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Citing TSA Failures and Abuses, Jamie Radtke Urges
Common Sense, rather than Political Correctness,
in Passenger Screening
Urges adoption of Israeli-style system
The Transportation Safety Administration – or TSA – which was established to protect Americans against terrorists on our transportation systems – has grown into a bloated bureaucracy with a disgraceful record of ineffective performance, operational inefficiency and paralysis by political correctness.
- Outrageous incidents occur regularly, from removing adult diapers from the elderly to patting down infants.
- Meanwhile, the agency has allowed 17 known terrorism suspects, weapons, and even rogue TSA agents to get through security.
- And just last week, the TSA committed a major error by allowing a Nigerian man with an expired boarding pass and NO identification to get through multiple layers of screening and fly from New York to L.A.
- Meanwhile, 3,770 TSA bureaucrats in Washington are pulling down average annual salaries of more than $105,000.
- These same bureaucrats have “cooked the books” to prevent TSA from moving to a private contractor approach (who would still be under TSA supervision) that would be 65% more efficient and increase taxpayer savings by 42%.
- Now the TSA employees have voted for union representation and collective bargaining. Does anyone think unions will make the TSA more effective or efficient?
The Solution: Common Sense, not Political Correctness
We must get away from this nonsense of groping seniors and children because we are more concerned with political correctness than protecting our civil liberties.
We must quickly develop and adopt a program of behavior detection techniques similar to the highly successful Israeli model utilized by EL Al Airlines. It just doesn’t make sense to ignore reliable indicators of terrorists in favor of random screening that has as much chance of netting a senior citizen as a terrorist.
American lives must not be put at risk because we are afraid being called politically incorrect. | <urn:uuid:11aaa61b-18f5-4e01-9ddf-136e936c66ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/2011/07/01/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940418 | 391 | 1.703125 | 2 |
(page last updated October 31, 2007 at 11:57 AM)
All Courts: U.S. District Court, Southern District of Alabama (Case 1:05-cv-00352-CG-C); U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (Case 06-13508-B)
Date Filed: June 16, 2005
In this case Plaintiffs, Republicans and registered voters in the State of Alabama, are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief preventing the use of an allegedly unconstitutional redistricting map in state elections. Plaintiffs claim that the Alabama Senate and Alabama House of Representatives have redrawn district maps to purposefully dilute the vote of Republicans in the State. Plaintiffs point to the availability of technology that can draw districts with minimal overall population standard deviations and the accessibility to alternative maps with lower population deviations than that of the map adopted as evidence of the State legislature's lack of a good faith effort in redrawing the district map.
Plaintiffs allege that members of the Alabama Senate and Alabama House of Representatives are aware of the shifting of the population from urban to suburban areas. Plaintiffs allege that these growing urban districts, perceived to be Republican-leaning, were overpopulated in order to dilute the voting strength of Republican votes; at the same time, the slow growth suburban areas, perceived to be Democratic-leaning districts, were underpopulated to increase the strength of Democratic votes in said districts. Knowing that an overall population deviation of 10% among districts will be found to be presumptively constitutional, Plaintiffs state that the Senate and House of Representatives set this measure as a goal in order to maintain the presumption of constitutionality while still being able to violate the principle of "one person, one vote."
As Plaintiffs claim this new district map is unconstitutional, they are seeking a declaratory judgment as to the unconstitutionality of the map, and an injunction preventing the use of this map in any future elections. | <urn:uuid:72386047-2247-4c6e-ae56-799e1fa38cac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/gustafson.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939339 | 402 | 1.585938 | 2 |
In Our Opinion — March 2013
Going — and Saving — Green
As military installations across the Department of Defense (DoD) look to be more fiscally responsible, and strive for ways to be more efficient with their resources, for many, the answer — in the form of abundant natural, renewable energy — is right outside their front doors.
Sustainability is a topic that has been on the radar for some time, but over the past few years DoD has been pushing for the use of more green building practices, and setting minimum standards for new construction projects that meet the strict guidelines of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, building certification process, which was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C.
The LEED-certification process uses a point system to determine the environmental merits of a building, and projects can apply for a silver, gold or platinum rating. Today, most military construction projects strive for the minimum silver rating, while many also apply for and earn a higher certification level of gold or platinum.
In addition, military installations are buying more green products, from furniture and fabrics that are made from recycled or recyclable materials to using more environmentally friendly cleaning supplies and products. And the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Air Force Nonappropriated Purchasing Division continue to encourage military bases to go green, which not only helps the environment, but also conserves precious resources — and money — in the process.
Taking it a step further, DoD, under the leadership of the Army, has embarked on an ambitious mission with its Net Zero Installation Strategy to create “Net Zero” installations worldwide by fiscal 2030. A “Net Zero” installation produces as much energy as is consumed, thereby saving tons of green in the process. By focusing on five main areas of sustainability — reduction; re-purpose; recycling and composting; energy recovery; and disposal — net zero installations will consume only as much energy or water as they produce and eliminate solid waste to landfills.
The office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (ASA) for Installations, Energy and Environment (IE&E) developed a strategy for installations to be net zero, based on “net zero energy,” “net zero water” and “net zero waste,” all striving toward sustainable installations. The Army hopes to create a culture that recognizes the value of sustainability measures in terms of financial, mission capability, quality of life, local community relationships and preserving the Army's future options.
Many pilot installations have already embarked on this greener path, becoming centers of energy and environmental excellence, showcasing best practices and demonstrating effective resource management. Moving forward, ASA/IE&E will identify an additional 25 installations in each category in FY14, which will strive to achieve net zero by FY30.
In this issue of Military Club & Hospitality, there are great examples of this progress toward a greener, more efficient future. The new solar-energy project at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., includes the addition of solar photovoltaic panels on 1,500 of the 2,200 homes in this joint-base community, which will produce energy that in the past was paid for at a premium. Once completed, the joint base is expected to generate about 13.7-million kilowatt-hours of renewable electric power annually, and is estimated to save a third of the electricity consumed.
Prior to this project, more than 1,000 solar photovoltaic panels were placed atop the 99th Regional Support Command Headquarters on base, creating an energy output produced approximately 310,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year, while eliminating 2,177 tons of airborne toxins, and saving more than $160,000 annually.
Success stories like this can be found throughout DoD, as services begin to realize the substantial savings that are attainable by heading on the path to green. There is no better time than now to begin the journey. | <urn:uuid:31ecf51a-9383-4f40-afd6-c4e955673ba0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ebmpubs.com/MCH/mch_edcom.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943014 | 841 | 2.71875 | 3 |
From Zelda Wiki, the Zelda encyclopedia
|Game(s)||A Link to the Past|
Gibo or Geebo are rare enemies; strange living bodies of gas that appear in Thieves' Town in A Link to the Past. They consist of two separate sections; a red inner nucleus and a star-shaped outer cloud of dark gas. Their movement is unusual as well; the nucleus separates from the inside of the cloud and moves to a new location independently, while the gas then follows. Both sections of the creature are able to cause damage, but the gas cloud is entirely invincible, and provides protection to the vulnerable nucleus. The Gibo is therefore only vulnerable when it attempts to move. Their awkward movement patterns are made worse by their appearance alongside traps such as moving floors, Winders and Bubbles.
- Due to the transparency effect of the Gibo cloud, certain other elements of the game will also become transparent in rooms containing them, such as items dropped by monsters like Fairies and magical effects from the Magic Medallions, among other things.
- Gibo are sometimes mistaken for Bubbles due to their similar colors and shape.
- Gibo share some similarities to Morpha from Ocarina of Time, although the Hookshot has no effect on them.
|Names in Other Regions| | <urn:uuid:b49cef94-4dc9-46c3-92fa-80bae0d98c16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zeldawiki.org/Gibo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917356 | 267 | 2.125 | 2 |
In response to requirements of the Federal Land Assistance, Management, and Enhancement (FLAME) Act of 2009, the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) directed the development of the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy (Cohesive Stategy).
As a part of this process and after public review, all three regions (west, southeast and northeast) have submitted their action plans to the WFLC for review. The Plans will be reviewed and considered for concurrence at the April 5, 2013, WFEC meeting. It is important to note Fire Adapted Communities is one of the main elements that is emphasized throughout the draft plans. Wildfire mitigation strategies like Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP), Firewise Communities/USA and Ready, Set, Go! programs feature prominently in support of this overarching approach. | <urn:uuid:0020b1c9-b596-4d34-a278-906fa7cb0bb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wildfire.blog.nfpa.org/montana/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941522 | 168 | 1.890625 | 2 |
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A link to Chobe National Park was e-mailed
Water is the web that connects all of us to each other: plant and animal, human and beast. All the water that has ever existed on our planet is the same amount today as it was in the beginning. It’s just not always abundant when we need it. But here in the wildlife-rich Chobe National Park in northern Botswana, a watering hole brings together an African elephant and a jackal in a moment of peaceful, though tenuous, coexistence. | <urn:uuid:d78cbb81-07c2-4a19-9b49-28b9d8657574> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.travelchannel.com/daily-escape/chobe-national-park | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933646 | 139 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The University Record, September 9, 1998
Institute for the Humanities names visiting fellows
From the Institute for the Humanities
The Institute for the Humanities will host a varied group of visiting fellows in the coming academic year. During their residencies, visiting fellows join the 11 U-M faculty and graduate student fellows announced last March in their weekly seminar, meet informally with faculty and student colleagues, and either give a public lecture or present their work at forums with Institute associates.
"It is a pleasure to be able to bring these scholars to campus," says Director Tom Trautmann, "and we hope many will take advantage of their presence to visit them at the Institute. This year's programs focus on 'Form and Pattern,' and our distinguished visitors will illuminate and enliven our explorations of that theme in important ways over the coming months."
The visiting fellows are:
Carol Bier (in residence fall 1998) has served as curator for Eastern Hemisphere collections at the Textile Museum of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., since 1984. She is completing a book about symmetry and pattern in Oriental carpets based upon research for a Textile Museum exhibition (viewable on the Web at http://forum.swarthmore.edu/geometry/rugs/). A specialist in textile arts of the Islamic world, she is the author of The Persian Velvets at Rosenborg (1995) and editor of and contributing author to Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart: Textile Arts of Safavid and Qajar Iran (16th-19th Centuries) (1987). She teaches Islamic Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. During her residency as the Norman Freehling Visiting Professor, Bier will teach a course on "Art and Geometry: Circumscribing Patterns in Islamic Art."
Mary W. Helms (in residence Sept. 27-Oct. 17) is professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has conducted fieldwork among the Miskito peoples of eastern Nicaragua, and currently is studying the iconography of pre-Columbian Panamanian ceramic art. In other major research, she has focused on interpretations accorded by native peoples to geographical distance, foreign people, and exotic goods. Her recent publications include Creations of the Rainbow Serpent: Polychrome Ceramic Designs from Central Panama (1995), Craft and the Kingly Ideal: Art, Trade and Power (1993), and Access to Origins: Affines, Ancestors, and Aristocrats (in press).
Victor Stoichita (in residence Feb. 14-27) is chair of the Department of the History of Modern Art at the Miséricorde campus of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He is interested in the history and rhetorics of images in Western culture and has published many books on this topic, including Visionary Experience in the Golden Age of Spanish Art (1995), A Short History of the Shadow (1997) and The Self-Aware Image: An Insight into Early Modern Meta-Painting (1997). At present, he is working with his wife on a book on Goya and the carnivalesque tradition. | <urn:uuid:7436de62-35d0-497a-a32e-d0522632a572> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ur.umich.edu/9899/Sep09_98/fellows.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944718 | 657 | 1.59375 | 2 |
(En español: Alineamiento)
Alignment means to bring into line. If your teeth aren't straight, their alignment might need a little help. You can get perfect alignment with braces, those little metal wires that move your teeth into place. They're not too bad - just a little uncomfortable at first - and after they're taken off, you'll have a straight and beautiful smile. | <urn:uuid:ea00ca9f-dd1b-4a6d-921e-d8b8d8453d82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?dn=GirlsHealthDotGov&lic=175&cat_id=20190&article_set=30455&ps=309 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948666 | 85 | 2.5625 | 3 |
(draft version--still some problems with getting the italics to show up)
C. Deily, Schola Saint George - Boston Area
Guy Windsor, in his essay “Half full? Meza and Tuta in Fior Battaglia”,1 looks at poste (guards), volte (turns), ligadure (binds) and grips, coming to the conclusion that in Fiore dei Liberi’s work the word meza (or mezza) generally means half, and tutta means full.2 In his exhaustive coverage of the words, he pins down for interpreters exactly why this obvious translation can be used consistently in Fiore’s manuscripts. This essay should not be seen as a challenge to his work or to change our physical interpretations, but to suggest a possible reason why these terms are used to describe the volte (plural of volta, a turn) of the feet and the sword.
The paragraph containing the definitions of footwork is given in the Getty version of Fiore’s manuscript as:
“… Volta stabile che stando fermo po zugar denanci e di dredo de una parte. Meza volta si e quando uno fa un passo o inanzi o indredo, e chossi po zugare de laltra parte denanzi e di dredo. Tutta volta sie quando uno va intorno uno pe cum laltro pe, luno staga fermo e laltro lo circundi. E perzo digo che la spada si ha tre movementi, zoe volta stabile, meza volta, e tutta volta ….”3
which I translate as
“ … A stable turn is staying in place; one can fight in front and behind on one side. A half turn is when one makes a step forwards or backwards, and thus one can fight on the other side in front and behind. A full turn is when one turns one foot with the other foot, the one stays in place and the other circles it. And thus I say that the sword has three motions, namely a stable turn, a half turn and a full turn …”
In the Schola Saint George’s current interpretation,4 the footwork of the volta stabile (stable turn), the meza volta (half turn) and tutta volta (full turn) have remained fairly consistent over time, and seem to agree with other schools’ interpretation of this passage, although we choose to also emphasize the resulting position of the hips in order to generate power for the blow. A volta stabile is generally a swiveling motion on the balls of the feet, turning the body to face a new direction and charging the hips so the opposite side of the body (left or right) now has more potential power. A meza volta is not merely a step (which we would term a passo), but a step that swivels and powers the opposite hip.5 Thus, a meza volta requires a passo, but a passo does not require a meza volta if the hips remain twisted toward where they were at the beginning of the step. A tutta volta is, as Fiore says, a motion rotating around the ball of one foot (either the front or back foot). The hip that is charged remains the same throughout a tutta volta. As Guy Windsor points out in “Half full?”, the body’s center of gravity tends to move along an arc during a tutta volta, and more along a straight line during a meza volta.
Our interpretations of the three motions of the sword, as they are not clearly defined by Fiore, are more conjectural but have withstood the test of time and are consistent with the tactical framework of the Zhogo Largo. We tend to teach our current interpretation from the incrosada, the position where the swords are crossed, as in the 2nd Master of Crossed Swords, introducing the Zhogo Largowhere the swords are crossed at mezza spada (halfway up the blade).
In analogy to the volte of the feet, the volta stabile is a motion where one is fighting on the same side and gains a tactical advantage by a twisting of the wrists and blade, either down into a cut on the hands and body, or upwards into a position similar to the German winden (windings). The meza volta is a change in line, generally a coupé to the other side. The tutta volta is a full circling of one part of the blade around another part, generally one of the hands on the grip, as in the colpo di villano6 (Peasant’s Strike) where the opponent’s blow powers the blade through a nearly-full rotation.
With these interpretations, I propose the following equation:
Tutta Volta = Mezza Volta + Volta Stabile
That is, any one tutta volta motion can theoretically be replaced by a mezza volta (a step) and a volta stabile (a body twist).
|a tutta volta =||a mezza volta||+ a volta stabile|
Despite this, it is sometimes helpful for me to describe an action in the context of these separate parts. For example, in the play of daga contra spada (dagger against sword, M107), the initial incrosada of the blades can be thought of during an initial volta stabile, and the reasserting of control on the elbow and counterstrike during a subsequent meza volta step. In practice, both actions of the hands happen during a single action of the feet, blurring the idea of whether the action occurs in one tempo7 (for the feet), due tempi (for the hands), or mezzo tempo (as a combination of these motions). In George Silver’s terms, the true action of the hands and arms is sufficiently faster than the action of the feet that one can make two hand/arm motions during such a step.
This interpretation must also be matched against the volte of the sword that was originally quoted above.8 If the volta stabile is a twisting of the wrists and blade, and a mezza volta moves the sword smoothly to the other side of your opponent’s weapon, then the tutta volta should be a moving to the other side while twisting the blade. Because of the biomechanics of the tutta volta, the wrists do rotate in the opposite way as they do when swinging a bat. Colin Hatcher9 once suggested that the volta stabile of the sword rotates on one spatial axis (along the length of the blade), the mezza volta rotates on two spatial axes, i.e. a plane, and the tutta volta rotates and tumbles through all three spatial axes in its circle. So the mezza volta does seem to be a necessary but not sufficient part of a tutta volta for the sword as well as the feet.
Thus, though it is impossible to ever answer definitively why these terms were chosen by a man dead for nearly six centuries, I propose that a mezza volta is named such because it is only half of what is required for a tutta volta, and the tutta volta is complete, with both other volte making up its parts. This does not change how the actions are executed, but gives both a possible reason for why they are named what they are, and a way of talking about the parts of a combative action. As Guy Windsor concludes, “I feel confident in translating meza as ‘half’ when referring to the volta.”10
1Guy Windsor’s many writings and interpretations have influenced me from the beginning of my study of Fiore dei Liberi, so I often fall back on his analogies and thoughts when teaching and interpreting.
2Within the Schola Saint George, we tend to leave many terms untranslated from the original Italian/Friulian, both to emphasize that the words may carry connotations of which we are unaware and to encourage scholarship within the original language. Thus, the Italian is in italics, but I have tried to provide translations on the first instance of a word.
3Paragraph M126 from Massimo Malipiero’s transcription of Il Fior di Battaglia.
4For full details, consult Brian Price, our principale’s book Sword in Two Hands, pp.113-117.
5When this swinging step is repeated, it has been characterized by a former member of Guy Windsor's school as a “John Wayne walk,” the strut of Hollywood Western gunfighters as they approach the showdown.
6Paragraphs M156-157 from Massimo Malipiero’s transcription of Il Fior di Battaglia.
7Tempo, plural tempi, literally means time. It is a measure of how long it takes to complete an action or make the next decision against an opponent. An action that is done stesso tempo is done at the same time, mezzo tempo (half time) is done after the first tempo but generally before an opponent has a chance to react, and due tempi (two times) allows your opponent a chance to change their action as well, or, as Brian Price says, gives them a vote in the outcome.
8Thanks to Deborah Barolsky of the Schola Saint George who suggested this requirement.
9The Schola Saint George’s chief instructor in abrazzare (grappling) and daga (dagger).
10Again, Guy Windsor’s “Half full? Meza and Tuta in Fior Battaglia.” An earlier version I have (downloaded 17 June 2007) was even more quotable at the end, but I defer to Guy’s revision.
Malipiero, Massimo. Il Fior di battaglia di Fiore dei Liberi da Cividale. Ribis, 2006.
Price, Brian. Fiore dei Liberi’s Sword in Two Hands. Highland Village, Texas: Chivalry
Windsor, Guy. “Half full? Meza and Tuta in Fior Battaglia.” The School of European
Swordsmanship. 2006. 23 May 2008. <http://www.swordschool.com/assets/files/pdf/mezatuta20070618.pdf> | <urn:uuid:b936e827-8d45-44cd-bd64-6a015ddf0142> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scholasaintgeorge.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122:the-name-of-the-tutta-volta&catid=16:fighting-techniques&Itemid=62 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908323 | 2,222 | 2.859375 | 3 |
17 August 2012 On World Humanitarian Day, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has highlighted the power of individual actions to spark global changes, and praised the work of humanitarian workers who provide assistance to vulnerable people around the world.
“This year's World Humanitarian Day presents an historic opportunity to bring together one billion people from around the world to advance a powerful and proactive idea: people helping people,” Mr. Ban said in his message marking the Day, which falls on 19 August.
“From international efforts to avert a hunger crisis in West Africa to urgent assistance to civilians in Syria, to a single good deed from one neighbour to the next, the spirit of people helping people improves conditions for all,” Mr. Ban said. “That is the best way to honour the many fallen aid workers we mourn today, and to celebrate the efforts of others who carry on their noble mission by rushing assistance to those who are suffering.”
The General Assembly proclaimed 19 August as World Humanitarian Day in 2008 to commemorate the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad, Iraq, which claimed the lives of 22 UN staff members, including the world body's top envoy to the Middle Eastern country, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and wounded more than 150 people.
The Day aims to honour those who have lost their lives in humanitarian service and those who continue to bring assistance and relief to millions, in addition to drawing attention to humanitarian needs worldwide and the importance of international cooperation in meeting those needs.
For this year's observance, the UN has launched a global campaign, entitled 'I Was Here,' to engage one billion people through social media so they can pledge a humanitarian action, however big or small, and share their individual actions with others through an interactive website, www.whd-iwashere.org.
“Individual actions may seem small, but collectively they will reverberate around the world, generating unstoppable momentum for a better future,” Mr. Ban said.
Organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the campaign is supported by US performing artist Beyoncé Knowles, who along with songwriter Diane Warren, donated the “I Was Here” song to the campaign, recently filming a video clip for the song at the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters in New York.
The video will premiere on the Day, with displays on big screens in the cities of Dubai, Geneva, Addis Ababa, as well as in New York City's Times Square, among other locales.
“'I Was Here' says I want to leave my footprints in the sands of time, and that is leaving our mark on the world,” Ms. Knowles said in a special joint interview conducted at the UN Television studios with US journalist Anderson Cooper. “We all want to know that our life meant something and that we did something for someone else, and that we spread positivity no matter how big or how small.”
In the same interview, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, said that the Day would help to spread a message of hope and raise awareness of the millions of people helping others around the world.
“This is a day that is both a commemoration, because there are a lot of people who lost their lives trying to help people, but it is also a celebration of the things that people do,” she said. “There is an amazing amount that people do every single day that goes unrecognized.”
In a statement, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia, Mark Bowden, praised the dedication of humanitarian workers, especially in the east African country, where conditions are particularly difficult due to conflict and food insecurity.
