new country. He has learned that in America “all men are created equal,” and he is shocked and uncomprehending when he discovers racial segregation and prejudice in America too. He struggles to learn English, to adjust to his family’s new poverty, to accommodate to American ways and to find friends at his school in New York. Gustave also worries about his friend Marcel, left behind in France, and rumored to have been taken to a camp. He begins a tentative friendship with an African-American girl named September Rose—a friendship that causes intense reactions from both families and from other people in their school and their neighborhood. My editor and I may not stick with the title Green and Unripe Fruit, but this possible title comes from a French expression “en faire voir des vertes et des pas mûres,” which means to give someone a lot of grief or, literally, to “make [someone] see green and unripe fruit.” I find this expression amusing and evocative. The French love produce so much that just seeing green and unripe fruit, not even tasting it, is a metaphor for grief and trouble! It fits the new book, I think, because Gustave suffers a lot when he comes to America, but the image of unripe fruit also contains the possibility that, over time, the fruit will ripen, that grief will turn to fruition. That’s one of the guiding ideas of the new novel.
Eliza Borne, assistant web editor of BookPage, was a student of Meyer’s when she attended Wellesley College.
Author photo by Hannah Meyer-Winkler.
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Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
|Atlantic Coast Line Railroad|
|Locale||Southeastern United States|
|Dates of operation||1900–1967|
|Successor||Seaboard Coast Line|
|Track gauge||4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)|
|Headquarters||Wilmington, North Carolina until 1960, then Jacksonville, Florida|
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (reporting mark ACL) was an American railroad from 1900 until 1967, when it merged with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, its long-time rival, to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Much of the original ACL network has been part of CSX Transportation since 1986.
The Atlantic Coast Line served the Southeast, with a concentration of lines in Florida. Numerous named passenger trains were operated by the railroad for Florida-bound tourists, with the Atlantic Coast Line contributing significantly to Florida's economic development in the first half of the 20th century.
At the end of 1925 ACL operated 4924 miles of road, not including its flock of subsidiaries; after some merging, mileage at the end of 1960 was 5570 not including A&WP, CN&L, East Carolina, Georgia, Rockingham, and V&CS. In 1960 ACL reported 10623 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 490 million passenger-miles.
The earliest predecessor of the ACL was the Petersburg Railroad between Petersburg, Virginia and a point near Weldon, North Carolina, founded in 1830. A route between Richmond, Virginia and Petersburg was built by the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad, which was founded in 1836. In 1840 the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, at the time known as the Wilmington and Raleigh and renamed in 1855, completed a route between Weldon and Wilmington, North Carolina. From Wilmington, the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad began operations in 1853 to Florence, South Carolina, where the Northeastern Railroad operated to Charleston, South Carolina. In 1871, the W&W and the W&M (renamed the Wilmington, Columbia & Augusta) began using the Atlantic Coast Line name to advertise the two lines. An investor from Baltimore, William T. Walters, gained control of these separate railroads after the Civil War, and operated them as a network of independent companies. In 1897–98, most of the South Carolina lines in Walters' system were consolidated under the name of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company of South Carolina. In 1898, as the companies moved towards combining themselves into a single system, the lines in Virginia were combined into the new Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company of Virginia, and the lines in North Carolina underwent a similar process in 1899, becoming the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company of North Carolina. In 1899 or 1900, due to a regulatory climate in Virginia that was better suited to the company than that in other states, the ACL of Virginia took control of the other lines and subsequently shortened its name to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company.
Forming the ACL by mergers
In 1898 the Petersburg Railroad and the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad formally merged, and two years later the combined company took control of the ACL's routes south of Virginia as well as the Norfolk & Carolina Railroad, which operated from Norfolk, Virginia to Tarboro, North Carolina. These mergers created an ACL system reaching from southern Virginia to South Carolina and Georgia. Other small acquisitions took place in 1901, and in 1902 the ACL took over the Plant System, which operated numerous lines within Florida and Georgia. This same year the ACL took control of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad as well as the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway, though the two were never merged into the ACL and were operated independently. The ACL acquired the East Carolina Railway in 1935, running south from Tarboro to Hookerton, although the 12-mile extension to Hookerton was abandoned in 1933. The ACL's last major acquisition was the Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad, which it purchased in 1927, though the AB&C was not merged into the ACL until 1945.
By the early 1900s the railroad had largely reached its final configuration and began to focus on upgrading its physical plant. By the 1920s the railroad's main line from Richmond, Virginia to Jacksonville, Florida had been double-tracked, which benefited the railroad during the 1920s when Florida boomed.
In 1928 the ACL completed a line between Perry, Florida and Drifton, near Monticello, Florida, the last link of the new "Perry Cut-off". This created a more direct route between Chicago and Florida's west coast, one which passed through Macon, Albany, and Thomasville, the route followed by ACL's passenger train The Southland from December 1928 to 1957 when it was rerouted to Jacksonville.
During the Great Depression ACL's freight traffic declined by around 60%, but the railroad survived the 1930s without declaring bankruptcy; its success in this regard has been attributed to its leadership and careful financial practices, as well as owning the Louisville and Nashville, which remained strong through the Depression.
During World War II ACL's passenger traffic increased 200% and freight traffic 150%. The railroad provided an alternative to coastal shipping, threatened by German submarines, and also served the fast-emerging military industry in the Southeast. In 1942 Champion McDowell Davis (nicknamed "Champ") became president of the ACL and immediately began an improvement program that finished in the mid-1950s, including the rebuilding of several hundred miles of track, the installation of modern signalling systems and improvements to freight yards. The railroad spent at least $268 million in upgrading its physical plant during this period.
In 1956 the railroad moved its headquarters from Wilmington, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville was selected from three candidate cities, the other two being Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. Construction of the new office complex was finished in July 1960, with the move from Wilmington completed over the following weeks.
As early as October 1958 the ACL and competitor Seaboard Air Line Railroad had discussed the possibility of a merger, initiating extensive studies on the potential unified system. The results showed that the merger could save considerable money through savings incurred and reduced expenditures to the amount of $38 million annually. On August 18, 1960, the merger was approved by shareholders of both railroads. In 1963, a merger between the two companies was approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission, however, petitions for reconsideration were filed leading to a court decision to remand the approval of the merger on May 13, 1965, citing the Clayton Antitrust Act. Following another round of court decisions in 1966, the merger was allowed to be proceed, and did so on July 1, 1967. The result was the creation of the Seaboard Coast Line.
During its early years, the ACL handled mostly seasonal agricultural products, but by World War II its freight traffic had become more diverse. During the 1950s, around 44% of all freight traffic consisted of manufactured and miscellaneous items, while bulk traffic like coal and phosphates also expanded during this time. During the 1950s, the ACL acquired some 13,000 new freight cars, to be used on high-speed trains offering reduced running times compared to earlier equipment. This allowed the railroad to remain competitive in the face of competition from the Interstate highway system.
The ACL's passenger traffic consisted almost entirely of Florida-bound traffic, largely from the Northeast, but also from the Midwest via trains that were operated by multiple railroads and handled by the ACL at their southern ends. In 1939, in response to the Seaboard's popular new streamliner, the Silver Meteor, the ACL launched its first streamlined train, the all-coach Champion. ACL invested heavily in its passenger fleet after World War II but passenger revenue fell from $28.5 million in 1946 to $14.1 million in 1959. Until its 1967 merger the railroad continued to maintain and improve its passenger service, even replacing old stations with new.
Major passenger trains
All of ACL's New York - Florida trains ran on the Pennsylvania Railroad north of Washington, D. C., then via the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad from Washington to Richmond. Tampa/St. Petersburg trains used ACL rails south of Richmond all the way to their destinations. Trains for Miami ran on the Florida East Coast Railway from Jacksonville to Miami, but after passenger service on the FEC effectively ended with a long-lasting strike in 1963, ACL transferred its Miami-bound trains to Seaboard rails at Auburndale, Florida.
- Champion (New York - Tampa/St. Petersburg, and New York - Miami)
- Everglades (New York – Jacksonville)
- Florida Special (New York – Miami/St. Petersburg) (winter only; a rival to Seaboard's Orange Blossom Special)
- Gulf Coast Special (New York – Tampa/Ft. Myers/St. Petersburg)
- Havana Special (New York – Key West, prior to 1935 Hurricane)
- Miamian (Washington – Miami)
- Palmetto (New York – Savannah/Augusta/Wilmington)
- Vacationer (New York – Miami)
In popular culture
In Preston Sturges' 1942 comedy The Palm Beach Story, main character Gerry Jefferson (Claudette Colbert) boards the Florida Special (ACL's premiere, winter-only train) in New York City's Pennsylvania Station.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Atlantic Coast Line Railroad|
- Schafer, Mike (2003). Classic American Railroads, Volume 3. St. Paul, Minnesota: MBI Publishing. pp. 9–17. ISBN 0-7603-1649-X.
- Nuckles, Douglas B. (1995). Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. TLC Publishing. pp. 1–3. ISBN 1-883089-13-1.
- "Atlantic Coast Line Railroad". RailGa.com. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
- W. Terry Smith. "Farmville collector shares passion for railroads with Tarboro " TGIF " The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC". Dailysoutherner.com. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
- "The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Standard Railroad of the South". American-Rails.com. Archived from the original on 17 March 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
- Goolsby, Larry (2010). "The ACL Moves to Jacksonville". Lines South (White River Productions) 27 (3): 14–21.
- Griffin, William (2004). Seaboard Coast Line & Family Lines. TLC Publishing. pp. 4–16. ISBN 0-9766201-0-3.
- Dirks, Tom. "The Palm Beach Story (1942)," Filmsite movie review, accessed 23 Feb. 2012
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How easy would it be for the city of Amarillo to be more green?
The question raises a number of others.
"If you're going to approach recycling intelligently and you believe that people have a carbon footprint, you've got to think very carefully about collection of recyclables," Amarillo City Commissioner Brian Eades said.
"Putting on extra trash pickups and trucking things halfway across the state and, really, producing a bigger carbon footprint, all in the name of recycling - in the long run, the benefits may not outweigh the disadvantages."
City staff will deliver a presentation about city recycling programs and options for possibly enhancing those efforts to the City Commission at 1:15 p.m. Tuesday in the City Commission Chambers at Amarillo City Hall, 509 S.E. Seventh Ave.
City staff and commissioners have used the weeks since a Dec. 16 City Commission meeting during which more than 100 people lobbied for curbside recycling and green initiatives to gather information about the options, Mayor Debra McCartt said.
"We're trying to learn as much as we can, but the most important thing is that we get our facts together first," she said.
"We need the facts not only on what it means to go green, but what is being recycled now and, the big thing, what does it cost and how can we make it easy to do?"
Eades, Public Works Director Michael Rice and Planning Director Kelley Shaw will recap what they learned about the recycling operations of other local governments at a Jan. 23 gathering in Austin, City Manager Alan Taylor said.
The roundtable meeting gave participants from across the state a chance to discuss the impact that the downturn and an accompanying slump in the market for recyclable goods has had on their programs, Rice said.
Processors that contract with some entities have stopped taking recyclables, meaning the goods are piling up, he said.
Other governments "continue to run their programs, but they're running them in the red, because they can't stay in the black," Rice said.
Problems affecting government programs differ, due in part to geography, Eades said.
"There were many of the programs in the central part of the state that, because of their lack of available cheap landfill space and the close proximity of recycling facilities, were very profitable in the last several years - to the point where it brought pretty dramatic revenue to their general funds and everybody was hailed as heroes," he said.
"Now, they're having to make the case to citizens: 'If this is a program you want to support, you're going to have to pay for it because it's not going to be self-supporting.' "
Meanwhile, some governments that have available landfill space aren't near recycling processors, Eades said.
"You have to tack on the price to send goods to more distant processing facilities in other areas," he said. "And that is a very important issue facing us."
Eades favors a studied approach to green initiatives the city of Amarillo might adopt, incorporating goals and actions into a long-range comprehensive plan that the city will soon begin to draft.
Ideas in the plan will be woven into ordinances to guide subdivision development, zoning, utilities, transportation, community facilities and other city development.
McCartt said she wants the commission to appoint a resident committee to study the options "and come up with what will work best for Amarillo."
Amarillo Globe-News ©2013. All Rights Reserved.
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Coalition split over energy price rises
THE Coalition energy spokesman, Ian MacFarlane, has contradicted his leader Tony Abbott's claim that carbon tax is the only cause of power price rises, saying the Coalition would ''forcefully encourage'' the states to privatise their electricity networks and would listen to calls to rein in overinvestment.
Yesterday Mr Abbott said the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, had ''fabricated'' the entire idea that overinvestment in electricity ''wires and poles'' had caused price rises beyond the carbon tax, and refused to commit the Coalition to regulatory reform.
''The problem is not the regulation of power prices. The problem is the carbon tax putting up power prices,'' he said.
Contradiction ... Coalition energy spokesperson Ian MacFarlane. Photo: Michelle Smith
''This is a fabrication by the Prime Minister. This is an absolute furphy from the Prime Minister. Why would we believe the Prime Minister now about so-called gold-plating of power infrastructure when she's never talked about it for the last five years?
''The Prime Minister herself in Parliament last year said that there was a need for more investment in power infrastructure. So, if there's such a terrible problem of overinvestment in infrastructure, why did the Prime Minister say the opposite last year?''
But Mr MacFarlane told the Herald the issue of over-investment in wires and poles was ''absolutely a question for a Coalition government and we wouldn't take five years to do something about it''.
He said he would ''forcefully encourage state governments to open their electricity distribution networks to competition, whether that is by privatisation or allowing private competitors into the market'' to ensure price rises slowed down.
''We couldn't force them but we could use all the levers available through COAG [Council of Australian Governments] to push them in that direction.''
He said he would ''listen to and take advice from the Australian Energy Regulator'' about regulatory rules. The regulator
has been proposing regulatory changes for more than a year and has repeatedly argued that the present regime means power bills are higher than they should be.
Mr MacFarlane agreed and said by his calculation the NSW government was earning $190 a year from every household through its electricity assets.
''The biggest immediate pressure is the carbon tax but I accept electricity prices have risen because of unnecessarily high distribution costs … the government knew these astronomical price rises were coming through the system because of transmission investment and they've been asleep at the wheel. We wouldn't be,'' he said.
The federal MP Malcolm Turnbull said it was legitimate to ask ''whether the level of investment has been excessive, whether there has been gold-plating''.
In a speech today, the chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Rod Sims, will push the need for privatisation of networks.
''We still have key networks in government hands in Tasmania, Queensland, NSW and Western Australia … The incentives of government shareholders are unavoidably mixed and complicated … It is difficult to know what the objectives would have been had the businesses been in private hands but perhaps … [it] would have assisted in preventing some of the recent significant price increases,'' he will say.
Poll: What is causing the rise in power prices?
- Over-investment in infrastructure
- The carbon price
- Not sure
Total votes: 2749.
You will need Cookies enabled to use our Voting Feature.
Poll closed 13 Aug, 2012
These polls are not scientific and reflect the opinion only of visitors who have chosen to participate.
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I’m sure the FBI wouldn’t access these cameras, like they access the microphones on the cell phones that people are carrying around. Oh no. Never.
Lawmakers are considering controversial new legislation this week that would allow vehicles to be equipped with dashboard cameras to record the moments leading up to accidents.
The proposed law, AB1942, would promote safer driving habits and reduce accidents by permitting video recorders to be installed on the windshield.
The bill currently allows devices to record video, audio, how fast and which direction the vehicle is traveling, a history of where your car has been, steering and brake performance and seat belt usage.
The devices would record in a continuous loop and would only save information if there is unusual vehicle motion or a crash. They could also be capable of transmitting the information to a central control center the moment of the accident.
Proponents say there are enough safety measures to avoid an invasion of privacy, but others call the proposal a huge overreach of government power.
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The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last week conducted a live-fire drill in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) for anti-tank units to “test their precision strike capability”.
In drills that followed a major live-fire air attack drill conducted in March, a brigade under the Tibet Military Area Command of the PLA organised its anti-tank unit to conduct a live-fire drill on June 14, the official PLA Daily and other state media outlets reported.
The drill, the report said, was “a bid to uplift the psychological quality of the troops, enhance and test their precision strike capability”.
In recent months, the PLA has held two major drills on the Tibetan plateau. In October, a live-fire drill comprising air force and armour and artillery units was conducted, followed by a ground attack training drill with the PLA Air Force’s (PLAAF) J-10 fighters in March. Last month, an engineering unit of the PLAAF announced it had “modified” aircraft to make them more suited to the harsh environment of the Tibetan plateau and pledged that it would improve aircraft maintenance work.
The drills and announcements have been seen by some Indian analysts as a reflection of a stepping up of China’s military preparedness. Through these, Beijing is sending signals about its capabilities in the region, they feel. Analysts believe this to be a likely response to recent announcements by India that it would deploy Sukhoi 30 aircraft and boost its military strength in border areas.
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Lido dei Pini
Lido dei Pini, a lovely walk
Out of the four parts that make up the seaside town of Bibione: Centro, Pineta, Lido del Sole and Lido dei Pini, the latter is the most special and the most typical overall. It is situated at the entrance to Bibione, the east of the well-known seaside location and is therefore the business card offered to the town’s visitors.
In spring the wheat field located at the entrance to Lido dei Pini fills up with vermilion flowers and a display of bright red merges with the green of the surrounding pine forest, united with the white of the nearby beaches, producing a decisively evocative appeal. This is the welcome to Bibione, the pearl of Italian beaches, where even nature symbolises its belonging to Italy, through the colours (red, white and green).
Man’s work has approached the habitat that distinguishes Lido dei Pini with respect and devotion. The pine forest is still the unrivalled queen and its vegetation reaches the beach and the sea in some areas, as if it is seeking to cool down holidaymakers looking for some respite from the sun or a rest after a bike ride.
Unique heritage, which hasn’t really changed over the years. A natural resource, an oasis of peace and tranquillity.
The history of Lido dei Pini dates back to the start of the 20th century, with the important drainage, banking and water channelling works in the area. This work was finished in the 1930s with the reclamation of a surface area of over 10,000 hectares.
Therefore, it is the main nucleus from which Bibione developed, and the path that led to its becoming the second most important beach in Italy, started from here in the 1950s
The Lido dei Pini was recently relaunched and has now reached the impressive number of 1,000,000 presences a year.
The area is not exploited for its unique characteristics, but accompanied in its evolution to an internationally famous tourist centre, without its natural environmental and ecological characteristics being damaged. Eco-compatible tourism is the perfect expression to use.
Near the mouth of the river Tagliamento stands the impressive pine forest that gives its name to the Lido dei Pini, total harmony between two such seemingly different environments. As it is so close to the course of the river, the typical Mediterranean plants blend with the Alpine flora and orchids, indicators of an environment in perfect harmony.
Numerous aquatic birds are happy to stop off in the waters of the mouth of the river, including the black-headed gull and Mediterranean herring gull, along with the sea swallow, who dive into the river looking for food, in spring and autumn, while the common kingfisher stays near the bank in the shallow water. The atmosphere deep in the pine forest is unique and special: sweet silence, only interrupted by the whistle of the sea breeze between the pine branches and the call of the birds.
Going deeper into the thick of the pine forest, following the route marked out by the paths, Bibione lighthouse appears, near the mouth of the Tagliamento, where the river flows into the blue sea.
Built at the start of the 20th century and no longer in use, it has not lost its main role, as the first reference point for sailors, and nowadays for holidaymakers. Solitary, nostalgic, pervaded with memories of ancient times and therefore even more evocative.
Because of these and other characteristics, Lido dei Pini is an environment with unique features, a pride and an honour; the balance, which has remained stable over the centuries deserves a discrete and respectful approach, where guests feel privileged to be visiting such an extraordinary place.
There is a fine line between the human settlements and nature. Shopping centres, shops, hotels and resorts stand on the boundary of the dark stain of the vegetation, built with due respect for the place. Attentive tourists appreciate the privilege that few places can offer, cancelling out the distance between a holiday full of comforts and an unrepeatable dive into nature.
Doppia Vela CUP 2013
I campi da tennis accanto allo stabilimento Kokeshy a Bibione Pineda (viale dei Ginepri), situati tra la spiaggia e la pineta, saranno la splendida cornice per la sesta edizione del Torneo Nazionale di Tennis a squadre Doppia Vela CUP 2013.
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Can Moscow scale down inherited Soviet ambitions?
Great powers are a special breed. Until the First World War, the “Great Powers” were European entities. Membership in that club enabled its participants to extend their control beyond the Continent. These dependencies were by location, but also by tradition, population, and development, unlike the “mother country”. Due to the difference came the ability to discover, to subjugate and to colonize. Europe’s dominance expressed its high development. The decisive advantage, the knowledge, the institutions, the economy behind it, was concentrated in that small area. For long, these factors could not be copied outside the European culture’s sphere.
A lesson of the world wars that ended the Eurocentric era is ignored. It is that no European nation, no single traditional nation state, can be a global power. Russia is the only country that has been under the old and under modern terms a Great Power. For that reason, she could continue as a “superpower” after the old system’s eclipse.
This the British accepted without much trouble. Their influence, exerted without the illusion of global grasp, has been used with realistic wisdom. The Germans, once totally defeated, were grateful to survive and to be protected by a new, far away superpower from an uncomfortably close one. In time, through work, and the resulting economic power, they have recovered much of their international status. France had difficulties to accept new realities. The “Great Nation’s” demonstrative pretensions of might, such as expelling NATO, are symbolic signs of grandeur pasted over a lesser substance.
The rest of Europe’s went beyond the revision of outdated power postures. Adaptation led to the error of the opposite. A symptom is the national security equivalent of making a career out of living on welfare. Not acquiring the power within their means became a strategy. NATO discovered that dependency and the corresponding lack of responsibility brings benefits. The provider of no cost security was a protector that had no alternative but to act as the defender of last resort.
Here again, Russia appears as a special case. She had been the only Power in the European system with a pre-industrial base and a Eurasian location. The condition extends into our time. Her adjustment to modern realities is more complicated than that of the USA or China. Neither has been a traditional Great Power, none of them is geographically European, and both rose from insignificance to superpower status. Russia, on the other hand, became the first defeated major power of WW1. During a civil war and intervention, she lost land and sovereignty. Thereafter, as the depository of a secular faith, the Soviet Union became a superpower after initially entering WW2 on the wrong that is losing side. However, her system that received legitimacy and global goals from her ideology, collapsed under the economic consequences of that irrational faith.
The Soviet’s misfortune might be Russia’s luck. Today’s Russia has nearly shrunk to her core. In time, the blessing of shedding flab could convince even the sulkers. However, she has passed through the process without jettisoning all territories whose alien population represents in our age of nationalism, a potential ethnic-religious risk.
Russia’s future depends on the inclinations and limitations of her unbound governors. The open questions related to adaptation transcend Russia’s state boundaries. Any stable European and transatlantic order, or the security of these regions, is limited by the extent of Russia’s intentions and participation. That is a consequence of more than her dominant size, resources and population. The combination of these factors makes her into one of the superpowers. With that, she is the only global player with a partially European base.
Since we live today, and not yesterday or tomorrow, the question is how Russia’s leaders will be able to retreat from Soviet goals and how that redefinition of the national interest will affect our lives.
There are global forces that threaten Russia as a culturally Christian, and, considering her goals of development, in intent western country. Not the West is the source of this challenge. On the other hand, opposing the West because of its cold war victory stimulates local forces. By a rational assessment of their real benefit, and divorced from the dead issue of the USSR, the returns appear to be small. This is increasingly so if the gains are compared to the price of revenge that will strengthen the global forces that were alluded to above.
Changed roles that entail reduced might can be difficult to accept. Russia’s goal of world domination has been a chimera once and it is a fool’s dream today. Meanwhile, the country’s global role is unquestioned even by those that dread her motives. It is notable that hardly anyone in the USA rejects a comparable “downgrading” through leveling. Possibly, the acceptance of limited power depends on the psychological burden carried. America has always been a reluctant superpower. Total control might have been within her means: an intention it has never been.
Russia’s grappling with her changed possibilities are demonstrated by her role in Syria. Behind the policy, we detect injured pride and a visceral resistance to events beyond her control. Quite likely, the support for a locally rejected foreign autocracy has further causes. The claimed respect for “sovereignty” sounds hollow. This suggests that leadership by a KGB Colonel (Putin) suffers from a worldview that reflects a Soviet perspective. Autocrats determine Russian policies and these feel kinship for challenged dictatorships. The stubborn vetoes in the “SecCouncil” will produce international isolation and ostracism by the Arab world. The support of tyranny will strengthen regional suspicions. It will also convince states outside Russia’s sphere of facing an unpredictable entity led by an instinct to dominate that sabotages those beyond her immediate reach.
The record created in the Syrian crisis is also harmful in other ways. The efforts of Russia’s committed friends become unnecessarily burdened by Moscow’s comportment. Meanwhile, the mortgage on a future Russian foreign policy once led by the desire for security through cooperation, will grow.
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Hispanic Heritage Month celebrated
By Lance Cpl. Nicholas S. Ranum
| Marine Corps Installations Pacific | October 11, 2012
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa, Japan --
Marines and sailors across Okinawa have been observing Hispanic Heritage Month, which began Sept. 15 across Okinawa.
Observances have taken place on all Marine Corps installations, as well as U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa.
The monthlong celebration honors the many contributions made by the Hispanic community. It originally began as Hispanic Heritage week under President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 and was expanded to Hispanic Heritage Month by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to celebrate the independence of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Chile and Nicaragua.
"The purpose of these observances is to enlighten and expand the awareness of the Marines in regards to Hispanic culture," said Master Sgt. Audrey J. Ellis, the equal opportunities advisor for 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force.
During this year's observances, there was a dance troupe, a poetry reading and a guest speaker, each highlighting a different aspect in diversity, according to Ellis.
"The message here is ‘diversity united,'" said Col. Michael E. Langley, the assistant division commander, 3rd Marine Division, III MEF. "It is up to every Marine to preach it and continue bringing everyone together."
The USNH Okinawa staff joined the Marines in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by hosting a luncheon.
"We organized a luncheon observance to be in line with the naval administrative message that recently was released," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher R. Peterson, the command sponsorship coordinator for the hospital. "We also wanted to show the contribution of Hispanics currently in the military service and also in the past."
The commanding officer of USNH Okinawa, Navy Capt. Pius Aiyelawo, prioritized the awareness effort, according to Peterson.
"Diversity is very important to the commanding officer," said Peterson. "He is an immigrant himself, so he took this to heart in making sure this was highly noticed."
Highlighting Hispanic heritage not only emphasizes diversity, but helps Marines and sailors understand another culture and better understand each other.
"By learning about different (cultures) you will be a better leader and a better person," said Langley.
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SAT Results: Compare Local High Schools
See how your high school did in comparison with other local public schools.
Philadelphia's J.R. Masterman ranked at the top of SAT scores again for 2011. Although the school's average cumulative score of 1897 did drop from 2010's total of 1929.
Chester County's Conestoga High School in Tredyffrin-Easttown School District came in second again. Montgomery County's Lower Merion School District claimed third place with Lower Merion High School and fifth with Harriton High School. Delaware County's Radnor High School fit in between those schools at fourth. All four of these Main Line schools had the same rankings in 2010.
Philadelphia's Central High School had the most seniors taking the SAT at 520, followed by Conestoga with 490 and Haverford High School in Delaware County with 372. Philadelphia's J.R. Masterman had the smallest number of student taking the SAT with 116.
High School (District)
2011 SAT Score
|Lower Merion (Lower Merion)||1748|
|Radnor (Radnor Township)||1720|
|Harriton (Lower Merion)||1717|
|Great Valley (Great Valley)||1668|
|Henderson (West Chester)||1609|
|Penncrest (Rose Tree Media)||1606|
|East (West Chester)||1565|
|Haverford (Haverford Township)||1562|
|Phoenixville (Phoenixville Area)||1560|
|Bayard Rustin (West Chester)||1554|
|Marple Newtown (Marple Newtown)||1504|
The scores represented here are combined average scores from the verbal, math and writing portions of the tests taken by college-bound seniors, as reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
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Spreadsheet Components, Google Spreadsheets, and Code Reuse
I've finished a demo I'm really pleased with, an experiment in reusable spreadsheet components for Google Spreadsheets, and I can't resist blogging it. Spreadsheets, to borrow a metaphor from Douglas Adams, do code reuse in the same way that bricks hang in the sky. I want to give bricks wings, by providing spreadsheet components you can insert to calculate things you'd find hard to program. Eventually, I'd like to start a library of such components; and, if I can get funding, to make it free. I'll demonstrate with a text-searching component, showing how to slot it into different shaped places in different Google Spreadsheets as if it were a chart. You can try this yourself on this Web form, explained below.
Getting straight to the point, three screenshots of the demo are shown below.These are scaled-down images: clicking one will bring up its full size counterpart in a new browser window.
In the form, the bottom row identifies the spreadsheet to Google (I've scrubbed out my Google Docs email address and password). The second row tells the server which cells to search for the pattern specified in the first row: in this case, it searches cells A2:A10 for "x". The third row tells it where to copy matching strings to: in this case, B2:B10. And the fourth row is a working range for the offsets of matching cells: in this case, C2:C10.
So the form acts like Excel's Chart Wizard or the chart-insertion form Google describe in their Charting: Creating a chart page. Chart forms or wizards specify where a chart gets its data from; my form specifies where a component gets its data from and sends its results to.
Because I need a snappy name, let me call my components "spreadlets", by analogy with applets and servlets. A crucial point is that spreadlets are not restricted to one shape or location of cell range. In the demo screenshots below, I've inserted the spreadlet into a new spreadsheet, this time telling it to arrange the output and working ranges horizontally, with outputs in C2:K2 and the working range in C4:K4.
Likewise, we can have different-sized cell ranges. In the screenshots below, I took inputs only from cells A4:A8, ignoring A2:A3 and A9:A10 used in my first three. I asked for outputs and the working range to go vertically again, in B4:B8 and C4:C8 respectively.
Such searches, where gaps between matching cells are closed up, are hard to program in Excel. This illustrates why I believe spreadlets will be useful: to do calculations that many spreadsheet developers lack time or knowledge to do for themselves. The text-searching component arose from such a need, in an Excel spreadsheet that modelled the finances of house-building projects. Users could enter lists of housing categories, and there were several places where we had to find all categories beginning with strings such as "Bungalow" or "Flat", for use as options in dropdown menus. I say more about this in Spreadsheet Components For All, a paper submitted to the July 2008 conference of the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group.
Incidentally, this original version of the spreadlet used wildcarded patterns: for example, "Bungalow*" to find all strings starting with "Bungalow". You can see this in an Excel version of the spreadlet, here. In Google Spreadsheets, wildcards don't seem to work, which is why the outputs are always equal to the pattern.
How are spreadlets implemented? My Web server machine holds a file containing the spreadlet source code. This is written in Excelsior, the same language used for the science-fiction generator spreadsheet I recently blogged. Excelsior describes spreadsheet components using named tables, abstracting away from cell names and layout on worksheets. The spreadlet has three such tables, as shown in this source listing and in Appendix 1 to Spreadsheet Components For All. These are elements_to_search, matching_elements, and the_index. The first two are inputs and outputs; the third is the working range.
When you submit the spreadlet form, a server script extracts the sheet and cell names and rewrites them into Excelsior statements specifying how each table maps to a worksheet. It appends these statements to the spreadlet source code, then invokes Excelsior to "compile" the resulting file. Excelsior performs the coordinate transformations needed to replace table names by cell addresses, which gets it formulae customised to your spreadsheet. Finally, the script passes these to Google's Spreadsheets Data API (GData) library, which stuffs them into your Google Spreadsheet.
From the point of view of programming-language design, spreadlets are "abstractions" of spreadsheets, in the sense that a function like dollar_value(s) = s*1976.6 is an abstraction of the formula 1000*1976.6. The formula calculates only one thing; but the function can calculate many different things in a program, simply by using it with a different s each time. Moreover, we can put it in a library for use by many different programs. That's why it's valuable: because it helps code reuse.
Similarly, spreadlets can be parameterised with different shapes, sizes, and locations of cell range; and can be used in different spreadsheets. Moreover, I hope, we can build up libraries of spreadlets. What might these look like? Well, for the online spreadsheets — Google's, and others such as EditGrid, Numbler, Num Sum, and Zoho Sheet — perhaps it might be a Web interface like that shown in the Google Gadgets posting Google Spreadsheets Adds Gadgets, a Directory of Features. I've some thoughts on that which I'll blog in a future article.
winged bricks spreadlets would you like for your spreadsheets?
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| 0.922301
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Office of Career and Technical Education
P.O. Box 500 Trenton, NJ 08625
Phone: (609) 633-0665 | Fax: (609) 984-5347
Career and Technical Education Programs & Programs of Study in NJ Schools
The list of secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs and Programs of Study in New Jersey Public Schools has been updated to reflect recently approved and deleted CTE programs and programs of study as of May 21, 2013. Postsecondary CTE Programs in County Vocational Schools can be found here.
Districts should contact the appropriate program officer for their county, if they have any questions regarding the list of approved CTE programs and programs of study for their district. Please click here for the list of program officers.
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|
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| 0.94413
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Data Security Breach Bill Calls for Strict Notification Requirements
Such security and compliance requirements include:
- Security policy with respect to the collection, use, sale, other dissemination, and maintenance of such personal information
- Identification of an officer or other individual as the point of contact with responsibility for the management of information security
- Process for identifying and assessing any reasonably foreseeable vulnerabilities and regular monitoring for a breach of security
- Process for taking preventive and corrective action to mitigate against any vulnerabilities
- Process for disposing of data in electronic form containing personal information by shredding, permanently erasing, or otherwise modifying the personal information to make permanently unreadable or indecipherable
The bill's breach notification requirements include:
Nationwide notification. Following the discovery of a breach of security, the covered entity must:
- Notify each individual who is a citizen or resident of the United States whose personal information was acquired or accessed as a result of such a breach of security
- Notify the FTC
Third-party/service provider notification requirements. Much like a BA of a healthcare covered entity, a third-party or service provider handling sensitive information must notify the covered entity of the breach of security.
Reports to credit agencies. If a breach involves more than 5,000 individuals, the covered entity must notify the major credit reporting agencies that compile and maintain files on consumers on a nationwide basis.
60-day requirement. Notification must be made not later than 60 days following the discovery of a breach of security, unless the covered entity providing notice can show that providing notice within such a timeframe is not feasible due to circumstances necessary to accurately identify affected consumers, or to prevent further breach or unauthorized disclosures, and reasonably restore the integrity of the data system.
The bill is in the hands of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology.
Dom Nicastro is a contributing writer. He edits the Medical Records Briefings newsletter and manages the HIPAA Update Blog.
- Primary Care Docs Average More Hospital Revenue Than Specialists
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- House Lawmakers Grill CMS Over Health Exchange Navigators
- ED Physicians Key to Half of Hospital Admissions
- Insurer's App Aims to Lower Healthcare Costs, Securely
- Don't Let Nurses Sink Your Bottom Line
- Q&A: Catholic Health Initiatives' New Senior VP for Capital Finance
- Building a Better Healthcare Board
- Hospital Pricing Irks Nurses; More Jobs, Less Pay
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|Origin:||Probably from early Dutch maesche|
1TIM [uncountable and countable]
material made from threads or wires that have been woven together like a net, or a piece of this material:
The windows were covered in wire mesh to keep out flies.
a mesh fence
2 [countable usually singular] literary
a complicated or difficult situation or system
She had felt trapped by the old mesh of loyalty and shame.
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| 0.948196
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The Center for Innovation in Transition and Employment (CITE)
The mission of the Center for Innovation in Transition and Employment is supporting quality lives for people with disabilities. The center provides leadership in the College and Graduate School of Education and across the region for developing successful transition practices which lead to positive outcomes for people with disabilities. The center provides a rich array of leadership activities to graduate students in which students use state-of-the-art practices learned in classes in a curriculum which combines theory and practice. Graduate students gain practical experience working with students with disabilities and collaborating with professionals in the field. Financial support is available to eligible students with an interest in transition services.
- Preparing transition leaders: Graduate programs with an emphasis in transition are available at the masters and doctoral level. Collaborative and field-based personnel preparation are the hallmarks of projects which support full and part-time students with tuition waivers and stipends. Model transition programs provide field sites for instilling transition competencies.
- Translating research into practice: Programs of personnel development, outreach, research, and technical assistance focus on realizing the potential of the knowledge base in transition. Knowledge and issues from collaborating schools and agencies are used as context to test promising practices from the literature.
- Promoting effective policies and programs: Dissemination and policy advocacy of Center projects and staff are geared to “getting the word out” and to work toward greater use of transition policies and practices that work. Materials, products, and research findings are designed and delivered in numerous formats to be user-friendly and have favorable impacts.
Robert Flexer, 202 White Hall
Kent State University
PO Box 5190
Kent, OH 44242-0001
Phone: (330) 672-0584
Fax: (330) 672-2512
Web Site: http://www.kent.edu/ehhs/cite/
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One of the largest and most diverse nature areas in Florida, this State park offers sightseeing tours by boat and tram and ... More
Myakka River State Park
One of the largest and most diverse nature areas in Florida, this State park offers sightseeing tours by boat and tram and visitors can learn about the ecology of the area and the interesting features of its many inhabitants including alligators, bald eagles, sandhill cranes, ibis, egrets, deer, wild turkey, bobcats, and many other animals and birds.
here is a video of when i went with my friends. primitive camping. it was great. just go in winter. even then there is mosquitoes. i can't imagine if you went in the summer!
p.s. there is no river? lol
Loved the park, trails, whole atmosphere was great. Missed the tree tops walk.
It was an extra hot day, reached 104. Not a day to take the boat ride.
Super Hot on the boat, much slower than I anticipated.
Did get some awsome aligator pictures, lovely ride for early morning.
Cute gift shop. I understand there is camping, a great idea for cooler weather.
Yes, I would return again.
We canoed on the Myakka River and had a wonderful time. The attendants were very helpful. We saw a lot of alligators while canoeing and pretty flowers on the lily pads. I will admit I thought it was crazy we were out there in the water with the Alligators but they were just busy relaxing and swimming around. They never came towards us and we didn't go towards them. It was a family outing with ages from 7 to 62. The kids were a little frightened by the alligators and for the simple fact that we could fall out of the canoe and be in the same water as the alligators. We had a wonderful time and plan to go back each time we are visiting in Florida. The park is beautiful. While in the park we saw Deer, and many other forms of wildlife and they were so calm and easy to look at or take pictures of. It is a beautiful park and a great place to spend a day away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Let me start by saying that the park itself is very pretty with lots of wildlife. The canopy walk was very enjoyable.
The camping was a completely different story. We got there after 5:00 on a Friday and the party was already in full swing. It was completely crowded and all I could see were cars everywhere. We have a pop-up camper and our site was so small that we couldn't even put out our awning...it would have gone over top of the fire ring which was literally 5 feet from our neighbor's tent!! At least we didn't have one of the sites in the middle where it was like camping in an open field. People were up partying in the middle of the night and we were up for the day at 6:30 a.m. due to the loud kids that were allowed to run around the campgrounds screaming and yelling. I will never camp there again!!
Myakka is a huge and beautiful park, but was not my favorite place for camping. It's so big that we had to get in the car and drive 5 min to get to a hiking trail. I was very disapointed by the layout of the campground, as it has no privacy (bushes/plants) between sites, you're all just open and out there looking at everyone. The park was very crowded with visitors at the the Canopy walk and boat rides. I would love to come back to walk the trails/bike/canoe, but not to camp.
This is an absolutely wonderful place to go. We always visit here when we go to Sarasota for our family vacations. The wildlife is unbelievable. We have seen deer, bear, a black panther, armadillos, turtles, birds and of course alligators. As I am a photographer, this is a must for those who love to take pictures. The sunsets are unbelievable. Be sure to take a day and visit, for if you like nature, and just being in God's creation, you will not be disappointed.
We had a fairly large group going and were worried about the size of our spot that we had to share, ended up having plenty of space for our two oversized tents and our 'dining' enclosure. The kids loved the wildlife and riding bikes on trails. Visited by raccoons every night, and up close and personal with alligators on our canoe trip-LOTS OF GATORS, but they do not seem to bother you. Told that it does flood during rainy season in the summer, would not want to go then due to heat and bugs anyway. Was a great experience, the staff was very friendly as well! Be aware that some of the spaces were smaller than others, we made a list of the spaces we liked best for next time.
Neat place to see natural wild Florida. We were able to walk up reasonably close to where gators were doing their thing in the water. Also a lot of different birds to see.
Nice drive into the "woods" just to look around. Took the boat ride. Boat captain was informative and fun to listen to.
Get there early! If you want to ride the boats, they fill up quickly. Went there on a Wednesday. Quite a few people there at 10AM, place was packed by 1PM.
What wildlife you see is pretty much luck of the draw. On the boat ride, we got to see a bald eagle. The captain said that was maybe a once a month occurance for him.
Lots of places for good photo ops for the family.
Only downsides would be to recommend bringing snacks for the kids if they get hungry at noon. The snack shop/gift store line was L O N G at noon. Also the number of bathrooms for the crowd seemed to be on the small side.
Highly recommend a stop out here.
Trek quietly into this park and you will see an abundance of wildlife. There are boat rides through the river where one can see many alligators sunbathing. There is a canopy walk through the tropical trees. There is hiking, backpacking and camping where one is surrounded by wildlife. This park is a treasure for anyone interested in observing wildlife and enjoying nature.
*Terms & Conditions: Savings calculation is based on Flight + Hotel vacation package bookings for a 3 month period for 2 adults with a 2+ night length of stay compared to price of the same components if booked separately during same period. Savings will vary based on origin/destination, length of trip, travel dates and selected travel supplier(s). Savings not available on all packages.
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Ireland's lawmakers opened debate Thursday on a bill to grant marriage-style rights to gay couples, a social milestone in a country long observant of Roman Catholic opposition to homosexuality.
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said the bill would give gay couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples on questions of property ownership, inheritance, medical care and access to state benefits – and also the same right to go to court seeking financial support from higher-earning partners when relationships fail.
Ahern noted that the proposal would have been unthinkable only a few years ago in Ireland, a country that defined homosexuality as a criminal offense until 1993.
He said denying the reality of thousands of gay couples in Ireland "only helps to reinforce prejudice in our society."
The Civil Partnership Bill faces opposition from a minority of lawmakers in the ruling Fianna Fail party, who are seeking an amendment permitting service providers – such as hotels and wedding photographers – to deny services to gays celebrating their civil partnerships.
But Ahern said the so-called "freedom of conscience" amendment was bigoted, violated Ireland's 2004 anti-discrimination laws and would not be included.
The bill's passage into law this month appeared assured because of strong backing by opposition parties.
"The Ireland of the past was undoubtedly an extraordinarily difficult place for gay and lesbian citizens. There was virtually no understanding of difference," said Charlie Flanagan, justice spokesman for the opposition Fine Gael party.
"Thankfully we have made great strides as a nation, and we now live in a more tolerant era, characterized in the main more by reason and science than by bigotry, superstition and fear," he said.
Brendan Howlin of the left-wing Labour Party noted that it was first to publish legislation seeking marriage-level rights for gays, and the government's belated initiative "should be applauded and celebrated." But he noted that discriminatory policies would remain, including a ban on child-adoption rights for gay couples.
Nonetheless, gay rights activists welcomed the bill as the maximum possible for now in Ireland, whose 1937 constitution was heavily shaped by Catholic thinking. Its sections on marriage and family law mean that any bill to legalize gay marriage outright would require a national referendum to amend the constitution.
Kieran Rose, chairman of Ireland's Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, said the bill would create "civil marriage in all but name" for homosexuals. He forecast thousands of civil-partnership celebrations in 2010 as couples hold marriage-style ceremonies in city halls and hotels.
On the Net:
Civil Partnership Bill,
Ireland's Gay and Lesbian Equality Network,
(This version CORRECTS name of bill to Partnership sted Partnerships.)
The Associated Press
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Rejecting Violence Leads to Veganism
Professor Francione, Distinguished Professor of Law and Nicholas de
B. Katzenbach Scholar of Law and Philosophy at Rutgers University, is
often asked about what he thinks are the major arguments for going
vegan. He believes that health and the environment are certainly very
important issues but the ethical and moral concerns about rejecting
violence are in his view the crucial ones.
To read the full article please search online for
What arguments should vegans use to make their
The issue of rejecting violence is at the core of Christian
teachings. Jesus exposed victimization and lived a life of non-violence
to the point of sacrificing himself. By eating animals we are supporting
the violence inflicted on God's farmed animals for profit and taste.
Your question and comments are welcome
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Sunday Family Series begins Jan. 6
Bring the family to the Johnson County Park & Recreation District's Ernie Miller Nature Center in January for Sunday Afternoon Nature Programs for educational and entertaining programs. The programs begin at 2 p.m., last about 45 minutes, and are designed for all ages. A charge of $2.75 per person, payable at the site, helps cover the cost of the programs; children under two are free.
The Ernie Miller Nature Center is owned and operated by the Johnson County Park & Recreation District and is located at 909 N. Kansas 7 Highway, Olathe. January presentations will include: Jan. 6 Mother Nature - Environmental stories will be presented by Mother Nature and her animal friends. Meet a relative of an endangered species and hear stories from around the world. Learn more about what you can do to help wildlife and our home on earth.
Jan. 13 Being Bold in the Cold - Discover how dangerous cold weather can be. Find out what tools and traits can help you survive the cold weather if you get lost on a hike, including how to build a fire. Learn about how three animals are adapted to the cold, and meet a live rabbit.
Jan. 20 Birds of Prey - By day or by night, out of the sky flies a rodent’s nightmare, the birds of prey. Join our Interpretive Staff as they discuss why rodents fear these great birds. Using live birds, participants will see close-up examples of these majestic raptors and their special adaptations.
Jan. 27 Whose Scat is That? - Ever stepped in smelly scat from an animal and thought, “Yuck, whose poop is that?” Yes, we said poop. If you want to be scientific, call it scat. All scat tells a story; unlock the hidden secrets of an animal’s life. Learn to identify our local critters by their scat and tracks and see live animals that make the nature center their home.
The Sunday Family series will continue in February with the following presentations: Feb. 3, Snakes Alive; Feb. 10, Monster Quest; Feb. 17, Owls: Eyes of the Night; Feb. 24, Wildlife Webs.
To find this program in the JCPRD’s Activities catalog and online listings, browse first under fun for all and then under special events. In the catalog and when using the website’s advanced search, look for the keywords “nature programs.” For more information on the Sunday Nature Programs, call (913) 764-7759.
To our users and readers
Press Release Central has moved to a new server. What does this mean for you? Releases posted prior to March 1, 2012 have gone away, as has your old account registration info. Everyone will need to re-register for an account. We apologize for this inconvenience.
Want your event in our calendar?
Would you like your event published in The Kansas City Star? We’d be glad to consider it.
About Press Release Central
Press Release Central is Kansas City’s largest community site for press releases announcing news of all kinds: business, entertainment, sports and more. Releases stay for an extended period, so messages live a long life. And if you’re hunting for tips or information, just search to find news, names and subjects you might have missed.
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Virtualize your machines, shrink your data center population
Virtualization and consolidation are nearly synonymous because virtualizing machines limits server needs
As a key technology in facilitating consolidation — perhaps the most important one during the early stages — virtualization has become a part of the core strategy that agencies devise for data consolidation programs.
Some have gone so far as to put a number to what that will be. For example, at the beginning of the year, the Navy put a moratorium on spending money on new server hardware and issued a set of goals for consolidation, which included a 25 percent cut in the number of data centers, an increase in server utilization use of at least 40 percent, and a minimum boost in server virtualization use of 50 percent.
The Army issued a similar directive a few months earlier.
Other agencies are going further. Brian McGrath, CIO of the Census Bureau, told Federal News Radio in May that his agency was instituting a virtualization-first policy in which new applications would be provided from a virtualized server rather than on a new piece of hardware.
That would save money and allow the agency “to transition our data centers from one of only servicing the Census Bureau to be in position to service and provide compute, store resources and cooling resources and secure resources for other government agencies," he said.
Server virtualization is the first and easiest path to consolidation because it’s been implemented for years in private industry and is a relatively well-known and well-understood practice. In addition, its effects are immediate and very visible. If you have a data center with 50 servers and another with 100 machines, by putting two virtual machines onto each of the servers in the first data center you can eliminate the second.
That effect is multiplied with modern blade server technology, in which numerous blades can occupy a chassis not much bigger than that of an older, single server. Also, the technology is faster and more powerful, so each server can be divided into more virtual machines. That also helps to cut down on server real estate and cooling demand.
The NASA Enterprise Application Competency Center provides applications and services at the Marshall Space Flight Center and for NASA overall. It has been virtualizing machines for a number of years. By the end of 2010, it had managed to reduce the floor space needed in the data center by around 60 percent, saving $250,000 on utility bills and avoiding some $5 million in infrastructure costs.