“Every day in Somalia, non-governmental organizations and the UN humanitarian agencies work with the Somali people to overcome the effects of drought, hunger and conflict on innocent people,” Mr. Bowden said, adding that aid workers risk their lives daily when doing their jobs. “The dangers are very real. Since the last World Humanitarian day, 19 aid workers were killed and eight others kidnapped in Somalia, four of whom remain in captivity.”
Mr. Bowden called on all parties to respect humanitarian work and allow humanitarian access to people in need. “Whether aid workers are international staff far from their homes and families or national staff working in the community in which they were raised, their only agenda is to help the most vulnerable,” he added.
Echoing Mr. Bowden, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin, said it is unacceptable that humanitarian workers face physical violence, intimidation and even death, on a daily basis in certain parts of the world.
“Sadly as the world's largest humanitarian agency, WFP has all too often endured these challenges and more, much more, as a common workplace reality,” she said in a statement.
Over the past year, 12 WFP staff, contractors and partner staff have been killed while working to fight hunger in Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan. Others were kidnapped, injured and traumatized by violence directed against them.
News Tracker: past stories on this issue | <urn:uuid:36356c69-2b62-4bd4-a3f2-ea50ed7a620c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=42698&Cr=&Cr1= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953692 | 1,097 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Examining Lifebelts on Titanic. Examining Lifebelts on Titanic. A photograph of a board of trade inspector examining lifebelts on Titanic at Southampton. Titanic was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast Ireland during 1910 - 1911 and later sank on April 15th, 1912 after striking an iceberg off the coast of New Foundland during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York, USA, with the loss of 1,522 passengers and crew.
Digitally Printed on Archival Photographic Paper resulting in vivid, pure color and exceptional detail that is suitable for museum or gallery display. | <urn:uuid:0471d4fa-8269-4cc2-9669-2a2d3d93d8d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Examining-Lifebelts-on-Titanic-Posters_i8727308_.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933583 | 124 | 2.5 | 2 |
- Reduced price entry to exhibitions with National Art Pass.
- View venue & entry details
Founded in 1768, this is the country's oldest society concerned solely with the fine arts.
Royal Academy of Arts, London
© Royal Academy of Arts
As an independent institution it is primarily led by prestigious artists and architects - among its founders were Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir William Chambers - who were determined to achieve professional standing for British art and architecture. Through the academy's history the prominence of its members has not diminished and past Royal Academicians include John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, JMW Turner, Lord Leighton and Stanley Spencer, while current members include Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, David Hockney, Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor.
The collection focuses on British art and artists and mainly ranges from the 18th century to the present day. There are many highlights in its collection of paintings and sculpture, including major works by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Turner, Constable, Alma-Tadema, Flaxman, Millais, Leighton, Waterhouse, Sargent, Spencer and Hockney.
The Royal Academy of Art is based in Burlington House, a striking building nestled in the heart of London's West End district. There are several cafes and a restaurant to rest up at and an interesting array of events and talks running in the evenings.
The institution holds a series of major exhibitions throughout the year, including the annual Summer Exhibition, which has run every year since 1768. The exhibition draws together a wide range of new and recent work by established, unknown and emerging artists and is a must-see event for contemporary art-lovers
Art we've helped buy at Royal Academy of Arts
Free entry to all
Reduced price entry to exhibitions with National Art Pass
Sat – Thu, 10am – 6pm (last admission to galleries 5.30pm)
Fri, 10am – 10pm (last admission to galleries 9.30pm) | <urn:uuid:70fa1504-332e-42e0-819a-8ac99269537c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artfund.org/what-to-see/museums-and-galleries/royal-academy-of-arts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96073 | 415 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The Gerasene demoniac
41(Mt 8:28; Lk 8:26)
1 They arrived on the other side of the lake in the region of the Gera senes. 2 No sooner did Jesus leave the boat than he was met by a man with evil spirits who had come from the tombs. 3 He lived among the tombs and no one could restrain him, even with a chain. 4 He had often been bound with fetters and chains but he would pull the chains apart and smash the fet ters, and no one had the strength to control him. 5 Night and day he stayed among the tombs on the hillsides, and was continually screaming and beating himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell at his feet 7 and cried with a loud voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? For God’s sake I beg you, do not torment me.” 8 He said this because Jesus had commanded, “Come out of the man, evil spirit.” 9 And when Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” he replied, “Legion is my name, for we are many.” 10 And all of them kept begging Jesus not to send them out of that region.
11 Now, a great herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside, 12 and the evil spirits begged him, “Send us to the pigs and let us go into them.” 13 So Jesus let them go. The evil spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs, and immediately the herd rushed down the cliff and all were drowned in the lake. 14 The herdsmen fled and reported this in the town and in the countryside, so all the peo ple came to see what had happened.
15 They came to Jesus and saw the man freed of the evil spirits sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the same man who had been possessed by the legion. They were afraid. 16 And when those who had seen it told what had happened to the man and to the pigs, 17 the people begged Je sus to leave their neigh borhood.
18 When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed begged to stay with him. 19 Jesus would not let him and said, “Go home to your people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 So he went throughout the country of Deca po lis telling every one how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were astonished.
Jesus raises the daughter of Jairus
20(Mt 9:18; Lk 8:40)
21 Jesus then crossed to the other side of the lake and while he was still on the shore, a large crowd gathered around him. 22 Jairus, an official of the synagogue, came up and seeing Je sus, threw himself at his feet 23 and asked him earnestly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may get well and live.”
24 Jesus went with him and many peo ple followed, pressing from every side. 25 Among the crowd was a wo man who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a lot at the hands of many doctors and had spent everything she had, but instead of getting better, she was worse. 27 Since she had heard about Jesus, this woman came up behind him and touched his cloak 28 think ing, “If I just touch his clothing, I shall get well.” 29 Her flow of blood dried up at once, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her complaint.
30 But Jesus was conscious that heal ing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 His disciples answered, “You see how the peo ple are crowding around you. Why do you ask who touched you?” 32 But he kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the wo man, aware of what had happened, came forward trembling and afraid. She knelt before him and told him the whole truth.
34 Then Jesus said to her, “Daugh ter, your faith has saved you; go in peace and be free of this illness.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people arrived from the official’s house to inform him, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Mas ter any further?” 36 But Jesus ignored what they said and told the official, “Do not fear, just believe.” 37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James and John, the brother of James.
38 When they arrived at the house, Jesus saw a great commotion with people weep ing and wailing loudly. 39 Jesus entered and said to them, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.”
40 They laughed at him. But Jesus sent them outside and went with the child’s father and mother and his companions into the room where the child lay. 41 Taking her by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha kumi!” which means: “Little girl, get up!”
42 The girl got up at once and be gan to walk around. (She was twelve years old.) The parents were astonished, greatly astonished. 43 Jesus strictly ordered them not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat. | <urn:uuid:a5fb9681-cac9-4906-9ef6-63723aeecfac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sobicain.org/lecturaEng.asp?lib=48&cap=5&vers=41 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991195 | 1,186 | 1.5625 | 2 |
It seems only yesterday Florida was considered the happiest place in America. A bounty of sun, no state income tax, 700 miles of beaches, Disney World and more new condominiums than speculators could flip. It’s no wonder that just five years ago, one thousand new residents arrived each day. But this week, Men’s Health magazine tells us the Sunshine State is arguably the saddest place in America.
Florida’s five largest cities landed among the magazine’s top 20 “Frown Towns” – and three of them, St. Petersburg (America’s saddest city, according to Men’s Health), Tampa (number four) and Miami (number eight) make the top 10. Jacksonville came in at number 13 and Orlando at number nineteen. | <urn:uuid:0ac764b7-3cd9-4ab7-9b16-da622e808374> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tommjonzz.newsvine.com/_news/2011/12/02/9173828-americas-saddest-cities-why-florida-dominates-list-from-mens-health-magazine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927856 | 164 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Part of the Bradford Dementia Group Good Practice Guides series
Paperback: £19.99 / $45.00
2008, 246mm x 173mm / 10in x 7in, 224pp
ISBN: 978-1-84310-649-4, BIC 2: JKSN JKSG MQCL4
'This is an exceptionally important book that celebrates the interdependency of human beings, the virtues of the education of carers and the positive treatment of people with dementia... In describing in exquisite and profound, but necessary, detail how to create and re-create a wonderfully sensitive approach to caring for people with dementia, the authors have conveyed some of the most important research findings of the past twenty years in the context of a programme to support the strengths and well-being of people with dementia. At the same time, the programme they describe serves to educate carers to support and revel in demonstrations of their loved ones' strengths... This is a book that can add greatly to the lives of all concerned and I recommend it highly.'
- Dementia Journal
'Research and writing on dementia have never been more timely and necessary as the condition increasingly emerges as an international public health problem which transcends national, family, personal, professional and cultural boundaries, as is noted in the foreword to this practical, accessible and readable manual (page 9). Positive in tone this book presents realistic advice and useful resources based on knowledge distilled from considerable experience of working with a group all too easily socially excluded and marginalized... This is a very practical book, a manual for facilitators and carers to implement their own RYCT programme of activities and as such it functions very well... I would recommend this manual as a useful addition to the library of anyone facilitating sessions in the field of dementia.'
'This book is an excellently comprehensive and practical resource bursting with ideas and good, useable advice. If you're serious about using reminiscence properly (and all care homes should be) I thoroughly recommend this book.'
- Caring Times
'Any Health library strong in dementia care "best practice" guides will welcome this focus on the tool of reminiscence and its ability to support people with dementia. From how it works to stimulate communication to how professionals and family members alike can use reminiscence to maximum effectiveness both at the group and individual level, this is a key acquisition for any working with dementia patients - and their loved ones.'
- The Midwest Book Review
'Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today culminates work spanning some ten years on the use of reminiscence with people with dementia. Essentially practice-based, this book is a clear guide to organising and structuring reminiscence sessions. It offers an optimistic and dynamic challenge to dementia care-giving.'
- Professional Social Work
The Activity Year Book: A Week by Week Guide for Use in Elderly Day and Residential Care
Anni Bowden and Nancy Lewthwaite
Person-Centred Dementia Care: Making Services Better
Design for Nature in Dementia Care | <urn:uuid:ba6fc0e3-1b50-4997-9b17-3d64b4784b6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/book/9781843106494/review/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907209 | 632 | 1.984375 | 2 |
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Most popular at the top
- Taylor and Francis 1998; US$ 63.95
In the 1970s, two events in particular, the William Tyndale School and James Callaghan's Ruskin speech, generated extensive media coverage and political activity and became 'watersheds' along the path to political and educational reform. This has shaped the system of school and governments in the 1990s. This book revisits Tyndale and Ruskin and examines... more...
- Taylor and Francis 1999; US$ 46.95
A powerful examination of the rightist resurgence in education and the challenges it presents to concerned educators, Official Knowledge analyzes the effects of conservative beliefs and strategies on educational policy and practice. Apple looks specifically at the conservative agenda's incursion into education through the curriculum, textbook... more...
- Taylor and Francis 2002; US$ 195.00
In common with most industrialised countries, France has undertaken an ambitious programme of education reform over the last fifteen years. This book uses key extracts from contemporary writing to examine exactly how and why that process has happened, focusing on all stages of the education system. Sections cover the main characteristics of school... more...
- Taylor and Francis 2013; US$ 64.95
Examines the ideological differences between the education policies of the two main political parties in the UK and discusses the emergence of these differences within the context of the 1988 Education Reform Act. It also looks at the world-wide influence of the "New Right" politics on education. more...
- Taylor and Francis 2001; US$ 56.95
Ambitious programs of education reform have been introduced by many governments around the world. Reforming Education is an important study of large-scale education reform in five different settings: England, New Zealand, the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Manitoba and the US state of Minnesota. The book looks at a variety of reforms covering:... more...
- Palgrave Macmillan 2000; US$ 48.00
Education policy is at the very top of the political agenda - the proclaimed top priority of the 'New Labour' government. Yet Labour has inherited a quasi-market education system and remains under the direction of reform during the coming year. This book examines new directions on issues of selection and educational opportunity, gender and racism and... more...
- Taylor and Francis 2001; US$ 57.95
Michael Fielding looks at what the Labour Government has achieved in the last four years with its policy of 'education, education, education'. There has been widespread disappointment in New Labour's education policies, which on the whole have not steered too far wide of those put in place by Margaret Thatcher, including issues of marketisation, testing... more...
- Cambridge University Press 2003; US$ 34.00
Six leading scholars - representing Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and secular perspectives - address the challenges of the open society to Jewish continuity by considering visions of Jewish education appropriate for our time and circumstances. The book emphasizes the continuity of theory and practice, translating theory into practice. more... | <urn:uuid:cdaf7b46-268e-48bd-baaf-387598f238d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ebooks.com/searchapp/moral-and-religious-education-religion-and-education-education-under-church-control-ebooks/12759/?page=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903163 | 819 | 2.40625 | 2 |
I have just come across an interesting doctoral thesis by Tamás Nyirkos of Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary entitled (in English) Christianity and Conservatism: Theology of the French Counterrevolution. Unfortunately, the thesis is written in Hungarian, but a summary in English is online here.
Essentially, Nyirkos questions the extent to which Counter-Enlightenment political thought was derived from mediaeval theology. He writes:
"[T]here are at least two points on which [Counter-Enlightenment philosophers] seem to agree: the first is the metaphysical assumption that authority by its very definition cannot be divided; the second is the epistemological claim that authority can only be known through tradition, and not by individual reasoning. The problem of authority naturally leads to a theory of sovereignty, which in the final analysis proves to be religious in nature, represented either by the pope, as stated by Maistre, by a sacred king, according to Bonald, or by some common religious moral law as in the case of Chateaubriand. Ballanche’s ideas can be attached either to Bonald’s sacred kingship or Chateaubriand’s historically evolving religious principles, and even Lamennais maintains the primacy of religious authority, only to move it from the papacy to the conscience or rather consensus of the peoples. Even more evident is their common adherence to tradition as the only source of religious and political knowledge, handed down by history as ‘experimental politics’ (Maistre), by language (Bonald), by common moral sentiments (Chateaubriand), by an organic evolution of society (Ballanche), or by a combination of the latter (Lamennais).
As for the middle ages, we can say that neither absolute authority nor history played such an eminent role in medieval theological arguments on the nature of politics as the counterrevolutionaries seem to suppose. The term ‘sovereignty’ itself is of relatively late origin: most of the papalist claims did not go so far as to treat the pope’s fullness of power as actually unlimited, while not even the most extreme secular claims (like those of Marsilius of Padua) tried to go beyond a conciliar theory of ecclesiastical authority.... [T]urning to the question of royal or imperial rulership, we also find various conceptions of priestly kingship, limited government and mixed regimen, or even antecedents of social contract theory and popular sovereignty.
Reconstructing a unique normative tradition in the middle ages in regard of sovereignty seems to be as difficult as defining a general medieval concept of history. What seems to be common in the various forms of theological, philosophical or historiographical approaches is the conviction that time itself does not provide humankind with new principles, only with new factual knowledge, a logical explication of dogmatic and metaphysical truths, or a collection of examples for political conduct. A genuine theology of history, like that of Joachim of Fiore inevitably leads to utopianism if not heresy, which the counterrevolutionaries are seemingly totally unaware of....
The French counterrevolutionaries’ concept of Christianity and conservation cannot be attributed to the middle ages. The origins of their theology go back to the seventeenth century, supported either by certain elements of Cartesian innatism or some sort of philosophy of history, derived mainly from Bossuet.... Their political theory... is a further development of the doctrine of absolute sovereignty first elaborated by Bodin, and put into practice during the reign of Louis XIV.
Mainstream medieval theology has always been ahistorical and universal; its conception of churchly and secular power has always been circumscribed not unlimited as counterrevolutionaries presumed...." | <urn:uuid:2afb536e-f154-4fc3-a4fb-61bd6d5848ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://counterenlightenment.blogspot.com/2011/09/counter-enlightenment-and-mediaeval.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947309 | 772 | 2.046875 | 2 |
SIALKOT is supposed to be the export-processing hub of Pakistan. During Pervez Musharraf’s time it was decided to build a motorway from Lahore to Sialkot.
The distance was supposed to be shorter than the other routes and since it was a motorway with more lanes, you could travel faster.
Therefore, it would have been a significant reduction in the time of travel between the two cities. It would have also been a major social overhead, a major infrastructure. Traffic would have multiplied between Sialkot and Lahore and it was good for export, industrialisation and investment.
However, the Punjab government has scrapped the project and is interested in spending most of the taxpayer’s money in Lahore by building roads and bridges. Some of them were needed and are commendable but some are unnecessary and superfluous.
In total, they have drastically changed the landscape and the environment of Lahore making it look uglier. The bridge next to the Government College, Lahore, is especially ugly as it mars the beauty of this historic college.
Our institutions, history and heritage should be preserved and not systematically destroyed. See how the English have preserved the heritage and history of London. Lahore was a city of gardens and trees and now it looks like a city of bridges.
These development projects are not big social overheads like the Sialkot to Lahore motorway.
Therefore, funds should be allocated for this motorway and it should be built for the sake of Pakistan. | <urn:uuid:0f64a1b0-99a3-40d7-a2d1-f601674ffe61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dawn.com/2012/12/15/sialkot-lahore-motorway/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976238 | 315 | 2.25 | 2 |
SOA puts intelligence on the map
New systems integration technologies put power behind geospatial intelligence
- By David Perera
- Oct 20, 2008
When the Defense Department sent 24 Apache helicopters to the Balkans as part of Operation Allied Force in April 1999, it didn’t count on the helicopters getting bogged down by knee-deep Albanian mud and miserable weather.
Better geospatial intelligence might have helped avert that mess. More than maps, geospatial intelligence is comprehensive analysis of the places where the military will operate. It’s the slope of the terrain, soil conditions and vegetation – just about any landscape feature.
Geospatial intelligence also includes data about the weather and local population. It encompasses everything that’s relevant to military operations in a specific location, said Robert Burkhardt, who became the Army’s first geospatial information officer in January.
Geospatial intelligence also includes the human terrain, which is the sociocultural information about the people who live in an area, their traditions and mores. A commander should know the factors that drive people to react in good ways and bad, Burkhardt said. It’s one thing to have that information in a text document and another to have it visually accessible on a map, where commanders can fuse that data with other layers to produce a comprehensive plan of action.
Geospatial thinkers say there’s nothing new about the importance of geospatial intelligence. Warfighters have always needed maps and data. But developments in the past few years have raised the profile of the geospatial community, its members say.
For example, digitization arrived with a vengeance. Even a few years ago, mobile tactical operation centers depended on acetate drawings stretched out on wool blankets. Now geospatial intelligence is more digitized, but challenges accompany that evolution.
“Before, we had computers, we had processes, we had procedures, we had reporting techniques that worked as an analog system,” Burkhardt said. Information technology threw a monkey wrench into that system, and in the process of making something new, it produced incompatible data. “We’re not able to share spatial and temporal data between organizations effectively.”
The problem can be as basic as one unit replacing another. The Army wants no lag time in getting replacement technology ready for warfighters in the field. A new unit is supposed to pick up where the old one left off. But those devices might collect information in different ways. They might even put geospatial information in presentation slides or a spreadsheet.
“When they do their transfer of authority to one another, it’s pretty ineffective,” Burkhardt said. “We’ve acknowledged that in the Army and said that’s a problem, and we need to do better.”
A newer development making that problem more urgent has been the emergence of asymmetric threats, such as improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers and similar terrorist and guerrilla tactics that U.S. forces face. “There are exponentially more things to track,” Burkhardt said.
Marine Corps geospatial experts concur. “When you’re trying to be all over the place at once, the demand for that type of information increases dramatically,” said Maj. Dawn Alonso, the Marine Corps headquarters’ highest-ranking geospatial officer responsible for overseeing imagery and geospatial intelligence within the plans and policy branch. Marines might have made do with a simple map in the past, but as communication assets have become more prevalent, attitudes have changed and demand for information has risen, Alonso added. The Marines are developing a geospatial concept of operations targeted for completion within the next year.
“We’ve got to figure out what that new business will be,” she said. Right now, finding sources of geospatial information on DOD’s secret-level intranet is hit-or-miss, she added. “There’s so many databases and repositories. It’s not well-organized, and I guess [that] would be putting it mildly.”If a tree falls in the forest, SOA knows about it
Military officials recognize that geo-intelligence is a critical information systems infrastructure, said Bill Harp, defense marketing manager at ESRI, a geospatial information systems provider. Managing data as part of a geospatial representation goes straight to how humans think, he added.
“It’s natural for us to think spatially,” Harp said. “Geospatial intelligence is intuitive in a way statistical tables aren’t.”
The government’s adoption of service-oriented architecture has been a major recent development in speeding the distribution of geospatial intelligence, he said. SOA seeks to create a plug-and-play software environment of loosely coupled IT services, such as ones that check the weather or validate users. It replaces tightly integrated software applications that sequester data and attempt to do everything from assigning passwords to darning socks by exposing data and standardizing application programming interfaces.
“This means that if you produce information, my system should be able to consume it and use it,” Harp said. And the moment new data is available, the whole community of verified users should get access to it, he added.
Without SOA, “you’re pretty much doomed to failure,” Burkhardt said.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is DOD’s lead supplier of geospatial intelligence. NGA, which bills itself as a combat support agency, recognizes the need for better distribution of geospatial intelligence. It started implementing SOA in mid-2006, said Gregory Black, assistant chief information officer for applications at NGA.
A Web service can distribute about 60 percent of what Black characterizes as foundation information – data about geographic features, elevation and imagery, he said. NGA also is testing a Universal Description, Discovery and Integration registry and envisions taking it enterprisewide in about a year. Today’s Web services aren’t easily browsed through and discovered or easily usable in a way that a centralized UDDI registry would make them. Someone who wants to use an NGA Web service must first know that it exists, then request interface details, while NGA evaluates whether there’s enough server capacity to support a new user. A UDDI registry will automate that process. “With a UDDI in place, the Web service is essentially self-describing,” Black said. It will support 300 services when it reaches full implementation, he added.
As for the standards that make Web services possible, NGA adopted in 2006 specifications designed by the Open Geospatial Consortium, a nonprofit group of companies, government agencies and universities dedicated to making technology-neutral geospatial application interfaces. Many vendors no longer resist making their products compatible, said Carl Reed, OGC’s chief technology officer.
“Once users started asking for that, then software vendors said it was time to definitely implement a good version of this,” Reed said. Most military decisions, especially in the field, are based on geography and time, he added.
However, the existing Web standards aren’t perfect. During this year’s annual joint systems baseline assessment at Joint Forces Command’s Joint Systems Integration Command, it became apparent that the Web services standards needed tweaking, said Chris Kannan, an NGA military support officer serving as a member of NGA’s JFCOM support team. During the assessment, producers and consumers of geospatial intelligence, such as the Army and Marine Corps, along with NGA, were able to share information via Web services, but the standards “sometimes needed a little more rigor put into them,” he said. Optional features within the existing standards, such as the ability to display road attributes, weren’t universally available. NGA is working on a draft implementations profile to address that, Kannan added.
Like any SOA project – especially one that crosses internal organizational boundaries – NGA’s implementation faces governance challenges. For example, who pays for adding server capacity should a particular service become extraordinarily popular: the users who consume the service or the host who provides it? “There’s still a lot of work to be done in that area,” Black said.Many miles to go
Technology is never enough to impose interoperability or ensure even distribution of intelligence. “It’s a multifaceted problem,” said Otis Leake, an NGA staff officer and team chief of production for NGA’s JFCOM support team. In spring 2007, a joint warfighter interoperable geospatial intelligence concept of operations took effect. It established processes to improve geospatial intelligence and delineated responsibilities of geospatial intelligence cells within joint task forces, which should act as a bridge between NGA and warfighters.
Cells ensure that geospatial intelligence flows to where it’s needed, Leake said. “The community recognizes that we need a standardized way to manage information flow of geospatial intelligence, and this is the first good step,” he added. Obstructions to better information sharing that still need to be addressed – and might take some time to remove – include the heavy infrastructure demands of existing systems and still-low levels of bandwidth in the field.
And the problem with existing systems isn’t just unshared data, said Roger Mann, geospatial research and development director at Lockheed Martin. Many applications that could include geospatial data lack the ability to collect it because they were built before geospatial information systems became prominent. There are technical workarounds, but “ultimately what you want to do is migrate to applications and schemas that have spatial fields and that are abiding by the standards,” he said. Many older applications had long, expensive development cycles, so a fell-swoop replacement is unlikely.
However, increasing government reliance on commercially developed products should ease future technology replacements, private-sector sources say. “Application development these days is a matter of getting the correct modules,” Harp said. “Using component-based, commercial off-the-shelf technology has significantly improved the speed at which commercial applications can be built.” As a result, rather than doing major upgrades or changes to systems, a new development can be incorporated into the existing technology environment every four or six months, he added.
Indeed, flexibility has spread to the point where defense and intelligence analysts use Google Earth, Mann said. “You can’t use Google Earth to get a precision point to drop a weapon, but you can use Google Earth to see the picture of that terrain and that environment and to have a dialogue about best ingress and egress routes,” he added.
As for the second problem, bandwidth, military sources were quick to emphasize its severity. “These are large files that we’re trying to push around the battlespace,” the Marine Corps’ Alonso said. File-compacting technology has diminished the problem somewhat but not enough, she added.
The bandwidth problem might never disappear. “We will never have enough pipes,” Burkhardt said. Not even wireless broadband military efforts, such as the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical or Joint Tactical Radio System programs, will change that, he added.
To add to the complexity, deployed soldiers need to download full copies of databases rather than depend on searching other databases, no matter how easily the data in those other databases can be located.
“In [NGA-adopted] OGC standards, you’re basically saying that the data stays wherever it’s created,” Burkhardt said. But users with spotty bandwidth can’t afford to have a search request fail, so they need local storage capacity with the ability to synchronize changes to the data from their peers and commanders, he said. “It’s a very different problem than what OGC has established standards for,” he added.
The Army likes the concept of distributed databases, whereby local units assume responsibility for maintaining an official database within their area of responsibility, Burkhardt said. Users need to synchronize databases only when changes are made rather than transmitting huge blocks of data, he added. “All you’re doing is giving them changes. You’re not giving them masses of data across the transport layer.” | <urn:uuid:d3621e9a-55bf-46fc-8987-75098c0055cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://defensesystems.com/Articles/2008/10/SOA-puts-intelligence-on-the-map.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943275 | 2,620 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Tips: Cauliflower requires fertile soil with a pH of 6.0-6.5 and good water retention. Crop rotation is very important to all members of the brassica family. Heavy feeder. Sow thinly about ¼-½ inches (.5-1 cm) deep. When seedlings are about 4 inches (10 cm) high, thin or transplant 18-20 inches (45-55 cm) apart in rows 2-3 feet (60-90 cm) apart. Seed may be sown directly outdoors as soon as ground can be worked. Start transplants indoors 4-5 weeks before setting out. Cauliflower thrives in cool weather and tends not to head well in hot weather. For fall crop, sow thinly outdoors from early to mid-June.
Seed Counts: Package contains approximately 100 seeds unless otherwise stated. 10,000-12,000 transplants are required for one acre. | <urn:uuid:c5af4405-525e-41cc-bcb2-24d1b9d03a3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.veseys.com/us/en/store/vegetables/cauliflower?veseys=i1dec9jv5ed3rhmlhadmouee36 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928111 | 190 | 2.140625 | 2 |
“The check is in the mail. I gave at the office. And …”
There are too many bad jokes that begin “The three biggest lies are …” What’s happening in college admissions, however, is no joke. Three big lies are gaining traction with families as they embark on this year’s tougher-than-ever college-admissions sweepstakes. Believing some of these lies will cost families money. Others can make the difference between an acceptance and a rejection.
Lie No. 1: Standardized Tests Are Less Important
Colleges today are relying on standardized test scores when making admissions decisions to a far larger degree than they have in years. One reason is that the number of applications at most top colleges is soaring. That’s not because there are more 18-year-olds graduating from high school. It is because more kids are applying to more colleges. And with little increase in the size of their admissions staffs, schools are using SAT and ACT scores to make a fast, easy cut of the applicant pool.
Of course, no college is going to admit this. Colleges love a big applicant pool, not just to craft a more attractive class but to show the ranking services just how selective they are. (In the perverse rankings world, more rejections equal a higher ranking.) Instead, colleges are using several forms of numbers subterfuge to obfuscate what is really going on.
The SAT Range: Almost every college publishes the range of SAT scores that kids in the last entering class achieved. The schools call this the 25th to 75th percentile range. In other words, 50 percent of last year’s entering class had scores within this range.
So if a kid sees a school’s 25th–75th range as 1280 to 1430, the student might reasonably think that their 1300 SAT score gives them a fair shot at admission. Wrong. In reality, the bottom 25 percent, below 1280, is reserved for the school’s “special interests”: athletes, students of color, development (big donors). For example, Vanderbilt reports its 25th–75th SAT range as 1380 to 1550. In reality, most of its admittees had SAT scores above 1500.
'Megan McArdle wonders whether college is really worth it.'
Ah, for the good old days—the days before the Great Recession. Back then, when a college said it was “need blind,” it probably was need blind.
Test Optional Doesn’t Always Mean Test Optional: A number of very good colleges have a “test optional” policy. For kids who have good grades but test-anxiety, that can be a real blessing. Are test-optional colleges adopting a kindler, gentler approach to admissions? No, they’re chasing rankings. Think about it. When a school declares SAT scores optional, which students report their scores? Only students with high test scores. This boosts the average SAT scores at the college, and the school moves up a rung on the rankings ladder.
The Magic 700: At the very selective colleges and universities, if you don’t have a 700/700 score, you’re just not getting in—unless you have a very special hook. The 680/690 kid is a dime a dozen.
Cheating Goes Both Ways: In the past year, headlines have screamed about cheating scandals not just at Long Island high schools and at New York City’s Stuyvesant High School but at colleges. Both Claremont-McKenna and Emory admitted to playing with test scores in order to make them look better in the rankings.
Standardized test scores are just as important on the money side.
“It’s pretty simple,” says Ian Welham, a college-funding specialist with Complete College Planning Solutions in Springfield, N.J. “If you want more money, increase your test scores. Regardless of what the college tour guide or the glitzy brochure says, the kid with the 800 in math will get the money over the kid with straight A’s.”
Lie No. 2: Asking for Financial Aid Won’t Affect the Admissions Decision
Ah, for the good old days—the days before the Great Recession. Back then, when a college said it was “need blind,” it probably was need blind. That meant admissions decisions were made without the admissions staff knowing whether the kid was applying for financial aid.
Today, more and more college admissions officers want, and need, to know whether the kid can pay full freight. And if there is a choice between two virtually identical applicants, one who needs financial aid and one who doesn’t, the fat envelope is going to go to the kid who can pay full tuition.
Some very good schools, such as Wesleyan, are coming forward and acknowledging that they can’t afford to be 100 percent need-blind. Similarly, some of the most selective colleges are quietly moving away from their “no loans” financial aid policy. Pre-2007 many of the nation’s wealthiest and most selective colleges said they would eliminate loans from the financial-aid packages they gave students. Today there is a family-income level that must be met before a no-loan financial aid package is offered.
Cornell University recently announced that no-loan financial aid would be available only to families earning less than $60,000 a year. Similarly, Dartmouth and Williams announced that their no-loan policy would be limited to students at the lowest end of the income-distribution scale.
There is good news, however, for families who can afford to pay full tuition, and especially out-of-state tuitions. Acceptance rates at top state universities for out-of-state applicants reached an all-time high last year. And the number of foreign students accepted at many colleges has doubled or tripled in the last four years.
But not all well-heeled parents are willing to write the big checks. Welham, the college-funding adviser, reports a trend he’s seeing among his clients. “There used to be a certain percentage of parents who told us, ‘I want my kid to get into the best name school, I don’t care what it costs.’ Now, take a family with three to four kids. Even upper-income families are balking at paying $750,000 to $1 million for college. Instead, they’re telling us, ‘Show us some options where we don’t pay sticker price.’”
Lie No. 3: It’s a Level Playing Field
Let’s go back to the foreign-student situation. It should be no surprise that many foreign students applying to American colleges have very high SAT scores. Colleges love that. Unfortunately, a shockingly large number of Chinese applicants also lie about their English abilities and academic transcripts. And colleges are pretending they don’t know this. That combination of high scores and full tuition is simply too enticing to ignore.
The worst-kept secret of college admissions is that colleges are looking for the well-rounded class, not the well-rounded kid. They want some real scholars for every department, some superb athletes, some great musicians and actors, a few rich kids whose parents can build a library wing, and some legacies to keep the alumni happy. The applicant who is attractive but not really special in any one category is going to have a much tougher time getting in.
And while early decision really does improve one’s chances, there are caveats. Many of the early-decision slots are reserved for kids the school wants for athletic or other recruiting purposes. Second, the early-decision applicant pool typically has higher grades and SAT scores than the regular pool. There is a self-limiting element to who is applying early. So if a school is a “reach” for a student, the student should not apply early. His odds of getting rejected are greater. The early decision-applicant pool is simply better credentialed.
A last truism: it is often said that there is a college for everyone. That is certainly true. What is more elusive, but equally true, is there is a right-fit college for everyone. But most kids and their parents never find that school because they are too caught up in trying to get into the “best” school rather than the right school.
Instead of relying on magazine rankings, which reflect the subjectivity of the editors couched in often-meaningless statistical inputs or is based a single visit to a college that can be colored by a backward-walking student tour guide, students really should do smarter research. It takes a bit more effort, but kids should sit in on a college class. They should spend a night on campus. Sure, it’s tough and expensive to arrange such trips. But it is a hell of a lot cheaper than a poor fit. | <urn:uuid:c4ba8534-2159-4333-aea3-27644e068491> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/26/steve-cohen-on-the-three-biggest-college-admissions-lies.print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962138 | 1,878 | 2.203125 | 2 |
This is a postcard of St Michael and All Angels Church at Linton in the Yorkshire Dales. It is a real photograph published by Walter Scott, Bradford. The postcard is unused and is in very good condition.
The church must be one of the most individual of all Dales’ churches. It dates from the 12th century, during the period of church building that characterised Henry II’s reign (1154-1189), and is very squat without a tower. The church was extensively altered in the 14th century, but it still retains parts of the earlier church.
The church is located quite a distance from the village and occupies a wonderful position on a bend of the River Wharfe. The graveyard stretches right to the banks of the river.
According to the church guide it stands on an old pagan site, but in the 7th century it was Christianised by either St Wilfred or St Paulinus. There is good evidence for this because, in the field opposite, there is what could be part of a pagan stone circle.
It is estimated that over 10,000 people have been buried in the churchyard, over the centuries, going back to pre-Christian time. I managed to find the graves and headstones of two of my ancestors.
It is also said that the church is haunted by a monk who had lived at a nearby abbey.
Here’s the photograph we took on our recent visit. | <urn:uuid:a8e7409f-3922-428e-baab-548f875f9f9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mikeydawson.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/linton-postcard-6/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=317f4d0876 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980534 | 299 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Event - 1982-11-02
The 7th Aga Khan Architecture Awards Seminar was held in Dakar, Senegal and was opened by the President Abdou Diouf. Speaking for all the participants, Hazar Imam said, 'We wish to see and understand the shapes that your cities have taken and those which you have rejected. We want to hear the voices of men and women who choose, who invent, who build and who live in your modern cities and your traditional villages.
On November 2, 1982 in Dakar, President Abdou Diouf opened the Seventh International Seminar sponsored by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Attending the ceremony were His Highness the Aga Khan, Mr. Oumar Welle, Minister for Urban Planning, Habitat and Environment, Mr. Henry Ssentoogo, President of the African Union of Architects, members of Diplomatic Corps and some 70 specialists from all over the world. | <urn:uuid:744ee9be-0ea5-4f84-a248-eff6638f739d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ismaili.net/drupal5/node/13691 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963332 | 190 | 1.585938 | 2 |
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history of Lombardy
...ruler after Maria Theresa’s death in 1780. The old system of public administration and magistratures came under attack and was abolished by 1786. In the 1770s and ’80s the reform policies of “ Josephism” succeeded in suppressing all the chief political and judicial bodies of the Milanese aristocracy and in establishing modern ones in their place. Joseph’s government appointed...
What made you want to look up "Josephism"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:72a7dc0e-a413-4b00-885e-8f13d8c5690a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/306437/Josephism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914758 | 146 | 3.21875 | 3 |
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — One minute you're being whisked through the busy Belfast shipyard where the Titanic is being built. The next you're contemplating, amid a chilly piped-in breeze and lights mimicking darkened waters, the horror of freezing to death in the North Atlantic.
In between, Belfast's impressive new tourist attraction — the 100-million pound ($160 million, €120 million) Titanic Belfast visitor center — offers a loving portrait of the excitement, ambition and opulence surrounding the doomed trans-Atlantic liner.
The Associated Press received a sneak preview of Titanic Belfast before its opening last weekend.
With 100,000 tickets already sold, Belfast is betting it will deliver a lasting tonic of tourism to the conflict-scarred city. A three-week festival featuring talks, walks and seven Titanic-themed stage shows — including "Titanic The Musical" — also begins Saturday to mark the 100th anniversary of the ship's launching.
Any visitor's first impression will be of center's stunning exterior: four jutting prows of the ship, lined in silver steel paneling, six stories high.
The Belfast Titanic marketing director, Claire Bradshaw, said the aim was to create an icon that people would come to associate with Belfast — like the Eiffel Tower for Paris or the Statue of Liberty for New York.
The center sits beside the Belfast Lough dockside where the 46,329-ton vessel was built from 1909 to 1911 and set sail for her sea trials on April 2, 1912. Titanic began her fateful maiden voyage from the English port of Southampton eight days later, striking an iceberg just before midnight April 14 and sinking within hours with the loss of 1,514 lives.
A roller coaster-like ride takes visitors, up to six per carriage, up and down three floors of a re-creation of the Harland & Wolff shipyards that made the ship for Liverpool's White Star Line. No, there's no thrills or spills, just a panoramic tour suggesting the scale of the hull and the energy of the dock workers, all of them video projections of actors in period costumes. Those aboard can hear the commentary in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian or Chinese.
Next, visitors see a 4-minute CGI tour (computer-generated imagery) of the finished Titanic, rising deck by deck, from engine room to the famed first-class cabin staircase made famous in James Cameron's 1997 epic movie "Titanic." In the same room are recreations of first, second and third-class cabins, again with video projections of fictional passengers going into their bunks or getting ready for dinner.
There's no skimping on historical detail for true maritime and Titanic junkies. Every available wall is plastered, in logical chronology, with details about every phase of construction, every firm and engineering speciality involved, and every part described from the ship's four 24-foot-wide (7.3-meter-wide) funnels to its six onboard pianos.
The ship's voyage to Southampton, then to its other European ports of call in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, are detailed in turn: The numbers and notables who boarded, their stories and tales of excitement about the voyage to New York ahead.
An entire wall is given over to a reprint of the final surviving photograph taken of Titanic on April 11, 1912, as she sailed away from Queenstown, the County Cork port today renamed Cobh.
Around the next corner, Titanic Belfast plunges into the disaster. A series of panels reprints the confused wireless messages among ships as Titanic appeals, minute by minute, for help from other vessels. The room is deliberately chilly as light projections create an image of dark lapping waters underfoot.
"What is the matter with you?" asks the Frankfurt at 12:34 a.m. after the Titanic hit the iceberg at 11:40 p.m.
"Cannot last much longer," the Titanic tells its sister ship, the Olympic, nearly an hour later.
"We are rushing to you," says the Baltic at 1:37 a.m.
Eight minutes later, the Titanic issues its final call to another ship, the Carpathia: "Come as quickly as possible old man: The engine room is filling up to the boilers."
After that the ship's calls fade with its dying electrical power into simple pleas for "CQ," code for "calling all ships."
In the next section, visitors are invited to explore the stories of survivors and the final words of those who perished, most impressively by using interactive touch screens that link to family photos, diaries and related newspaper articles. The role of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in receiving 209 bodies buried in the town's Protestant, Catholic and Jewish cemeteries is detailed.
Down a stairwell with a wall filled with ghost-white life preservers, visitors can hear and read testimony from the British and American inquests into how the disaster happened. Or they can explore one of several slick touch-screen databases of every passenger and crew member indexed by name, age, sex, nationality, job, cabin class, port of embarkation — and whether they perished or survived.
More touch screens on this room offer light brain-teasing relief as visitors are asked to separate fact from fiction in a true-or-false format.
Spoiler alert — here's some tips that could improve your score:
Did the lookouts have no binoculars? Yes.
Did people with tickets fail to board? Yes.
Did the Titanic nearly collide with another vessel in Southampton? Yes.
Did Cameron base Leonardo DiCaprio's character Jack Dawson on a real passenger? You will have to answer that one yourself.
Link: Titanic Belfast
Link: Titanic Belfast Festival | <urn:uuid:48aa1bae-ee81-4d2b-8b05-4490d47733e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.derrynews.com/cnhi_special_projects/x1789079438/Belfast-draws-tourists-to-site-where-doomed-ship-was-built | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939537 | 1,198 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Juan Fernando Arizaga with Red Mangrove Galapagos Lodges, discusses the risks to the Galapagos Islands through imported products.
Please note: Juan Fernando Arizaga works for Red Mangrove Galapagos Lodges as the Sales & Diving Coordinator. In this video, he speaks from his own experience and training. Juan has lived and worked in the Galapagos as a Red Mangrove Tour Leader. He has traveled extensively with Galapagos Naturalist Guides and has taken the Mandatory Temporary Residents Course. To clarify, Juan is not a scientist or a government official. If you have specific questions about allowable and prohibited items in the Galapagos, please contact: SICGAL.
What threats do imported products present to the Galapagos Islands?
Well, Galapagos is an isoloated eco system and it has evolved according to that. It has happened, for instance, that the presence of goats have become competition mainly to the Giant tortoises because they can reproduce faster, mobilize faster and they consume more of what the Giant Tortoises also consume. So in that case competition is one hazard.
But also, cats are being brought to the Islands and there are no natural land predators in Galapagos. So in that case a finch wouldn’t know that a cat is a threat. I’ve seen many cats attaching finches that didn’t even know how to react. So in this case, they represent a threat, not only competition, to the species of the Galapagos.
Thats why, in the allowed products and the restricted products it says only for human consumption purposes. So you can not bring products with seeds and roots. It is because these seeds represent competition also for other vegetation in the Galapagos. They are rated for the most aggressive they could be when they are spread.
Regarding the blackberries I mentioned, finches and giant tortoises love this fruit and this fruit grows very rapidly in the islands. Apart from the fact that they grow rapidly – that the species in the Galapagos eat them means that they will spread it faster. It represents competition for the escalasia tree – which is actually a sunflower which evolved into a tree. So its actually a big deal and we have to protect it. | <urn:uuid:8556a174-fef3-4ee4-a428-8b1eda15e3d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redmangrove.com/blog/what-threats-do-imported-products-present-to-the-galapagos-islands/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958278 | 474 | 2.40625 | 2 |
On Tuesday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m., New Canaan Nature Center trustee and geologist G. Warfield "Skip" Hobbs, will present a lecture and open discussion on "Energy and Climate Change -- The Human Factor."
Hobbs will talk about energy supply and demand, the role of renewable energy sources, climate change and what must be done to adapt to and mitigate the impact of fossil fuels on global warming. The lecture will take place at the Nature Center. It is free for Nature Center members and there is a $10 charge for nonmembers.
Hobbs recently completed a position statement to stimulate discussion on climate and energy in the 2012 election cycle. The "call to action" is being widely distributed to Washington officials, candidates, individuals in the oil business and those in the academic community.
"Access to cheap and abundant fossil fuels -- coal, oil and natural gas, have powered the economies of North America and Europe and made them great," Hobbs said in a statement. "The developing world has now entered the Consumer Age and has an insatiable appetite for fossil fuels," he said. "However, an unexpected consequence of burning fossil fuels for electric power, manufacturing, transportation and heat, is that mankind is altering the earth's climate, and at a rate that may be faster than predicted, with potentially dire consequences. Dealing with climate change requires a fundamental reappraisal of our nation's energy policy, and how we as individuals think about energy use. The historic business model is no longer sustainable. We simply must reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and convince the rest of the world to do the same for the good of Planet Earth."
Hobbs is a consulting geologist with an international practice in petroleum, mining and geothermal.