“Consolidation and virtualization are not necessarily synonymous, but they are almost so, and server utilization is the easiest path to follow right now,” said Jim Smid, data center practice director at Iron Bow Technologies. “But there’s also a shift on in how agencies do business, and they’re looking to put additional layers on top of server virtualization, such as desktop virtualization.”
Agencies are also looking at things such as storage virtualization, he said, an area that’s been less tapped but can provide benefits almost as great as those for server virtualization, “so it’s becoming more important for data center consolidation.”
Each of these kinds of virtualization have their own set of advantages. The best known form of desktop virtualization runs a unique version of an operating system on the server, offloading the operating system and data that would otherwise run on and be stored locally on a desktop computer. That leads to the possibility for using much cheaper thin clients and boosting security because everything that is vulnerable in a regular desktop computer is now contained in the data center.
Server virtualization is well along the road to ubiquitous deployment in data centers, said NetApp’s Mark Weber, and it’s a proven entity with a known ability to save organizations money. Desktop virtualization is still in its infancy. But storage virtualization has an interesting place now in data center consolidation.
“We used to need direct-to-cache or dedicated storage for applications, but the fact is you can’t have direct attached storage in a virtualized environment,” he said. “So storage has been a huge benefactor of the virtualization craze.”
However, agencies have to be careful with virtualization because not all applications and environments will benefit from it. Some high-performance applications could be severely degraded in a virtualized environment, and they will always need their own dedicated servers and storage. Because of that, most agencies may never have completely virtualized data centers.
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Monday, June 4, 2012
How Did the Heat Botch Their Final Possession?
By Sebastian Pruiti
At the end of overtime in Sunday's Game 4, the Miami Heat were down by two points with 14 seconds left. With LeBron James on the bench after fouling out, Dwyane Wade took the final shot. Make no mistake though: This was not a designed isolation play. Coach Erik Spoelstra drew up a great misdirection play to get an open 3-point shot for Mario Chalmers, but because of Wade's poor execution, they settled for their second option and Wade missed the 3.
This play begins with James Jones inbounding from the side. Chalmers, who is defended by Keyon Dooling, curls out to the weakside corner as if he is providing a spacing option. As soon as Chalmers clears Shane Battier and Udonis Haslem, they set staggered pin-down screens for Wade to ensure that he gets the ball near half court — though the screens were unnecessary because Boston let him get it easily.
After inbounding the ball, Jones sprints to the opposite wing. At the same time, Wade dribbles, moving parallel to Jones as he moves without the ball. Meanwhile, Chalmers is still in the corner.
Once Wade gets to the opposite side of the court, Chalmers sprints on a straight line across the court, through the paint, in between two screens set by Battier and Haslem. They are both on the wing.
As Chalmers moves through the screens, Dooling decides to unattach himself. Instead he shoots the gap of the double screen, going over the top and getting in the passing lane. If something looks off here, it should: Miami's spacing is very poor. Wade was supposed to get to the opposite side of the court where he caught the ball, and as Chalmers cut, Wade was supposed to cross over and take a hard dribble or two back toward Chalmers. Instead, Wade crosses over lazily, and doesn't work hard to bring the basketball back toward Chalmers.
Chalmers is open, but because Wade didn't move back toward the action, Wade can't get the ball to him. There was not a good pass option, but it was Wade's job to make the angles work and to give himself a chance to make the pass.
There was a second chance for Wade to make the pass to Chalmers. With Dooling working over the top, Chalmers flares out toward the corner. Again, if the angle had been better (and that poor angle is a result of Wade not executing), there would have been an easy pass over the top of Dooling's hands to Chalmers for a 3-point attempt and a shot at the win. At that point there were nine seconds left on the shot clock, so if Chalmers had gotten a shot off, they had a chance for an offensive rebound.
Spoelstra prepared for the possibility that Chalmers would not make the catch (though they probably thought the cause would be Boston's defense). After Chalmers doesn't make the catch, he spaces out toward the corner while Haslem sprints to the opposite corner. Battier comes up and sets a screen for Wade. This forces a defensive switch, with Rajon Rondo picking up Battier and Marquis Daniels guarding Wade.
After a few dribbles, Wade gets to the wing, pump fakes, and gets an open look. Wade misses the 3, and the Boston Celtics tie the series at two games each. Here is the play in real time:
When you watch it live, Wade's poor timing and positioning are obvious. The significance of James fouling out cannot be understated. The ball is usually in James's hands at the ends of close games, and this play illustrates why. If Wade had changed directions and dribbled hard back to the action, he could have created a much better passing angle. You can't really argue with the decision to go for the win instead of the tie. Since they were on the road, James had fouled out, and Wade had played every minute of the second half and overtime, they needed to win it with one more shot. Wade's shot was not the best they could have had. We have seen Spoelstra trust his other guys in a number of late-game situations, and it works because teams don't expect it. That's what happened here, but the Heat were unable to turn that set into a great look.
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Marquette University philosophy Associate Professor Javier Ibáñez-Noé will discuss “Nietzsche’s Critique of Kant’s Ethics” in the Fall 2007 Thomas Rukavina History of Philosophy Lecture at 4 p.m., Friday, Oct. 26, in the Jepson Center’s Wolff Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Ibáñez-Noé earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Toronto. His scholarly interests include 19th- and 20th-century German philosophy, and he has taught graduate courses in Kant, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Heidegger and the Frankfurt school. Ibáñez-Noé has been published in several journals, including Philosophy Today, Man and World, International Studies in Philosophy, and New Nietzsche Studies. Ibáñez-Noé’s said his interest in Nietzsche stems from the philosopher’s “vision of human greatness and nobility and his diagnosis of the increasing impotence of the West to uphold that vision.”
The Thomas Rukavina History of Philosophy Lecture began during the 2006-2007 academic year. It is named after GU philosophy Professor Emeritus Thomas Rukavina, who, in 1958, became the first lay professor hired to teach philosophy at Gonzaga. Rukavina, who specializes in existentialism, ethics and modern philosophy, retired in 1999, after more than four decades of teaching at GU. The lecture series revolves around presentations concerning current research on the history of philosophy. Speakers in the past have included Karl Ameriks, of Notre Dame University, Jeffrey McDonough, of Harvard University, and C. Stephen Evans, of Baylor University.
For more information about the lecture, contact GU assistant professor of philosophy Kirk Besmer at (509) 323-6746 or via e-mail.
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I’m going to do a double review here of two papers currently online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. I’m lumping them together because they both more or less challenge the pervasive conservation/restoration paradigm that connectivity is the key to reducing extinction risk. It’s just interesting (and slightly amusing) that the two were published in the same journal and at about the same time, but by two different groups.
From our own work looking at the correlates of extinction risk (measured mainly by proxy as threat risk), the range of a population (i.e., the amount of area and number of habitats it covers) is the principal determinant of risk – the smaller your range, the greater your chance of shuffling off this mortal coil (see also here). This is, of course, because a large range usually means that you have some phenotypic plasticity in your habitat requirements, you can probably disperse well, and your not going to succumb to localised ‘catastrophes’ as often. It also probably means (but not always) that your population size increases as your range size increases; as we all know, populations must be beyond their minimum viable population size to have a good chance of persisting random demographic and environmental vagaries.
Well, the two papers in question, ‘Both population size and patch quality affect local extinctions and colonizations‘ by Franzén & Nilssen and ‘Environment, but not migration rate, influences extinction risk in experimental metapopulations‘ by Griffen & Drake, show that connectivity (i.e., the probability that populations are connected via migration) are probably the least important components in the extinction-persistence game.
Using a solitary bee (Andrena hattorfiana) metapopulation in Sweden, Franzén & Nilssen show that population size and food patch quality (measured by number of pollen-producing plants) were directly (but independently) correlated with extinction risk. Bigger populations in stable, high-quality patches persisted more readily. However, connectivity between patches was uncorrelated with risk.
Griffen & Drake took quite a different approach and stacked experimental aquaria full of daphnia (Daphnia magna) on top of one another to influence the amount of light (and hence, amount of food from algal growth) to which the populations had access (it’s interesting to note here that this was unplanned in the experiment – the different algal growth rates related to the changing exposure to light was a serendipitous discovery that allowed them to test the ‘food’ hypothesis!). They also controlled the migration rate between populations by varying the size of holes connecting the aquaria. In short, they found that environmentally influenced (i.e., food-influenced) variation was far more important at dictating population size and fluctuation than migration, showing again that conditions promoting large population size and reducing temporal variability are essential for reducing extinction risk.
So what’s the upshot for conservation? Well, many depressed populations are thought to be recoverable by making existing and fragmented habitat patches more connected via ‘corridors’ of suitable habitat. The research highlighted here suggests that more emphasis should be placed instead on building up existing population sizes and ensuring food availability is relatively constant instead of worrying about how many trickling migrants might be moving back and forth. This essentially means that a few skinny corridors connecting population fragments will probably be insufficient to save our imperilled species.
Franzen, M., & Nilsson, S. (2009). Both population size and patch quality affect local extinctions and colonizations Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1584
Griffen, B., & Drake, J. (2009). Environment, but not migration rate, influences extinction risk in experimental metapopulations Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1153
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Premium Content for Members Only
Step 5: What to Expect Your First Year29 Comments
Most commonly firefighters work in 24-hour shifts, reporting to work at 0700 and work until 0700 the next day. Firefighters usually work a total of 56 hours per week (but since these hours are worked on a continual basis, firefighters enjoy a lot of time off). On the average, firefighters work ten 24-hour shifts each month, leaving them to enjoy 20 days off each month.
Some departments on the east coast work 8-hour or 12-hou...
Premium content is for FireLink members only. To continue reading, please sign in or create an account — it's free and takes less than a minute!
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YOUR TRANSPORTATION RESOURCE
Local Motion Ambassadors
Leaders. Teachers. Believers. Champions.
We know you’re out there! And the City needs YOU for our new Local Motion Ambassadors program.
The City is looking for volunteers who can put their transportation expertise to a meaningful use by encouraging and assisting others to make the choice to stop driving alone and instead use transit, walk, and bicycle. By volunteering as a Local Motion Ambassador, you will have the opportunity to interact with the public, meet other transportation champions.
Local Motion Ambassadors are persons living and/or working in the City who are interested in volunteering to assist with promoting transit, walking, and bicycling as realistic travel options. Transit riders and cyclists are often enthusiastic about their travel decisions and genuinely celebrate when a neighbor, friend, or coworker tries transit or cycling and experiences the benefits for themselves.
Ambassadors help others make the choice to try a new travel option and, in many cases, hold his or her hand through the process. Once you get involved, you’ll help represent the City at festivals, transportation fairs, and even the Mount Vernon Trail with our partners like the National Park Service. Additional ambassador opportunities include hosting the Local Motion display in your community or at your work workplace; writing an article for your community and workplace newsletter; speaking at a resident or work event.
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From jingo jocks on the radio, coifed talking heads on television, and the front page of the local papers to the op-ed section of the New York Times, the issue of Iraq dominates the news coverage. Yet mainstream media does not provide any real forum for public debate that should precede any decisions designed to address a grave situation, which will alter life as we know it.
Repeating the mantra "weapons of mass destruction" ad nauseam that a daily demonized Saddam Hussein used on his own people and will soon use on us informs the people of the official party line and nothing more. When only half-truths are presented and the other half are concealed consent becomes manufactured, public opinion is manipulated, and the people are conditioned to insure support for what always was a fait accompli.
Make no mistake about it, recent US troop movements, increased no-fly zone bombings by the US and Great Britain, military exercises in Kuwait, and a multi-million-dollar air base in Qatar are the actions of a bellicose nation determined to use violence to impose its will in order to support it's addiction to oil.
Furthermore, we can expect our elected officials in Congress to rubber stamp the latest resolution giving an unelected leader yet more power to abuse as evidenced by their near unanimous silence when the Constitution was trashed after 9/11.
No peace marches, protests, or number of people signing petitions will stop the death and destruction that will occur in that land between the Tigris and Euphrates, that cradle of civilization -- modern day Iraq. Diplomacy was never a serious option in 1991 nor is it in 2002. Any doubts about our intentions should have disappeared when Bush demanded support from the world community -- or else.
When we launch our first preemptive strike we will be no different than the barbarians that we are fighting and just as evil for we will have opened the gates of hell where state-sponsored terrorism will replace the rule of international law. After Iraq and its innocent victims are reduced to rubble who will become the next threat to our national security?
In Orwell's 1984 a totalitarian state was described as one that was involved in a perpetual state of war in which the government controlled the people through fear of false terrorism. At the dawn of the 21st century Orwell's prophetic nightmare has become our ominous reality.
John J Pagoda
I cannot understand why so many people feel that "Dems Need Domestic Focus to Win" as the headline to Jim Cullen's article puts it (10/15/02).
Mokhiber and Weissman write, "The administration's beating of the war drums has drowned out the dominant stories of two months ago -- the corporate scandals and failing economy."
But we all know that the Bush foreign policy is absurd. Sending our young, poor, to war for any reason is evil and to do it for political gain is beyond comprehension.
Even if we accept the Bush assumption that Iraq might be trying to develop weapons of mass destruction and that they might be aiding the terrorists, it is impossible to support his policies. Suppose that we do succeed in taking them out? What about Iran? We know that Iran aids terrorists and they do have weapons of mass destruction.
Then what about Pakistan? India, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia are our friends today, but so was Iraq just a very few years ago. France, England and Israel are our friends today, but who can tell how they will line up once we start a holy war against so many other nations. Are we going to try to take them all out?
Surely, if the Democrats explain what is at stake, the electorate will follow them. There are enough people still alive who remember what war really means and will help explain it to the young people who think war is nothing but glory and pom-poms. I can only conclude that the Democrats don't have enough respect for the electorate to tell us the truth.
Before the ancient Roman Republic embarked on its continual wars of conquest, the citizens, small farmers, through the popular assembly and their tribunes were free men and prosperous. But absence in the legions necessitated neglect of their farms and the result was forfeiture and their falling into the ranks of the proletariat. Who benefited from these wars of conquest? The patricians that secured booty and exploited the conquered lands as proconsuls. The soldiers who fought lost their farms and their freedom. The free Roman Republic, convulsed with unremitting class conflict, deteriorated into a feared monarchy ruled by a despotic emperor.
Is America the new Rome? The anti-militarism of our Founding Fathers has been perverted since WWII. In the name of defense, our country became militarized. Since, as Orwell has shown, peace means war, our armed forces have garrisoned military bases throughout the world. All in the name of peace and democracy. But our Patricians, those immensely wealthy persons who own/or control our gigantic transnational corporations, have surpassed even Croesus. The working people have over the past thirty years seen a diminution of their take home pay [the late Gov. Nelson Rockefeller once asked reporters, "What is take home pay?"] coupled with the gradual loss of their civil rights. There are at least two American citizens who are held today in military prisons incommunicado. Without being formally charged they are unable to see counsel and cannot petition the courts for a writ of habeas corpus, the crown jewel of Anglo-American jurisprudence, that compels the government to show cause for the detention of any American. It is the cornerstone of all our freedoms. Under this amorphous, endless war on terrorism our liberties are becoming forfeit.
Our new Roman Empire incessantly meddles in the affairs of many nations thus inciting hatred. Our Patricians prosper but the working people face increasing unemployment and a constant gradual diminishing of their standard of living. This, coupled with the present constant assault on our civil liberties, conveys the idea that the history of ancient Rome may be particularly relevant today.
Bush is about to attack Iraq. Well, not personally, of course. He'll actually send other people's sons and daughters to do it. He has at least five good reasons for starting a war: to finish what his daddy started; to make us forget the wrongs he's done in the past and what he's doing that's wrong now; to tilt the upcoming election in his and the Republicans' favor; to show the world who's boss; and because Cheney told him to.
I can't keep quiet any longer. I do understand what you're saying about the election this year -- vote for the moderate Democrat instead of the Green Party candidate if the Dem has a chance of beating the conservative Republican. However, this is no way to establish the Green (or any other third party) as a viable party and that has to be the ultimate goal.
I did not vote for several years as I got tired of voting for the "lesser of two evils." I began again in 2000 only because I had the choice of Green Party candidates.
To be sure, voting for Green candidates will allow some Republicans to win, but, until instant runoff voting is a nationally established fact, we have to hope that the Greens will garner enough votes to make the major parties take notice.
It is a sad fact but true that often things have to get worse before they can get better. Obviously they are not worse enough yet for the masses to rise up and do something about it.
Tina L. Bandick
Road Forks, N.M.
It's stupid to call the USA a democracy when it's NOT run by the elected parties but a third party called Big Business.
Big Business owns the Republican Party and a part of the Democrat Party. Democrats like Sen. Lieberman, who almost was elected vice president, is a member of the Big Business Party. This party dominates by controlling TV, radio and news journals and magazines that inform America.
Our president's first important act after stealing the election was to cut the taxes of the people who elected him with Big Money.
If we were a democracy you tend to the needs of the majority. To keep Big Business in charge you do something that will make patriotism cloud out the misdeeds of large company presidents.
What if a few million people including Americans die unnecessarily? When our troops are involved, newspapers, TV and politicians must support.
Forming third and fourth parties are a very long waste of time. The fastest solution is to take over the Democratic Party and kick Big Business out.
It is a great time to be 81. I won't have to witness the continuing erosion of our democracy. I won't have to experience more trampling of our constitution. I won't have to witness an unelected president acting the Great Dictator while many members of Congress receive, hide, and kowtow to their corporate bribers, making it difficult for honest members to represent us. I won't have to witness more unemployment, lower wages, erosion of unions, lack of fringe benefits, diminution of health benefits, unconscionable salaries of CEOs, continuing threats of lower and lower prescription benefits if any, while profits for drug corporations skyrocket. I won't be here when it will be nigh impossible to purchase food which has not been irradiated, filled with hormones, miserably inspected. I won't witness the continuing demise of family farms. I won't see more of Bush, Ashcroft, etc., talking Jesus and acting Hitler. I won't witness people being arrested, jailed, "disappeared" with no trials. I won't see our beloved country becoming everything we say we despise. No, I will be resting in our polluted earth, and grateful for it -- unless I am arrested for thinking and speaking. Heaven help the rest of you if you do not help yourselves.
Claire E Simpson
Santa Fe, N.M.
Call me skeptical, even cynical, but answer me one simple question: How many of the right-wing hawks in Congress, the ones who are eager to invade Iraq now, how many of these hawks are volunteering their close loved ones to be in the first wave of sacrificial lambs when we invade Iraq? We already know Dubya, Rumsfield, Ashcroft and Cheney didn't serve in the army and didn't fight any wars except on the sidelines. It would be nice to know from all the right wing hawks that their commitment to ridding the world of Saddam is so great that they would gladly send their sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters into battle even knowing there is a good chance they would be killed. Can you tell me how many have made this commitment? The cynical side of me says they are very committed to sending the anonymous sons, daughters, etc., of the lower classes in America, the ones that don't have famous names, but they would cringe at sending their own into this war with it's only said purpose is to remove Saddam Hussein.
Please tell me I'm wrong.
Fred R. Ford
Walnut Creek, Calif.
Editor Replies: Remember that George W. Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard, although he was absent without leave for the last year and a half in 1972-73 under suspicious circumstances (see www.awolbush.com).
If you loved Cynthia McKinney so much, why did you drop her column?
Please don't lose Jesse Jackson. If you do, we won't have any laughs left.
Dr. John Monson
Editor Replies: We run US Rep. McKinney's speeches and columns occasionally; however we welcome her point of view. As she leaves Congress perhaps she'll have more time to write. As for Rev. Jackson, there should be plenty of laughs left.
Only in America ... can a buffoon morph into a revered statesman overnight!
Red Bluff, Calif.
Write: Letters to the Editor
PO Box 150517
Austin, TX 78715-0517
Please keep them brief
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|Name: _____________________________||Period: ___________________________|
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
Directions: Answer the question with a short answer.
1. What smells does Li'l Bit describe to the audience after leaving the dance?
2. What does Grandma blame for her crippled shoulders?
3. What does Grandma think is something that her daughters make up?
4. According to Peck, how are men taught to drive?
5. Who does Peck take fishing?
Short Essay Questions
Directions: Answer the questions with a short paragraph.
1. During the 1966 scene titled "The Anthropology of the Female Body in Ninth Grade", an occasional beeping is heard only by the reader and by Li'l Bit. What...
This section contains 722 words|
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page)
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Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Assessing the impact of Agro-pastoral projects on the Productivity of Farmers's Organisations: The Case of Cameroon
Nguetse Tegoum Pierre, Ministry of Economy & planning of Cameron, Nakelse Tebila and Ouedraogo Issaka, Ministry of Agriculture, water & Fisheries Resources of Burkina Faso
Between 2001 and 2007, the poverty headcount in Cameroon has remained steady at around 40 percent. In fact, poverty has reduced in urban areas while it has increased about 3 points in rural areas. This, despite the numerous agro-pastoral projects undertaken by the government between 2002 and 2008 in favour of rural people. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of these actions on the productivity of famers’ organisations.
The methodology is based on an integrated assessment approach combining both qualitative and quantitative aspects. The qualitative analysis uses Likert scale. The quantitative approach is based on Rubin's causal model and uses propensity score matching techniques. The main data used are those of the survey on the assessment of the impact of projects (EIPA) conducted by the Ministry of Economy and Planning in 2009.
The results obtained with both methods (qualitative and quantitative) are consistent and indicate that projects implemented by the Cameroon government and donors between 2002 and 2008 have had a positive impact on the productivity of farmers’ organizations. The analysis of satisfaction, while indicating an overall appreciation of projects by leaders and members of FOs, shows that the level of satisfaction seems to be negatively correlated with the regional level of poverty.
The matching techniques revealed that farmers’ organisations aid recipients have experienced a 4 percent increase in their productivity. More specifically, the study reveals that the impact of government programs is more important in the breeding sector (16 percent) and in the agriculture sector, it is quite null. Furthermore, non-beneficiaries organisations of the breeding sector could have had an increase in their productivity of about 10 percent if they had benefited from government assistance.
The study therefore encourages rural people to regroup into organizations in order to be more efficient. The management of agro-pastoral projects should be more transparent in order to increase their impact on the productivity of farmers’ organisations and on poverty alleviation.
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Subseries F. "Sir Edwin Landseer." Oct. 25, 1981-Jan. 3, 1982
Joseph Rishel, curator of European Art, and Richard Ormond, deputy director of the National Portrait Gallery in London, organized a major exhibition of the works of Sir Edwin Landseer that sought to reveal the artists as a major figure in the romantic movment. The show relied upon generous loans from public and private collections throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and North America; thus, the bulk of the exhibition records are comprised of lender files. Following its debut in Philadelphia, the exhibition also traveled to the Tate Gallery in London. Administrative files pertain to exhibition planning and execution among curatorial and support departments at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with a few folder dedicated to the later exhibition at the Tate Gallery. Correspondence and exhibition catalogue materials are also included in this subseries.Arrangement
Sub-subseries are maintainted accordingly to the original order in which they were transferred to the Archives.
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The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature
- Publication date:January 2012
- 1 b/w illus.
- Dimensions: 228 x 152 mm
- Weight: 0.57kg
- In stock
Fantasy is a creation of the Enlightenment, and the recognition that excitement and wonder can be found in imagining impossible things. From the ghost stories of the Gothic to the zombies and vampires of twenty-first-century popular literature, from Mrs Radcliffe to Ms Rowling, the fantastic has been popular with readers. Since Tolkien and his many imitators, however, it has become a major publishing phenomenon. In this volume, critics and authors of fantasy look at its history since the Enlightenment, introduce readers to some of the different codes for the reading and understanding of fantasy, and examine some of the many varieties and subgenres of fantasy; from magical realism at the more literary end of the genre, to paranormal romance at the more popular end. The book is edited by the same pair who produced The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (winner of a Hugo Award in 2005).
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WASHINGTON (JTA) – Two congressmen have introduced legislation aimed
at pressuring any country harboring Nazi war criminals.
Reps. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.) proposed legislation
in the House of Representatives Wednesday that would prohibit defense
sales to any country offering safe harbor to Nazis or any modern-day
“We must let the world know that we will do everything
in our power to pursue justice against the monstrous acts perpetrated
by Nazi criminals and modern day war criminals,” Israel said in a
statement to JTA.
Under the War Crimes Accountability Act of 2012, it
would be illegal to conduct defense sales with any country that refuses
to deport, prosecute or enforce an arrest warrant against such criminals.
The bill “puts pressure on countries that harbor these
criminals and ensures that they will pay a price for housing these
murderers,” Israel said.
“I hope that this bill will make countries think twice
before giving refuge to war criminals,” Berman said.