He is the past president of the American Geosciences Institute, and a former board member, and now co-chairman of the Energy & Environment Committee of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. He has a bachelor's degree in geology from Yale College and a master's degree in petroleum geology from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College. Hobbs began his career as an international exploration geologist in the 1970s with Texaco and Amerada Hess. He writes and speaks frequently on energy economics and policy matters. | <urn:uuid:2ce27613-d1cd-43a7-bd4f-c760511e5825> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newcanaannewsonline.com/news/article/Nature-center-to-host-lecture-on-energy-and-3492597.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951248 | 473 | 2.484375 | 2 |
In order to relocate a mobile home, a moving permit must first be obtained from the Revenue Department. There is no charge for the permit. State law requires permits to be displayed near the license tag on the rear of the mobile home at all times during transport. A permit application must be furnished when applying for the permit. The application requires:
- Name and address of the owner as of the preceding January 1
- Name and address of the current owner
- Purchase date of the mobile home
- Address from which the mobile home is to be moved
- Address and county to which the mobile home is to be moved
- Make, model, year, size and serial number
- Name, address and telephone number of the carrier who is to transport the mobile home
To obtain a moving permit, the mobile home must have been located in Wake County on January 1 of the current year.
In addition to supplying the above information, it is also required that all property taxes due on the mobile home be paid in full. These taxes also include those which have not yet been computed but which will become due during the current calendar year. If the owner of the mobile home also owns real estate within Wake County, the tax on the mobile home does not have to be satisfied before receiving the permit. These taxes may be paid according to their regularly scheduled due date.
A holder of a lien on a mobile home may acquire a moving permit for relocating the property to another location in North Carolina without paying the taxes at the time of application. When the permit is issued, the holder of the lien will receive a statement of taxes due against the mobile home and is responsible for payment of the taxes within seven days of the issuance of the permit. Any applicant who is a nonresident of North Carolina must pay the taxes at the time of application for the permit.
Manufacturers and retailers transporting mobile homes, which are part of their inventory, are not required to obtain a moving permit. | <urn:uuid:431650b7-6886-4442-99c8-3929ebcfb548> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wakegov.com/tax/personalproperty/mhmoving/Pages/default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968085 | 400 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Our region is experiencing an extended period
of drought due to lack of significant rainfall. This trend has
limited surface water supplies for processing drinking water. The
Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), the regulator
of our water supplies has recently issued Water
Shortage Order #08-044 for
Below are the additional requirements:
• Hand-watering of non-lawn landscaping is prohibited from until . An automatic shutoff device must be installed on your hose and used at all times.
• Hand-watering of lawns is allowed only during your designated watering day and times.
• Micro-irrigation (also called low-flow or drip irrigation) is prohibited from until .
• Non-essential lawn and landscape water use must be eliminated.
• Aesthetic fountains and waterfalls, including for storm water pond aeration (unless pond is augmented by reclaimed water) shall be operated for no more than four (4) hours per day
Violations observed by Enforcement Personnel will result in a citation. A violation is subject to a fine plus court costs. Failure to comply with current watering restrictions is a Class II municipal ordinance offense subject to a $175 fine plus court costs. Court costs range from $13 for uncontested violations to $58 for contested violations. Subsequent violations are subject to higher fines as assessed by the court up to a maximum fine of $500 plus court costs.
|Non-emergency Police Dept.||837-7780|
|Police District Service Line||551-3181|
|Report Code Violations||893-7373|
|Mayor's Action Center
Code Violations, other issues
|Drug Tip Hotline: (anonymous)||522-5900| | <urn:uuid:5c049ae7-0fc5-460d-8c43-8c77b294f532> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ckna.org/news/2009-March-April-News/Important-information-on-water-restrictions.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903293 | 362 | 1.992188 | 2 |
|Origin:||'piece of flat ground'|
Related topics: Maths
ar‧e‧a S1 W1 [countable]
a particular part of a country, town etc
in an area
Only cheeses made in this area may be labelled 'Roquefort.'
There were over 2 inches of rain in coastal areas.
a working-class area of Birmingham
Many areas of Africa have suffered severe drought this year.
a rural area (=countryside) of woodlands and fields
Crime rates are significantly higher in urban areas (=towns, cities etc).
The police have searched the farm and the surrounding area (=the area around it).
children from the local area
a residential area of the town
a part of a house, office, garden etc that is used for a particular purpose:
Their apartment has a large kitchen area.
Come through into the dining area.
the reception area of the hotel
a storage area on the ground floor
a particular subject, range of activities, or group of related subjects:
The course covers three main subject areas.
This study has clearly identified a major problem area for the National Health Service.
We're funding research into new areas such as law enforcement technology.
reforms in the key areas of health and education
the amount of space that a flat surface or shape covers
an area of 2,000 square miles
a formula to calculate the area of a circle | <urn:uuid:274ab37f-07da-40dc-bc8c-5917bffecb28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/area | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908857 | 302 | 3.0625 | 3 |
More than one-third of the members of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) – committees at medical research organizations charged with ensuring that clinical studies uphold patient rights and follow ethical guidelines – have financial relationships with commercial firms. In the Nov. 30 New England Journal of Medicine, investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institute for Health Policy report the results of a survey of IRB members from academic medical centers across the U.S. While most IRB members did not believe that industry relationships have compromised the review process, a few reported that they had participated in discussions or voted on studies despite having industry relationships that could be conflicts of interest.
“The IRB process must be independent and objective,” noted Eric G. Campbell, PhD, of the MGH Institute for Health Policy, the study’s principal investigator. “Financial relationships with study sponsors create competing interests that could undermine the objectivity of the IRB process. Policies and practices regarding the disclosure and management of such relationships among IRB members need to withstand intense scrutiny, and our results suggest that we can do much better.”
Every institution in the U.S. that conducts research involving human participants must have an IRB, which is responsible for reviewing proposed studies to make sure the rights and safety of participants are protected and that study protocols are scientifically valid and follow ethical and regulatory guidelines. IRBs also monitor the conduct of studies to make sure that appropriate practices are maintained. While researchers’ industry relationships have been an area of concern for several years, no previous studies have examined the extent and impact of such relationships among IRB members.
During 2005, the MGH research team conducted an anonymous survey of almost 900 members of IRBs at medical schools and research hospitals across the country. Questionnaires were sent to a random sample of IRB members asking whether they had specific relationships with companies – including paid consultant, officer or director, scientific advisory board or speakers bureau member, and recipient of royalties or research funds. Some respondents noted the potential benefits to the research process of industry relationships – such as giving IRB members a better understanding of industry standards and how products may relate to others currently on the market.
Survey respondents also were asked if their IRBs had established processes for disclosing industry relationships and written standards defining when those relationships become conflicts of interest. They were asked whether in the previous year their IRBs had reviewed protocols sponsored either by companies with which they had relationships or by competitors. Those faced with reviewing such studies were asked to indicate whether they had disclosed the relationship, how fully they had participated in discussions of the protocols, and whether or not they had voted.
Among the 574 IRB members who responded to the survey, 36 percent reported having some kind of industry relationship. The great majority of respondents did not believe that other IRB members’ relationships had an inappropriate impact on their decisions or on how protocols had been presented. However, only 67 percent of respondents said their IRBs had a procedure for disclosing industry relationships, and only half were aware of written definitions of conflicts of interest. While only 15 percent of respondents reported that their IRBs had reviewed studies that posed conflicts of interest for them, almost half of them – 7 percent of all respondents – said they had either freely participated in IRB discussions of those protocols or voted on such studies.
“While many IRB members have financial relationships with sponsors, those relationships are not presently seen by IRB members as having a major impact on their activities,” said Greg Koski, MD, PhD, a senior member of the MGH research team and formerly director of the Office for Human Research Protections at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “The bad news is that our policies and procedures, as well as our efforts to educate IRB members about conflicts of interest, are clearly inadequate.”
Additional co-authors of the NEJM report are Joel S. Weissman, PhD, Christine Vogeli, PhD, Melissa Abraham PhD, and Jessica Marder of the MGH Institute for Health Policy and Brian Clarridge, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of nearly $500 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, transplantation biology and photomedicine. MGH and Brigham and Women's Hospital are founding members of Partners HealthCare HealthCare System, a Boston-based integrated health care delivery system.
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:e009aee3-27bd-4f52-aabf-acc248a4f3c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://psychcentral.com/news/archives/2006-11/mgh-mim112706.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973304 | 1,012 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Oct. 29, 2007 Almost 90% of teenagers aged 12-18 claim to have been victims of some level of sexual violence, according to a study conducted jointly by the University of Haifa and Ben Gurion University. The research surveyed 1,036 high school students. Additionally, 82% of the boys and 76% of the girls reported said that they had been subjects of violent physical assault.
Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel from the University of Haifa's School of Social Work, one of the authors of the study, noted that the results showed a distressing increase in the incidence of violence – both sexual and physical - over the past few years. The number of criminal files opened by the police for assault against children rose from 6,370 in 1998 to 8,805 in 2005. According to the National Council for the Child, the number of children treated for suspected violent attacks or abuse in 2005 stood at more than 37,000, a rise of 120% over the past decade. Of the 37,000, 30.5% were reported physical violence, 9.9% sexual, 13% psychological and 36.8% varying degrees of neglect.
Prof. Lev-Wiesel stressed that the aim of the research was to examine the personal and social factors that help adolescents cope with the trauma of a violent assault. A questionnaire was completed anonymously by over 1,000 high school students. The questionnaire measured six variables: demography, physical and sexual assaults, PTSD, potency and social support from family and friends.
According to the researchers, there is a distinct correlation between a child's feeling of potency and the level of traumatic symptoms exhibited following a violent attack. The study found a distinctive difference in the personal resources and the level of psychological distress of the children who suffered violent attacks as opposed to those who did not – whether the violence was limited to one incident or continuing and whether the attack was considered minor or severe. Boys in the study reported a higher incidence of sexual and physical violence than girls.
"The results of the research show that a feeling of potency and support of family and friends are important resources which have the potential to reduce the resulting trauma following assault. In addition to the importance of developing programs to decrease the incidence of violence, these is a need for programs for empowerment and strengthening personal resources that will protect those who have already fallen victim to violence," summarized Prof. Lev-Wiesel.
The results of the study were presented at a conference, held on October 10, 2007, in cooperation with the University of Haifa, announcing the establishment of a non-profit organization founded by academics, professionals in the fields of social services and healthcare, lawmakers and the media to fight the rising incidence of violence and propose concrete solutions for aiding victims.
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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:c7031f13-3ef3-40ba-aa5f-8b21cfd1b126> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071015102908.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960661 | 602 | 2.640625 | 3 |
MIDDLETOWN, NJ - The following information pertains to the Transitional Housing Assistance (THA) program that is available to displaced victims of Hurricane Sandy.
THA falls under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It allows eligible evacuees from Hurricane Sandy, who cannot return to their homes, to stay in hotels or motels until more suitable housing accommodations are available.
This federal assistance is intended to provide a place to stay for a longer period of time for evacuees whose neighborhoods are not accessible or whose houses have been destroyed. The initial period of assistance is from Nov. 1, 2012 to Nov. 14, 2012, with a Nov. 15 checkout.
A decision regarding extending the initial assistance period beyond Nov. 14, 2012 has not been made at this time.
Once again, the contact info regarding Transitional Housing Assistance (THA) is as follows:
Register by phone at 800-621-FEMA (3362) or TTY 800-462-7585 for those with hearing or speech impairments. Specialists are standing by at the toll-free numbers seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time, until further notice. Help in languages other than English is available. Or you can register online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov You can also apply through a web-enabled mobile device or smartphone by visiting http://m.fema.gov and go to the disasterassistance.gov link and then follow the link to “apply online for federal assistance.”
Eligible evacuees must fit the following criteria:
1. FEMA must be able to verify the identity of the evacuee;
2. The primary residence of the evacuee must be in one of the counties that has been designated a disaster area; and
3. The primary residence is inaccessible or unlivable due to damage or lack of power.
In addition to THA-related information, Governor Christie sent out information on Wednesday afternoon regarding services that residents may access through New Jersey’s Departments of Health and Human Services.
The Department of Health has public health experts available through the state’s 2-1-1 system to answer questions about food and water safety and mold removal to assist New Jersey residents as they cleanup their homes and businesses after Hurricane Sandy.
Health experts can answer questions about personal health and safety concerns; cleaning and mold removal; carbon monoxide concerns and food and drinking water safety. Residents can call 2-1-1 or 1-866-234-0964 to reach Public Health officials, who are available to take calls 8 am to 8 pm on weekdays and 10 am to 5 pm on weekends. The 2-1-1 human services hotline is open 24/7.
There are also resources available to help residents cope with the stress during this challenging time. The New Jersey Department of Human Services’ Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services – Disaster and Terrorism Branch is coordinating statewide efforts to help individuals and communities manage the emotional impact of the storm.
The Disaster and Terrorism Branch partners with the Mental Health Association in New Jersey to offer assistance through a toll-free Disaster Mental Health Helpline: 1-877-294-HELP (4357). A TTY line is available for persons who are deaf and hearing impaired at 1-877-294-4356. The federal government also has a Disaster Distress website and provides 24/7 crisis counseling and support resources available at 1-800-985-5990 or Text TalkWithUS to 66746. The federal Helpline is staffed by trained counselors from a network of crisis call centers located across the United States, all of whom provide crisis counseling for those who are in emotional distress.
While resources that are offered through NJ 2-1-1 vary from community-to-community, call specialists will provide information and referral services to callers about a variety of concerns, including: food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency or homeless shelters, rental assistance and utility assistance.
The call center operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is staffed with over 50 referral specialists trained to guide callers to the most appropriate services in their area. Particularly in times of disaster, 2-1-1 plays a vital role in keeping residents connected to factual, up-to-date information. NJ 2-1-1 does not process applications or provide funding or benefits. | <urn:uuid:be38f127-22c4-4a35-b92e-a4386aa626ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ahherald.com/newsbrief-mainmenu-2/monmouth-county-news/14086-transitional-housing-assistance-available-from-fema-for-displaced-victims-of-hurricane-sandy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925661 | 916 | 1.640625 | 2 |
A Year Later
It is absolutely amazing how time flies faster and faster as you get older! It seems like just yesterday that Sara Star came into this world.
This past year has been characterized as a redefining year for all of us. Sara’s challenging few weeks after her birth and her Muscular Dystrophy diagnosis have imposed the greatest physical, mental, psychological and spiritual challenges to our lives – yet a bit more than a year later, we each find ourselves, happier, stronger, healthier and certainly more positive on life than ever before. Life has a way to teach us lessons and guide us – if we are willing to open up – in the hardest ways sometimes – but that may be what it takes.
After Sara’s birth – and having been informed of her condition and most doctors telling us there was little hope for life after a few weeks or months at the most – we were forced to look outside the modern medical world for hope and perhaps answers. What we (believe) have learned / discovered is that most if not all ailments that we come upon in life (genetics included) are caused over time (and sometimes generations) by unnatural products that we put into our bodies and surround ourselves with on a daily basis. These include ANY processed foods or drinks, all household chemicals and of course polluted environments. Any foods treated with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or additives are in fact bad for us and introduce “poisons” to our bodies. A common question I have always asked is “If we supposedly have the world’s most advanced medicine – then why do we have more sick people then ever? Why is cancer on the rise? Why is obesity on the rise? Hypertension? Alzheimer’s? Why are we having to take more and more pills?” Sure we are living longer – but perhaps artificially? As a generation – we are not getting healthier – we are in fact getting less and less healthy- but the little pills help HIDE our effects better and better without ever curing us – and in time – making us sicker and weaker to combat the next “disease” that comes along our path.
Whether we like it or not, our bodies are constantly bombarded by bacteria and viruses and much more. They are not the problem. It is not the virus that gets us sick – but rather our body’s weakened immune system – that is less able to naturally fight off the “intruders”. If we were to think and practice “preventive” medicine as a healthcare concept – instead of combative (treating the symptoms) – then there would be less need for the healthcare industry as we know it. Politicians today are scratching their heads on how to present a solution to our future’s healthcare problems. The answer is oh so simple: emphasize on KEEPING people HEALTHY – instead of trying to treat symptoms and beating diseases. The problem with this approach – as unbelievably simple as it may seem – as that the healthcare INDUSTRY would loose most of their profits. It is not about our health – but rather that of the corporations which the healthcare industry is truly concerned about!!!!
So with that basic understanding, we have embarked on a journey of “natural life” for ourselves and most importantly for Sara. Sara eats only natural and organic foods – NEVER packaged. Forget the Gerber food. Forget any powdered products. She is not given any medications (unless absolutely essential – which in some cases – they are). She is viewed by us in the most positive and normal way. The results so far may speak for themselves. The doctors simply call her “The Miracle of Punta Uva”. This is a life long journey and personal “experiment” in which we can’t loose. The text books tell us that there is NO CURE for Muscular Dystrophy. We believe this to be untrue. The human body is not meant to be sick. The human body is able to combat and heal all disease – IF we allow it to do so – by providing it the most basic and natural environment it was meant to flourish in! While there is no magic pill or treatment to HIDE the effects of MD, there may be a cure in the most simplistic way: nature – balance and positive healthy living.
For Sara – and ourselves – we are constantly looking into other “alternative” medicine avenues and each time pleasantly surprised to learn of the power and benefits each offers. Today, we actively practice natural health, nutrition, daily massage, reflexology and nothing but POSITIVE BELIEF and love. For anyone who did not know her condition – Sara Star is a perfectly healthy and happy child! | <urn:uuid:0055aa1e-84e9-4e5a-a7aa-0f094c7d7050> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifeinpuntauva.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/a-year-later/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971148 | 973 | 1.84375 | 2 |
I had a spot of difficulty with today’s Daily Prompt: When you were 16, what did you think your life would look like? Does it look like that? Is that a good thing?
Doesn’t look like a hard one, does it? I’ve always been a dreamer, one to look ahead to the future – probably too much so. And I can recap on my past effortlessy. Probably too effortlessly. In fact, there’s just one hitch.
I’m not sixteen yet.
Give me a month and three days and I will be, but, yeah, it poses something of a problem with answering the prompt.
So I’m gonna do this backwards: I’m going to write what I hope my 36-year-old self will be like, and what she’ll think of my 16-year-old self. About the person I want to be, not the person I was. Because I want to grow, and it’s not easy, ’cause I’m not a very good little mustard seed. But like the mustard seed, with God’s help and grace, I can grow to be a great tree.
1. I dream…
… that my 36-year-old self will still be dreaming, about good horses and good stories and good cows, about her family and their futures together, about her farm and her life and where it’s going. Or about anything, really. Maybe my 36-year-old self won’t dream about the things she dreamed about 20 years ago. But she had better dream.
And most of all, she had better dream about the true things, the dreams that are guaranteed to come to pass. She had better dream about a war and a dying world, and a Lamb and a Throne and a Prince of Peace coming on His great white horse to save the day and sweep her off to His Kingdom. She had better dream of a fountain of living water and a tree of life, of a King and a City and a shining, shining Light.
The only way my 36-year-old self will be let off dreaming those things will be if her Prince has already come and she’s already curled up on His lap in His country. Because then she won’t have to dream about anything anymore. She will live a dream every day, and she will be happy, happy, happy.
2. I hope…
… that my 36-year-old self will look back 20 years and say, “Thank the Lord I’m not still her.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a happy person, and I’m happy to be me, because God made me, hand-crafted me with love, so I am me and I am okay. But I am still a sinner. I sin in fear, in doubt, in plain laziness; I probably sin not even knowing I’m doing it, apart even from the transgression I notice.
I don’t want to ever stop striving. I want to keep pushing onwards and upwards, reaching for the stars and beyond. I want to go further up and further in; I want to outdo myself constantly, to fight a good fight and run a good race. I want to be as perfect as I can be in the grace of Christ Jesus, and it’s only Him who can make this sorry piece of humanity something glorious to His Name.
3. I trust…
… that my 36-year-old self will be even closer to God’s love than I am now. I trust that she will draw nearer and nearer to God and know Him better and better. I trust that she will strive harder for Him, to love Him and love everyone else, man and beast.
4. Smaller dreams
I have smaller dreams, too. I dream that my novel will hit the world like a tornado and become an NYT bestseller and become a movie and touch thousands and thousands of lives, and do so with the blessing of Christ, spread His word, inspire people and exhort them in their quest for Him – or perhaps even turn a wayward heart back onto the straight and narrow road.
I dream that I will train a fantastic young horse and love it and ride it and go to the Olympics, perhaps not Rio, perhaps in 2020, and jump there. And I dream that if I do my country proud and someone – anyone – asks the key to success, I will say, “Jesus.”
I dream that I will breed a National Champion Jersey heifer with a golden heart and golden milk and golden coat, because Jerseys are just gold all round.
5. Bottom line
But all those are little dreams.
I hope most of all that in twenty years’ time, I’ll be on the straight and narrow path. I’ll still hold tight to Jesus’s Hand; I’ll still rest in His love. I’ll still graze His green pastures. I’ll be unafraid to walk in the valley of the shadow of death, to be cast into the furnace or lions’ den, because I’ll still love Him.
He’s all that counts. And here and now, Sir, when I’m sixteen, when I haven’t written enough words or lived enough days to know even a speck of what I need to know and what You want me to know… Here and now when I’m sixteen, I’m sure of one thing, one immovable rock, one unbreakable shield against the perils of life.
I’m sure of this, and may I always be sure of it:
I love You, Lord Jesus. | <urn:uuid:b86f42fd-ccc8-4c1b-b55c-165251f05617> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://clothedwiththunder.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/will-it-be-sweet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95641 | 1,226 | 1.601563 | 2 |
This image shows only the swells directed at Purema that coincided with light winds or offshore conditions through a typical June. It is based on 1608 predictions, one every 3 hours. The direction of the spokes show where quality surf generating swell comes from. Five colours show increasing wave sizes. The smallest swells, less than 0.5m (1.5 feet), high are coloured blue. Green and yellow represent increasing swell sizes and largest swells greater than >3m (>10ft) are shown in red. In both graphs, the area of any colour is proportional to how often that size swell occurs.