A spokesperson from Israel's office said the legislation
is not aimed at any specific country.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, known for tracking down
Nazi war criminals and working to bring them to justice, has cited
what it says is a lack of political will in many countries as a major
obstacle to the prosecution of former Nazis.
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Welcome to PINNACLE Business Solutions
Our quality of life largely depends on two factors:
1. How we experience work, and
2. How we experience other people.
This is the conclusion of numerous studies on human happiness and meaning. One's self is largely defined by what happens in these two contexts.
If we have optimal work experiences, we’re more motivated to do good work, which also benefits the organisation and our co-workers. Our satisfaction is energising and self-perpetuating, and it carries over into our home life because we’re in a positive frame of mind.
To improve the quality of life through work, two complementary strategies are necessary:
1. Jobs should be re-designed so skills levels and challenges are high. This contributes to a more cheerful and active workforce, improved concentration, and greater creativity and satisfaction.
2. Workers must define and develop self-directing, intrinsic goals. When we learn to recognise opportunities for action, hone our skills, set reachable goals, and immerse our concentration and focus in the present, we become more engaged at work and experience a state of “flow.”
Without these strategies, it’s easy to multitask on autopilot and miss opportunities to excel.
People at all levels report a need for challenges that create flow at work, according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
Challenges must stretch our capacity, without being overwhelming.
The main elements for flow include:
1. Clear goals every step of the way
2. Immediate feedback on one’s actions
3. Balance between challenges and skills
4. A merging of action and awareness, with concentration focused on what we’re doing
5. Exclusion of other dimensions from consciousness to eliminate distraction
6. No fear of failure, as we’re focused on what has to be done
7. No self-consciousness or over-concern with ego
8. A distorted sense of time
9. Activity that becomes inherently enjoyable.
With thanks, Coach2Coach newsletter, May 11 2010.
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Question: "Are Jesus and Satan brothers?"
Answer: No, Jesus and Satan are not brothers. Jesus is God and Satan is one of His creations. Not only are Jesus and Satan not brothers, they are as different as night is from day. Jesus is God incarnate—eternal, all knowing and all powerful while Satan is a fallen angel that was created by God for God’s purposes. The teaching that Jesus and Satan are “spirit brothers” is one of the many false teachings of the Mormons (Latter Day Saints), and to some degree also the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Both of these groups are properly labeled as cults because they deny essential Christian doctrine. While they use Christian terms such as Jesus, God and salvation, they have heretical views and teachings on the most basic and essential Christian doctrines. (Please note that most Mormons today will vehemently deny that they believe Jesus and Satan are brothers. However, this teaching was most definitely a belief of the early Mormons).
The teaching that Jesus and Satan are “spirit brothers” is born out of the Mormons’ misunderstanding and distortion of Scripture as well as some of the extra-biblical teachings they consider to be authoritative. Simply put there is no way you can read the Bible using any type of sound hermeneutical principles and come away with the idea that Jesus and Satan are “spiritual brothers.” The Scriptures are very clear that Jesus is fully God, not some type of lesser god as the Mormons or other cults believe. The Scriptures are also very clear that God is transcendent above His creation which simply means that there is no comparison between Christ the Creator and Satan His creation.
Mormons believe that Jesus Christ was the first “spirit child” born to God the Heavenly Father with one of his many wives. Instead of acknowledging Jesus as the one true God, they believe He became God, just as they will one day become gods. According to Mormon doctrine, as the first of the “spirit children” of God, Jesus had preeminence over Satan or Lucifer who was the second “son of God” and the “spirit brother” of Jesus. It is ironic that they will use Colossians 1:15 as one of their “proof texts” because it says that: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Yet they ignore verse 16 where we see that “By Him (Christ) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth. Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. ALL THINGS were created through Him and for Him.” All things—thrones, dominions, principalities or powers—include Satan and his demons.
In order to believe that Satan and Jesus are “spiritual brothers” one must deny the clear teaching of Scripture. Scripture is very clear that it was Jesus Christ who created all things and that as the second person of the triune Godhead Christ is fully and uniquely God. Jesus claimed to be God in many passages of Scripture. In John 10:30 Jesus said, “I am the Father are one.” Jesus was not claiming to be another lesser God. He was declaring that He was fully God. In John 1:1-5 it is clear that Jesus was not a created being and that He Himself created all things. “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). How much clearer can it get? “All things” means what it says, and it includes Satan who as an angel was himself a created being just like the other angels and demons are. Scripture reveals Satan to be a fallen angel who rebelled against God and Jesus as being God. The only relationship that exists between Satan and Jesus is that of Creator and creation, of the righteous Judge Jesus Christ and the sinful created being, Satan.
Like the Mormons, the Jehovah Witnesses also teach that Jesus and Satan are spiritual brothers. While some Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses might sometimes try to sidestep this teaching because it is so antithetical to what the Bible actually says, it is nevertheless what these organizations believe and is part of their official doctrine.
Mormons believe that not only were Jesus and Lucifer “spirit children of Elohim,” but that also humans are spiritual children as well. In other words they believe that “God, angels, and men are all of the same species, one race, one great family.” This is why they believe that they themselves will one day become as much of a God as Jesus or even God the Father. Rather than seeing the clear distinction in Scripture between God and His creation, they believe that one day they will be a God themselves. Of course this is the same old lie Satan has been telling us since the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). Apparently the desire to usurp the throne of God is endemic in the hearts of men.
In Matthew 16:15 Jesus asked the important question: “But who do you say that I am?” This is a question that is essential to salvation and one that the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses get wrong. Their answer that Jesus is the spirit brother of Satan is the wrong one. Jesus is God the Son, and in Him the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily (Colossians 2:9). He created Satan and one day He will cast Satan into the lake of fire as the just punishment for his rebellion against God. Sadly on that Day of Judgment those who fall for Satan’s lies will also be cast into the lake of fire with Satan and His demons. The god of the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses is not the God who revealed Himself in Scripture. Unless they repent and come to understand and worship the one true God, they have no hope of salvation.
© Copyright 2002-2013 Got Questions Ministries.
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TRIPOLI - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Tripoli Saturday, taking advantage of the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi in an eight-month civil war to become the first Pentagon chief to set foot on Libyan soil.
But Panetta has indicated that the U.S. will give more time to gain control of the militias that overthrew Gadhafi before determining how to help the fledgling government.
"The last thing you want to do is to try to impose something on a country that has just gone through what the Libyans have gone through," said Panetta on Friday before landing in Tripoli.
"They've earned the right to try to determine their future. They've earned the right to try to work their way through the issues that they're going to have to confront," he said.
Libya's weak interim government is struggling to assert control two months after the capturing and killing of Gadhafi.
Late Thursday the International Criminal Court said his violent killing may have been a war crime.
Panetta will meet with members of the transitional government in Tripoli on Saturday, and make an emotional visit to what historians believe is the gravesite of 13 U.S. sailors killed in 1804. Those deaths were caused by the explosion of the U.S. ship Intrepid, which was slipping into the Tripoli harbor to destroy pirate ships that had captured an American frigate.
While eager to encourage a new democracy that emerged from Libya's Arab Spring revolution, the U.S. is wary of appearing as trying to exert too much influence after an eight-month civil war. At the same time, however, leaders in the U.S. and elsewhere worry about how well the newly formed National Transitional Council can resolve clashes between militia groups in the North African nation.
Ahead of Panetta's visit, the Obama administration announced it had lifted sanctions the U.S. imposed on Libya in February to choke off the Gadhafi regime's funds while it was violent suppressing peaceful protests. The U.S. at the time blocked some $37 billion in Libyan assets, and a White House statement said Friday's action "unfreezes all government and central bank funds within U.S. jurisdiction, with limited exceptions."
Recovery of the assets "will allow the Libyan government to access most of its worldwide holdings and will help the new government oversee the country's transition and reconstruction in a responsible manner," the White House said.
But the continuing violence in Libya, including recent skirmishes between revolutionary fighters and national army troops near Tripoli's airport, reflects the difficulties that Libya's leaders face as they try to forge an army, integrating some of the militias and disarming the rest.
Officials acknowledge that process could take months, and that they can't force the militias to go along.
Panetta told reporters Friday that his visit to the Libyan capital will give him a better sense of the situation and allow him to pay tribute to the people for bringing down Gadhafi and trying to establish a democratic government.
"It seems to me they are working through some very difficult issues to try to bring that country together," said Panetta. "It's not going to be easy. This is not a country that has a tradition of democratic institutions and representative government. This is going to take some work "
US to provide assistance
But he said he has seen indications that the Libyans are making progress.
"I think that any country like Libya that was able to do what they did and show the courage that they did in making the changes that took place there — I'm confident that ultimately they're going to be able to succeed in putting a democracy together," he said.
Panetta said the U.S. is prepared to provide Libya any assistance it needs.
By traveling to Libya, however, Panetta was highlighting the different approaches that the U.S. and other countries are taking with respect to rebellions against tyrannical leaders.
The U.S. and NATO provided months of military power and assistance to the Libyan rebels, but officials have made it clear they do not intend to do the same in Syria despite the furor over President Bashar Assad's crackdown on pro-reform demonstrators.
Panetta, who met with Turkish officials Friday, said they did not discuss any specific steps to increase pressure on Assad to step down.
But they talked about the need to work together with other nations to "get Assad to do the right thing."
At some point, he said, he believes that the type of uprisings that happened in Libya and elsewhere across the Middle East will take place in Syria.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Manning and WikiLeaks: New push for whistleblower protections
- Rock Center: Searching for Spain's stolen infants
- 'Memogate': New scandal in Pakistan sets alight old tensions
- Iran-bound radioactive material seized at airport, Russia says
- Fukushima reactor now stable, Japan's PM says
- Chinese hail 'Pandaman vs. Batman!'
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Truth often hidden in counterespionage
A recent letter complained about the falsehood supposedly given to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice by the CIA regarding the attack on our embassy in Benghazi. While skepticism should never be resisted, a presumption of incompetence or political cover-up by our top leaders may be premature.
For example, while the CIA knew within minutes that this was not just a street demonstration, it may not have been able to exactly identify the perpetrators. Given that attacks of this sort are really publicity stunts, it is important for the perpetrators to get credit. If they are led to believe their bravado is not being recognized, they are likely to persist in claiming responsibility, which gives us additional opportunities to track them down.
The Osama bin Laden raid and drone strikes demonstrate that we can be very good at this. So, it may well be that the CIA, Rice, even Sen. John McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham are knowing participants in a deliberate ruse. In any case, we will doubtlessly never know whether it was, or if successful, because it is a process that will never be publicly acknowledged. Such is the world of counterespionage.
Andrew R. Graham
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Three Clark School professors have won Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) funding to support the purchase of research instrumentation.
Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering Bala Balachandran received an award for his project "Opto-acoustic characterization of micro-air-vehicle wings."
Professor and Interim Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering Rama Chellappa received an award for "Opportunistic sensing research."
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research Shihab Shamma received an award for "Research in audio-visual saliency and attention."
The awards are expected to range from $50,000 to $990,000 and average approximately $230,000.
The Defense University Research Instrumentation Program supports the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment that augments current university capabilities or develops new university capabilities to perform cutting-edge defense research. The program meets a critical need by enabling university researchers to purchase scientific equipment costing $50,000 or more to conduct DoD-relevant research. Researchers generally have difficulty purchasing instruments costing that much under research contracts and grants.
Krishnaprasad awarded AFOSR DURIP for collective behavior testbed
Telluride newspaper writes about Neuromorphic Cognition Engineering Workshop
June 9, 2011
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Among the various media chosen by man for expressing his joy through
art, music or literature, the simplest has been soft and malleable
clay. Nimble fingers mould the most beautiful form and expression.
Clay is such a fascinating medium that if a lump of it is given to a
child, he instinctively creates things out of it.
Pottery is the measure of a country’s civilization. Being one of the
oldest crafts, man has expressed his feelings and his aesthetics in
clay. A piece of pottery has a visual message in its shape and colour.
It is the most sensual of all arts. It is not only to be looked at,
but also to be handled carefully.
No wonder then that pottery has been called the lyric of handicrafts.
Lyrical because of its irresistible and universal appeal. But, it is
the association of religion with this art that has given it a deeper
significance and another dimension too.
In a warm country like India, with the economy built on agriculture,
pots for storage of water and grain were in demand. The Indus valley
pottery was mostly decorative. The combination of design, concept and
execution made it beautiful.
The evolution of Indian ceramics began with the Harappan age and the
art of shaping and baking clay articles as pottery, earthenware and
porcelain has endured through the ages. While pottery and earthenware
are distinctly utilitarian and often decorative, porcelain and studio
pottery belong to the realm of art. Except for a few examples of
Indian ceramics, which have been produced from a single mould, most of
it is completely hand-modeled, a tradition carried over to the 20th
There is evidence of pottery making, both handmade and wheel-thrown,
from all over India. At Harappa and Mohenjodaro, pottery has been
excavated showing that potter’s place was quite an important one in
society. The craft was well advanced. Rectangular kilns for firing the
product were in use. Seals and grain and water containers were made
that were put to use effectively.
The place of the potter in the craft tradition of India is unique.
India has more than a million potters. They are exquisite masters -
men and women alike. Despite the hi-tech that has invaded the Indian
scenario, it is doubtful if it will ever destroy the potter’s inherent
creativity. Hopefully, new generations will perceive the worth of
Legends reveal that Brahma created man out of clay. The same thing
reflects when a potter creates so many pots and toys out of it. Hence,
the name Prajapati is given to a potter in India.
Ceramics-the art of shaping and baking clay articles as pottery,
earthenware and porcelain has today become a sophisticated art form.
Its popularity can be vouchsafed from the numerous categories and
types one finds all over India.
VARIOUS KINDS OF POTTERY
India is diverse in many aspects. And one can easily find this
diversity in profusion in the domestic pottery that is found in
innumerable shapes and sizes. This aspect is almost inseparable from
any Indian scene.
The common earthenware is unsophisticated. The shapes are natural,
simple but attractive and true to the material. In India, the emphasis
has been on the chasteness of the line to lend dignity to the form.
Above all, it has to be superbly functional. The most common clay
object is the all-purpose kullar (cup-like container) used for keeping
water or tea and is sometimes decorated with geometrical and floral
designs. Pottery used for festive purposes is particularly gay. The
ones used for storing grain or water is huge.
There are immense variety of objects specially produced for the
occasion like lamps for Diwali, toys for Dussehra, pots for seedling
at Sankranti and the gaily-painted pots for marriages.
Common pottery comes in a bewildering profusion. Being functional,
each has a special use. The differences between two pots, which
superficially look alike, are subtle.
Besides their normal use, some products are also used for decoration
as well. These are generally made with special attention by putting
intricate designs (Karigari) on it. These are termed as Karigari
pottery. Ashtrays, flower-vases, tea sets, paperweights, decorative
animal figures are a few examples of Karigari pottery.
FAMOUS INDIAN BLUE POTTERY
The capital city of Delhi is famous for its characteristic ‘Blue’
pottery. It has a very old tradition, which is very distinctive. This
particular art form has been named as blue pottery because of the
eye-catching Persian blue dye used to color the clay. Blue pottery is
glazed and high-fired which makes it tougher than most of the others.
The Jaipur blue pottery is equally famous and unique. No cracks
develop in it and since it is impervious, it is more hygienic for
daily use. Some of this pottery is semi-transparent and mostly
decorated with animal and bird motifs. These pottery items, unlike
that of Delhi are made out of Egyptian paste, and fired at very low
temperature. This makes them fragile though few can resist the charm
of the delicate blue and white floral motifs. The range of items is
primarily decorative such as ashtrays, vases, coasters, small bowls
and boxes for trinkets.
Despite the paramount role played by domestic earthenware, it is its
religious association that gives it a far wider dimension. Each
region, each village has a galaxy of deities to be worshiped on
special occasions. Clay being at hand and comparatively inexpensive,
it is not surprising that such a vast amount of religious earthenware
gets proliferated in this field. These are classified under three
heads: (a) figurines of divinities (b) ceremonial pottery and (c)
votive offerings. In the first, Ganesh is the most popular god - the
god of omen. Durga at Dussehra time and Saraswati, the Goddess of
Learning are nationally worshiped. Festivals related to these deities
give the potter a motivation to work on the fine art, as his creation
is in high demand during those days.
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Page (2 of 2) Quotes: 1 2
How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Line). We used Francis Storr's translation found on Project Gutenberg
| Quote #4
And thou shalt not be frustrate of thy wish.
Now my imaginings have gone so far.
Who has a higher claim that thou to hear
My tale of dire adventures? Listen then.
My sire was Polybus of Corinth, and
My mother Merope, a Dorian;
And I was held the foremost citizen,
Till a strange thing befell me, strange indeed,
Yet scarce deserving all the heat it stirred.
A roisterer at some banquet, flown with wine,
Shouted "Thou art not true son of thy sire."
It irked me, but I stomached for the nonce
The insult; on the morrow I sought out
My mother and my sire and questioned them.
They were indignant at the random slur
Cast on my parentage and did their best
To comfort me, but still the venomed barb
Rankled, for still the scandal spread and grew.
For a man who doesn’t believe in fate now, Oedipus demonstrated a lot of faith in prophecy when he was younger.
| Quote #5
Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds,
To learn my lineage, be it ne'er so low.
It may be she with all a woman's pride
Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I
Who rank myself as Fortune's favorite child,
The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed.
She is my mother and the changing moons
My brethren, and with them I wax and wane.
Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth?
Nothing can make me other than I am. (1077-1086)
While Oedipus’s fate of killing his father and sleeping with his mother is sealed, he only learns that he has fulfilled his fate through persistent searching. Therefore, it is his fault that the tragedy is discovered, not the fault of fate.
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Norwich University was the first private U.S. institution of higher learning to offer engineering, and its graduates have made their mark on the world. From the railroads to the first alternating-current electrical plant, Capt. Alden Partridge’s foresight and commitment to engineering education has pushed design, construction and manufacturing to new heights.
The David Crawford School of Engineering remains faithful to this vision, training its engineering students to test their intellect and limitations.
Maj. Gen. Grenville Mellen Dodge, 1831–1916
A member of the Class of 1851, Dodge was a civil engineer who succeeded on an immense scale. As an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War, he rose to the rank of major general and used his expertise to build railroads and bridges necessary to the Union victory. He was later chief engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad, a key piece of the first transcontinental railroad. learn more
Edward Dean Adams, 1846–1930
Adams was a member of the Class of 1864. He was an engineer and scientist best known for pioneering the construction of the hydroelectric power system at Niagara Falls. It was the first large-scale, alternating current electric generating plant in the world, built in 1895. For his contributions, he made the cover of TIME magazine in 1929. learn more
Richard E. Hayden, 1946–present
Hayden is a specialist in acoustics who earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Norwich and went on to study at Purdue. At Bolt, Beranek and Newman, he embarked on a study of the acoustics of flow/surface interactions. In 1973, he won the Wright Brothers medal for his paper, “Fundamental Aspects of Noise Reduction from Powered Lift Devices.” This award recognizes individuals who have contributed to engineering design, development and operation of air and space vehicles.
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Anger can be a difficult and powerful emotion. I am not entirely comfortable with anger and sometimes still feel like pushing it away. This is a giant leap ahead of my previous attitude toward anger: dismiss its relevance and reject its existence.
Although the idea of dismissing anger--or flat out rejecting to even acknowledge it--is rather extreme, I lived this way for close to three decades. In the beginning, I did not understand why I had such an approach to anger. It was instinctual and seemed to work and I did not question it.
When uncomfortable feelings of anger (including irritation, impatience and frustration) began to show up in my twenties, I was perplexed. I felt powerless against such rushes of emotion that continually popped up seemingly without any justification or reason. I tried really really hard to act like it wasn't there. I isolated myself to lessen my chances of appearing angry or showing any exasperation to others (such feelings were only to be expressed safely behind closed doors). I felt like I was losing control, but was unclear exactly what I was losing control over.
As I began to unravel the circumstances of trauma and what PTSD diagnosis meant, I was still reluctant to share the amount of anger within me. I was full of shame about my degree of anger and this clouded my ability to incorporate my emotional response with any degree of vulnerability. I intellectualized the therapeutic process rather than participate in it. I collected the facts, but did not apply them to myself.
Fact: What I did as a child was transfer my feelings of anger onto myself instead of the abuser or other family members who were responsible for my protection. If I blamed myself, then my safe world remained intact. I concluded I was chosen because I was the horrid and expendable child. Any feelings of fear or frustration or anger about what was occurring were absorbed quickly into self-blame. Problem solved. Anger redirected. Safety intact.
Fact: When I was in my twenties, I could no longer effectively repress or control my feelings of anger or the increasing anxiety about being found out I was a fraud. Even if I was still unclear as to why I was angry, this did not matter. There was too much emotion stored inside me and it was finding its own way out, its own manner of expression. My anger at myself only increased at such lack of control, creating a negative feedback loop.
Two years into therapy and I was still unclear about the impact the years of trauma held on my life. The symptoms of PTSD did not abate. They intensified. The feelings of anger intensified as well--all targeted toward myself because I felt like such a fool not to have seen it all before.
Understanding the role of anger in my life became coupled to the understanding that the survival mentality of PTSD is a complex series of beliefs focused on safety. Whether these beliefs are rational or not, thoughts and actions are set into motion to sustain these beliefs.
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Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse
This report was prepared for the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Center for Climate Change and Environmental Forecasting (CCCEF) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) by the USDOT's Volpe National Transportation Systems Center ( Volpe Center ), which is part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA).
The Volpe Center project team consisted of William M. Lyons, project manager, Ben Rasmussen, and Lydia Rainville. Diane Turchetta of the FHWA Office of Natural and Human Environment was the overall project manager for the FHWA and the CCCEF, and wrote the case study on the Conference of the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG/ECP). Mark Gaber of the FHWA Office of Natural and Human Environment wrote the New York Department of Transportation case study.
The project team recognizes the valuable insights provided by the CCCEF Core Team and by contacts for the case studies, including Kelly McGourty, Charles Howard, and Rocky Piro of the Puget Sound Regional Council; John Shea of the NEG/ECP; John Zamurs of the New York DOT; and the participants in the Transportation Research Board and Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations experts panels.
The project team provided contacts with the opportunity to review and comment on drafts of this report. Please note that contacts and the CCCEF are not responsible for the accuracy of the report, which is solely the responsibility of the project team.
This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The United States Government assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof.
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Researchers have announced a project they say could fundamentally change the design and installation of wind blades, bring the cost of wind energy in-line with fossil fuels and allow for more developments in moderate wind-speed markets.
The project hinges on a design that wraps tensioned architectural fabric around a metal space frame, much like early aircraft wings. It’s estimated that to achieve the national goal of 20% wind power in the U.S., wind blades must be 50% longer, a figure that would be almost impossible to reach given constraints imposed by current manufacturing methods. The proposed design would simplify production of blades exceeding 120-m, and because they could be assembled on site, they can reduce exorbitant transportation costs.
A collaboration among GE, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, researchers expect to demonstrate the technology by 2015. According to GE, the design could reduce blade costs 25 to 40%.
“We want to bring costs down to a point where we are no longer so dependent on the PTC,” a federal incentive that makes many wind projects financially feasible, says Wendy Lin, a principal engineer at GE. “If we can do that, the U.S. industry will be more consistent and blade suppliers will grow in a more stable fashion.”
The use of fabrics to reduce weight and provide cover dates back to World War I, when it was used on airplanes. Similar structures are used in recent architecture. For instance, the unmistakable aesthetic of the Denver International Airport is built with fabric.
The fabric and spaceframe design has already found work in the wind industry. GE has used it to construct some towers because of its lighter weight and lower cost. Researchers are beginning the blade project with commercially available fabric, but as research progresses, Lin expects changes to the fabric’s composition.
Wrapping a steel frame with a fabric presents other cost savings: The clamshell molds that shape fiberglass into turbine blades cost millions to build are part of an expensive and sensitive production process. The proposed blade architecture will be built as resilient as fiberglass, made to work for 20 years without regular maintenance to the tension on the fabric.
Still, researchers have a lot of work ahead of them. For instance, they are unsure how such blades will respond to lightning strikes. Lin says there are tradeoffs for every type of technology. While the steel frame may be a complicating factor, the fabric would be easy to replace in the event of damage. Another characteristic to consider: How will the aerodynamic qualities of a fabric blade different from that of conventional designs?