The diagram indicates that the dominant swell direction, shown by the longest spokes, was WSW, whereas the the most common wind blows from the NW. The chart at the bottom shows the same thing but without direction information. For example, swells larger than 1.5 feet (0.5m) coincided with good wind conditions 46% of the time, equivalent to 14 days. Open water swells exceeding >3m (>10ft) only happen 3% of the time in a typical June, equivalent to just one day but 20% of the time we expect swell in the range 2-3m (6.5-10ft) 20%, equivalent to (6 days). Taking into account the fraction of these swells that coincided with expected offshore winds, and given the fact that Purema is exposed to open water swells, we estimate that clean surf can be found at Purema about 46% of the time and that surf is messed up by onshore wind 46% of the time. This is means that we expect 28 days with waves in a typical June, of which 14 days should be surfable.
IMPORTANT: Beta version feature! Swell heights are open water values from NWW3. There is no attempt to model near-shore effects. Coastal wave heights will generally be less, especially if the break does not have unobstructed exposure to the open ocean. | <urn:uuid:df080371-087a-4a15-aa85-9bfa5819c939> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.surf-forecast.com/charts/Purema/surf/consistency/june | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944507 | 406 | 2.4375 | 2 |
New research from the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research has found that women who have been treated for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (abnormal cervical cell growth), are at higher risk for a recurrence of the disease or invasive cervical cancer. The large, population-based study, which appears in the May 12 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, sheds new light on the long-term risks of subsequent abnormal cell growth or invasive cancer, and should help in the development of follow-up treatment guidelines for women with a history of treatment for abnormal cells.
"We now have a much more clear idea of the risks of recurrent abnormal cells and invasive cervical cancer over time after treatment of these cells," said Joy Melnikow, Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Associate Director of the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, who led the study. "Recurrence risk depends on the grade of abnormal cells that was initially treated, what treatment was used and the woman's age."
In the study, which used data from the British Columbia Cancer Agency cytology database and was funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute, Melnikow and colleagues identified 37,142 women who were treated for abnormal cells from Jan. 1, 1986 through Dec. 31, 2000. They compared them with a group of 71,213 women with no previous diagnosis of abnormal cells. Both groups were under active surveillance through 2004.
They found that risk of subsequent abnormal cells or cervical cancer was associated with the type of treatment they received, their age and the initial grade of diagnosis. There are three levels of abnormal cervical cells; grade 3 is the most severe. There is no standard treatment for abnormal cells; at early stages, abnormal cells are monitored to determine if they resolve without treatment. At later stages, the type of treatment depends on several variables, including the grade and distribution of the abnormal cells and whether the patient has been treated previously.
According to the study, the risk of invasive cervical cancer and recurrence of grade 2 or grade 3 abnormal cells was highest for women who were older than 40, previously treated for grade 3, or treated with cryotherapy, a common treatment method in which the abnormal cells are frozen to stop their growth. Rates of recurrence at grades 2 and 3 were lowest among women treated with cone biopsy, a method in which the abnormal cells are removed surgically.
Melnikow said the findings could help guide physicians in making recommendations about the intensity of follow up needed after treatment for abnormal cells. In addition, she said the findings may help physicians and patients in deciding which type of treatment for abnormal cells to choose. She explained, for example, that while cryotherapy was associated in the study with a higher risk of recurrence, it carries less risk of other harmful effects than cone biopsy or loop electrical excision, procedures which have been associated with pre-term delivery in women who later become pregnant. This suggests that a younger woman with grade 2 abnormal cells who plans to start a family might opt for cryotherapy, while an older woman with grade 3 abnormal cells who is at greater risk for recurrence might opt for loop excision or cone biopsy.
"These data may help inform that treatment discussion, because we know more about how age and different treatments appear to influence risks," Melnikow said.
The study also found that the highest rates of recurrence of abnormal cells were observed in the first six years after treatment; the majority of those were identified in the first two years. Recurrence rates for grade 2 or grade 3 abnormal cells during the 6-year period ranged from 2.3 percent in the lowest risk group to 35 percent in the highest risk group. Overall incidence of cervical cancer in the abnormal cell group was 37 cervical cancers per 100,000 woman-years, compared with six cervical cancers per 100,000 woman-years among women not previously diagnosed.
Melnikow pointed out that the study also has different implications for health policy depending on the health system and resources. In developing countries where cervical cancer screening and treatment are more limited and death rates higher for cervical cancer, cryotherapy, a simpler and less expensive treatment method for abnormal cells, is likely to be preferred.
Melnikow said the next step is to compare different treatment and surveillance strategies in terms of cost-effectiveness.
Article: Melnikow et al. Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia Outcomes After Treatment: Long-Term Follow-up From the British Columbia Cohort Study. J Natl Cancer Inst 2009, 101: 721-728.
Editorial: Wilkinson E. Women with Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia: Requirement for Active Long-Term Surveillance After Therapy , J Natl Cancer Inst 2009, 101: 696-697.
Source: University of California - Davis - Health System (news : web)
Explore further: New fluorescent tools for cancer diagnosis | <urn:uuid:c288e849-fafa-47d6-9837-1cd689e78c03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/news161365922.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961817 | 1,003 | 2.171875 | 2 |
The word tattoo is said to have two major derivations- from the Polynesian word ‘ta’ which means striking something and the Tahitian word ‘tatau’ which means ‘to mark something.’ Tattoos are created by inserting pigment beneath the skin. In some of the tribal cultures, the tattooing technique was known to be very painful and harsh. The tattoo was created by cutting designs into the skin, usually with Bamboo, and then rubbing ink or ashes into the wound. Some cultures still continue this practice.
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact origins of Bamboo Tattoo Art as the practice is so old the history is almost lost, being tied up with myth and legend. Many countries in South East Asia lay claim to be the birthplace of this ancient art form. However, it is generally believed to have originated in the Khmer period around 3000 years ago. In Thailand, bamboo tattooing began in the Buddhist temples, with monks receiving religious text tattoos from grand master monks for protection. Throughout periods of conflict in Thailand, soldiers would visit temples to be tattooed by the monks with spells for such things as protection, strength or invisibility.
The earliest evidence of tattoos was for a long time Egyptian, and present on many female mummies dated to 2000 B.C. But following the more recent discovery of the Iceman from the Italian-Austrian border in 1991 and his tattoo patterns, this date has been pushed back a further thousand years when he was carbon-dated at around 5,200 years old. The distribution of the tattooed dots and small crosses on his lower spine, right knee and ankle joints correspond to areas of strain-induced decay, with the suggestion that they may have been applied to alleviate joint pain and were therapeutic. This would also explain their somewhat random placement in areas of the body which would not have been that easy to display.
In Japan, the tattoo technique is primarily hand based. The traditional Japanese tattoos are still hand pushed. The pigment is inserted under the skin using a non-electrical, handmade and hand held device with needles either made of bamboo or steel.
In Pacific cultures tattooing has a huge historic significance. Polynesian tattooing is considered the most intricate and skillful tattooing of the ancient world. Polynesian people believe that a person’s spiritual power, is displayed through their tattoos.
In Samoa, the tradition of applying tattoo by hand has been defined by rank and title, with chiefs and their assistants, descending from notable families in the proper birth order. The tattooing ceremonies for young chiefs, typically conducted when they hit puberty, were elaborate affairs and were a key part of their attendance to a leadership role.
The Greeks learned tattooing from the Persians and the Romans adopted it from the Greeks. Roman writers reported that many criminals and slaves were tattooed as a way of identification. Greeks and Romans also used tattooing as a punishment. Early in the fourth century, when Constantine became Roman emperor and abolished the prohibition on Christianity, he also banned tattooing on face, which was common for convicts, soldiers, and gladiators.
Tattoos have changed throughout the years, especially in the United States and have become more widespread in its popularity. A tattoo gun is now the most common way to get tattooed in the modern world. The basic machine was invented by Thomas Edison and patented in the United States in 1876 called Stencil Pens. It was originally invented to be used for engraving, but in 1891 Samuel O’Reilly realized that it could be modified and used to put in inside the skin. He later introduced and patented the tube and needle system. Most modern tattoo machines can control needle depth, speed, and force, which has allowed tattooing to become a very precise art form.
The majority of what we know today about this ancient art has been passed down through legends, songs, and ritual ceremonies. Luckily though, these stories exist to document the history of tattoos. | <urn:uuid:532b038f-673d-448c-86a2-eef722b65ea6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scandigital.com/blog/historic-photos/tattoo-history-from-around-the-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97451 | 817 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Eating romantic dinners with your other half in a dimly lit room may help keep your relationship on track, but it may be derailing your fat-loss efforts. One study presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine by Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge) researchers reported that eating in a dimly lit room raised blood sugar levels higher than eating the same meal in a well-lit room. It’s suggested that this effect might be due to the higher melatonin levels that accompany the darker environment. This conclusion was supported by the fact that eating in a bright room while taking melatonin also raised blood sugar levels higher after the meal than eating the meal in a bright room without supplemental melatonin. This is another good reason to not eat a carb-heavy meal before bed. So keep the lights bright to keep fat loss on track. | <urn:uuid:62706470-5bb5-4684-9546-95db750174d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.flexonline.com/nutrition/news/bright-lights-big-fat-loss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957612 | 175 | 1.859375 | 2 |
This week GPS manufacturer Garmin bought a company called Tri-Tronics. They make shocking collars for dogs. You know those things: Push button, electric charge makes your dog suffer, dog does something. These are gadgets we don't really need.
It's quite simple: Shocking collars for dogs or any other sentient beings are bad. While they achieve their objective, they also bring pain to an innocent animal. Do you really need to use these barbarian gadgets to make a dog do something? The scientific answer is no.
Take my dog Amos, the happy happy black thing to the left. He is a smart little fella. He does a zillion things on command. I can wave at him and he will wave back. I can tell him to sit down, and he will sit down. Say bark, he barks. Stop, stop. Stay means stay, period. Tell him to show respect and he bows his head like a 16th century knight. Point your index finger at him, say "bang bang" and he drops dead on the floor instantly, sometimes with perfect drama and timing, like a bad cowboy in a spaghetti western. But Amos is not a specially smart dog. He's like every other dog.
Dogs can learn anything using positive reinforcement
He learned all this through positive reinforcement, which is precisely the opposite of what shocking collars do, while achieving the same results. Like all the dogs in this video by OK Go! No negative reinforcement was used on them whatsoever. Like all those dogs, Amos had fun doing it all and he learned fast! Learning was a party for him.
And learning is not only about tricks. With positive reinforcement training, dogs can learn any behavior you can imagine, from not barking to staying in a perimeter to hunting for drugs.
What shocking collars do is called negative reinforcement and, as you probably know because of your own experience, negative reinforcement sucks dog's bollocks. As dog trainer and author Anna Jane Grossman describes:
To get a dog to sit using an electric collar, you turn on the shock and only turn it off once his butt hits the floor. The behavior is reinforced because the pain goes away. Immobilizing a prisoner and pouring water on his face until he speaks? Same idea. Except we're doing this to creatures we supposedly love.
Why Garmin is buying Tri-Tronics—which sounds like the name of an evil company from a B-series 80s telefilm—is beyond me. I don't know what they plan to do with their shocking collars. But I know that shocking collars are a bad idea no matter how they are applied.
If you want to know more about the scientific principles that show why shocking collars is a technology that should be eradicated from planet Earth, go to [TheDogs] | <urn:uuid:cd64db90-b293-418b-aa93-9d30ae808062> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gizmodo.com/5816866/the-world-doesnt-need-shocking-collars-for-dogs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962157 | 579 | 1.984375 | 2 |
John Thompson on Tending a Child’s Garden of Influences
It is good to want someone to control the violence, irreverence, and sex that appear in the media, so that children aren’t exposed to stories and images that corrupt their desires and dull their consciences. That would be a good thing for society as a whole. But for the sake of my wife and our three children, I have to draw the line at a different place.
The Four Rules
And so my wife and I follow four rules of disengagement. The first one is: If it is addictive, don’t offer it to children. In our family, that means alcohol, smoking, and drugs. It also means video games, television, Gameboys, and iPods.
We play games, but we do it as a family and we promote the games that encourage thought and interaction, not the acuity of the thumbs and fingers. We watch videos, but not television, and we certainly don’t watch television “serially.”
But the real struggle, the real area where the discipline is needed, is in how we—the parents—live and in the way we spend our money and time. Here is where the most effective teaching takes place, for good or ill, because, as everyone knows, our children pay much more attention to what we do than to what we say.
Hence, the second rule of disengagement: You should want your children to imitate you. This is one of the hardest rules to follow. It is annoying beyond words, at times, to see my children copying me. But then I remember that if I want them to remain disengaged from what will harm them, they must be able to attach themselves to a positive influence. Me.
This leads to the third rule of disengagement: Don’t give your children things that will isolate, spoil, or corrupt them. My childhood preceded the Sony Walkman phenomenon, which is now the iPod phenomenon. The music you can get on them is truly amazing, both in variety and in quality of reproduction. I don’t object to persons who use them, unless that person is one of my children.
I am perhaps irrationally afraid that my children will use their iPod or CD player or whatever to escape something unpleasant, whether it is boredom, a sibling, or my discipline. Instead, they should be learning to deal constructively with their boredom, siblings, and parental discipline.
Withdrawing into his own world is an ever-present temptation for a child, as tempting as candy. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that following rule No. 2, I don’t use these devices myself.
Our fourth rule of disengagement is: Even when giving the children gifts, teach them about the rewards that they should be working for. When we give them gifts, we are giving them some clues about what we think will make people happy. That is why I object, in principle, to expensive toys that have no functional use. They imply that happiness comes from being able to afford expensive toys. This is an unfortunate concept for children to have but it is disastrous for adults.
These are not rules for rejecting society or for withdrawing from it. They are rules for equipping my children to selectively engage the world when they are mature enough to assess its merits and dangers. One of the most compelling arguments for disengagement is that the attitudes and values that society encourages effectively preclude the values that I want to cultivate.
You can only grow so many plants in your garden. Some of the plants I want to see flourish in my garden—gratitude, reverence, simplicity, and the love of beauty—are relatively fragile and require special attention, and so I must go to what others regard as extreme lengths—a radical weeding policy—to protect them.
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An introductory subscription (six copies for one year) is only $29.95. | <urn:uuid:7efb33e2-c33a-4429-afaf-acf4aad45547> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=21-08-014-v | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955031 | 883 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Loki - shape-shifting many-core
This new project builds upon our experience of designing on-chip networks. The aim is to explore a broad range of interesting massively-parallel single-chip architectures that place the network at the heart of their design. Our simple cores are far more deeply interconnected to each other than traditional designs, sharing some similarities to FPGAs. The network is also free to carry both instructions and data between cores allowing individual cores to be exploited in a variety of interesting ways. We are pursuing work at both the architecture and circuit levels, together with the development of new compilation tools.
- Edinburgh HiPEAC event, May 2010, Project Overview
There are currently research
opportunities in this area for potential PhD students.
(Currently: One full EPSRC studentship to start as soon as possible + One EPSRC CASE award in a related area)
This project started in October 2009 and is funded by the EPSRC (EP/G033110/1) | <urn:uuid:4bc301fd-d7d9-4352-aa70-5647d47160ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rdm34/loki/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927342 | 204 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The three before me rule works with middle school
kids. Make a bulletin board at the start of the school
year. I got this idea from a co-worker and have shared
it often with the list.
3 Before Me:
1. Use handouts - instructions sheets - your notes
2. Look at art visuals - prints and examples
3. Ask someone at your table who knows what they are
I actually put the lesson plans on the table for many
of my units - might as well have someone read them.
Admin never did (nor did I). I was always available
the "crisis"....but tried to use the 3 before me rule
for the little things (and for those who didn't
--- N2ART247@aol.com wrote:
> Amen! You waste valuable class time repeating
> instruction. Sometimes I write
> on my board (if simple enough) Most often ... an
> enlightened neighbor of the
> 'negligent' student explains the directions. | <urn:uuid:b83f490a-e389-4f88-ab68-647d1e9cfe82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.getty.edu/education/teacherartexchange/archive/May04/0358.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940531 | 213 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Photo: Bill to Cut Tuition for Undocumented Students Advances in Colorado
A Colorado Senate committee passed Friday a bill to allow qualified undocumented college students to pay in-state tuition at public universities.
With a 4-3 vote, the Appropriations Committee sent SB 13-33 to the full Senate, where debate on the bill will begin Feb. 22.
An analysis made by the Senate estimates that the measure could benefit some 500 undocumented college students.
On Jan.25, the senatorial Education Committee also backed this measure by 6-3, with one Republican joining five Democrats in the “yes” column.
Presidents of several Colorado universities and community colleges have come out in favor of the proposal.
Unlike previous bills, SB 13-33 does not create an “intermediate level” of tuitions nor offers discounts on school fees for certain undocumented college students, but instead authorizes universities to classify anyone who graduates from a Colorado high school as a state resident.
Another difference from previous proposals is that SB 13-33 allows students who benefit from this law to receive financial aid from the universities they attend. | <urn:uuid:a73c3a8f-b4f9-45d7-a68f-edb30a419813> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/latino-daily-news/details/bill-to-cut-tuition-for-undocumented-students-advances-in-colorado/22204/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937961 | 229 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The Carnivore's (Ongoing) Dilemma
By Asa WahlquistAugust 30, 2012
Saving the planet is not as simple as 'less meat = less heat'. Indeed, the conscientious eater — particularly in Australia — might be better off with a steak than a slab of tofu.
When News Limited began its 1 Degree program, which aimed to make the company carbon neutral, it invited employees to submit the steps they would take to reduce their own personal greenhouse-gas emissions. In response a number of News employees offered to reduce the amount of red meat in their diets, or even cut out eating meat altogether.
In that choice, they joined such eminences as Britain's Lord Stern, the Nobel-winning Rajendra Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the vegetarian Sir Paul McCartney who popularised the phrase: less meat = less heat.
Popular wisdom has it that industrial livestock production is killing the environment. But while there are some sound reasons to eat less meat or even become a vegetarian, doing it to save the planet is not necessarily one of them.
We can look at it this way: red meat comes from cattle and sheep, which play a vital role in utilising grasslands, the 60 per cent of the world's farmland unfit for any other agriculture. When the world's population of hungry people is rapidly growing, you have to ask whether we can ethically refuse to produce food from so much land.
We could also consider the fact that, on mixed farms — those that run livestock and grow crops — the animals play a critical role in eating farm waste and providing natural fertiliser. If human diets shift towards more legumes such as soybeans, that will mean more cropping and the accompanying need for more irrigation and higher inputs of nitrogenous fertilisers, which pose their own serious greenhouse-gas emission problem (more on this later).
As the implications of people swapping meat for vegetables are totted up, there are signs that the greenhouse-gas debate is changing.
In his book, Meat: A Benign Extravagance, Simon Fairlie, a British journalist and farmer, makes a strong case for sustainable, small-scale farming that incorporates livestock. So persuasive is his argument that Fairlie's book famously convinced well-known environment writer George Monbiot that his pro-vegan stance was wrong.
The case for meat is not helped by the fact that two of the earliest, most influential and most frequently quoted contributions to the debate are wrong. First was the Food and Agriculture Organisation's report Livestock's Long Shadow, which claimed 18 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions come from livestock. More recently, the International Panel for Climate Change put livestock greenhouse-gas emissions at 5.4 per cent of global emissions.
The other highly quotable early entrant was US researcher David Pimentel's claim that it takes 100,000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of beef.
However the Water Footprint Network estimates a global average water footprint of 15,400 litres of water per kg of beef. Beef grown on Australian farms seems to require less again, with research by a team including Brad Ridoutt from the CSIRO estimating water use at 6.6 to 440 litres per kg.
Ridoutt explains: "When people use these figures of 100,000 or even 15,000 [litres of water] these numbers go out into the public domain. The information is not given about what these numbers mean. It just becomes a source of misinformation that can be used in quite a scandalous way."
Ridoutt is working with the International Organisation for Standardisation to set up a rigorous system, similar to carbon footprinting, that would give comparable figures for water usage by all kinds of agriculture and other human pursuits. "The underlying question is to what extent is producing this product contributing to a reduction in fresh water that is available for the environment or for others to use."
Fairlie ridiculed Pimentel's figure, citing the case of Bramley, an Angus/Jersey cross steer he raised. He estimated that if the 100,000 litres per kg was correct, young Bramley would have had to consume about 25,000 litres of water a day.
What makes all this so difficult to precisely calculate is that we're talking about animals, not machines. Farmed animals are biological individuals with different constitutions and diets, living in different geographies, bred and used for different purposes, playing different roles in different farm systems. The result is huge variability in the productivity and resource consumption of livestock around the world: for example, beef produced in Africa in a Sahelian pastoral system — where cattle are used for transport, and ownership is an indicator of wealth — has the lowest carbon footprint at 8.4 kg of greenhouse gases per kilogram of meat; whereas beef produced in Japan, from the world's most pampered cattle, has the highest value at 26 kg of greenhouse gases per kilogram of meat.
Livestock's Long Shadow has cast its own long shadow over the livestock CO2 emissions debate. Richard Eckard, associate professor with the Melbourne School of Land and Environment, along with many other scientists, disputes their cliam that livestock contribute 18 per cent of the world's emissions, as it counts both cattle not raised for consumption and land not in fact used for livestock.
They say Long Shadow overestimated how much of the land clearing in the Amazon was for livestock — when up to 40 per cent is cropped with soybeans. Eckard adds: "You have all the cattle in India for religious reasons, the cattle in Africa used for transport and wealth generation — a lot do not get consumed."
Deforestation figures highly in Long Shadow 's sums, but Eckard points out much of Australia's rangelands were never cleared. "All the northern rangelands, they weren't cleared, they were just stocked with cattle," he says. In fact, most clearing, in Australia, has been for cropping.
Ross Garnaut's Climate Change Review, updated last year, reported that although greenhouse-gas emissions from livestock accounted for about 10 per cent of Australia's total, those emissions have declined by 13 per cent since 1990, largely because of a fall in sheep numbers — which dropped from 174 to 74 million. He pointed out that commercially motivated improvements in animal husbandry have "incidentally reduced emissions per unit of output. These developments could go further," Garnaut says.
The former chief of CSIRO Livestock Industries, Alan Bell, estimates beef cattle account for up to seven per cent of Australia's greenhouse-gas emissions. And that figure is set to fall. Townsville-based CSIRO scientist Ed Charmley says recent work shows cattle in the northern rangelands are producing 20 to 30 per cent less methane than previous estimates. With about half the nation's cattle in the north, this means a significant downward revision.