“Developing larger wind blades is the key to expanding wind energy into areas we wouldn’t think of today as suitable for harvesting wind power,” Lin said. “Tapping into moderate wind speed markets, in places like the Midwest, will only help grow the industry in the years to come.” WPE
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Tequila plant could fuel vehicles and help reduce emissions
15 May 2012
Large scale farms of the agave plant used to make the drink tequila could be established in Australia's arid inland as a novel and greenhouse-friendly solution to Australia's transport fuel problems, a University of Sydney academic has found.
In an article published today in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, plant physiologist Dr Daniel Tan and his University of Oxford collaborators have analysed the potential to produce bioethanol (biofuel) from the agave plant, a high sugar succulent widely grown in Mexico to make the alcoholic drink tequila.
The agave plant has not yet been widely cultivated as a fuel source, but it promises some significant advantages over existing sources of ethanol such as sugarcane and corn, Dr Tan and his Oxford colleagues argue.
"The agave plant is probably one of the most promising crops we can grow to produce ethanol-based fuels, said Dr Tan, a senior lecturer in the University of Sydney's Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. "It can grow in arid areas without irrigation; it doesn't compete with food crops or put demands on limited water supplies."
A pilot agave farm to produce ethanol has been established in Kalamia Estate, Queensland (near Ayr) but more work needs to be done. "Further research is obviously needed to improve the understanding of the agave plants and to develop the technology involved," the paper notes.
Dr Tan and his co-authors - including Sir David King, a former chief scientific advisor to the UK Government - analysed the production of ethanol from the agave plant in a hypothetical farm and production facility and found it had a number of other benefits.
"Ethanol derived from agave has a positive energy balance - the energy created is five times that required to produce it. This compares favourably to the highly efficient sugarcane, and to the less efficient corn as a source of biofuel," Dr Tan said.
"It also compares favourably to sugarcane-derived ethanol for its ability to offset greenhouse gas emissions, which we calculated at 7.5 tons of CO2e per hectare per year - taking into account the crop's complete lifecycle, from planting and harvesting to production and processing."
Xiaoyu Yan, lead author and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford said: "Our analysis highlights the promising opportunities for bioenergy production from agaves in arid or semi-arid regions, causing minimum pressure on food production and water resources. The results suggest that ethanol derived from agave is likely to be superior, or at least comparable, to that from corn, switchgrass and sugarcane in terms of energy and GHG balances (net GHG offset per unit land area), as well as ethanol output."
An agave production facility would also be self-fuelling, with the plant's woody by-products (bagasse and residue) fuelling the production facility's energy requirements, says Dr Tan.
The paper Life cycle energy and greenhouse gas analysis for agave-derived bioethanol is published today in Energy and Environmental Science.
Notes to editors
The agave plant grows primarily in Mexico, but is also found in parts of the United States and central and tropical South America. It is a succulent with a large rosette of thick leaves and a shallow root system. Tolerant to high temperatures, it is adapted to future global warming.
Energy demand from the transport sector currently accounts for 60 per cent of global oil use and will continue to rise due to rapidly growing vehicle population in emerging markets.
Ethanol, produced from sugar or starch through fermentation, is currently the world's predominant biofuel.
To interview Dr Daniel Tan contact: 02 8627 1052 or 0427 281 951
University of Sydney Media Office contacts
Kath Kenny, 0478 303 173, 02 9351 1584, email@example.com
Victoria Hollick, 0401 711 361, 02 9351 2579 firstname.lastname@example.org
Contact: Kath Kenny
Phone: 02 9351 1584
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The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Danny Pearl
by Mariane Pearl
This book needs no "from the cover". Cast your mind back to 2002 and recall the kidnapped journalist whose death was broadcast over the internet. This is his story. Incredible
I had two flags from this very powerful book...
pg 59 War held no appeal for Danny or for me. What interested us was the challenge presented by peace. People often see peace as the simple absence of war, but it is instead the result of courageous actions taken to initiate a dialogue between civilizations. Both Danny and I saw our profession as a way to contribute to the dialogue, to allow voices on all sides to be heard, and to bear witness.
pg 272 ... the words of a poem by Diane Ackerman called "School Prayer" - words I have tried, and keep trying, to embody with my whole life:
"I swear I will not dishonour
my soul with hatred,
but offer myself humbly
as a guardian of nature,
as a healer of misery,
as a messenger of wonder,
as an architect of peace ."
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For information about screenings of the film, dialogues on race and privilege, and other programs run by producer/director Katrina Browne and others in the documentary, please visit the Tracing Center.
ADDITIONAL VIDEO CLIPS and RESOURCES
Watch an interview with Katrina Browne, Tom DeWolf, and Juanita Brown on The Early Show on CBS. Anchor Harry Smith interviewed director Katrina Browne, author Tom DeWolf, and co-producer Juanita Brown live on the CBS morning show.
Watch a panel discussion on Traces of the Trade, moderated by NewsHour journalist Judy Woodruff and Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree. This panel features Dr. J. Bryan Hehir of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Ambassador James Joseph, Prof. Goodwin Liu of the UC Berkeley Law School, and Ruth A. Wooden, President of Public Agenda.
Listen to a discussion of the film with director Katrina Browne and Tom DeWolf, author of Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Family in U.S. History. This discussion took place following a screening of the film at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Penns. The screening and discussion were part of the “Legacy of 1808″ speaker series, a year-long program at the National Constitution Center on the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade, and was presented in partnership with the Philadelphia Film Festival.
Watch an interview with director Katrina Browne on the Sundance Channel. This interview aired on January 21, 2008 in conjunction with the world premiere of the film as an Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival 2008 in Park City, Utah.
Watch an interview with director Katrina Browne at WGBH in Boston. This interview appears as part of the WGBH Labs Filmmakers in Residence program, which hosted Katrina from 2003 to 2005.
Watch an interview with participants at a screening and discussion of the film in St. Louis, Missouri in 2009, filmed by the St. Louis Beacon as part of its “Race, Frankly” series.
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Mad conspiracy theorists strike me as less imaginative now than they used to be; the same tired old grooves are worn through (UFOs, Lizards, 9/11 et al). Why don't they pick up some of the more intriguing looser threads? Here's a bronze coin from the period of Herod the Great. One faces shows -- no, not a UFO, but a military helmet:
But what interests me more is the other face of the coin:
The legend there tells us under whose reign (Bezonian): BASILEWS HRWDOU, 'of King Herod'. But look at the cross, just to the right of centre. Doesn't that merit a loony conspiracy theory? Really?
Looking into it, scholars seem to suggest it is either (a) a version of the Egyptian 'ankh' symbol, with religious signification; or (b) 'a mark of monetary value, "TR", a piece thrice the value of the chalkous, or smallest copper coin.' But come along! That's ordinary and boring. Surely we can do better than that. Let's start with: Herod was a time-traveller from a Christian future, who ...
You can fill in the rest for yourself.
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Monday, February 15, 2010
Deb Babcock's gardening column appears Mondays in Steamboat Today.
Find more gardening columns here.
Tomato seeds mentioned in this article can be found on the Web at sites including: victoryseeds.com, seedstrust.com, seedsofchange.com, henryfields.com and burpee.com.
If you go
What: Vegetable Gardening Basics class
When: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 20
Where: Steamboat Springs Community Center
Call: Reserve a spot by calling
On Feb. 20, the Routt County Cooperative Extension Office and its master gardener program will offer a repeat class on vegetable gardening. Last year, about 100 people attended to learn about which vegetables can be successfully grown here in the Yampa Valley.
Mostly those vegetables include cold season crops, such as salad greens and most root vegetables that have the added benefit of easy storage into the winter months.
But what about tomatoes, just about everyone’s favorite vegetable? (Scientifically, it’s really a fruit.)
Because our growing season is so short and tomatoes do not flourish in the cold soil and cool temperatures that we experience from September through May, they are not a prime crop for commercial production. Generally, tomatoes will not set fruit or ripen if temperatures dip below 55 degrees F.
However, individual gardeners in the Yampa Valley can and do grow tomatoes, usually in containers that can be moved to warm locations when temperatures drop. Many start their plants indoors or they plant seedlings with significant foliage already started in the nursery.
If you plan to grow tomatoes in a container this season, start with a container at least 12 inches across with drainage holes in the bottom. Plastic or glazed ceramic pots or wood barrels and baskets are better than clay pots since they won’t dry out as quickly. You can start your plants indoors now, if you like, and expect to transplant the seedlings or move the pot outdoors in June when the weather cooperates.
Be sure to harden off your seedlings before setting them out. This means set your pot outdoors for longer periods of time from several days to a full day and night before leaving them outdoors permanently for the summer. And as Eileen Grover warned at the classes we held, “you’ll need to be married to your tomatoes,” meaning she moves them indoors on cool nights and back outside the next morning, all summer long.
Use loose, well-drained soil with lots of organic matter mixed in for best results. Tomatoes thrive on fertile soil. Check daily to see if the soil needs watering and begin fertilizing in mid-summer.
For our short growing season, tomato varieties that we’ll have the best luck with are those with fast maturities. Here are some varieties to consider (listed by hybrid name and days to maturity):
■ Siberia: 50 days
■ Oregon Spring Bush:
■ German Queen: 55 to
■ Glacier: 55 days
■ Early Girl: 50 days
■ Sasha’s Altai (orange tomato): 59 days
■ Galina’s Cherry (yellow cherry tomato): 59 days
■ Extreme Bush (heirloom):
■ Fourth of July (cherry):
■ Marmande: 65 days
■ Matt’s Wild Cherry (heirloom cherry): 55 days
■ McGee: 55 days
■ Sweet 100 (cherry):
■ Tiny Tim (cherry): 45 days
■ Ida Gold (heirloom: orange) : 59 days
■ Stupice: 50 days
■ Azoychka (yellow):
■ Golden Bison (yellow):
■ Orange Banana (yellow): 52 days
If you’ve never had luck growing tomatoes in Routt County, give some of these shorter maturity varieties a try, or purchase plants already started. Some seed sources are listed in the box accompanying this article.
Deb Babcock is a Master Gardener through the CSU Extension Routt. If you have any quesitons, call 879-0825.
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Arizona is hiring three people to crack down on a particular kind of food stamp fraud.
Steve Meissner, spokesman for the Department of Economic Security, said Friday the team, including two sworn peace officers, will be looking for people who are legally eligible for the benefits, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but are improperly using the electronic debit card which replaced the paper stamps years ago.
"There's a number of things you can't use the card for,'' Meissner said. "We're going to use every tool in our toolbox to find people who are trying to do things like buy cigarettes, buy alcohol or convert it to cash.''
Meissner said existing anti-fraud activities are aimed at denying benefits to those who are not eligible. He said those efforts saved $9.4 million for the federal government, which pays for the program, during 2008 and 2009.
Finding this kind of fraud, he said, will take different tactics. But Meissner would provide no details.
"We don't want to be too specific about our investigative methods for obvious reasons,'' he said.
"But we're going to be using a lot of different methods,'' Meissner continued. "And that was why we wanted to make sure at least two of the people were sworn peace officers, with some investigative skills.''
He noted that, for this kind of fraud, it really takes two: the beneficiary who has the card and the retailer who agrees to accept the card as payment for ineligible items. But Meissner said there is evidence this is occurring, at least on a national level.
"There have been operations in other states where they have found people who will go in and turn over their card and leave with a 12-pack of beer and some cash in hand,'' he said. "And the value of the card stays with the retailer'' who can convert that to cash reimbursement from the government.
He acknowledged there is no hard evidence that is occurring here. But Meissner said that may be simply because the state, until now, has not been looking for it.
Meissner said that, despite the fact that investigations will focus on retailers, the anti-fraud program has the backing of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance. It represents the major grocery chains and convenience stores.
Overall, Meissner said slightly more than one million Arizonans are collecting food stamp benefits.
The average payment per recipient is $101 a month, with the typical household allotment about $294.
Overall, the federal government gave out more than $131.3 million in a 12-month period.
Meissner said this is good for more than those who get the benefits, as money spent helps stimulate the Arizona economy.
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by Cecile Cinco
Being mobile is no longer limited to being able to move yourself from one place to another or being able to travel anywhere with all your stuff with you just like living in an RV. It has also passed the idea of being reached by anyone because you have a smart phone.
With this computer generation, even teens are mobile. Certain files that are needed all the time, wherever you are, as long as you have online connection, will be available for accessing. If your computer happens to crash and you have no way to recover your data, as long as you have them offsite then data backup disaster recovery is very possible. Just be sure to be updating on a regular basis. It’s just like frequently saving a long document. The more frequent you save, the less damage you get when you need to recover.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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Feeding my child is very difficult. How can I make mealtimes less of a hassle?
Here are 6 common unpleasant and unhealthy childhood eating situations and tips to handle them. Also, remember that food should be used as nourishment, not as a reward or punishment. In the long run, food rewards or bribes usually create more problems than they solve.
Feeding Challenges and Solutions
Food Jags: Eats one and only one food, meal after meal
Solution: Let the child eat what he or she wants if the jag food is healthy. Make sure the child is hungry at mealtime and offer other foods at each meal before the jag food. Don’t remove the jag food, but offer it as long as the child wants it. After a few days, the child likely will try other foods. Food jags rarely last long enough to cause any harm.
Food Strikes: Refuses to eat what's served, which can lead to "short-order cook syndrome"
Solution: Make sure the child is hungry when mealtime comes. Do not offer juices, sweetened drinks, or snacks too close to mealtime. Have whole-grain bread and rolls as well as fruit available at each meal,so there are usually
choices that the child likes. Be supportive, set limits, and don’t be afraid to let the child go hungry if he or she won’t eat what is served.
"The TV Habit": Wants to watch TV at mealtime
Solution: Turn off the TV. Watching TV during mealtimes is a distraction that prevents family interaction and interferes with a child’s eating. Value the time spent together while eating. Often it is the only time during the day that families can be together.
The Complainer: Whines or complains about the food served
Solution: First ask the child to eat other foods offered at the meal. If the child refuses, have the child go to his or her room or sit quietly away from the table until the meal is finished. Don’t let him or her take food along, return for dessert, or eat until the next planned meal or snack time.
"The Great American White Food Diet": Eats only white bread, potatoes, macaroni and milk
Solution: Avoid pressuring the child to eat other foods. Giving more attention to finicky eating habits only reinforces a child’s demands to limit foods. Continue to offer a variety of foods from all the food groups. Encourage a taste of whole grains as well as red, orange, and green foods. Eventually the child will move on to other foods.
Fear of New Foods: Refuses to try new foods
Solution: Continue to introduce and reinforce new foods over time. It may take many tries before a child is ready to taste a new food…and a lot of tastes before a child likes it. A good starting point is to encourage the child to simply allow a small portion of the new food to sit on his or her plate. Don’t force the child to try new foods. Also, remember that you are a role model—make sure your child sees you enjoying the food.
Note: Do not feed children younger than 4 round, firm food unless it is chopped completely. The following foods are choking hazards: nuts and seeds; chunks of meat or cheese; hot dogs; whole grapes; fruit chunks (such as apples); popcorn; raw vegetables; hard, gooey, or sticky candy; and chewing gum. Peanut butter can be a choking hazard for children younger than 2.
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- FSAs may become latest healthcare-reform casualty
- Support grows in medical community for larger health role by pharmacists
- Rite Aid takes a bite out of obesity; relaunches weight-loss program for New Year
- Bartell to cease filling Medicaid prescriptions at 15 locations
- UnitedHealth: Cost of diabetes could be $3.35 trillion by 2020
Beyond those in the health professions, forward-thinking healthcare advocates and pharmacists themselves, who in this country believes in the power of pharmacy to improve access to patient care, lower health costs and help Americans prevent or better manage diseases? Add the editors of the New York Times to the growing list of believers.
On Saturday, the New York Times ran a lengthy editorial touting the obvious benefits that pharmacists, nurse practitioners and retail clinicians can bring to an overstretched healthcare system facing an acute shortage of primary care physicians. The article pointed out that the shortage will become even more critical once the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act expands health coverage to millions of currently uninsured patients.
“Expanding medical schools and residency programs could help in the long run,” the New York Times noted. “But a sensible solution to this crisis — particularly to address the short supply of primary care doctors — is to rely much more on nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, community members and even the patients themselves to do many of the routine tasks traditionally reserved for doctors.”
It’s the kind of long-overdue recognition from a nationally respected news source that retail pharmacy advocates like the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National Community Pharmacists Association and Drug Store News have long sought. Even better, the editorial noted an opinion issued last year by the United States Public Health Service: that “pharmacists are ‘remarkably underutilized’ given their education, training and closeness to the community.”
The editorial in the nation’s premier “newspaper of record” signals the kind of sea change going on nationally in Americans’ perception of the pharmacy profession and its role in a smarter, more connected and more cost-effective health delivery system. But has the message truly filtered down into local communities across the United States? What about your community? Are local physicians’ practices, hospitals and patients themselves looking to the community pharmacist to help relieve the doctor shortage, cut health costs and improve access to care? Comment below to let us know.
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More nations than ever set to appear on Olympic podium
Date: 27/06/2012. Story submitted by: SuzanneRutter
Submitted by: SuzanneRutter
Rule changes to Olympic Games events are likely to result in more nations than ever before winning medals at London 2012, according to experts who have already predicted a bumper medals haul for Team GB.
The Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) at Sheffield Hallam University says that under normal circumstances 53 nations would be expected to win a gold medal and 80 nations will win a medal of any colour.
However rule changes limiting the number of medals that nations can contest could increase the number of medal-winning nations at London 2012 to an all-time high.
The current record for nations winning a gold medal is 56 (Athens 2004) and for any medal the record is 86 (Beijing 2008).
Professor Simon Shibli, who predicted that Team GB will win 27 gold medals at London 2012, said: "More nations are taking part in the Olympic Games and it is expected that 204 National Olympic Committees will send teams to London 2012.
"In 1988, 159 nations attended the Seoul Olympics and this figure has risen steadily since then.
"More nations than ever have developed genuine medal-winning capability and are no longer there to make up the numbers and enjoy the opening ceremony.
"More nations are investing large sums of money in elite sport development systems.
"Also, changes to the qualification rules in some sports will ensure that medals are shared out amongst a greater number of nations.
"These three factors will combine to help deliver what IOC president Jacques Rogge describes as a 'real universality' of the Olympic Games and prevents certain nations from becoming too dominant."
Professor Shibli added that most of the 204 nations taking part in London 2012 will go home empty handed, notably the vast majority of the 80 or so nations never to have won an Olympic medal.
In 2008, 151 nations did not win a gold medal and 118 did not win a medal of any colour.
Address: City Campus, Howard Street Sheffield South Yorkshire S1 1WB
Tags: Sheffield Hallam University; 2012 Olympic and Paralympic GamesTo comment, please sign-in or register.
They might like to know!
I found this News on
http://poscodegazette.com,More nations than ever set to appear on Olympic podium at Sheffield Hallam University
- Copy me
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Wandering Oaxacas Market Villages
By Kent St.John, GoNOMAD TRAVEL DESK GUIDE
The Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico is every bit as complex as the mole sauce it is famous for. It is a mixture of ingredients that while very different, fuse into one amazing end product. The city of Oaxaca is stately and stands with a proud colonial Spanish air, yet the streets are filled with unmistakably indigenous Indian faces. Sitting in the cafes that ring the zocolo (Center Square) in the evenings, hearing strange unintelligible language, combined with seeing different styles of dress, helped us decide to spend several days exploring the citys outlying villages and markets, learning about each villages specialty and crafts.
With the main tourism office located just three blocks from the zocalo we went to gather information on the villages that ring the city.
There I was told that indeed there are 16 distinct indigenous villages within a 50-mile radius of the city. All have their own language, dress, customs, festivals, and world famous crafts.
While there are several tour companies that will guide you, we decided to rent a car. Due to the prices of the tours and the number in my family this was a cheaper alternative. Armed with a map and the day of each villages tianguis (main market day) we set out early the next morning.
Our first stop on Oaxacas busiest market day was Tlacolula, twenty-four miles from the
city. Tlacolula was founded by Zapotec people around AD 1250 and still maintains strong ties to its local past despite the ornate Spanish 16th century church. It also has the largest Sunday market. The marketplace spills throughout the center of the village and attracts hundreds of visitors from smaller nearby towns. Although it is more of an agricultural affair, the profusion of colors and abundance of live animals takes you to the heart of the market spirit.
This is also the town where mescal is king and should be tasted. At a friendly shop called Pensamiento they offered 24 samples of mescal, 17 for women and 7 for men. While visiting Tlacilula we stopped at two towns just a few miles away, Teotitlan del Valle and Santa Ana del Valle. Both are well known for their woven rugs. Ever since the Dominican missionaries introduced sheep in the 16th century the weaving of woolen rugs and wall coverings has developed into these towns trademark. The dyes used in the coloring of the wool are all natural and the deep reds are produced from the cochieneal -- a female beetle.
In Teotitlan we wandered through the shops and watched the local weavers creating works of art. Our favorite stop was the Cooperativa Mujeres Tejedoras (Women Weavers Cooperative) at 37 Hildigo. While the prices were not much cheaper than Oaxaca City, the selections were far greater. Haggling is expected and if your Spanish is weak, try using a pen and paper to offer and counter offer prices. Try to remember, however, that at even the higher prices the women earn about a dollar an hour for their labor.
With our shopping urges satisfied we continued east a few more miles to Oaxaca States second best know archaeological ruins, Mitla (Place of the Dead). Passing through the entrance we started our tour at the Grupo de las Columnas, the best-preserved area of the ruins. The ruins differ from all others in Oaxaca because of the Mixtec style buildings. The geometric designs that dominate the ruins are proof that this was once a center for the Mixtec Indians and remained so right up until the Spanish conquest. As if a reminder to the local Mixtecs, the Spanish built the massive 17th century church of San Pablo Milta that still towers over the ancient city. Mitlas are the type of ruins where you can still climb through passages and down into ancient tombs--hands on exploration.
Deciding to forgo the tianguis in Miahultlan we headed to Monte Alban and several of the craft villages nearby. Our first stop was at the village of Atzompa, located at the base of Monte Alban and known for its natural and green glazed pottery. At the Casa de Artesanias you can see these enormous pots with raised applied designs being crafted.
Monte Alban was our next stop and literally took our breath away. Days should be spent wandering the states most important archeological site, and we did indeed return several times during our stay in Oaxaca to explore its temples, palaces, ball court, and tombs. Monte Alban was founded around 500 BC and developed into one of the largest ancient cities in the Americas. The entry building provided excellent displays and exhibits that help in understanding both the Zapotecs and Mixtecs cultures.
Arrazola is the town where some of Americas best-loved Oaxacan treasures are crafted. In this village the craftsmen carve copal wood into the twisted, brightly painted animals, or alebrijes. The shape of the wood determines the final alebrijes. Most of these painted animals are exhibited in the villagers homes that double as their workshops. With our car loaded with the days buys we happily headed back to our base in Oaxaca City.
Tuesday was to be our longest trip for market day in the village of Cuicatlan. Cuicatlan is located in the Canada or Canyon Country north of Oaxaca. This area is the home to the Cuicatecs, a Mixtec-related people who are reclusive and very traditional; Cuicatec language is used far more often than Spanish. The local ladies at the market were wearing huipiles: the white cotton dresses that are colorfully embroidered. The embroidery is said to hide magic and religious secrets within each dress. Nowhere else in Oaxaca did we find clothing so vivid and beautiful.
The market is located near the Templo de San Juan Bautita church. We strolled past stalls filled with flowers and produce. Live turkeys swung from the arms of the vendors, and it was obvious that for those who came down from the mountains, market day was also socialization time. In Cuicatlan, my son found a great selection of his favorite Mexican craft: the wooden masks carved to look like animals, saints, and strange gods from the past. Even the devil was represented. These masks were not made for the tourist but for use in festivals and rituals that still thrive throughout the country. With a masked man in the back seat we drove back to what by now seemed the large city of Oaxaca.
As an ex-restaurateur, I was thrilled to find that Etlas tianguis was held on the last day that we had our rental car. This is a market that is a foodies paradise -- where the famous white string cheese made in Oaxaca is sold. This is also where the best chefs in the city meet because its sole purpose is to offer special cuts of meat, produce, as well as forest-gathered herbs that define Oaxacas cuisine.
One specialty sold in bulk there is the chapulines: grasshoppers meant to be deep-fried and seasoned with chile powder and lime. These are offered as bar food throughout the city, often mixed in with peanuts. At the market, I was told that those who eat chapulines are guaranteed a return to Oaxaca. I opted instead for a red Oaxaca tamale. Not because I didnt want to return to Oaxaca: I did. I just wasnt too keen on grasshopper that afternoon.