Most of the world's livestock consumes grass. Ruminant animals, such as cows and sheep, possess a special stomach or rumen which contains microbes that can digest grass — and a byproduct of that digestion is the greenhouse gas, methane. This means ruminants produce protein from plants in areas that are unsuitable for any other agricultural activity.
Grasslands occur on land where the soil is too poor, the rainfall too low or the topography too rough for the land to be ploughed and planted with crops.
And before there were modern cattle there were wild ruminants, including the great bison herds of the US prairies and the wildebeest of the African savanna, which had adapted to these grassy regions.
George Seddon has argued the main herbivores in Australia were termites, which, interestingly, also produce methane. Eckard says that in the Northern Territory "it is quite feasible that termites are producing more methane on an area basis than livestock".
Australia also has kangaroos, which, unusually among the large herbivorous animals, are not ruminants, and produce significantly less methane than cows, for example.
Methane, or CH4, is a potent, if short-lived greenhouse gas. It is given a global warming potential rating of 25 times that of carbon dioxide. Methane is the main component of natural gas and coal seam gas. It is also produced from landfill, but the largest source of methane is wetlands.
Eckard explains the quantity of methane a ruminant produces is affected by its diet — a poor diet results in higher methane production — and by genetics. He says there can be a 15 per cent difference in methane emissions within one herd, determined by these two factors.
The steak-versus-lentils argument is further complicated by the fact that grasslands have been found to play another important role in keeping our atmosphere in balance: that is, they sequester, or fix, carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.
Helen King, former deputy director of the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Accounting, says, "There is a lot of research that [indicates] if areas [of grassland] are not grazed, or are not managed, they actually take up less carbon, so grazing animals play a very active role in the carbon cycle. Well-managed grass-fed beef is a totally different proposition to growing grains to feed animals or growing grains for consumption."
If people were to abandon eating red meat, some grasslands, like the Serengeti, might be repopulated by wild ruminants. But the more likely fate of Australia's grasslands would be consumption by fire. Bushfires, on average, burn over 500,000 square km of Australia annually, mainly the grasslands in the northern half of the country. Bushfire accounts for about three per cent of the nation's net greenhouse-gas emissions.
One of the charges made against livestock in general is that it consumes grains that would otherwise be used to feed people. But in Australia, livestock is largely fed grain and oilseed products that would not be used for human consumption.
Feeding grain to cattle doesn't bring great returns in the desired generation of protein: cattle require eight to 10 kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of meat. Pigs, on the other hand, require three kilograms of feed and chicken requires just 1.7 kg of grain to produce one kilogram of meat.
Australians are eating less red meat, anyway. Beef consumption has more than halved since 1977, to 31.7 kg per person. Over the same period, consumption of chicken meat has rocketed from 15 to 45.2 kg per person. The great Aussie barbecue has paled significantly, which is, on one level, in step with our aims of greenhouse-gas reduction.
Every kilogram of beef produces 24 kg of greenhouse gases. Pork and chicken (both products of non-ruminants) generate much less, at 4.1 and 0.8 kg respectively.
And yet, "People say ruminants produce methane and are less efficient than pigs and poultry, but think about all that grain that we need to produce protein from pigs and poultry," Bell says. The argument has moved from red meat to meat and poultry generally.
Even Australian cattle don't spend their whole lives on grass; at any time, only about two per cent of the herd is in feedlots, being fed grain. Bell says feedlots are "a tough one for the environmentalists, particularly around methane". Many environmentalists oppose feedlotting due to its intensive nature and the high-grain diet. But feedlot cattle grow more quickly than grass-fed cattle, and that means they emit less greenhouse gas before they're slaughtered for their meat. As a result, Australian grain-fed cattle are estimated to produce 38 per cent fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than those raised on grass. They emit less again if they are administered Hormone Growth Promotants. In another context this would sound unpalatable, but here it makes sense.
Tara Garnett, from the Food Climate Research Network, at the University of Surrey in the UK, argues that if people didn't eat livestock, fewer cereal crops would be needed for livestock, but more would be required for humans.
Garnett also estimates that Britons throw out between 18 and 20 million tonnes of food a year. Australians are estimated to waste four million tonnes a year. Once, that food waste went to the pigs and poultry that were an integral part of farms and households — now it is simply wasted.
Animal products supply a third of all the world's protein. If we eliminated livestock we would have to produce half as much again vegetable protein crops to replace meat.
But in Australia the shift from pasture to crop land results in a reduction in soil carbon. Increasing soil carbon will be critical to Australia's future carbon balance. And the most effective way to increase carbon levels in soil used for agriculture is to return crop land to well-managed pasture, preferably native pasture.
And there's another problem. Crops need nitrogen, most of which comes from synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. Making nitrogen fertiliser is a very energy-intensive process, using at least one to two per cent of the world's energy supply. Then the fertiliser, once applied to crops, breaks down to become the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, which has a global warming potential (GWP) of 298. The base unit for GWP is carbon dioxide, which is given a value of one at 20, 100 and 500 years. Methane has a GWP at 100 years of 25. There are other minor contributors, but carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the three main greenhouse gases.
Organic farms fix nitrogen in the soil, naturally increasing its fertility through growing legume crops. And this lowers their productivity, because on a stockless farm, around one-third of fields are taken out of grain production for natural nitrogen fixing at any given time.
And here is the next conundrum for the environmentalist.
Garnett says that research into organic farms finds that, on the one hand, they are less energy intensive than conventional farming, but they are also less productive, so organic livestock is more greenhouse-gas intensive.
Bell hesitates to put a figure on the productivity of Australian organic farming, but says, "All the data I have seen, more from North America than here, says that organic is always going to be less efficient."
Can you absorb another complication? Because… there's the issue of what it takes to produce meat substitutes.
A study by Cranfield University, commissioned by the environmental group World Wildlife Fund, reported that many meat substitutes consumed in Britain are produced from soy, chickpeas and lentils that are grown overseas and imported. A switch to these substitutes would result in more foreign land being cultivated, and raise the risk of forests being destroyed to create farmland. It also found meat substitutes tended to be highly processed and involved energy-intensive production methods.
One of the study's authors, Donal Murphy-Bokern, said: "For some people, tofu and other meat substitutes symbolise environmental friendliness, but they are not necessarily the badge of merit people claim."
While the UK imports all its soybeans from cleared Amazon forest, last year at least, Australia grew about 14 per cent of its own soybeans, under fairly inefficient, water-sucking conditions. Ridoutt says consumers are demanding more transparent information about the water footprint and carbon footprints of their food. "In the States people are using their iPhones to download this kind of information, or reading it off bar codes."
But he warns that everyone needs to understand they are dealing with systems that are more complicated than current apps or bar codes can contend with.
"The first point is there is no simple quick-fix solution, such as 'Stop eating meat', because it is a complex system —there are consequences and knock-on effects." He cites the example of the push to "a more industrial meat-production system, based on chickens and pigs. Traditionally, a lot of these animals were raised on waste. Now, to make the productivity very high, very nutritious diets are being fed to them, so the land base that is supporting those forms of meat production is very much in conflict with the land base we might be using to produce cereals we might directly consume. You push in one direction, often it pushes out somewhere else."
In the meantime, something unexplained is happening to methane levels. Until 1999, as ruminant numbers rose, so did methane concentrations in the atmosphere. Then methane concentrations plateaued. No one is quite sure why. Bell suggests it could be due to drought and human activities, such as drainage, shrinking natural wetlands. Or perhaps the number of ruminants hasn't risen so much.
It certainly raised questions in some quarters about the importance of ruminant livestock in global methane accounting, and in the value of attempting to reduce it. Bell says that in the past two or three years the atmospheric methane level has begun to rise again, but it will be a couple of years before climate scientists can call this a real trend.
So what is the environmentally conscious consumer to do? Australians have a unique alternative to farmed meats: kangaroo. Eckard says kangaroos and wallabies have a microbial digestive system, similar to ruminants, except the main byproduct is succinate. While they do produce some methane, it is significantly less per kilogram than the volumes produced by ruminants.
There are only a few studies on macropod emissions. The most recent, on red-necked wallabies in the Copenhagen Zoo, found they produced between 25 and 33 per cent of the methane of a ruminant, per unit of food ingested.
That's just one hop in the bucket, so to speak, but overall, Eckard questions whether the emphasis on reducing greenhouse gases should be placed on agriculture. "If we are going to have greenhouse-gas emissions from something, is food production more legitimate than your transport preference?" This is the real nub of the question.
Fossil fuels consist of carbon, sequestered using the energy of the sun hundreds of millions of years ago. The scale of our consumption of this ancient carbon and sunlight is mind-boggling. Just four litres of petrol uses what was 90 tonnes of ancient life. In the space of one year, the world uses over 400 years of stored ancient energy and carbon.
As Helen King says, industrial use of fossil fuel is a one-way street. "Only the natural environment can take up carbon. Industrial emissions put carbon into the atmosphere, but can't take it out again."
There are so many conundrums for the consumer who wants to be environmentally conscious. If you walk or cycle to the butcher shop, take home some locally grown steak and cook it, to rare, over natural gas, is your carbon footprint smaller than if you'd driven to the supermarket, bought a soy-based product that was grown and processed overseas, then had to throw out leftovers because the kids wouldn't eat it?
One thing is clear: saving the planet is not as simple as giving up red meat. | <urn:uuid:2b29fbde-7497-4318-a59d-4b695f7d93ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/the-carnivores-ongoing-dilemma/350/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951792 | 3,954 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Pakistan wants the U.S. to apologize for a border incident in November 2011 in which the U.S. killed 24 Pakistani troops with several air strikes. The U.S. has expressed regret for the incident, a diplomatic step short of an apology, and said it was a tragic case of mistaken identity, in which each side mistook the other for militants and both sides erroneously fired on the other.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton even explored the possibilities of an apology with a Pakistani diplomat in a London meeting but then backed off when the Pakistanis insisted the apology be timed for maximum political impact on their turf.
The Pakistanis have put the apology at the top of a long list of demands to address what they see as insults to national pride and sovereignty — from the Navy SEAL raid onto Pakistani territory last year that killed Osama bin Laden to the steady U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani territory. A lot of these demands are now up in the air with the news Tuesday that Pakistan’s high court had dismissed the prime minister, a move that could usher in months of turmoil in the country’s government.
From the American point of view, Pakistan has not done enough to stop attacks on U.S. troops carried out by the Taliban and members of the Haqqani clan who shelter in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
So the two nominal allies are at a standoff.
A look at what that means for the U.S. taxpayer, the war and counterterrorism efforts:
Pakistan shut its borders to NATO resupply convoys heading to Afghanistan because of the deadly November incident. The U.S. and NATO had been trucking supplies in and out of the Afghan war zone from the Pakistani port of Karachi. The Pakistanis charged the U.S. $500 per truck. Because the U.S. has not apologized for the airstrike, Pakistan has closed that route, and supplies to U.S. and NATO troops have been taking a northern route that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says is costing an extra $100 million a month now and could grow as the U.S. starts to withdraw equipment in advance of the 2014 troop drawdown in Afghanistan. Negotiations have stalled over reopening the routes, mostly over the apology, and it’s clear the Pakistanis plan to charge double or more to use their route if they reopen it.
For the Pakistanis, the impasse over the apology means other longstanding issues cannot be resolved, like the resumption of all U.S. security aid to Pakistan. Pakistan still receives roughly $1.2 billion in annual security assistance, but last summer the U.S. halted or suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in aid — and reimbursements to Pakistan for helping secure Afghanistan’s border — over another squabble. That one was over Pakistan’s irritation that the U.S. didn’t brief its leaders before launching the successful raid against bin Laden, who had been living for some time in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbotabad. In retaliation, Pakistan expelled U.S. military trainers, and the U.S. cut off some aid.
Fewer U.S. and Pakistani military officers are sharing training or intelligence. They previously jointly operated mobile U.S. intelligence centers throughout the Pakistani tribal areas, monitoring together information coming from U.S. drones, which helped Pakistani troops track militants bent on killing inside Pakistan. Now, unilateral U.S. drone strikes continue to bite at al-Qaida targets, with a recent strike killing al-Qaida deputy Abu Yahya al-Libi, while Pakistan is on its own when it comes to hunting the branch of the Taliban that sends suicide bombers to hit Pakistani military and civilian targets. Joint U.S.-Pakistani efforts at one time helped take down dozens of targets that were dangerous to both sides, including mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
CIA officers once were able to roam fairly freely, often working together with Pakistan’s intelligence operatives to go after targets in joint raids. Now, CIA officers are closely tracked and often harassed, and the Pakistani intelligence chief, who had been invited by the CIA, postponed his scheduled visit last month to the U.S.
Like a bad divorce, the bitterness has taken on a personal tone. President Barack Obama kept Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari cooling his heels in a hallway at the NATO summit in Chicago and had him meet with Clinton instead of a leader-to-leader meeting. And Panetta, during a visit to Pakistan’s arch rival, India, made a joke before an Indian audience about keeping the Pakistani government in the dark over the bin Laden raid. | <urn:uuid:e1249c1f-c42a-4008-8b6b-f2daecc429c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://couriernews.com/view/full_story/19056900/article-America--Pakistan-and-never-having-to-say-sorry | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957887 | 959 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Mon December 24, 2012
Mixed Martial Arts Events Drop in Kentucky Following New Regulations
After ranking fourth in the nation for the number of Mixed Martial Arts or MMA events held statewide in 2011, Kentucky has seen a significant drop in the number of fight cards this past year.
Officials say the drop is likely due to economic factors but some say new regulations enacted by the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority--which has regulated the sport since 2007--are the cause.
Last year, Kentucky’s 81 events ranked only behind California, Ohio and Texas. In 2012, there were only 54 events.
In 2009 there were 91 events and 2011 had 82 events, according to records from the KBWA.
Kentucky MMA writer Gary Thomas says the regulations enacted earlier this year now require annual blood screenings for amateur fighters, who make up a majority of the licensed athletes. Previously, only professional fighters were required to be tested annually, he said.
“The big thing is probably financially. Tests run anywhere from $60 to $100 depending on where you’re at and what lab you go to and its really thinned out the total fighter pool in the state,” he said.
This year, of Kentucky’s 766 licensed fights, nearly 84 percent are amateur.
Thomas said amateur fighters don’t get paid much--if at all--to compete in events.
“They get their expenses covered, whether it be gas money or hotel money, if they’re lucky. But the dedication level to get your blood work and stuff done has not been there for new fighters that I’ve seen,” he said.
But Thomas also said new regulations require that fights now be held in cages and not boxing rings, which officials believe has improved the quality of the fights. Further, the purpose of the new regulations are to promote the safety of the fighters and promoters.
Both KBWA officials and Thomas agree that attendance numbers at the events held in Kentucky haven’t waned and interest in the sport remains high. Kentucky's 54 events held this year may still keep Kentucky in the top ten state's for events held, said Thomas.
The KBWA receives 5 percent of ticket sales, but maintains a small staff one full-time employee and one part-time employee. | <urn:uuid:4d77bc03-986b-4df9-85cc-54ff5923ff7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wfpl.org/post/mixed-martial-arts-events-drop-kentucky-following-new-regulations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959159 | 472 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Additional Strong Communities, Culture & Recreation
11 - Crime Rate
12 - Open
infant mortality (deaths per 1,000 births) for the total population
and the black population in New Jersey: Little recent change
| Things to think about
existence of newspapers does not guarantee that we will learn
all that we need. We also depend on many kinds of personal experiences
that are not reflected in an indicator about newspaper readership.
Newspapers report on
the events of the moment, but they do not always cover incremental
change - even though crucial issues, such as population growth
and accumulation of pollutants, can sneak up on us slowly.
We are increasingly obtaining
from the Internet information that was previously obtained from
knowing the actions and reactions of our neighbors and leaders,
we can do little to change them. Armed with knowledge, however,
we have the ability to remake our state to suit our goals. Newspapers
are particularly important to New Jerseyans for local information.
Our major television and radio broadcasts come from New York
and Philadelphia and leave discussion of our values to our state
newspapers. The number of people reading New Jersey newspapers
is an indicator of how engaged we are with New Jersey issues.
Over the morning
paper, we get a glimpse of demographic shifts that call for
new products or job relocations. While reading on the bus, we
find out about upcoming regulations that may change the way
our families save or our businesses operate. Behind the Sunday
paper, we learn what our colleagues and competitors are working
on. The daily newspaper is an important information tool for
the only medium that regularly covers local environmental decisions,
especially regarding land use and the location of waste and
energy production facilities. Newspapers tie the environmental
problems that we feel locally to those happening nationally
and globally, so that we can solve them together. These issues
are covered in greater depth in newspapers than in other media.
newspaper exposure and in-depth coverage of social issues, we
would live in the dark. We would not know where crimes are committed,
where politicians are meeting, where schools are excelling or
failing to meet their potential. Newspapers do not offer us
a full two-way dialog, but they do help foster responsibility
and build communities.
indicator does not consider the quality of the news stories
reported, only their quantity. It also does not account for
the growth of electronic news media, including the Internet.
We have yet to assess fully the impact of New York and Philadelphia
newspapers on New Jersey issues and readers. Additional data
are needed for this indicator, as this survey has not been conducted
Data Source: Standard Rate and Data Service | <urn:uuid:a4346898-5571-4add-abb5-ebff81d9276e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/sustainable-state/10.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934198 | 568 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Book details U.S. raid that killed bin Laden
"No Easy Day: The Autobiography of a Navy SEAL" (Dutton), by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer
Some details are mundane: Terrorist leader Osama bin Laden wore a sleeveless white shirt and tan pants when he was shot and killed by U.S. Navy SEALS, he used Just For Men to dye his beard, he was a neat freak. Other details seem significant, even troubling: the unarmed bin Laden was shot after peeking out from behind a door, a young girl - perhaps a daughter - was the first to identify him, and an American serviceman, lacking adequate space in a Black Hawk helicopter, was forced to sit on the dead man's chest.
The memoir, written by Owen (a pseudonym, the author was subsequently identified in media accounts as former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette), has attracted controversy and criticism for whether Owen revealed classified information and whether the 24-man SEAL Team Six conducted itself properly. But what's missing is a reflection on the book's strengths - a cast of characters, including Owen himself, artfully drawn, yet painfully human, passionate descriptions of a lifestyle that few are privy to, as well as its breathlessly paced, inexorable march toward an inevitable ending.
Owen wrote the book with co-author and former journalist Kevin Maurer in the year after 2011's Operation Neptune Spear, which killed bin Laden at his family's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The actual raid consumes only as many pages as it did minutes in real life - about 40 - but the rest of "No Easy Day" (its title is derived from SEAL philosophy: "The only easy day was yesterday) is anything but filler. Instead, it's a remarkably intimate glimpse into what motivates men striving to join an elite fighting force like the SEALS - and what keeps them there.
Owen describes his childhood in Alaska and how he butted heads with his parents who wanted a college graduate, not a military enlistee (Owen got his bachelor's degree before enlisting). He details the physically and mentally grueling and near-constant training. And he doesn't shirk from alluding to the failed relationships left behind.
Little more than a day after killing bin Laden, Owen found himself driving home in Virginia Beach, Va. His disorientation was acute. He pulled into a Taco Bell drive-thru and ordered two crispy tacos, a bean burrito and a Pepsi. The reality of the history he had helped create began to sink in.
"This was pretty cool. It was the kind of mission I'd read about in Alaska as a kid. It was history," he writes. "But just as quickly as those thoughts crossed my mind, I forced them out. The second you stop and believe your own hype, you've lost."
Owen says he just wanted some quiet. And in telling his story, all of it, it seems clear he got it. | <urn:uuid:2eb2e378-283e-406a-8e83-fcfbd667df08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120918/GJLIFESTYLES/120919894/-1/FOSLIFESTYLES07&CSProduct=fosters&CSProduct=fosters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982834 | 613 | 1.648438 | 2 |
One of the goals of modern astronomy is to see as far back in time as possible -- to see the universe as it existed shortly after the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago.
Yet you don't have to look across great distances to see remnants of that ancient era. In fact, you can see two of them tonight in the constellation Hercules. They're not billions of light-years away, but thousands -- on the fringes of our own galaxy.
These remnants are known as globular clusters. They're families of hundreds of thousands of stars packed into a ball that's only a few dozen light-years across.
The stars in these clusters are among the oldest in the universe.
Astronomers know the ages of these stars in part because of their composition. The stars contain very few "heavy" elements, which are manufactured in the hearts of stars. When stars die, they spew these elements into space, where they can be incorporated into new stars. Each generation of stars has more of these heavier elements, so stars with almost none of them must be very old.
Most models of this process say the stars in globular clusters are around 13 billion years old, which means they formed less than a billion years after the Big Bang.
Hercules is in the eastern sky by mid-evening, marked by a faint pattern of four stars called the Keystone. One of the globulars is near the top left corner of the Keystone, while the other is to the left of this pattern.
More about these clusters tomorrow.
Script by Damond Benningfield, Copyright 2010
For more skywatching tips, astronomy news, and much more, read StarDate magazine. | <urn:uuid:bd8a6bff-d467-4572-bd78-c4eceaf948e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stardate.org/print/5646 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963877 | 346 | 4.25 | 4 |
| Suppose it’s lunch time and you’re really starving. All day your boss has been dumping work on your desk and you’re really busy. You checked your wallet and you only have a couple of bucks. Your favorite deli sells inexpensive sandwiches that are really good, but it’s over four blocks away and the lines are long. The only thing that’s going to work for you is to find something to eat that’s both fast and cheap, so you head for the lunchroom and get one of those nasty looking sandwiches out of the vending machine. As expected, it’s not very good. It’s downright disgusting. You toss it in the trash and end up feeling angry and disappointed as you head back to the stack of work on your desk.
So what does a disgusting vending machine sandwich have to do with engineering projects? Well, engineers are often called upon to feed a very strong appetite for the design of consumer products, industrial products, and manufacturing systems. What few people outside of the engineering profession realize is that engineering design projects operate according to three constraints: cheap, fast, and good. These constraints have been around for a very long time but they have become more critical in recent times in large part due to globalization. They are shown in the engineering project triangle in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1 – The Engineering Project Triangle
Here’s how the triangle works. Pick any two of the constraints but exclude the remaining third. For example, in our lunchtime scenario above you chose fast and cheap, and you ended up with food that wasn’t good. It works the same way in engineering design projects.