Deciding to make full use of our car rental, I backtracked past Arrazola to the Cuilapan de Guerrero. The church and monastery was started in 1550 and was under the control of the conquistador Hernan Cortez as was the whole valley. In 34 trips to Mexico, I have yet to visit such an historic monastery. At the far end of the open chapel the Mixtec laborers managed to sneak in some of their own stone plaques with their messages, most likely under the eyes of the Dominican monks. Cuilapan was also where the Mexican hero, President Guerreo was placed against a wall and shot in 1831.
As we sat on the zocalo Wednesday night underneath the trees and amongst the passerby in Oaxacas living room, we now felt we were better able to grasp more of Oaxacas unique mix. We could wander the cathedrals, museums, and art galleries with a better understanding. We knew we could fill our next two days with the sites and sounds of this place that hosted D.H. Lawrence, Malcolm Lowry, and Mary Morris. So much to see until the citys own tianguis on Saturday.
There I knew that more bags would be bought to transport the mescal, alebrijes, huipiles, and other treasures. As the church bells rang I grabbed a hand full of chapulines (grasshoppers) to munch on. I wanted to insure a quick return to Oaxaca.
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Here then are two contrasting largish scale symphonies. The Still is a strong
melodic work in a modern style and heavy with poignant feeling. The Beach
is hardly ever less than compelling but rises to emotional heights in the
lento third movement. Both works are of their time. The fact that they are
coupled may well refer to the fact that each composer was from a group who
had to struggle more than most in order to gain publication and performance.
What matters now is the music and in both cases the symphonies make rewarding
listening for the palate jaded by overdoses of the familiar 'greats'.
The Still symphony is contemporaneous with Constant Lambert's Rio Grande
and Hanson's Romantic Symphony, John Foulds' Three Mantras,
Frank Bridge's Oration and Bax's Symphony No. 4. Like Foulds, Bridge
and Lambert, Still leans towards delicacy in his orchestration. His taste
is usually faultless. Thankfully there is hardly a trace element of negro
caricature - just a little too much in the banjo-solo featured third movement.
Instead we have a mature symphony with a subtly exotic twist of jazzy sourness.
Still uses the orchestra with great discrimination and his textures are often
lacy and superfine. His themes are distinctive: try the Rimskian steppes
motif at 5:52 in the first movement. His slow movement has all the tearful
vitality of a negro spiritual. The finale Aspiration (I noticed a
tape chirrup at 2:30) amply conveys a sense of the great enterprise,
contentment and questioning. Randall Thompson may well have been influenced
by this symphony. I thought of his third symphony several times as I listened
to this piece though overall the Still has more gravitas.
The Beach is an old-fashioned work but only in the sense that the
composer mixes her paint from the same palette as Dvorák and Schumann.
This symphony suffers a similar handicap to Bantock's Hebridean
Symphony. Note writers understandably (because their trade is words)
focus on plotline and the appearance of named tunes. Both Bantock's work
(from almost 20 years later) and Beach's will stand or fall not by a 'here
comes that tune' approach but rather by the reaction of the listener who
knows nothing about the inspiration or the underling thematic structure.
The work is not Brahmsian in feeling. The melodic touch is lighter and earlier
references to Dvorák and Schumann simply hint at the qualities displayed.
The symphony hangs together well as a journey of the emotions. Its centre
of gravity is the noble and passionate lento. It is deeply impressive
and well worth getting to know.
The recordings are more than thirty years old but the technical work of Adam
Abeshouse is outstanding. He presents the original stereo sound (which I
know at one remove - from tapes of the LPs) without noticeable hiss and yet
to my ears has not compromised the robustly natural audio image. The strings
perhaps show a hint of Stürm und Drang but that is all.
The notes are in English only which allows both writers to provide substantial
essays over 15 or so pages of the leaflet.
Design values are high with a striking portrait of Still on the front and
of Beach on the rear case insert.
Another strong issue from Bridge who must continue to revive those SPAMH
tapes. We await impatiently.
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They say, "write what you know." Malcolm Gladwell spoke to a conference of pychologists about precociousness, prodigies, and how bunk it is to use Mozart and even Einstein as justification for what amounts to a misguided obsession with childhood achievement:
We think of precociousness as an early form of adult achievement, and, according to Gladwell, that concept is much of the problem. “What a gifted child is, in many ways, is a gifted learner. And what a gifted adult is, is a gifted doer. And those are quite separate domains of achievement.”Einstein's early "gifts" were not intelligence at all, Gladwell went on, but things that don't get mentioned on the DVD box, things like "curiosity, doggedness, and determinedness."
Yet Gladwell deftly debunked the Mozart myth. “First of all, the music he composes at four isn’t any good,” he stated bluntly. “They’re basically arrangements of works by other composers. And also, rather suspiciously, they’re written down by his father. … And Leopold, it must be clear, is the 18th-century equivalent of a little league father.”
Also unmentioned: genius hair.
The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters [aps observer via kottke]
Related: Albert Einstein on a Onesie or a kid's t-shirt, $19 from Reckon [etsy.com]
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German Telescope is UNIQUE in Design (Aug, 1930)
Sure, it’s a “telescope”.
German Telescope is UNIQUE in Design
ANEW departure in the way of design and operation of high power telescopes has been effected at the Treptow astronomical observatory, near Berlin, which is one of the best in Germany. Of a design that is distinctly unique—it might be called modernistic—the new mammoth telescope, shown in the photo at the left, has many features that add immensely to the facility of star-gazing.
One of the chief features of the new telescope is the barrel. It is built in sections, and resembles at a distance a war time “big bertha.” Because of this the inhabitants of the surrounding territory have given it the name of the “Peace Gun.” The barrel is 70 feet long, with a weight of 22 tons; the lenses have a diameter of 28 inches and are a foot thick. Three months were required in the grinding and polishing of the lens which magnify the stars to a size where all the details of the surface of distant planets are plainly visible.
The mechanism for focussing the telescope on the distant stars merits special attention. The entire instrument with its subsidiary equipment hinges on a huge axle 8 feet long which supports both the barrel and two eleven-ton counterweights. This axle is geared to a powerful motor which gives elevation to the barrel, while rotation is achieved by rotation of the platform. The mechanism is so arranged that once a star is brought into focus it can be followed in its course through the heavens without further adjustment. The astronomer is thus relieved of the necessity of changing his position as the position of the observed planet changes. He merely needs take a single position for observation and the mechanism keeps the star in focus. Steel girders form the major support of the entire construction, and the barrel of the telescope is braced rigidly with heavy cables. The total weight amounts to more than 130 tons. The instrument is protected by a gigantic canvas cover during storms.
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Clean Energy Doesn't Need To Be A Partisan Issue
Maxwell is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
As the Republican Convention rolls along from Tampa, I wanted to take a look at the alternative energy issue, focusing on the solar area. I want to demonstrate why clean energy does not need to be a partisan issue. It makes all the economic sense in the world to support technologies that minimize tangential and secondary damages that are caused by fossil fuel mining and use, the costs for which are not borne by anyone other than health insurance rate payers and taxpayers in general.
The Solar industry has been dominated by Asian competitors, especially since two of the three biggest domestic solar power companies; Solyndra and Evergreen Solar have been liquidated. This leaves only First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) as a large scale, global top ten, American based solar energy company, though it too has seen far better days. First Solar is the only one of the current ten largest makers of solar power systems to record a second quarter profit, in its case, of $111 million, or $1.27 per share, a cool 41% above analysts' expectations, and 69% above last year's second quarter.
The retreat of the solar industry owes to three factors. First, state supported, Chinese makers have grown exponentially, causing an overcapacity glut and crashing the price of solar panels by nearly 50% in the past twelve months; second subsidies in Europe have declined markedly, and the same is likely be happening in the United States; and third, the “cleanest” of the fossil fuels, natural gas has seen its price collapse to the point where it appears to be much cheaper than wind or solar could be. As for the first issue, the United States in May of this year slapped 31% tariffs on Chinese solar panels. Chinese manufacturers sold $3.1 billion in solar equipment in the U.S last year, giving the Chinese an over 50% market share of the U.S solar panel market, so the tariff will help First Solar going forward. But the tariffs obviously end at our coastlines, and cheap Chinese product will still be available in Europe and the rest of the world. The impact of the glut and price crash even had General Electric (NYSE: GE) halt construction on a test solar array it was constructing in Colorado. GE's general manager for solar technologies, Danielle Merfeld, cited a "50% drop in module prices" over a six month period.
The bigger issue goes to the notion of subsidies. The ethanol industry released a study showing that the sum of all subsidies for the oil and gas industries is between $133 billion and $281 billion per year. The coal industry according to a Harvard School of Public Health study receives annual subsidies summing to between $175 billion and $523 billion. These subsidies are just in the gold old U.S.A, and I turn a disdainful ear to claims that clean energy needs to stand on its own economically. How about leveling the playing field and solar and wind would be more than competitive, plus we would save lives as well. In addition, the geopolitical risks of fossil fuel energy would be avoided, and decentralized energy generation lessons terrorist threats.
The only issue for solar is cost, but I will maintain that if we realized the true cost of fossil fuels, solar's cost would be a welcome relief. No less important, if this country would erase the mountain of paperwork involved in a typical, even small installation, the price of a solar system would be affordable to most homeowners and businesses.
First Solar uses a proprietary type of solar panels, based upon cadmium tellurium thin film panels, particularly appropriate for home and business roof lines. But in recent times, First Solar has launched the idea that simply selling panels was not enough; it wants to be more of a full service solar power provider. It has equity interests in various projects in the Southwest desert areas, and more recently, it landed a major project in India as that country looks to augment its existing infrastructure in the wake of recent electrical grid collapses. The cadmium tellurium is not as efficient at energy conversion as other technologies, but it is the most efficient current system, cost wise.
Management looks for First Solar to post earnings of about $4.45 for this year, giving the company a current year price to earnings ratio of just 5.8. It has a five year PEG of 0.22, about the lowest of any company I know. First Solar is not without its risks, as the stock has shown it can take some wild swings. But from today's level, I love this company.
The only other American Solar dedicated company of much size is Sunpower (NASDAQ: SPWR). It is a technology leader, to be sure, and its current offering supply as much as 50% more power per square foot than its competitors. Its systems are modular and scalable, from home roof systems to utility scale. But since going public in 2005 (at $18 per share), profits have been elusive. On a GAAP basis, the company has recorded sizable losses each of the past five quarters, most recently $50.7 million, or $0.71 per share in the second quarter. Even on an adjusted basis, the company has not recorded a meaningful profit since 2010. All the while, cash on hand has fallen to just over $317 million, less than half of where it was at year end 2011 or year-end 2010.
There is the chance for upside here. But there is a nearly equal chance, I believe, of Sunpower failing. Two years from now, the company may have tripled in price if solar power is supported with common sense measures. But if not, it is hard for me to see this company doing anything but continuing to founder.
Chinese giant Suntech (NYSE: STP) is the world's largest solar power panel manufacturer, and uses a more advanced material than First Solar's, utilizing crystalline platforms. Its best known project was the 130kv installation that made up the facade of the Olympic Stadium in Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Fast forward a few years, we have the U.S tariffs, collapsed European markets, persistent company losses, and most recently, a substantial lawsuit, to the tune of $650 million, alleging accounting irregularities. There is too much going on for me here, and I would not throw any of my money in this direction.
StockCroc1 has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.If you have questions about this post or the Fool’s blog network, click here for information.
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What Is Love?
Posted 24 February 2005 - 02:14 PM
What does Love mean?
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?"
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too.
Rebecca- age 8
When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
Billy - age 4
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
Karl - age 5
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy -age 6
"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4
"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
Danny - age 7
"Love is when you kiss all the time.
Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that.
They look gross when they kiss"
Emily - age 8
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate," Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)
"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."
Noelle - age 7
"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
Tommy - age 6
"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared.
I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.
He was the only one doing that.
I wasn't scared anymore."
Cindy - age 8
"My mommy loves me more than anybody .
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6
"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."
Chris - age 7
"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day." Mary Ann - age 4
"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."
Lauren - age 4
"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you."
Karen - age 7
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross." Mark - age 6
"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it.
But if you mean it, you should say it a lot.
Jessica - age 8
"And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.
Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
"Nothing, I just helped him cry"
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.- Herm Albright -
I HAVE NOT FAILED 10,000 TIMES.
I HAVE SUCCESSFULLY FOUND 10,000 WAYS THAT
IT WILL NOT WORK...
Posted 16 May 2005 - 03:40 PM
ROFL I still giggle on that one ... that's devotion. We won't go into whose the farter in the relationship ...
Sorry, Breedeen, for spoiling the sweetness, but really needed to share.
ShaiShai Gone Digital
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Posted 16 May 2005 - 05:28 PM
What does it mean
Is it not more
Than just a feeling
Is it the sharing
Perhaps it's the caring
Maybe it's to yearn
For our hearts every concern
What is love
Can it not be described
Perhaps love simply
Can't be defined
What is love
What does it mean
Is it truly something
That can't be seen
Is there just no way
To easily explain
A feeling within
Without any pain
Love to me
What does it mean
It is you and I
Together for eternity
Copyright 2005 Valerie Lynn Harrell
To have a friend is to have a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold and an extra pair of legs when yours are too weak to stand alone...
I have been living buried in books and writing classes... as an added note I must say that it is rather scary when you start dreaming and all you can see within your dreams is words floating everywhere!
Valerie Lynn Harrell is the published author of a book of poetry, titled "A Little Girl Lost... Was Found Through Her Writing"
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American Airlines began offering Internet access on long-haul domestic flights on Wednesday, making American the first U.S. airline to offer full in-flight broadband.
The world’s largest airline said its passengers on Boeing 767-200 aircraft can pay $12.95 for Internet access on nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami. The Wi-Fi service is called Gogo and is provided by Aircell.
Aircell is also outfitting Delta Air Lines with Internet access. Earlier in August, Delta said it would launch Wi-Fi on some airplanes by fall and expand the service to its entire domestic fleet by next summer. It plans broadband Wi-Fi access for its entire domestic mainline fleet of more than 330 planes. Virgin America is also planning to launch Gogo service by year-end.
Other internet enabled airlines taking different routes to Wi-Fi in the sky include;
- JetBlue Airways with limited wireless access on one of its aircraft. JetBlue and other airlines, such as Continental, use LiveTV’s satellite-based television programming service. JetBlue won rights to 1 MHz of the 800-MHz spectrum last year for their internet service.
Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines are also testing onboard Wi-Fi using Row 44. Row 44 leases Ku-band satellite transponders from several operators, but is managed through HughesNet.
Their Ku band transponders provide downlink speeds of 81Mbps and uplink speeds of 1.6 Mbps. Passengers get a Wi-Fi connection for Internet, e-mail, VPNs, and stored in-flight entertainment for $10 for up to two hours, $15 for 2-5hr and $20 for more than 5hr. United Airlines is considering various Wi-Fi providers but hasn?t announced any tests or commercial launches.
- OnAir, a joint venture of Airbus and SITA, uses Inmarsat’s new spotbeam satellite. Air France and OnAir have been trialling the first international inflight mobile phone service since 17 December 2007. SwiftBroadband from Stratos also uses Inmarsat’s BGAN service. Full global coverage is expected by the end of 2008 with the certification of the latest satellite, Inmarsat I-4 F3, launched yesterday.
Related DailyWireless stories include; Bill Banning Airplane Calls Moves Ahead, Aircell: We Be 4G, JetBlue Buys Airfone, Row 44: Cleared for Take Off, FAA: Go For Aircell Launch , Aircell Vs Row44: Two for Two, FlyFi Takes Off, Lufthansa & AA Trying WiFi — Again, Inflight Phones Banned by FAA?, AirCell on Virgin by 2008, Wireless Voice on Airplanes? Yes & No, AirCell Demos Inflight WiFi, Aircell for Planes, FCC Rules on Airplane Cellular, Connexion On Again?, Dis Connexion.
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The minimum wage is not worth nearly as much as it was decades ago. The Figure, from EPI’s forthcoming State of Working America Web site, shows the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage since 1960, in 2009 dollars. When adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage was worth $8.54 per hour in 1968, compared to the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Based on a typical, 2,000-hour work year, the 1968 inflation-adjusted minimum wage would equate to an annual salary of $17,080 per year, versus $14,500 for today’s minimum wage. (The Figure shows a 2009 minimum wage of $6.84 because the minimum wage was increased in the middle of that year.)
Although each legislated increase in the minimum wage has served to increase its value, the Figure shows these increases have generally been short-lived, with inflation naturally eroding its purchasing power over time. As a result, the current value of the minimum wage is well below its historic peak in the late 1960s. EPI’s 2009 paper Fix It and Forget It notes that increasing the minimum wage stimulates the economy by giving workers more spending power. It proposes amending the minimum wage law to guarantee a consistent wage standard that will ensure that it keeps up with inflation and overall wage growth.
EPI’s latest edition of The State of Working America will be published online in January.
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A passenger on last Friday's Northwest Airlines flight 39 which originated in Amsterdam, landed in Detroit Metropolitan Airport, and proceeded on to Cedar Rapids, Iowa was diagnosed with the measles.
Dr. John Wycoff says the disease is so rare, he's never even seen a case in the 16 years he's practiced medicine, but it is extremely contagious and potentially fatal.
"Measles can cause life-threatening pneumonia, diarrhea, or infection of the brain," said Dr. Wycoff.
Most people have received an MMR vaccination, which will protect them from the disease. Those not vaccinated have a 90-percent chance of getting sick.
Symptoms include a runny nose, watery eyes, scratchy throat, cough, and fever of 100 or more degrees, but probably the most characteristic symptom is a fine, pink rash over most of the body.
"You can get an immuno-globulal injection as soon as symptoms appear and is compatible with the disease," said Dr. Wycoff.
The approximately 200 passengers on board and anyone in the terminals have been advised to get immunized id they haven't been already.
The MI Dept. of Community Health has no confirmed cases of the measles in the state.
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MOHAMED AL ALAWY
Born in 1947, Mohamed Al Alawy obtained his Master's Degree specializing in sculpture in 1978, from Helwan University. He pursued his studies in the Academy of Art in Leningrad –Russia, where he obtained his doctorate in Philosophy of Art in 1984.
Since 1968, al Alawy an active and prolific artist took part in most major Art exhibitions at Home. He also represented Egypt twice in the Academy of Rome and in the Outdoors-Sculpture Competition in Latakia 1989, where he executed a monumental sculpture which was presented to the city.
Al Alawy, a strong believer in discipline, persistence and creativity pays strong attention to details. His work is mostly figurative combined with architectural structures. Al Alawy works mostly with bronze.
Al Alawy's perseverance and innovation earned him several important awards in the Mokhtar Sculpture competition, The Cairo International Biennale, The Salon of Mini Works of Art and some other Merit Awards.
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Letters to The Times; The Cause of Christianity
MARION DOYLE. ();
March 27, 1937,
, Section , Page 14, Column , words
To the Editor of The New York Times: Hilaire Belloc and the other speakers who punctured the theory that Spanish Loyalists were good and holy should receive a vote of public thanks. I was born and educated in a Protestant environment, but I am certain of nothing more than Mr. Belloc is right that the Spanish Loyalists, so called, are fighting against the church of God.
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http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20F13FA3E5A157A93C5AB1788D85F438385F9
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Brandyn Coppedge was alone in the living room for only a few minutes while his brother Rogan, 21, went into the bathroom. When Rogan returned, 3-year-old Brandyn was hanging from a cord on the window blinds.
The cord was around Brandyn's neck and his feet weren't touching the floor.
Rogan performed CPR to try to revive his brother, but paramedics said the little boy from Norfolk, Va., had died quickly after being strangled by the window blind cord.
Cords on window blinds and shades have been a known strangulation hazard for decades, as children can get caught in the cords that hold the products together or are used to pull them up and down. About one child dies this way every month, U.S. government regulators say. Brandyn died in 2009.
Last summer, safety regulators in the U.S., Canada and Europe told the window covering industry to enact safety standards that would eliminate strangulation hazards. Now, government regulators and safety advocates say that more children could die if the latest proposals being considered by the Window Covering Manufacturers Association are adopted.
That's because the proposals allow manufacturers to still use cords that children can wrap around their necks, according to safety consultants and regulators who are part of a committee to oversee the standard-setting process.
Inez Tenenbaum, chairman of the federal agency that regulates window blinds, had urged the trade group to eliminate exposed cords on window blinds and shades.
Last week, in a sign of mounting frustration, Tenenbaum chastised the group in a stern letter.
"I encourage you to guard against accepting … requirements that would continue to allow strangulation risks … out of a misplaced desire for convenience, aesthetics or placating anyone who may wish to continue moving slowly, rather than proactively addressing this longstanding problem once and for all," wrote Tenenbaum, who is chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Linda Kaiser, who founded Parents For Window Blind Safety and is a safety advocate on the committee, said she would withdraw her support from the group if the standards weren't strict enough by the October deadline.
"I'm not going to risk the lives of children just so (companies) can have their products out and make money," said Kaiser, whose 1-year-old daughter, Cheyenne, strangled in her crib in 2002 after she got caught in the inner cord of blinds near her crib.
More than 200 children in the U.S. have died in the last two decades from being strangled in window-cord related accidents with blinds and shades, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The annual rate has remained steady, the commission said.
The window-blind trade association sets voluntary standards for its products. Regulators and safety groups sometimes give suggestions, but the industry usually has the final say and more input. In rare cases, government regulators step in and require mandatory standards, which Tenenbaum said she would consider.
Federal law reduces regulators to bit players in the process of writing voluntary product standards. Amendments passed during the Reagan administration bar the Consumer Product Safety Commission from issuing mandatory safety requirements unless those regulators can prove that the voluntary ones won't cut the risk of injury or that most manufacturers aren't following them.
When asked by the Tribune about concerns raised by regulators and safety advocates, the trade group's executive director, Ralph Vasami, said it would be "premature" to discuss the committee's deliberations or predict the final draft for the standards.
Vasami pointed out that the committee includes not just professionals from the window covering industry but representatives from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and consumer safety groups such as Kaiser's.
Kaiser and other safety experts, however, said their input is being ignored.
"The whole point … of us working together is to eliminate the hazard, not to just band-aid it again which is what we've done for 20 years," Kaiser said.
One of the "band-aids" that regulators and safety advocates are concerned about is what are known as tie-down or tension devices. The pieces, which are sometimes made of plastic, fasten onto the end of a looped cord that pulls blinds or shades up and down. The device is supposed to be screwed into the wall or windowsill to hold the cord taut. The blind can then be moved up and down on a sort of pulley system.
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This is an expertly
programmed and very finely performed
selection. David Wilde is the motor
and he displays a sure affinity with
Dallapiccola sufficient to warrant admiration.
In the Sonatina Canonica he handles
the occasionally epigrammatic and more
often fulsome rhetoric of the counterpoint
with real command. The second movement’s
canonic writing is nevertheless expressive
in his hands and the third movement
– utilising Paganini’s Eleventh Caprice
– has its deserved share of mordancy.
di Annalibera is a decade’s later
work, having been written in 1952. Dedicated
to his young daughter it consists of
deftly characterised and yet sometimes
inscrutable miniatures utilising a tone
row. As an example of Dallapiccola’s
serialism it makes for divertingly concentrated
listening. Bach lies behind the theory
– which is in truth not especially off-putting.
Wilde is at his very and considerable
best in the Andantino amoroso e contrapuntus
where we hear gently drizzled treble.
The Ciaccona, Intermezzo
e Adagio for cello and piano was
commissioned by Gasper Cassadó
and was the first of the composer’s
serial work to be publicly performed.
Fortunately not only did Cassadó
have important technical advice to offer
but he also played the work widely,
bringing it to prominence. The variational
form is written with mastery though
it’s not always entirely comfortable
for a listener unversed in the intricacies
of Dallapiccola’s writing – and in particular
the canonic writing. Powerful and intense
it may be – but also occasionally wintry.
There are also songs.
Quattro Liriche di Antonio Machado
consists of four Spanish songs and
felicitously explores the tone row.
For all that they are not at all desolate
and range from the – once again – epigrammatic
to the more generous and commanding
drama of the last. This forms a satisfying
contrast, with both opening and closing
poems marshalling withdrawal and dynamism
as their engines. The Goethe-Lieder
are written for the highly unusual
combination of voice and three clarinets
- E flat, B flat and a bass clarinet
in B flat. Whilst the songs are variously
austere, charged, concentrated, spare
and fierce the clarinets bring a sense
of colour and texture that keeps interest
intensely alive. The ballet episodes
from Marsia are powerful and
pungent examples of his late 1940s work
but with a death episode of refinement
and limpid liquidity.