A number of years ago I was working as a project manager at a small engineering firm. One of our customers wanted us to design a consumer electronic product chocked full of really cool features. He wanted the design completed on a fast track schedule. As I worked up a quotation, I determined that if we were to design all of the features into the product on the desired tight schedule, I would have to buy expensive design tools and put a large number of engineers to work on the project. Kind of like having the whole family pitch in to clean house versus you doing it alone. The bottom line was that although it was possible to give the customer what he wanted when he wanted it, it would cost a lot of money to pull off. This meant we could only fill two of the proscribed parameters for production, fast and good, but not cheap.
In today’s fast paced, highly competitive, and minimally staffed business environment, engineers are often under a lot of pressure to somehow beat the project engineering triangle. No one wants to give up cheap, because budgets are slim and it’s extremely difficult to get more funding. No one wants to give up fast, because the marketing folks are always looking for ways to get a jump on the competition. So where does that leave “good?” Well, unless someone is going to let go of either cheap or fast, good isn’t going to happen. The end result is most often that sales and marketing end up very disappointed, dissatisfied customers proliferate, sales go down the drain, service costs go through the roof, and potential liability issues start popping up.
Moral our story? Don’t fight the engineering project triangle, work with it. Start by carefully considering the project scope and all the requirements the design must satisfy. Involve engineers in the consideration process, since they’re going to be the ones who are responsible for producing the design. They know their own capabilities and what it takes to meet your expectations. Based on engineering input, set up your budget and/or schedule to ensure that you get a good result.
Turns out that with engineering design, as with most things in life, effort-in equals result- out. | <urn:uuid:b89dc439-dfed-43c5-bff0-c042879526ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.engineeringexpert.net/Engineering-Expert-Witness-Blog/?tag=design-project | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969151 | 798 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Danish Christmas Traditions
Danish Christmas traditions: Denmark is the country of charming family Christmas traditions. A quaint or old fashioned Christmas is the term I would like to use, but not in a negative sense. I think the Danes capture something in their Christmas celebrations that has been nearly lost in other parts of the world.
Time spent together especially around the holidays seems to be treasured in Denmark. The spirit of A Child's life at Christmas Time is captured in Danish Christmas traditions.
Baking Christmas cookies is a family tradition that begins weeks before Christmas during the Advent season. Whether it is rolling, cutting, stirring, decorating, or nibbling; everyone takes part.
Gathering around the table with Grandma and Grandpa, and Mom and Dad to decorate the burne kager (gingerbread cookies) is a tradition the youngest children especially enjoy. The dough was made several weeks earlier and stored in the refrigerator so that it's flavor would meld properly. Danish butter cookies and peppernoder (peppernuts) are also favorites.
Plates of Christmas cookies are shared and passed between family and friends. It is said that if a visitor leaves your home in Denmark without being fed, he will carry away the Christmas spirit. So, of course, that just isn't allowed. Food is shared liberally with everyone, especially Christmas cookies.
Danes love to decorate their homes for Christmas. Advent wreaths with their candles, Nissers (little gnome like elves), evergreen boughs, mistletoe, and holly are placed throughout the house. If a family lives in a rural area, the whole family sets out with the sled to find and cut their perfect juletrae (Christmas tree).
Before that happens though, a special Danish Christmas tradition occurs. A day is set apart. This day is called cut and paste day. Everyone, including the teenagers, sit down together and spend the day making and decorating homemade Christmas ornaments.
Much like Americans string popcorn for their tree, Danish people make and use strings of small red and white Danish flags. Red and white checked heart shaped baskets and cornucopias filled with treats are favored ornaments.
Lille Juleaften (Little Christmas Eve), December 23 rd., can be the busiest day of the year. Last minute shopping is done. Presents are wrapped and the house is given a final straightening. The baking is finished for Christmas eve dinner. The children set out sheathes of grain for the birds and special treats for the animals.
According to Danish Christmas tradition, the main celebration of Christmas is done on Christmas Eve, Juleaften. Although Mother has been busy for hours, the four o'clock church bells signal the beginning of the celebration. The relatives have all arrived, and together they attend a candlelight church service. The Christmas feast starts after the service. A bowl of rice porridge is set out for the Julenisse (mischievous Christmas gnomes) so that they will relent from their pranks. Dinner begins when a beautifully browned goose is place upon the table. It is served with small browned potatoes that have been caramelized with brown sugar. Red cabbage is also a traditional dish. Ris A L'Amande (rice pudding )served with cherry sauce is often the dessert. Father closes the meal by reading the Christmas story from the Bible.
Candles, resting on the ends of the Christmas tree branches, are lit. Always, they are real candles. Every member of the family joins hands and they "dance" around the Christmas tree. As they walk, they sing carols. Julemand (the Danish Santa), comes and distributes his gifts. More Christmas cookies and marzipan are enjoyed as the night settles.Christmas day and Second Christmas day, December 26th, are spent visiting extended family and friends.
Danish Christmas Traditions Recipe
Ris A L'Amande
3 2/3 c milk is brought to a boil
1 cup of white rice and 1/2 cup of fine sugar is added.
Cook until the rice is tender. Then Cool.
2/3 cup of chopped sliced almonds
1/2 cup of cream sherry
1 tsp vanilla
Whip then stir in gently
1 1/3 cup of whipping cream
Top with cherry sauce and serve
danish Christmas Traditions page top
Back to Scandinavian Christmas Traditions
Christmas Traditions Around the World
Family Christmas Traditions Home | <urn:uuid:03ea3bef-6f60-4356-bbe7-8d4495fc34a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.family-christmas-traditions.com/Danish-Christmas-traditions.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950741 | 928 | 2.296875 | 2 |
We need more guns
I’m sure the Rev. Gerard F. Weiss’ letter, “Reach Out To Loners,” published Wednesday, was crafted with only the best of intentions. However, it was rooted in naivete. Adam Lanza, like Jared Loughner (who shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords), James Holmes (who shot up a theater during the “Dark Knight Rises” premiere in Aurora, Colo.) and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the pair who shot up Columbine High School), was not just a loner. He was feared. Feared so much that no single person merely befriending a troubled soul could rectify.
Adam Lanza’s mother feared her son to the point that she allegedly sought to have him committed to an institution, which, in retrospect, was the correct venue for dealing with this kid’s madness.
Harris, Klebold, Loughner and Lanza were all incapable of living normally in society. What sorts of medication Lanza was prescribed will certainly become known as the facts of this case unfold. One thing is certain: These types of incidents were unheard of until many of the asylums were closed from coast-to-coast, following lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union during the 1980s in an effort to “mainstream” emotionally and mentally disturbed people.
While we were so concentrated on restoring these individuals’ “rights to live normally,” apparently nobody thought out the potential fallout in case these people couldn’t cope with life.
So now it’s blame the guns – a completely inanimate object, a tool that is not unlike a pipe wrench, a shovel or crowbar (since all can be used to kill another), a tool that is meant to protect its owner from violence and mayhem.
The Rev. Weiss feels (as I’m positive the editorial department of this paper does, as well) there are too many guns. Here’s an idea. Let’s remove them from policemen, the Sheriff’s department and all law enforcement, too. But, before we agree to that, let’s find out how that worked out in England.
Rev. Weiss, there aren’t too many guns. In Connecticut, Colorado, Arizona and in other locales where this type of carnage has taken place, there were too few guns. The only way for a good person to stop a bad person with a gun is to possess a firearm as well. That is indisputable. There simply is no other way, no matter whether a small, but vocal few are offended by this fact or not.
John A. Quayle
Costanzo, Lucas virtually assured election in Nov. (4932)
Election roundup (3996)
Judge orders Manning memo posted at polls be impounded (2788)
Polamalu believes injury issues are behind him (1082)
Seahawks waive Portis after DUI arrest (965) | <urn:uuid:fcfad96f-c6fe-42b4-97d0-aad1522e9753> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20121222/OPINION02/121229698/0/channel | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973335 | 630 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The Boy Scouts of America sponsor a series of merit badge opportunities for their members. The Nuclear Science merit badge was updated in 2004, but the requirements have not drastically changed from the previous Atomic Energy merit badge. This guide demonstrates one way to host a Nuclear Science merit badge workshop. The structure of this program will hopefully make it easy for the user to remove one or more components and replace them with ones that are more appropriate. Be sure to get a copy of the Nuclear Science Merit Badge book from your local Boy Scouts of America council.
The Nuclear Science merit badge has some fixed requirements and others that can be tailored to meet the needs of the counselor. For example, one portion requires that you complete any three out of 10 suggested tasks. The full requirements are found in Appendix A. This guide is designed to allow the scouts to fully complete the merit badge in one day (~6 hours). In addition, this program requires that the scouts complete some "homework" prior to the workshop. However, the homework could easily be removed if an additional session were added to the program. The PowerPoint presentations (terms.ppt and great_scientists.ppt) have been included to help with this session.
Getting scouts interested in attending the Nuclear Science workshop has not been a difficult task in recent years. There appears to be a large demand for challenging merit badge workshops, particularly those in scientific fields. The Boy Scouts of America is a very structured organization, and there are probably many troops in your area. An effective way to advertise your workshop is to contact one or more regional Councils and ask them to distribute your information to the troops within the council. You can then set up a web registration system or simply have individuals call or email you with the registration information. A fee of $5-10 to cover the expenses of the event is common for these workshops. The scouts can be asked to bring a sack lunch if restaurant facilities are not available. Due to space or other constraints, you may need to set a cap on the number of participants. Be sure to include parents in your count. Many parents will not plan to attend, but some will want to be there. This is beneficial in two ways: you can rely on them to help keep the scouts under control and you can enlist them to help verify that the scouts are fulfilling their requirements.
In order to award a merit badge in one session, while keeping the workshop as short as possible, a number of the requirements are fulfilled ahead of time. Specifically, three of the requirements are done in the form of homework. Requirement 2 asks the scouts to define a number of terms. Requirement 3 has them explain the contribution of five scientists to the nuclear science field. Requirement 6 has three options, any of which could be required to be completed ahead of time. Option b, for example, asks the scouts to answer questions regarding nuclear power in the United States. This homework can be checked by the individuals working at your event during the lunch break or could be mailed to you ahead of time for evaluation.
Set a registration time 30 minutes before your workshop begins. This will give you time to collect registration fees, be sure everyone is there, and hopefully allow everyone to arrive and find a seat before the workshop begins. You should also have time to take the parents aside and let them know how the day will run. At this time, you can also give them maps and schedules so they are prepared to lead the scouts from event to event. This will relieve some of the workload for your workers. An example schedule and map have been provided. If you have a small number of scouts (<15) registered, you can run this program straight through. However, if you have more scouts, you will need to break them into groups. They will all be together for the opening session, but will then break into the smaller groups and rotate through five stations to complete their requirements. This guide contains a presentation suitable for the opening session and the material required to run the various stations.
After introducing yourself and the other workers, begin by dividing the scouts into groups. Assign one or more of your workers to be a "group leader" for each of them. A PowerPoint presentation entitled "Opening Session" has been created to guide you through this session. Three requirements will be fulfilled in this 55 minute lecture. These include making an atom model (Req. 4a), describing the radiation hazard symbol (Req. 1b), and discussing biological effects of radiation (Req. 1a). The requirements will be fulfilled in breakout sessions where the group leaders guide their small groups, verify that each scout has fulfilled the requirements, and sign their cards. At the end of this session, the scouts will break into their small groups and go to their first session. Provide schedules and maps to the parents and ask them to keep the small groups on track. An example schedule is provided in the Word document entitled "Boy Scout Program".
This station can be fulfilled in one of two ways. Either a tour of a nuclear reactor or similar facility could be given, or models of nuclear reactors could be constructed, as outlined in the Nuclear Science Merit Badge pamphlet. If the second option is chosen, this station would fulfill an additional requirement (Req. 5b). Either option must include a discussion of the fission chain reaction and the concept of critical mass. A PowerPoint presentation discussing fission and the chain reaction is provided (fission_drawing.doc). The scouts can fill out the provided form (nuclear_fission_station.doc) to fulfill requirements 4b and 4c.
In order to fulfill requirement 5c, the scouts must use a Geiger counter and radioactive source to examine the effects of time, distance, and shielding on radiation levels. They can then fill out the provided form (radiation_measurement_station.doc) to fulfill this requirement. One or more sets of Geiger counters, sources, shield sets, and rulers will be needed for this station. Another activity that fits well in this station is a "landmine detector simulation". This consists of a Geiger counter attached to an RC car. The scouts can take turns using the car to look for buried "landmines" (radioactive sources) that you have hidden in a box of sand or under pieces of carpet or paper. Use the included PowerPoint poster (landmine_poster.ppt) to explain the concept of a real landmine detector to the scouts. This event has proven very popular with scouts over the past few years, and gives the scouts something to do when it is not their turn at the measurement station.
This event is fairly straightforward. Use the Nuclear Science Merit Badge pamphlet to construct cloud chambers with the scouts. Pre-made cloud chamber kits can also be purchased at various places online. These generally also come with small sources, such as uranium ore. You will then only need to provide methanol and dry ice for the day of the workshop. The scouts can fill out the provided form (cloud_chamber_station.doc) to help them fulfill requirement 5g.
Visit a local medical or experimental facility where x-rays are generated. As a part of the tour, describe what precautions are taken to protect workers and/or patients from the radiation. As part of this tour, you may want to cover biological effects of radiation (part of Req 1a). A sample PowerPoint presentation (bioeffect.ppt) has been provided to facilitate this discussion. Have the scouts fill out the included form (xray_facility_station.doc) to fulfill requirement 5f.
Use the included PowerPoint presentation (careers_and_faq.ppt) to fulfill requirement 7. Only the first portion of the presentation is needed to fulfill the requirement, but the remainder of the presentation, including the short video, is useful in answering many common questions the scouts and parents have about nuclear technology. Another PowerPoint presentation (fuelcyclebs.ppt) has been included to help aid answering some common questions.
Stations 2, 3, and 4 can all be replaced by other activities from category 5 in the Nuclear Science Merit Badge pamphlet. If one or more of them does not fit your needs, simply replace them with something that will work better for you. For example, there are requirements that allow scouts to build an electroscope, build a reactor model (as discussed above), discuss radon in the home, tour a place where radioisotopes are used, or tour an accelerator.
It is probably most convenient for your workers to bring a lunch, or you could choose to provide lunch for them. This also gives them time to look over the scouts' homework during the lunch break. At the end of the day you may or may not want to have a wrap-up session. In either case, the event leader must sign all of the "blue cards" for the scouts that have completed each of the sessions. Be sure that at least one of your workers has been officially sanctioned by the Boy Scouts of America as a scout leader.
You can download all of the additional resources in one zip archive (resources.zip), or download individual files below.nuclear_science_badge_workshop.doc
Last updated June 5, 2012, 2:50pm CDT. | <urn:uuid:a17384bd-cfd7-4289-9ba7-8fc0a794c060> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ans.org/pi/resources/boyscouts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944775 | 1,895 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney arrived in Israel yesterday for some pre-election diplomatic talks and fund-raising for his election campaign, and his wonderful speech to the Jerusalem Foundation has delighted one side of the political spectrum while enraging the other.
You can read the full text of his speech here. He hit all the right notes with regards to Israeli sovereignty, Jewish history, the significance of Jerusalem and its status as Israel’s capital. He also stressed the importance of close ties between the US and Israel.
While listening to the speech I was struck by Romney’s language, and couldn’t help comparing it with Obama’s unfortunate Cairo speech in 2009.
I was pleased to find myself in good company, since Daniel Pipes analyses Romney’s Remarkable Speech and makes the same comparison to Obama’s speech: (h/t Dad).
Mitt Romney, the all-but-official Republican presidential nominee, delivered a stem-winder of a speech to the Jerusalem Foundation yesterday, packing emotional support with frank policy statements. The contrast with Obama could hardly be more dramatic. Indeed, one could go through the speech and note the many refutations of Obama. For example, the opening comment that “To step foot into Israel is to step foot into a nation that began with an ancient promise made in this land” directly contrasts with Obama’s crabbed statement in Cairo about “the aspiration for a Jewish homeland [being] rooted in a tragic history.”
Also, in contrast to the nonsensical Obama administration stance on Jerusalem being Israel’s capital — sneaking into change captions that mistakenly identified it as that and going through verbal gymnastics to avoid calling it that — Romney came out and plainly called Jerusalem “the capital of Israel.”
But of the whole speech, it is the final words that most struck me: “May God bless America, and may He bless and protect the Nation of Israel.” When last did a politician ask the Lord to protect another country and not his own?
Read the whole thing. I’m sure you will find it as uplifting as I did.
Professor Barry Rubin writes that Romney’s speech was more important for how he said it than for the words he actually spoke.
Speaking to an often-cheering group of about 400 people in Jerusalem, Governor Mitt Romney gave a speech less notable for what he said than for the fact that the audience believed he was sincere in saying it.
Clearly, Romney was restrained by the American principle that partisan politics stops at the water’s edge, that no politician should criticize a president or U.S. government while abroad. Thus, Obama’s name—or even his specific policies—was never explicitly mentioned.
What Romney did do, however, was to scatter among the assertions of U.S. support for Israel’s security and a strong belief in a U.S.-Israel alliance some subtle references that many viewers and much of the mass media are likely to miss. Here are the key ones, which give some hints about Romney’s future campaign and possibly his presidency:
–Not allergic to Israel’s center-right. Romney quoted former Prime Minister Menahem Begin twice and referred to “my friend, Bibi Netanyahu.” Obama wouldn’t have cited either man and is known to loathe Netanyahu.
On the other hand, however, Romney should have quoted Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, or someone else to balance things off. Romney should not mirror Obama’s approach of choosing one sector of Israeli politics to cultivate. And since there is a broad Israeli national consensus on “foreign policy” this would not be at all hard to do.
–“The reality of hate.” This phrase used by Romney struck me as very significant. It occurred in the context of speaking about how many Arab and Muslim forces feel about Israel. It shows that he is aware that the desire to destroy and injure Israel goes beyond pragmatic considerations and is not something people will be talked out of trying to do. It is enormously important for an American president to understand that there are those in the Middle East who hate the United States and Israel and that it is impossible to appease or befriend them.
–He also said that Israel “faces enemies that deny past crimes against the Jewish people and intend to commit new ones.” This was a reference to Iran but also reflects his understanding about the depth of the conflict and the incredible difficulty of resolving it, a contrast to Obama’s at-least-initial stance.
–A real comprehension of terrorism, not mitigated by attempts at “balance” or rationalization. Romney referred both to the Munich Olympics attack—significant given the ongoing Olympics and his own experience running the Games—and the tenth anniversary of a bombing at Hebrew University that, he noted, killed both Israeli and American students.
–Of tremendous importance was Romney’s hint that the weakness of the Obama administration has encouraged extremists to become more aggressive and Iran to be bolder. He never said this directly but mentioned “the ayatollahs in Tehran testing our moral defenses” to see if the West would abandon Israel. Perhaps the speech’s most important line was this one:
“We cannot stand silent as those who seek to undermine Israel, voice their criticisms. And we certainly should not join in that criticism.”
This is a critique of Obama’s argument that he would persuade the Arabs to end the conflict by distancing the United States from Israel.
What was especially interesting was Romney’s list of five factors that brought together the United States and Israel: democracy, the rule of law, a belief in universal rights granted by our Creator (a reference to the Declaration of Independence and a subtle rebuke to Obama’s frequent omission of that divine attribution), free enterprise, and freedom of expression.
Jeffrey Goldberg claims it was “vulgar” for Romney to visit the Western Wall on the Jewish holiday commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples. I call political bullshit on Goldberg for trying to score a cheap political point himself, and so does Carl at Israel Matzav.
The Israeli press had mixed feelings about Romney’s visit on Tisha Be’Av. Boaz Bismuth in Yisrael Hayom thought it was an entirely appropriate day to visit:
Tisha B’Av was the most appropriate time to sound the alarm on the dangers posed by the ayatollahs’ regime, as far as Romney was concerned. At his meeting with the prime minister on Sunday, he explained that “the tragedies of wanton killing are not only things of the past.” Over in Washington President Obama would find it difficult not to accept our assessment that the world today — the Middle East included — has not become a better place since his visit almost four years ago.
Conversely, David Ha’Ivri in Ynet thought Romney had good intentions but bad timing.
On this day, the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av, the Jewish people mark the anniversary of the destruction of our holy Temple in Jerusalem – the greatest symbol of Jewish national sovereignty in the land in the long history of Israel. This is the saddest day in our yearly cycle. We fast from before sundown the day before, until after sundown of the day itself. We go shoeless and do not bathe; we don’t even wash our hands or brush our teeth for some 25 hours. On this day, we sit on the floors of our synagogues and read the book of Lamentations.
This is not a day for us to host honored guests. In accordance with our tradition, we don’t even greet one another. How could our national leaders show such an important guest around without disregarding the laws and customs of our most intimate day of public mourning? But on the other hand, they do not want to be disrespectful to such a guest and turn him away.
I am very disappointed in those responsible for the timing of this visit. I do not expect Romney himself to learn all the manners and customs of the Jewish people, but I do expect one who sets out to repair relations with Israel to be a little more considerate.
Think of this distinguished visitor coming to the Kotel for a photo op, all shining clean and smiling – while walking by Jews sitting on the ground in mourning for our Temple that once towered over that very spot.
It is about as close as an insult to our dignity as could be conceived. It is something like coming to someone’s mother’s funeral and asking for cake, and then posting your picture all over the internet eating the cake, and commenting how much you love your host and promising to put in a good word for him if he has a problem with his neighbors.
I disagree. I thought Romney handled the unexpected glitch of Tisha Be’Av with grace and dignity.
As for the Palestinians, they were outraged as usual, with the Chief Negotiator (what does he ever negotiate?) calling Romney’s comments on Jerusalem “unacceptable”.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said Monday that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s assertion that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital is “absolutely unacceptable.”
Erekat said Romney’s comments are “disturbing,” reward “occupation and aggression” and go against long-standing US policy.
Another comment by Romney, this time concerning the Israeli and Palestinian economies, also enraged the Palestinian Authority. ”As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,” the Republican presidential candidate said.
“It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” Erekat said.
“His comments were grossly mischaracterized,” Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said later. The campaign contends that Romney’s comparison of other neighboring countries with income disparities, including the US and Mexico, shows his comments were broader than just the comparison between Israel and Palestine.