Not for everyone of
course, as there are those who may find
Dallapiccola somewhat unyielding. The
performances and recording however are
first class; the notes are inclined
to be rather academic.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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|
en
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|
You may have noticed that the knapsack problem in today’s comic has two solutions. I thought that (spoiler alert!) the 1, 0, 0, 2, 0, 1 solution was the only one, but 7, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 — seven orders of mixed fruit — also works. Why did this happen? Well, I checked my numbers with a short Perl script (written while on vacation, with adorable kids climbing on me). It found the right answer in all my tests but broke when it really mattered. Witness the result of this line of Perl:
perl -e ‘print 2.15*7, “\n”, 15.05, “\n”, (2.15*7 == 15.05) ? “true” : “false”, “\n”;’
Long story short, it claimed 2.15*7 did not equal 15.05, and so it missed the second answer in the search, though it found the first just fine
I know this sort of thing happens with floating-point math, but I didn’t expect it to break this badly and inconsistently on such a simple task. (edit: at that point, I was actually thinking of this as a weight problem (the variable was $weight), not a monetary problem, so separate cents math wasn’t an obvious choice).
Thank you to Chris Shabsin and Nick Moffitt for helping me pin down the problem.
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Born 1933 in Czechoslovakia, Jiri Polak lived there under both Nazi and Soviet occupations of his homeland. After finishing high school in the early 1950s, he took a job as a technical translator at a research institute and then did some government work, already having decided with his wife that they needed to defect to the West, which they did during an official visit to Rome in 1965. This led them to Sweden, where he pursued doctoral work the University of Lund.
From 1979-86 Jiri pursed studies in political science, sociology and history at the University of Lund, where he obtained his Ph.D. in political science. His dissertation predicted a rather imminent disintegration of the Soviet Bloc owing to economic failures. Nobody believed him. In 1989, the Berlin Wall crumbled. Nevertheless, he soldiered on doing some short-term teaching jobs and some work as a special assistant at the Immigration Office of the town of Malmö.
When Dr. Polok retired, he began his real work, as an organizer of global direct democracy. As such, he was a founder of the first ever International Congress on Direct Democracy that was held in Pribram, a suburb of Prague, in 1998. As a result, an international network developed with Dr. Polak becoming the editor in chief of the quarterly Worldwide DD Newsletter. This was renamed ten years later as the Direct Democratic Euro-Vision Newsletter because it shifted its focus to Europe.
Dr. Polak is also a strong advocate in both Czech and European circles of enhancing direct democracy through many new deliberative democratic processes and techniques and is one of the originators of the concept of Direct Deliberative Democracy, or D3.
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Unconditional love and support, sibling rivalry, and family secrets pepper the world of literary sisters. One half of a famous pair of real-life sisterly scribes has a birthday today: Emily Brontë. The Wuthering Heights author spent a lifetime penning poems and other tales with siblings Charlotte and Anne (using masculine pseudonyms), all devoted to their craft and each other — especially during the troubled times of their youth. Since the Brontës often used material from their lives to inform their stories — including their tight-knit relationship — we felt inspired to take a look at fictional sisters who also shared powerful bonds full of passionate and complex emotions unique amongst women and girls. Add to our list below.
The Dashwood sisters
Like many writers, Jane Austen drew on facets of her own personality and experiences to inform her lively characters. Her practicality and sense of responsibility to her family were just a few traits she imbued the prudent Elinor with in her 1811 novel Sense and Sensibility. Elinor’s sister Marianne is the younger and more impulsive of the two siblings, and some say she represented the woman Austen wanted to be. The sisters clearly embody the “sense” and “sensibility” of the book title as their experiences of love and heartbreak follow them to a relative’s cottage after their father’s death. Although Elinor is her family’s sounding board, and Marianne lacks in self-control, the two learn very important lessons about themselves and come to value each other’s differences all the more.
Beezus and Ramona
Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series depicted the ups and downs of sisterhood with a rarely seen and refreshing realism in her humorous and honest account of nine-year-old Beezus (aka Beatrice) and four-year-old Ramona. The situations and dialogue were genuine, natural, and represented the ambivalence siblings often feel for each other, while honoring the complexities of childhood and the uniqueness of sisters.
The Wakefield sisters
Sweet Valley, California’s Wakefield twins were blond, beautiful, and always seemed to have it all, but Francine Pascal’s long-running series revealed a myriad of complications and dramas that shaped the girls’ lives and relationship with each other. Jessica wasn’t above taking advantage of her good looks and popularity to win friends, boys, and influence people. Elizabeth was the practical twin with a steady boyfriend and writing ambitions who often saved her wild sister from trouble — something Jessica took advantage of. The girls struggled with finding their individuality at times and overcoming jealousy, but they always found a way to forgive and forge ahead.
The March sisters
Since its publication in 1868, Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women has broken the boundaries of class, nationality, and women’s fiction with its atypical, spirited characters that were a departure from traditional depictions of womanhood (particularly the rebellious and opinionated tomboy, Joe). Sisters Meg, Joe, Beth, and Amy March were loosely based on Alcott’s own siblings, but the family tale’s universal messages of love, virtue, and gratitude transcend its autobiographical qualities. The family struggles through poverty and loss with grace and humility. Each sister is vastly different from the other, but they embrace their flaws and love with equal measure.
The Bennet sisters
Characters Elizabeth and Jane Bennet are two of five sisters, and author Jane Austen was one of two girls amongst six boys in her family. It’s sometimes suggested that she created the family she wished for herself in her 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice, but she was very close to sister Cassandra. The Bennet sisters couldn’t be more opposite in personality, but the deep bonds of sisterhood have created a sincere closeness and incomparable friendship — some of which was prompted by their own family’s failings. Mr. Bennet’s apathy and Mrs. Bennet’s overbearing need to marry her daughters off left the two girls to confide in each other rather than their parents. The spirited and quick-witted Elizabeth is the more intuitive of the two, but as her evolving romance with the aloof and seemingly bad mannered Mr. Darcy proves, she can be too judgmental at times. Jane is the quieter and more trusting sister, cautious to reveal her true feelings — something that Elizabeth picks up on throughout the novel, especially when Mr. Bingley leaves. Through the ebb and flow of their romantic relationships, their loyalty and affection for each other outlasts everything.
Cinderella and her wicked stepsisters
The mythical tale of an oppressed and abused young woman working as a maid who overcomes her trials and tribulations and falls in love has been published in many forms across different cultures. Most audiences are familiar with Charles Perrault’s version of the folk tale, first published in 1697, where Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage, glass slippers, and fairy godmother were introduced. The sweet Cinderella’s father remarries into a miserable family, and she is forced into servitude by her wicked stepmother and vain stepsisters. The tale, of course, ends on a happier note, with Cinderella showing her family the grace and kindness they never afforded her.
Image credit: Brandon Zimmerman
Elly and Iphy Binewski
Far from your typical American family, the deformed and deranged Binewski clan in Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love constructs their own family ideology and faces all the same power struggles, sibling rivalries, and clashes. Conjoined twin beauties Iphigenia (Iphy) and Electra (Elly) — whose story and names reflect the bloody Greek mythological tale — are assigned the task of drawing crowds to their family’s sideshow act. They play piano, sing, and dance in the show, which inspires the jealousy of twisted cult leader and manipulative brother Arty. Elly hated being a twin, but craved being the center of her sister’s attentions. She was often cruel to Iphy, eating things that would make them both sick on purpose. Iphy loved being a twin, but was often oblivious to Arty and her sister’s vicious motivations. Eventually their love-hate relationship spirals out of control.
The Chance sisters
Vaudeville song-and-dance duo Dora and Nora Chance — born out of wedlock — struggle to find legitimacy within their family, especially when it comes to their father Sir Melchoir Hazard, a famous Shakespearean actor who refuses to acknowledge them. Throughout the magical realist story, which is narrated by 75-year-old twin Dora, other dichotomies are revealed: humor and tragedy, truth and artifice, and the concept of legitimacy and illegitimacy is expounded upon. Despite everything, the sisters band together through the disappointments and the “joys of dancing and singing.”
The Blackwood sisters
Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle features sisters Merricat and Constance Blackwood — ostracized from their community after a horrible family tragedy one of them is blamed for. The siblings’ murderous backstory creates a sinister undercurrent that pervades their devotion to each other. Like many of her novels, Jackson skillfully wields notions of everyday evil and the dark side of small-town America to emphasize the anxious boundaries of the internal and external — further explored in the sisters’ strange, shared psychology. While it twists the doctrine of sisterhood, there’s something darkly beautiful about their connection.
The Chase sisters
The brittle, dizzying relationship between the grounded Iris and self-destructive Laura in Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin slowly reveals a series of mysterious events spanning both World Wars. Multilayered stories within stories propel us across time and narratives, where we discover the harrowing resentment, betrayal, and complicated dramas of the sisters.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
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|
en
| 0.960201
| 1,670
| 2.46875
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|
What once looked like the beginnings of a great dinner no longer seems so appetizing.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Cargill, one of the globe's largest agribusiness firms, announced one of the most massive meat recalls in history: 36 million pounds of ground turkey potentially laced with antibiotic-resistant salmonella, all of it from a single massive processing plant in Arkansas.
There are many hard questions to be asked about this affair, but first I want to get a grip on scale. I have trouble visualizing 36 million pounds of dodgy ground turkey. That's a lot of suspect turkey burgers! How many? Let's allot each burger a third of a pound (a little bigger than McDonald's iconic Quarter Pounder). That would make 108 million sketchy burgers—enough to sicken every resident of the globe's six most populous cities (Shanghai, Istanbul, Karachi, Delhi, Mumbai, and Beijing).*
Okay, so we've established that we have a massive recall going on here. Let's get to some more serious questions.
Already, the tainted turkey has sickened at least 77 people and killed one. The CDC reckons that for every reported case of food poisoning, 38 go unreported. That means that the total number of people affected could be more like 3,000.
And more will almost surely fall ill. In a 2004 critique of the USDA's "voluntary" system for managing food-borne illness outbreaks, the GAO estimated that companies recover only about 36 percent of targeted products in a typical recall. In a press release, Cargill revealed that the suspect product emerged from its Arkansas facility between Feb. 20 and Aug. 2. How much of that is still sitting in people's freezers—and will remain there through this "voluntary recall," ready for the next grill-out? The USDA has released a dizzying list of the brand names that Cargill uses to market its ground turkey. None of them contain the word "Cargill"; the company instead opts for handles like "Shady Brook Farms" and "Honeysuckle" and likes to throw around the adjective "natural."
That bit of word play speaks to how turkey has come to be marketed as a healthy choice—and the irony that it offers a dose of drug-resistant salmonella along with its vaunted "leanness." To me, it's tragic when people try hard to choose healthy, affordable foods and find their kitchens full of industrial, potentially deadly crap. This is a case of the regulatory agencies not protecting the public from a highly consolidated, heavily marketed industry's suspect wares.
What do I mean? Start with the fact that the USDA has given the word "natural" a very broad definition. A company could stuff turkeys by the thousands in confinements, never let them see light of day, feed them all manner of dodgy stuff including daily subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics, slaughter by the millions in huge factories, grind the resulting meat declare the resulting product "natural." Welcome to Cargill's business model for selling turkey.
Then there's the fact that the FDA and USDA know that ground turkey and other industrial meat products routinely are tainted with pathogens resistant to a variety of antibiotics. I demonstrated that last week, but here's something I forgot: A 2008 FDA report compiled as part of the agency's participation in the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, which also includes the USDA and CDC. (Hat tip to the wonderful "scary disease" reporter Maryn McKenna for alerting me to this little-publicized report). Every year, the FDA procures various meat products from supermarkets and checks them for resistant strains of pathogens. According to the FDA, fully half of the ground-turkey samples it checked in 2008 carried salmonella resistant to at least three antibiotic classes and more than 15 percent harbored salmonella resistant to at least four classes. (The numbers for chicken breasts were almost as dire.)
So, while Cargill and 36 million pounds of suspect turkey make for a spectacular story, the problem is actually quite routine. And the regulatory agencies know it.
What, then, is the source of these drug-resistant salmonella strains that taint our meat? As I wrote last week, a USDA "technical review" of current science on the question points directly to the routine use of antibiotics on factory farms. The USDA squashed that paper, removing it from the USDA.gov site without comment. But it can't squash the science.
With a mountain of suspect turkey looming over them, now is the perfect time for the agencies to grow a backbone and impose some limits on antibiotic use on factory farms.
Correction: In the original version of this post, I calculated that Cargill had recalled enough turkey to "fill six Empire State Buildings!" (emphasis, unfortunately, in original). That is mistaken, by wide margin. I made a boneheaded math error—I multiplied when I should have divided. In reality, Cargill recalled enough turkey to fill several floors of the Empire State Building. I (bitterly) regret the error.
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Trying out my new nibs with watercolors and watersoluble pastels…
and this one ain’t done yet:
…only the stuff worth talking about.
I have some Strong Feelings about accents. And no, I’m not referring to a fetish for Italian accents (actually, accent fetishes are a pretty big pet peeve of mine).
I just discovered that, like African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Southern American English gets an acronym too (SAE)! Unfortunately, it’s the same acronym as Standard American English, which causes some problematic confusion, but it can be forgiven.
I’ve also been reading a bit on the linguistic overlap between African American Vernacular English and Southern American English, which makes sense for a couple of reasons:
1) The Southern United States is historically the area most reliant on slavery, and therefore had a much higher population of enslaved black individuals than other areas of the country. Historians are now discovering that other historical local cultures were far more diverse than we had previously assumed– cowboy culture, for example: there was a significant population of black cowboys who had escaped slavery and traveled west. Nonetheless, even after slavery was ended, various unjust laws meant that a large portion of the black population remained in the South. So obviously, there’s been linguistic overlap between black and white Southerners.
2) Both of these vernaculars are looked down on, if not outrightly ridiculed, in a similar way within the United States. Other accents certainly encounter tensions and problems as well– a woman with a Spanish accent is often suddenly transformed (at least in the listener’s mind) into a voluptuous, sexual, hot-tempered stereotype, and Asian accents are most ridiculed for being the most humorous and/or difficult to understand. But at least in my experience, Southern and Black vernaculars are the most clearly associated with being uneducated and unintelligent.
A fair bit of cultural attention has been given to the topic of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), from the 90′s controversies over teaching “ebonics” in school systems to questioning President Obama’s adoption of a “blackcent.” I remember watching a funny-ish (at least at the time) special on VH1 back in high school about the drastic difference between Tyra Banks’ accent and voice depending upon whether she was interviewing a black or a white individual.* I was talking to a friend recently who went back to visit her family’s farm in Alabama after her father’s death. She said that she and her daughter spent the entire time being harassed by the extended family for being impossible to understand. “I kept telling them, ‘we’re just speaking correctly, we’re just trying to speak well,’ but they wouldn’t stop.” A friend of mine from New Orleans told me about a professor friend at LSU, who has one vernacular– accentless, and with correct grammar –when he gives a lecture, and a completely different voice the rest of the time. I met a woman in Washington D.C. who rolled her eyes when telling me about all the savvy DC residents who assumed that she was uneducated and/or unintelligent because she was from the Carolinas.
Think about how you are likely to imitate someone who says something stupid. Almost all of the time, the imitator adopts some version of a southern accent– even if the original speaker has no ties whatsoever to the American South. Even I do this, exaggerating my own accent, and I always feel gross immediately afterwards. It’s clearly an accent associated with redneck and hillbilly stereotypes, but the accent-intelligence assumption extends even to the privileged. A southern belle, for example, is often white and rich and worthy of playing the babe in a few Hollywood movies– but she is not often portrayed as the most intelligent creature.
So I’ve picked up a bit of a drawl after having been back with my family for the summer. I didn’t notice it until I came back to school, where a handful of gracious people have taken care to point it out. Or to be more precise, have made fun of it. For a girl with Something To Say, it is very frustrating to have your statement ignored while your diction becomes the subject.
Many white people don’t realize that accents are heirarchical. I want to amend that statement, though, by saying that many Northern white people don’t realize this. Or perhaps, Northern educated white people. It seems like an increasingly small group, but it’s the group that dominates the majority of U.S. politics, economics, educational system, and mainstream media. And they don’t recognize the accent hierarchy because they’re on the privileged end of the diction spectrum.
My point is bringing this up is that, when people pay attention to the way you say something, they ignore what you are saying. I go to a fairly prestigious school; I feel like there should be a general assumption that any student or professor here is intelligent. It turns out, though, that a lot of rich white kids are dumb as hell.
Here’s a few things I like on this topic:
*I noticed also that when I googled “ebonics” (to try to find the link about the Oakland controversy), that of the 92 user-submitted definitions on urbandictionary.com, the one that shows up in the google results is “a poor excuse for a failure to grasp the basics of english.” If I were a kinder soul, I wouldn’t mention that this definition is actually grammatically incorrect (which I think undermines the already somewhat racist sentiment).
At times the world seems to demand a moment of reflection: to bring your feet together and stand still, to breathe deeply the newly-crisp air.
In Virginia I was only just beginning to feel it: the peak of Harvest time, full of watermelons. But the academic calendar forced me to jump start a new season, driving north and skipping a few weeks forward into cooler weather.
So I thought (in my moment of reflection) that it would be a good time to revisit The Orchard. You know, that mental place where ripe ideas hang low on the branches, the namesake of this humble blog.
Ironically, I was sorting through poems entitled “The Orchard” when I came across a poem by Kathleen Norris, whose book of nonfiction sits just to my left, dog-eared halfway through. Her book Dakota got me through last Spring Break the same way that In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens saved me a few years ago. The poem is titled “The Monastery Orchard in Early Spring,” and ends:
Encounter with fruit is dangerous:
the pear’s womanly shape forever mocked him.
A man and a woman are talking.
Rain moves down and
branches lift up
to learn again
how to hold their fill of green
and blossom, and bear each fruit to glory,
letting it fall.
* * *
In one sense, the orchard resembles the garden in parallel world mythologies and fairy tales. It is enclosed; it is forbidden; it is the realm of the gods. More than the garden, though, the orchard is immortal; it is old (these are trees, after all, not daffodils).
Poor Persephone, who ate the pomegranate seeds from Hades’ orchard and was thus tied forever to the world of the dead. The Monkey King, on the other hand, stuffed himself with the Peaches of Immortality, setting off a long chain of events which ends with his elevation to Buddhahood. But Pomona, the wood nymph, tried to enclose herself in her orchard in order to keep suitors away, and was eventually forced to marry Vertumnus. Daphne too, being chased by Apollo, turned into a tree. Coincidence?
It’s a complicated place, the orchard: women running every which way, trying to find safety in trees, or running away from them. Some do find safety; others are victim to Trickster’s invasion (The Monkey King is China’s Trickster figure; Vertumnus disguises himself as an old woman to seduce Pomona, the Norse Trickster god Loki allows for the theft of the goddess Idun’s orchard, which contained the apples of immortality).
It’s a place where women, having always been the target of theft alongside the other ‘forbidden fruits,’ are beginning to climb trees.
And some are wandering into the woods, which are equally immortal but a bit more crooked than the orchard’s rows. Women are re-learning how to graft trees, which is the method for repairing fruit trees, and for making hardier breeds. Beautiful beautiful, to be grafting new trees from history.
Others are writing in the shade, resulting in something like Alice Walker’s Celie, who says, ”my first step from the old white man was trees.”
Kenyon’s psychology department contains several of the national leading experts on eating disorders, especially media images and eating disorders. Although these are serious issues that require confrontation, I found that I was disappointed with the effect that the department seemed to have on the women students around me. It seemed like every girl I met had bad self esteem, a history with eating disorders, and–here is what really struck me– they seemed to take it as an essential part of their identity. Furthermore, these girls complained about their relationships with men, and yet continued to act in unhealthy ways that deprived them of their own autonomy.
What seemed to be lacking was a pro-active approach, something that would change their own relationship to food (and perhaps to men) in a positive way. Instead of critiquing the same commercials and magazine ads over and over, they could have read Francis Moore Lappe‘s studies of women’s communities in Central America who are remodeling their food system in order to better ensure that their children all get regular meals, or communities of women in India who are fighting for (and winning) food and water rights.
They could have studied also the effects on young urban/suburban women who work or intern on farms. In a scene from The Real Dirt on Farmer John, a young woman intern talks about her self-consciousness regarding her voluptuous body– until working on a farm, where adjectives like “full” “plump” and “juicy” are words that signify health, not ugliness. In fact, the strongest and most peaceful women that I meet are not the ones that I meet in WGS classes; they’re the ones that I meet on farms.
For further reading:
When my generation of women walked away from the kitchen we were escorted down that path by a profiteering industry that knew a tired, vulnerable marketing target when they saw it.“Hey, ladies,” it said to us, “go ahead, get liberated. We’ll take care of dinner.”
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ENN Weekly: February 20th - 24th
The Week's Top Ten Articles
In the news February 20th - 24th: Logging and landslides, cultured gorillas, a new coral reef, making the best of dog waste, and much more.
1. Heavy Rains, Illegal Logging Blamed for Philippines Landslides
2. Supreme Court Raises Concern over Limiting Coverage of Clean Water Act
3. Greenland Starts Quota to Save Polar Bears
4. Study Finds Cultures Affect Captive Gorillas
5. Development May Spread Old Pesticides
6. Coral Reef Discovered off Thailand Coast
7. China Warns Officials against Covering up Pollution
8. Rising Energy Costs Illuminate Surging Fluorescent Bulb Market
9. Alaska's Mount McKinley Climbers Capped at 1,500
10. San Francisco to Test Turning Dog Waste into Power
Guest Commentary: Two Lost Worlds Give Us Hope
Dr. David Suzuki, David Suzuki Foundation
Two lost worlds were in the news last week. One was discovered halfway around the world, but the other is right here at home.
The first was a never-before examined patch of tropical rainforest deep in the heart of New Guinea. It's likely one of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth and it shows how little we really know about life on this planet.
An international team of scientists recently returned from the Foja Mountains of New Guinea having discovered 40 extremely rare mammals (including the golden-mantled tree kangaroo which was thought to have been hunted to near extinction), four new butterfly species, a new bird species, 20 new frog species and many previously unknown plant species. Having never encountered humans, some of the creatures were so unafraid of people that researchers could simply pick them up off the ground.
That places such as this still exist is cause for hope. With well over six billion people on the planet and an insatiable appetite for resources, pristine places are becoming increasingly rare and species are disappearing at an alarming rate. Yet scientists have only studied a small percentage of life on Earth. Researchers estimate that there are literally millions of species out there that we have never examined and have no clue what they do in an ecosystem. As Oxford entomologist George McGavin points out: in a tropical rainforest, every second or third insect you pick up is probably unknown to science.
The other lost world in the news last week is also a remote and incredibly diverse rainforest - but this one is in Canada. British Columbia's north and central coast, known as the Great Bear Rainforest, is unique, it is special and it contains creatures found nowhere else in the world. Most people know about the Kermode bears that live on this coast. They're a white version of the black bear, found only in this area. And their differences extend to more than just fur colour: researchers are finding that they behave differently too.
Wolves of the Great Bear are also different - smaller, more agile and specially adapted to forage for the bounty of sea life found along the shore. Then there are the salmon, which researchers have found are vital to the health of the forests and many land-dwelling creatures. Hundreds of unique runs of salmon find their way back to the Great Bear every year to spawn; their bodies providing nourishment to the wildlife, the trees and the soil.
The Great Bear Rainforest made international news last week because the B.C. government, along with First Nations, environmental groups and the forest industry, have drafted a plan to protect a portion of it. That's good news for science and good news for the people who depend on the health of this ecosystem for their livelihoods.
The story is only partially complete, however, as discussions are still underway as to what kind of logging will take place in the parts of the Great Bear outside the protected areas. This is critical because unprotected areas make up more than 70 per cent of the land base and contain the majority of salmon streams and much of the best wildlife habitat.
Scientists have only just begun to understand this magnificent region and all the life within it. The recent agreement, if combined with truly sustainable logging practices outside the protected areas, could keep this ecosystem functioning, allow economic activities such as tourism and logging to co-exist and give scientists a chance to understand more about Canada's own lost world.
It's an opportunity we would be foolish to pass up.
Take the Nature Challenge and learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.
Source: David Suzuki Foundation
ENN welcomes a wide range of perspectives in its Commentary Series. To find out more or to submit a commentary for consideration please contact ENN's editor, Carrie Schluter: firstname.lastname@example.org.
Photo: A boy cools off at a fountain in Hong Kong Park. Photo credit: © dwho photography, Courtesy of Photoshare.
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Spring has finally sprung here in Northern Illinois. There is a threat for thunderstorms, some possibly severe for the next several days. Currently tomorrow [Wednesday] and Thursday look to hold the best chance for severe weather. I will probably head out for a chase at some point, but am currently torn. Despite the chance for severe weather, the pattern is summer-like and tornadoes don’t appear to be a big threat. They certainly can’t be ruled out though.
What we have is a quasi-stationary frontal boundary draped across the region, and much of the country in fact. This boundary wiggles and wobbles back and forth for days over the same areas. Waves of energy move along this boundary and fire off multiple rounds of thunderstorms. These thunderstorms play havoc with the atmosphere, making it difficult to determine where the best threat areas setup. Storms can move through one area too late in the morning, and choke off instability, or they can quickly depart and lay down a boundary that fires off new storms.
Taking a look at the Northern Illinois area for Wednesday the 2nd, I am at first not too impressed. A large area of unstable air will be in place, with dewpoints in the 60s and CAPE approaching 2000. This is good.
The bad though, as is typically the case with such patterns, is lacking shear, both speed and directional. There is no real forcing mechanism to spark storms, and even if a storm bubbles up on instability alone, the overall shear parameters aren’t all that great for tornadoes. A wind gust and some hail would be the main threats.
Now there is a potential saving grace, and its not an easy one either. Currently there is a line of storms taking shape out west where a severe thunderstorm watch just went up.
What can and sometimes does happen is these storms will thrive all night and move through the Northern Illinois area in the morning. These storms could potentially lay down an outflow boundary that can spark storms later in the day. In addition to that, shear can be enhanced along the boundary as well, adding to tornado potential. These kinds of scenarios are almost impossible to figure out even 12 hours before, and is something that has to be monitored the day of. If the storms move through too late, their associated cloud cover and subsidence [sinking air] behind them can ruin the chance for the entire day. This is why severe thunderstorm outlooks drastically change during setups like this.
So overall, the potential for severe weather isn’t that great in Northern Illinois without this boundary, but will need to be monitored.
A better chase target exists out west near the NE/IA/SD/MN border regions. Here better fronts, forcing and shear will serve as a better focal point for severe storm development, as well as tornadoes. The question is, which target to chose? Drive 9 hours west for the better play on paper, or hope the local magic can materialize and be heavily rewarded.
These decisions are never easy. Stay Tuned.
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Suppose I live in one room of a house my entire life. I never leave this room and this room has only one window looking outside. To me, this window-view of the outside world—the trees, the hills, the sky—is the only view. To me, this is what the outside world looks like: what I see out of my one window. It is all I have ever known or seen of outdoor reality, so to me, it is reality, it is truth. If someone were to ask me what the great outdoors looks like, I would describe (and likely defend) my view from my window…as I should, it is all I’ve ever known.
But one day, I hear a tap at my door. Expecting it to be locked like all the other times, I try to open it and to my surprise, it opens. There is a kind, old man (there is always an old man in good stories) standing in a hallway which I’ve never seen. He greets me and leads me to another door down the hall. He slowly opens it, revealing another room. Cautiously and with great hesitation, I step in and am floored. This new room is very different from mine and it too has a window looking outside. I slowly approach it, drawing back its curtain, and for the first time discover a new view of the outside world. There’s a house and a road and a dog that I have never seen before, but were there all along—simply out of view from my previous all-I’ve-ever-known window. My outside world just altered and with it brings both excitement and knee shaking disequilibrium. Reality as I knew it changed. The old man smiles at the gift he has given me.
He takes my hand and leads me to another room, and another, and another…each a bit different and each with a new window exposing a distinctive and unique view of the great outdoors. After the first few rooms, I begin to settle into the fact that the outside world is much different and bigger than what I had previously known. I actually begin to anticipate that with each new room and window, the actual reality of the outside world will be fuller known to me. What I once feared—or never knew—now brings the excitement of discovery.
The old man sits me down in the living room and tells me that the house—his house—is mine to explore. All the rooms and windows are available to me, and much like Extreme Home Makeover, releases me to joyfully discover my new house. I run off doing just that! Each room and window is a gift of reality-discovery.
After some time, he finds me and takes my hand once more. I am tired. He takes me to a yet another door—a new door. As he turns the knob I am expecting to find another room with yet another window-view. He opens the door. Fresh air rushes in. The streaming sunlight is both blinding and spectacular; my skin reacts to its warmth. Glass no longer separates me from, or limits my view of, the great outdoors. He leads me outside to now finally experience the full reality of the great outdoors…not through windows, but in actual, absolute reality. The scents, the sounds, the breeze, the sun—they all explode with life! Once again, my reality shatters as his reality emerges.
He lets go of my hand and runs outside, stops and turns back towards me, “Come on, what are you waiting for!” he shouts. I snap out of my trance and run, skipping with laughter, into the great outdoors.
How do you react to this story? What does this story mean to you?
To me, this is my analogy of what my experience walking with different expressions of the Christian faith has been like. To me, each expression offered new insight and discovery into God’s reality—that the sum of the Christian expressions were more truth-ful than one sole expression. This is the beauty of the body of Christ and perhaps what Paul meant when he described Christ’s body-parts as eyes, noses, arms, hands, feet, etc. —each needing each other. May we learn to embrace each expression rather than expel it. ‘Cause one day, we’ll see God’s real reality in its fullness and find out that we, as finite humans, were all wrong to one degree or another.
Heck, in the end, I’ll be amazed if I got 7% of God’s truth correct!
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Aria Health Center for Gynecology & Women's Health
What are fibroids?
Fibroids are the most frequently seen tumors of the female reproductive system. Fibroids, also known as uterine myomas, leiomyomas, or fibromas, are firm, compact tumors that are made of smooth muscle cells and fibrous connective tissue that develop in the uterus. It is estimated that between 20 to 50 percent of women of reproductive age have fibroids, although not all are diagnosed. Some estimates state that up to 30 to 77 percent of women will develop fibroids sometime during their childbearing years, although only about one-third of these fibroids are large enough to be detected by a physician during a physical examination.
In more than 99 percent of fibroid cases, the tumors are benign (non-cancerous). These tumors are not associated with cancer and do not increase a woman's risk for uterine cancer. They may range in size, from the size of a pea to the size of a softball or small grapefruit.
What causes fibroid tumors?
While it is not clearly known what causes fibroids, it is believed that each tumor develops from an aberrant muscle cell in the uterus, which multiplies rapidly because of the influence of estrogen.
Who is at risk for fibroid tumors?
Women who are approaching menopause are at the greatest risk for fibroids because of their long exposure to high levels of estrogen. Women who are obese and of African-American heritage also seem to be at an increased risk, although the reasons for this are not clearly understood.
Research has also shown that some factors may protect a woman from developing fibroids. Some studies, of small numbers of women, have indicated that women who have had two liveborn children have one-half the risk of developing uterine fibroids compared to women who have had no children. Scientists are not sure whether having children actually protected women from fibroids or whether fibroids were a factor in infertility in women who had no children. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is conducting further research on this topic and other factors that may affect the diagnosis and treatment of fibroids.
What are the symptoms of fibroids?
Some women who have fibroids have no symptoms, or have only mild symptoms, while other women have more severe, disruptive symptoms. The following are the most common symptoms for uterine fibroids, however, each individual may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms of uterine fibroids may include:
- heavy or prolonged menstrual periods
- abnormal bleeding between menstrual periods
- pelvic pain (caused as the tumor presses on pelvic organs)
- frequent urination
- low back pain
- pain during intercourse
- a firm mass, often located near the middle of the pelvis, which can be felt by the physician
In some cases, the heavy or prolonged menstrual periods, or the abnormal bleeding between periods, can lead to iron-deficiency anemia, which also requires treatment.
How are fibroids diagnosed?
Fibroids are most often found during a routine pelvic examination. This, along with an abdominal examination, may indicate a firm, irregular pelvic mass to the physician. In addition to a complete medical history and physical and pelvic and/or abdominal examination, diagnostic procedures for uterine fibroids may include:
- x-ray - electromagnetic energy used to produce images of bones and internal organs onto film.
- transvaginal ultrasound (Also called ultrasonography.) - an ultrasound test using a small instrument, called a transducer, that is placed in the vagina.
- magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) - a non-invasive procedure that produces a two-dimensional view of an internal organ or structure.
- hysterosalpingography - x-ray examination of the uterus and fallopian tubes that uses dye and is often performed to rule out tubal obstruction.
- hysteroscopy - visual examination of the canal of the cervix and the interior of the uterus using a viewing instrument (hysteroscope) inserted through the vagina.
- endometrial biopsy - a procedure in which a sample of tissue is obtained through a tube which is inserted into the uterus.
- blood test (to check for iron-deficiency anemia if heavy bleeding is caused by the tumor).
Treatment for fibroids:
Since most fibroids stop growing or may even shrink as a woman approaches menopause, the physician may simply suggest "watchful waiting." With this approach, the physician monitors the woman's symptoms carefully to ensure that there are no significant changes or developments and that the fibroids are not growing.
In women whose fibroids are large or are causing significant symptoms, treatment may be necessary. Treatment will be determined by your physician(s) based on:
- your overall health and medical history
- extent of the disease
- your tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies
- expectations for the course of the disease
- your opinion or preference
- your desire for pregnancy
In general, treatment for fibroids may include:
Hysterectomies involve the surgical removal of the entire uterus. Fibroids remain the number one reason for hysterectomies in the United States.
- conservative surgical therapy
Conservative surgical therapy uses a procedure called a myomectomy. With this approach, physicians will remove the fibroids, but leave the uterus intact to enable a future pregnancy.
- gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRH agonists)
This approach lowers levels of estrogen and triggers a "medical menopause." Sometimes GnRH agonists are used to shrink the fibroid, making surgical treatment easier.
- anti-hormonal agents
Certain drugs oppose estrogen (such as progestin and Danazol), and appear effective in treating fibroids. Anti-progestins, which block the action of progesterone, are also sometimes used.
- uterine artery embolization
Also called uterine fibroid embolization, uterine artery embolization (UAE) is a newer minimally-invasive (without a large abdominal incision) technique. The arteries supplying blood to the fibroids are identified, then embolized (blocked off). The embolization cuts off the blood supply to the fibroids, thus shrinking them. Physicians continue to evaluate the long-term implications of this procedure on fertility and regrowth of the fibroid tissue.
- anti-inflammatory painkillers
This type of drug is often effective for women who experience occasional pelvic pain or discomfort.
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Is there any medicine the eurozone can take to avoid catching the flu? At the moment the currency club's leaders are toying with the idea of dispensing antibiotics, seemingly unaware that tackling a virus with antibiotics is as useless as bleeding a patient to cure depression.
Independent consultancy Capital Economics believes the break-up of the eurozone is imminent. Greece will be forced out next year and another country, unnamed, will follow in 2013.
If leaders persist in misdiagnosing the patient, then full break-up will be close behind.
Capital was convinced 18 months ago the eurozone was heading for a fall and three recent developments have convinced its European economist Jonathan Loynes it is an almost racing certainty.
"First, the policymakers' latest failure to bring an end to the Greek situation has cast yet further doubts over their ability to take the action needed to secure the eurozone's future.
"Second, the crisis has spread to the bigger southern economies and even to some countries in the 'core'. In particular, the growing focus on debt levels and long-term growth prospects has put Italy under the spotlight.
"And third, the policymakers' acknowledgement that countries could leave the euro has shattered the illusion that a eurozone break-up is technically impossible."
Loynes recognises a big Bazooka may yet be fired at the problem but argues: "It is unlikely that Germany and the other core economies will ever be prepared to sanction the enormous fiscal transfer that the main proposed solutions would involve. And even if they are, it seems doubtful that any measures will be agreed upon and implemented quickly and decisively enough to prevent the crisis from reaching breaking point."
Holger Schmieding, an economist at Hamburg-based Berenberg Bank, agrees the German government is unlikely to accept proposals for fiscal transfers, or the handover of ready cash to the Italians etc in the form of debt write-offs. But he argues Angela Merkel and policymakers in the Bundesbank are readying themselves to persuade the German public that one of the great taboos of finance must be broken. The European Central Bank must be underwritten by the Bundesbank. At the same, the ECB must be handed a huge printing machine and rattle off trillions of euros in new money.
He says, and we all agree, the situation is very serious.
"As the fire is spreading across Europe, we see only one reliable way out: the fire brigade has to go beyond lecturing us about the risk of using the wrong building materials. Instead, the fire brigade has to douse the fire before the euro and eurozone economy go up in flames. The European Central Bank should act as forcefully as the Swiss National Bank has done to save its own currency and economy. The ECB has to promise that it will prevent every solvent sovereign from going bust for lack of liquidity.
"Ideally, the ECB should announce that it is ready to buy an unlimited amount of Italian bonds at a spread of 550 basis points over Bunds as long as the IMF certifies that Italy is complying with a tough reform programme and is on course to balance its cyclically adjusted budget in 2013, as promised."
His metaphor is an extension of foreign minister William Hague's burning building with no exits. Personally, I prefer Jan Randolph's image of countries as rock climbers tethered together by ropes. The IHS Global Insight credit analyst told the Treasury select committee that Greece losing its footing was a problem, but it could be left dangling while everyone else took the strain. The trouble came when another country tumbled.
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"It's got kind of an astringent taste to it. It's very naturally tart," Tammy Ross, director of marketing for Westin Foods, told to Yahoo! Shine in an interview. Westin Foods owns Mae's Health & Wellness, producers of the Superberries line of aronia berry products. "It's very similar in taste to a wine grape. What you're tasting in that tartness is actually very good for you -- a type of an antioxidant and type of a compound that can be found in wine and can also be found in tea."
Aronia berries contains a natural blend of polyphenolic antioxidants that combat the cell-damaging free radicals created in our bodies by stress, environmental pollution, medical x-rays, and other aspects of daily living (even exercise!). Among those antioxidants are anthocyanins, which have been shown to help fight diseases caused by oxidative stress like certain types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation, and liver function, according to studies published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and elsewhere. According to the USDA, Aronia berries have twice as much antioxidant power as cranberries and four times as much as pomegranates, strawberries, goji berries, and blueberries. (They're difficult to compare to chia seeds, another popular antioxidant, because chia seeds aren't fruits)
Also called chokeberries thanks to their super-tart taste, the dark-purple clusters grow wild in North America and have recently been cultivated by farmers in the Midwest. The distinctive berries grow on bushes, with several round fruit clumped together on rosy-red stems.
Unlike trendy acai berries, which are usually found mixed into other products or in powdered supplement form, aronia berries are available as whole fruit -- you can find them online at Amazon.com (about $10 per pound) where they cost far less per serving than dried goji berries (about $18 per pound) and dried wild blueberries (about $48 per pound). Native Americans used them as part of their diet, as preservatives for their meat, and also for dying cloth, Ross explained. And it's become popular in Europe, where they're now prized for their health and wellness properties.
Aronia berries aren't a dietary supplement, though -- they're a food. Like elderberries or black currants, aronia berries can be used to make wine, jam, syrups, and tea; you can stir them into fresh sauces or use them along with blueberries in your breakfast muffins (you can find more recipes here.)
Aronia Berry Salsa
1 medium red onion
1 14-ounce can whole corn
1 14-ounce can black beans
1 1/2 cups frozen aronia berries (available at Superberries.com)
4 cups Roma tomatoes, chopped
3 jalapenos, seeded chopped
1 teaspoon salt
Finely chop the onion and place in a small glass bowl. Sprinkle with salt and squeeze the juice of one lime over the top. Mix well and set aside.
Drain the corn and the black beans, and combine them in a large mixing bowl. Wash the frozen aronia berries and add them to the corn and black beans. Add the chopped tomatoes and the seeded and chopped jalapenos. Mix well.
Squeeze the juice from the remaining limes onto the tomato mixture and stir to combine. Add the chopped onions and stir again. Let chill for an hour before serving with tortilla chips.
Given the popularity of the organic food and whole food movements, and our culture's dedication to warding off the aging process, the renewed interest in aronia berries is perfectly timed."I think generally speaking over the last five years or so our culture has become more and more educated about nutrition," wellness expert Brett Blumenthal, author of 52 Small Changes: One Year to a Happier, Healthier You told Yahoo! Shine. "We understand that antioxidants help fight off the free radicals that are all over. They're in the air we breathe, they're in the food we eat, and we really can't avoid them."
Also on Shine:
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Kosta Peric, Contributor
Co-founder of Innotribe - enabling collaborative innovation
Digital Shadows is a UK based startup, one of the two winners of the Innotribe Startup Challenge in Belfast in June 2012. The idea of the digital footprint is important to Innotribe, and goes to the roots of digital identity – a subject central to many early Innotribe events, and the spark of the Digital Asset Grid incubator project. More on this in another blog.
Alastair Paterson (@patersonae), the CEO, has astutely named the company Digital Shadows. The shadow all of us inevitably leave when walking around the internet. Alastair and I talked about how he came up with his idea and the creation of the company.
Here’s Alastair’s story.
“I first became interested in the digital footprints we leave behind us on the Internet shortly after setting up my profile on Facebook sometime in 2007. It was and still is a fantastic tool for connecting with friends and sharing photos, videos and experiences. However, it struck me that this information once posted is very hard to retract and may well be online forever.
It was actually the experience of becoming an uncle that really brought this home for me: A child born today will have their entire life chronicled and stored in vast online databases. In some cases even before they are born they will have a digital footprint.
It was only when I spoke with my eventual co-founder and cyber security expert James Chappell that I realised the implications that this has for the corporate world, and financial institutions in particular. As organisations and their employees increasingly embrace social media, use cloud services, extend their supply chains and adopt a “bring your own device” culture they publish more and more information online. Although of course much of this digital footprint is beneficial and enables them to connect more closely with their clients, we realised that organisations are increasingly exposing information that may damage their reputation or give hackers the keys to the front door. We decided to call this unintentionally exposed information a company’s “digital shadow”. We wanted to do something to raise awareness and protect individuals and organisations from these threats and so set up Digital Shadows in mid 2011.
Cash flow was tight in the early days of the business as it is for any start-up. It felt as though most institutions would only lend us money once we could prove we didn’t need it. As a result we decided to boot-strap the business with consulting revenue in the margins until we reached the point where we could negotiate for investment with a stronger hand. We were also lucky enough to win a grant from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board that helped us recruit and invest heavily in research and development.
This research proved invaluable. The early trials of our cyber monitoring technology were astounding. I could not believe that even with the first release of our platform we were able to locate content such as usernames, passwords and firewall settings for major multinationals, all exposed online accidentally. Similarly many confidential documents were unintentionally publicly available that included meeting minutes, client lists and employment contracts. Any doubts remaining about our proposition disappeared and we set about scaling and industrialising our platform as fast as possible.
It’s amazing how much ground you can cover when the “big corporate” shackles are off. The speed and agility with which our development team has produced our platform has been one of the things that makes me most proud.
From the start, the concept for Digital Shadows resonated with many of the companies we spoke to, though it took time to gain access to the decision makers in larger organisations. Much of our recent success has come from referrals and personal recommendations.”
Rings a bell? We heard a similar story from another startup at the Innotribe challenge – Pendo.
“The more we develop our platform, the more it becomes abundantly clear that very few organisations ever look at themselves from the outside in the same way hackers do. Instead, corporations seem to look at their security in discrete chunks, often on a per-project basis. As we continued to grow our platform in late 2011 we were seeing new stories about cyber attacks breaking with ever more frequency and focus. It is clear now that hackers are increasingly researching their target organisations before performing precision, targeted attacks. Most corporations we have come across fail to do that same research and never get a view of themselves from “outside the castle walls”.
In addition, very few companies we have dealt with have a solid social media policy in place that is anything other than “shelfware”, and fewer still actually monitor social media for security risks.
The extraordinary story of the Twitter rumour that apparently led to a run on Latvian banks SEB and Swedbank in December 2011 brings these risks into sharp focus. Unfortunately this was far from an isolated incident. Two of the clients we are currently working with have been particularly interesting. We recently came across an individual impersonating a CEO on a major social networking site, spreading potentially damaging misinformation about our client. In another assignment we found and tracked a number of social networking groups set up in the organisation’s name but hosting hostile content. These sorts of risks were not on the board’s radar a year ago. Now, in 2012 they require urgent action.
Many believe the financial and insurance industry is the “target of choice” for cyber criminals and hacktivists but this goes beyond the institutions themselves and affects every one of us.
While there is no silver bullet for the risks we face organisations can still improve their chances considerably. Ultimately we hope our cyber monitoring platform can act as a force for good in the world, helping to protect financial sector organisations from cyber attack. In turn this will help protect our jobs, our society and our prospects for the future.”
My understading is that Digital Shadows is off to a great future. Meet them at the upcoming finals of the Innotribe Startup Challenge at Innotribe@Osaka!
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By Leonora Cohen and Gregory Sampson-Gruener
As states suffer through budget crises due to the lingering effects of the recession, school districts continue to be faced with a host of difficult choices, not the least of which is the value we place on our teachers.
Eight years after a funding crisis forced half of Oregon’s school districts to take drastic measures, including cutting up to 17 days from the instructional calendar to balance budgets, they are being forced to do so again. Days are being cut, teachers and support staff are facing layoffs and furloughs, class sizes are increasing, and schools are being closed.
Public education advocates have a responsibility to show how inadequate funding affects people on the inside -- the teachers. School board members, policymakers, and communities should carefully consider the perspective of insiders -- a perspective that has not been described in research literature.
During the 2002-03 budget crisis, we talked with more than 400 principals, teachers, parents, and students to show how schools were affected. We sought perceptions from teachers about job satisfaction, working conditions, and the impact on students and staff. From this, we have developed recommendations for school board members and education leaders who face similar circumstances.
The lessons from Oregon are hard. No doubt, they extend to other states and school districts as well. But we can learn a lot from them.
Would you like to continue reading?
Subscribers please click here to continue reading. If you are not a subscriber, please click here to purchase this article or to obtain a subscription to ASBJ.
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Thursday, February 2, 2006
State tightens seat belt use
Our 4-year-old Erin always reminds me to put on my seat belt.
She knows full well when she climbs into any vehicle, buckling up comes first.
And she expects everyone else to follow her example.
If her words, “Daddy, put your seat belt on,” aren’t enough, I have this “buzzer” in my vehicle that constantly annoys me until I buckle up.
It’s really not an annoyance. It’s an important safety feature. And it’s one that could in fact safe my life.
I have a tendency sometimes in town to let it go. Then I catch myself giving in. Thank goodness - statistics show most crashes occur closer to home.
Gov. Haley Barbour announced Monday he will sign the primary seat belt bill sent to his desk last Friday.
Under the legislation, law enforcement officers could stop someone and issue a traffic citation solely because the driver, any front-seat passenger or any child under age 8 anywhere in the vehicle is not buckled in.
Under current law, a person can be issued a ticket for not wearing a seat belt if the driver is pulled over for another offense.
It has been proven time and time again. Seat belts save lives.
I’ve seen it at wreck scenes myself.
One involved my wife Pam several years back. She fell asleep at the wheel and just missed a head-on crash with an oncoming vehicle. The cars side-swiped, landing her in the ditch. Without a fastened seat belt, she could have been thrown from the vehicle, perhaps injured much worse or killed.
The primary seat belt bill passed the 52-member Senate with four dissenting votes.
House Transportation Committee chairman Bill Miles of Fulton, a longtime friend, opted to bring out a House version of the legislation. Then Gray Tollison, Senate Judiciary B chairman from Oxford, decided to pass the House version with no changes.
The final version of the bill comes with a maximum fine of $25 per vehicle.
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (in a story written by Bobby Harrison in Saturday’s Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal), a primary seat belt law increases buckling up by 9 to 14 percent, and each 1 percent increase saves 280 lives nationally.
A study by the National Safety Council, estimates that the lack of a primary seat belt law cost 481 Mississippians their lives between 1995 and 2002.
Twenty-eight states, including Mississippi, do not have a primary seat belt law.
There are those who say we don’t need more laws that interfere with people’s personal decisions. They want to choose whether or not they wear a seat belt.
I really understand that point. I remember years ago, when I really didn’t like buckling up, and I often ignored it.
But I’ve changed. Life is too precious, and I truly believe my chances of survival in an accident are much better if I’m wearing my seat belt.
My daughter Emma, who will turn 15 in June, is taking driver’s education this semester. She, too, is reminding the family to buckle up after watching films in class recently about deadly crashes.
The way I see it, if the new bill saves just one life, it’s worth it.
And with my oldest daughter getting her driver’s license soon, my son Andy, who will turn 12 in May, just a few years away from driving, and a 4-year-old constantly reminding Daddy to buckle up, I’ve become an advocate of proper seat belt usage.
Buckle up. It could be a matter of life or death.
By the way, the primary seat belt bill will become law on May 27, the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend.
(662) 252-4261 or email@example.com
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