Romney told donors that he had read books and relied on his business experience to understand why the economic difference is so great.
“And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things,” Romney said, citing an innovative business climate, the Jewish history of thriving in difficult circumstances and the “hand of providence.”
I’m sure we’re all looking forward to a refreshing change of atmosphere if and when Mitt Romney is elected the next President. | <urn:uuid:591151a7-0d48-41bd-850f-3397877bd51f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://anneinpt.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/mitt-romneys-jerusalem-speech/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96545 | 2,299 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Catch-up wrote:Huge hugs Chilli & Del! Your battles make the one I'm dealing with seem very small in comparison.
Susanne - your battles are no smaller - if you have to constantly fight for your child to get something (no matter what it is) there's no difference - the stress involved is just the same! Keep going, it will sort itself in the end.
Broccolee wrote:People who don't fit the system always stick out.However,most of the most famous artists,scientists and explorers were slightly weird people who did not perform well at school.I keep telling myself this.
I think the system has become harder,more rigid and more exclusive all the time.If you can't run with the pack,you get kicked out-and soon there will be more people out of the pack than in it.
I so agree with that Broc. Many people now considered to be a genius in their field, would have been considered different at school.
The system is more rigid. A National Curriculum may try to ensure that all schools teach to the same level - however a by product of this, is that the teaching methods are also more prescribed and defined and as such many teachers no longer use different methods to suit different kids. My mum was a teacher, who taught mainly 7-11 yr olds and worked a lot with dsylexic kids before dyslexia was so well known. If a child could not understand how to read or remember a word one way, she would find another way for them to get it.
I think that now, you get taught in one way and if that does not click with you, hard luck. D was doing long division at school. The way the school taught was long winded and D gets muddled with it. I showed him the 'old fashioned' way I was taught at school and he said - 'thats so simple'. He just needed it to be explained in a different way and he was away. Unfortunately, I don't hink that happens so much in schools today. | <urn:uuid:0fcbe636-02b7-403a-be7f-99f532869704> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=265990 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990364 | 429 | 1.625 | 2 |
Some publishers can provide digital copies of some of their books. You might think that they would have cupboard full of CDs with all their books which they can copy and send to you, but it's not quite like that: digital copies of older books may not exist at all; the print publisher may not have the rights to give you a digital copy; and there may be costs involved in obtaining digital copies (e.g. the publisher may have to pay the typesetter to convert from a desktop publishing program like Quark Express (which is really inaccessible) to another format).
If publishers can give you a digital copy it will probably be in PDF. The PDF may or may not be accessible for the print-disabled pupil and so you may need to adapt it or convert it from PDF into another format. Sometimes the publisher supplies a nice single PDF for the book, other times they give you a lot of separate files for individual chapters and sections. Sometimes the PDF files have 'galley marks' which are white borders with markings round the edge of the page that are used in the printing process - you can crop these out with Acrobat Pro. Sometimes the PDFs are image files (i.e. the text is not actually editable text) and so they need to be converted to text with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software before you can edit them or read them with text-to-speech software. See the Making Books pages for more on adapting and converting PDFs from publishers.
Publishers usually provide digital copies for individual pupils only - i.e. you can't dish out copies to any pupil and you can't put it up on the school intranet or on Glow for anyone to access. Some may charge for a copy (e.g. if they incur costs themselves in producing the digital version); others will provide it for free; some provide it for free provided you have bought a print copy. The Publishers Association has guidelines for meeting permission requests on behalf of reading impaired people which has more information on what publishers can and cannot be reasonably expected to provide.
TechDis provide an excellent Guide to obtaining publications in alternative formats and also host Publisher Lookup UK, which has contact details for academic publishers.
The table below has links to some school textbook publishers, along with information about their terms and conditions of supply of files. This is a work in progress: we will expand and update it when we can.
When you contact the publisher to ask them for a digital file of a book, give them:
- the full, correct title of the book including which edition it is;
- a summary of why you need it, why the pupil(s) can't access the paper copy, and what you will do with the file.
|Publisher Lookup UK||Contact details for academic publishers in the UK. Primarily a list of FE/HE publishers.||Various||Print-disabled pupils and students |
|Publishing Scotland||Organisation representing publishers in Scotland. There is a list of Scottish publishers who are members on the site.||N/A||N/A|
|The Publishers Association||The Publishers Association represents book, journal and electronic publishers in the UK.||N/A||N/A|
|Scottish Qualifications Authority Past Papers||SQA Past Papers (free to download)||Anyone|
|Scottish Qualifications Authority Adapted Digital Papers||SQA Adapted Digital Question Papers. Past papers adapted with answer boxes for pupils to type answers on screen.||Anyone|
|Chemcord||Chemcord titles were published some time ago and so digital files are not usually available. Some scanned copies are on the Books for All Database.||Print-disabled pupils and students|
|Collins||Harper Collins can provide PDFs if they have them. Email email@example.com. ||PDF ||Print-disabled pupils and students |
|Heinemann / Pearson||Heinemann will provide PDFs free of charge if they are available. They will try and deal with any requests within one week. Email Permissions@pearson.com. ||Print-disabled pupils and students|
|Hodder Gibson||Most Hodder secondary textbooks are now available free of charge as accessible PDFs from CALL Scotland: see here for the list of the ones we have. ||PDF ||Print-disabled pupils and students |
|TJ Maths||All TJ titles are available as PDFs for pupils with print disabilities from the Books for All Database.||PDF ||Print-disabled pupils and students |
|Leckie and Leckie||Leckie and Leckie can usually provide PDFs of their books and most titles are available. There is no charge provided you have bought a paper copy and they usually ask you for proof that you have bought a paper book. If you can't find a receipt just buy another book and ask for the PDF at the same time. Ask for a 'VIP PDF' which will have editable text: an ordinary PDF is usually just an image file and so you will need to convert it to editable text with OCR software. About half the Leckie and Leckie titles are available as 'VIP PDFs'. Email firstname.lastname@example.org.||PDF ||Print-disabled pupils and students |
|Pulse Publications||Pulse titles were published some time ago and so digital files are not usually available. Some Pulse titles are available as scanned PDFs on the Books for All Database. | | <urn:uuid:a2e86cdf-3d22-4c2f-8282-cc7a46cf452f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.books4all.org.uk/Finding-Books/Digital-Books/Publishers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926458 | 1,147 | 2.28125 | 2 |
The captivated group of young art connoisseurs studies the massive Jackson Pollock painting intently. Though seemingly a random splattering of earth tones, they examine the artist’s technique to discover that intentional layers and lines form distinct patterns in the abstract creation. The group of savvy pre-schoolers continues on their tour — they compare the Pollock to a bold, geometric comic-strip canvas by Roy Lichtenstein. For many of these children, this outing to the Queens location of the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) “Tours for Fours” program is their first trip to an art museum. The Rathuses of Great Neck, are hoping to introduce their twin girls to the wonder of contemporary art. “I’d like them to obtain a positive exposure to an art museum so that we can have a place to enjoy together as a family,” says Jill Rathus. Every Saturday, MoMA hosts a series of family programs aimed at allowing children and adults to share quality time together in a museum setting without a feeling of intimidation. “Adults are sometimes nervous when talking about modern or contemporary art. We hope to make families comfortable in a museum setting and invite everyone to have a conversation about art,” says Elizabeth Margulies, MoMA’s family programs coordinator. The programs examine a small number of art works, rather than offering a tour of the entire museum. “We’ve found that looking deeply into a few select pieces creates a more memorable experience,” Margulies says. “There’s nothing magical about what we do. We use an inquiry-based technique, with open-ended questions that promote discussion at a child’s own level.” The 45-minute “Tours for Fours” session begins with a rundown of the rules. While the no-touching rule is strictly enforced, the children are surprised that talking is not only allowed, but encouraged. Each child is handed a card with a different line: There are squiggles, dots and zigzags. Their mission is to find lines that match their cards within a given work of art. The themes are changed weekly; past subjects have included colors, images and even poetry. These clever devices serve as a launching point for discussion, allowing the child to focus on the painting in an attempt to stimulate critical and analytical thinking. "Tours for Fours" is held Saturdays, 10-10:45am, for children ages 4 and their adult companions. Admission is $5 per family, $3 for members; preregistration is required. “A child is willing to look deeply into the painting because they can recognize one element,” says Lynn Seeney, a museum educator. “It helps them deal with the abstraction of modern art.” While “Tours for Fours” is designed specifically for 4-year-olds, other programs use similar strategies for older children. “A Closer Look for Kids” is an hour-long drop-in educational tour for children ages 5-10. December’s theme is “Act It Out!", in which children will reflect on the physical poses and emotional makeup of the art works. "A Closer Look for Kids" is held Saturdays, 10-11am, for children ages 5-10 and their adult companions. Admission is $5 per family, $3 for members; no preregistration is required.
“Art Mix” is a similar program designed for children ages 11-14 and their adult companions. The program is held Saturdays, 10-11am. Admission: $5 per family, $3 for members. Preregistration is required. This month marks the preview of a full-day program, “A Contemporary Sunday”, created for art lovers of all ages. While the morning will highlight family programs including films, contemporary card making and tours, the afternoon will focus on adult programs. Upcoming events include an insightful range of gallery talks reflecting the themes presented by two special exhibitions: "Kiki Smith: Prints, Books and Things", a striking look into provocative contemporary art, on exhibit from December 5, 2003 to March 8, 2004; and "Here is Elsewhere", the latest installment of MoMA’s Artist’s Choice series, curated by Mona Hatoum, on display through February 2, 2004. Hatoum, the renowned conceptual artist, has selected key works in various media to be explored and discussed.
MoMA also hosts “Conversations with Contemporary Artists: The Family Addition”. Preregistration is required for this unique program which enables children and adults to meet with eminent artists to discuss their work. A slide show is followed by a group discussion on materials, art-making techniques and artistic inspiration. A special reception follows each session. Admission is $20 per family and $15 for members; the discussions take place at the Arts Consortium Auditorium, 1 East 53rd Street. Another family event scheduled at the Arts Consortium is the “Family Films” series. Classic live-action and animated films are concluded with stimulating, educational discussions. Suggestions for follow-up activities in the Museum’s galleries are explored. Admission is free and seating is limited, so preregistration is a good idea. For a complete listing of upcoming artists and dates, log on to www.moma.org. If you can’t make it to the gallery, let the gallery come to you with MoMA’s Art Safari Online, an educational website that teaches families how to look at and talk about art. Activities encourage children to write stories about the work they’ve viewed and create their own projects. Go to www.moma.org/artsafari. “The more exposure you have to art at an early age and the more you view various artwork at different levels, the more you’ll learn,” says Seeney, as she encourages patrons of all ages to take advantage of MoMA’s wide range of rich educational programs.
Info: Where: The Museum of Modern Art, 33rd Street at Queens Boulevard, LIC When: 10-5pm, Thursday-Monday; 10am-7:45pm, Friday; closed Tuesday and Wednesday How much: $12 adults; $8.50 full-time students with ID and seniors; children under 12 are free if accompanied by adult. Friday, 4-7:45pm, pay-what-you-wish For more info: (212) 708-9400; www.moma.org. | <urn:uuid:8ba27984-bcac-4549-a37c-b07d0426d33c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nymetroparents.com/article/MoMA---at-a-Child-s-Level | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949276 | 1,373 | 2 | 2 |
Solar Eclipse to Grace Africa and Asia Friday
Maximum eclipse as seen from Kampala, Uganda, on January 15 at 8:25 a.m.
CREDIT: Starry Night Software
An annular eclipse of the sun will take place on Friday Jan. 15. The solar eclipse path begins in central Africa, crosses the Indian Ocean to touch the southern tip on India, and then moves on to southeast Asia, ending in southeastern China.
A partial solar eclipse will be visible over much of Africa and Asia.
An annular eclipse is the "poor cousin" of a total solar eclipse. It occurs when the Earth is closest to the sun at the same time as the moon is farthest from the Earth, so the moon isn't quite large enough to totally cover the disk of the sun. As a result, even at maximum eclipse, a ring of the sun appears behind the moon, hence the name "annular."
Although not as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, an annular eclipse is still an interesting event. Many of the events of a total eclipse are present, including the dimming of the sun's light and the effects on wildlife.
It is perhaps more dangerous than a total eclipse because the sun is never completely covered, so that there is no time during the eclipse when it can be safely viewed without a dense filter. If a special solar eclipse filter is not available, a No. 14 welder's glass can be used. Note that this is denser than the standard No. 12 welder's glass, and can only be purchased in specialized welding shops.
One good way to view an eclipse safely is by placing a small mirror, less than an inch in diameter, on a sunny window ledge. This will project an image of the eclipsed sun into the room. The ground under a tree becomes a myriad of miniature eclipse images, as the eclipsed sun peeks between the leaves.
Computer software like Starry Night allows stay-at-home eclipse viewers to travel to any place along the eclipse path. As an example, we could virtually travel to Kampala, capital city of the landlocked African country of Uganda.
Kampala, like Rome, is a beautiful city built on seven hills. It is the home of Makerere University, the oldest university in East Africa. When the sun rises at 6:55 a.m. local time, the eclipse is just about to begin. At 7:06, the moon starts to cover the upper limb of the sun. At 8:25, the moon is centrally placed on the sun, and the full annular effect is visible.
This would be a good time to try to spot Venus. Less than one degree from the eclipsed sun, Venus is extremely bright. Use a roof edge to block the sun, and see if you can spot Venus. By 10:04, the eclipse is over in Kampala.
At the other end of the eclipse track, in Chongqing, China, the eclipse begins at 2:22 p.m. local time with the moon approaching from the lower right, and reaches maximum at 3:51 p.m.. Venus will be to the left of the eclipsed sun. The eclipse ends at 5:07 p.m., with the sun setting 10 minutes later.
- Gallery: 2008 Solar Eclipse
- More Night Sky Features from Starry Night Education
- How Solar Eclipses Work
This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions.
MORE FROM SPACE.com | <urn:uuid:d4680c02-be7f-4141-839c-50620333b481> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.space.com/7768-solar-eclipse-grace-africa-asia-friday.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925702 | 728 | 2.75 | 3 |
In recognition of the positive changes Abilene ISD has made to its own school lunch program, AISD will celebrate National School Lunch Week (NSLW) from October 15 through 19.
The 2012 theme, "School Lunch - What's Cooking?" will include events and activities that promote the benefits of healthy school lunches.
The campaign will put a spotlight on the healthy foods and positive changes that AISD schools have incorporated into their menus.
In September, AISD sent home with students an October lunch menu, along with a brochure for the parents and students on details about NSLW. Each day of NSLW, a few highlighted menu items will have signs on the serving line with details of the benefit of the items.
The children will also get a bookmark on the last day of the week. During National School Lunch Week and throughout the year, some of the healthy foods that we are incorporating into are menu are:
- Fat Free and Percent Milk
- Orange Smiles
- Sweet Kernel Corn
- Refried Beans
- Hot Cinnamon Apples
- Popeye Salad; spinach salad with mandarin oranges
- Sliced Peaches and Pears
- Glazed Carrots
- Veggie Sticks; Celery and Carrots
- Sugar Snap Peas
- Yam Sticks
Serving more than 31 million children every school day, the federally-funded National School Lunch Program (NSLP) provides nutritionally balanced, healthy meals. The program, which has been serving the nation's children for more than 60 years, requires school meals to meet the USDA's new nutrition standards by:
- Ensuring students are offered both fruits and vegetables every day of the week;
- Substantially increasing offerings of whole grain-rich foods;
- Offering only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties;
- Limiting calories based on the age of children being served to ensure proper portion size; and
- Increasing the focus on reducing the amounts of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium.
The "School Lunch - What's Cooking?" campaign is sponsored by the non-profit School Nutrition Association and the Milk Processors Education Program (MilkPEP) to highlight all the components of well-balanced school meals.
For more information about healthy school meals, visit www.TrayTalk.org. | <urn:uuid:1ce6974f-822b-46e6-a4f0-6df5bc970ae9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=539512&nxd_237113_start=3555 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954249 | 484 | 2.703125 | 3 |
WELLINGTON - A British hiker said Wednesday he had survived in the New Zealand wilderness for more than five days without food before attracting rescuers with a makeshift sign pleading "help".
James Esbester, 30, went missing last Thursday in the South Island's rugged Kahurangi National Park after becoming disorientated while climbing a hill on a trek he intended to last only half a day.
Esbester said he feared he would perish before a rescue helicopter spotted him in fading light late Tuesday about 10 kilometres (six miles) from where he originally became lost.
"I don't think I've ever felt relief quite like that - it was a tad overwhelming," he told reporters.
Esbester said his food ran out within a few hours and after two days he had to remove his contact lenses because they had become so uncomfortable, meaning he could only see about 50 centimetres (20 inches) ahead.
He cut his arm in a fall and decided to stay put after reaching a clearing, trying to make himself as conspicuous as possible by fashioning a sign out of sticks saying "help" and waiting for rescuers to arrive.
"There was plenty of fallen wood around, so I got some lighter pieces to stand out against the dark rock and made myself a little shelter," he said The Briton, who was on his first trip to New Zealand, said he felt weak from lack of food and wrote short letters to close friends and family in case he did not make it.
"I suppose I was hungry but not in the sense I had any gnawing pains, I was just getting more and more tired each day," he said. A group hiking in the area alerted authorities after finding some of Esbester's belongings on Saturday, sparking a search operation involving more than 50 police and volunteers. He was suffering mild dehydration when a helicopter carrying out its final sweep for the day found him on Tuesday. Esbester said the crew winched him to safety and fed him cups of sugary tea before taking him to hospital, where he was discharged after a few hours' observation.
"I don't think I've ever had a cup of tea taste so good," he said. | <urn:uuid:abf4a191-97dc-42e6-9ce9-c5d2a009af00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20110216-263806.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991843 | 450 | 1.648438 | 2 |
New legislation to change how traffic tickets are disputed will throw a cloak of secrecy over the driving records of British Columbians.
The government bill, introduced this week, moves traffic-ticket fights from the public court system to a behind-the-scenes administrative process involving dispute-resolution conferences and over-the-phone or written submissions.
The government will instead publish "Driving Notice Review Board" decisions with names removed.
"This would represent a change from existing traffic court proceedings, which are public," said Justice Minister Shirley Bond in a statement.
The government argues the change will free up court resources and potentially save millions.
But it will also cut off public access to a person's driving record.
Once the changes take effect, likely in 2014, it won't be possible to search for a person's name through the court system is website and see whether they have disputed any Motor Vehicle Act tickets for offences such as dangerous driving or speeding.
That's how the public learned of former solicitor general John van Dongen's numerous speeding tickets in 2009. He was ultimately forced him to resign from cabinet.
Drunk-driving offences have also been largely removed from the court system, leaving a driver's history of impaired offences inaccessible to the public as well.
The shift to secrecy appears to run contrary to recent comments from Bond that her ministry is exploring how to make driving records more transparent.
But in a statement, Bond said she's still investigating that issue, which she expects will involve numerous personal privacy concerns.
The push to administrative tribunals is dangerous because it lowers the standards of fair process that a person is supposed to enjoy under the law, said Micheal Vonn, policy director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
"One element of fairness is, of course, that people have faith and confidence in the administration of justice even at that lesser standard," she said.
"Transparency and accountability are key elements."
Ontario is the only province in Canada that makes driving records public.
Criminal code charges for offences such as dangerous driving causing death remain public court cases. | <urn:uuid:be3db6ed-6079-4e50-9505-37ddc2265ffe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/real-deal/driving+records+secret+under/6617964/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95232 | 428 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The word "ariya" is conventionally translated as "noble".
But all conventional wisdom should be examined again from time to time.
Some time ago I read a book by someone (just now I can't remember who the author was, but it was a known and respected authority on Buddhism), where he suggested that "ariya" in many cases rather might be understood as something close to "buddhist". When I read that, I thought that was an interesting suggestion, but then I thought no more about it.
Now, however, I have been looking into an interesting book on Proto-Indo-European (J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams: "The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World"), where I found some interesting remarks on this word.
Mallory and Adams say that the reconstructed *h4eros or *h4eryos seems to mean "member of one's own group", which in Indo-Aryan is generally represented as "Aryan". Cognates are fount in Hittite - ara- "member of one's own group, peer, friend", Lycian - arus- "citizens", Old Irish - aire "freeman", and of course Avestan and Sanskrit. They continue: "The evidence suggests that the word was, at least initially, one that denoted one who belongs to the community in contrast to an outsider".
It is well known that words may change their meaning over time. Still, one might wonder if maybe some of this original meaning of the word might apply to the use of "ariya" in Pali texts.
For instance: ariyasacca - "noble" truth? Or: a truth the way it is taught in our group, in our teaching - or "Buddhist" truth?
ariyasavaka: "noble" student? Or: a student of our teaching? Or: a "Buddhist" student?
The Proto-Indo-European studies by Mallory and Adams show that the word "ariya" - at least in some cases - may come rather close to mean just "Buddhist", as suggested by the author I mentioned (the one I can't remember the name of ...)
At least, this is a question that translators may ponder upon - as if life was not already complicated enough for translators ... | <urn:uuid:26f89aa5-69c8-425e-b8ba-e4fbb7892973> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=5314 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969749 | 506 | 2.640625 | 3 |
To beat cancer, eat your veggies!
Kids aren’t the only people who should pile more vegetables on their dinner plate. A study published in the August 1 issue of JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute shows that men who regularly eat broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and turnips are 40 percent less likely to develop advanced prostate cancer than those who consume few of these veggies.
“All these vegetables have compounds called glucosinolates that have been shown to protect cells from DNA damage in the lab, and thus may be anticarcinogenic,” said lead author Victoria Kirsh, Ph.D., a former doctoral student of Susan T. Mayne, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology. Kirsh is now at Cancer Care Ontario.
To make sure that men who consume more vegetables aren’t just more likely to get prostate screening tests than others, Kirsh used data that identified 1,338 men diagnosed with prostate cancer out of 29,361 who were screened.
From Other Issues | <urn:uuid:0be4172a-8c83-4ad1-8544-73b3bce5196c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yalemedicine.yale.edu/winter2008/news/findings/findingsetcetra/51664 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961222 | 215 | 2.390625 | 2 |
The US-based credit card networks have developed "preliminary" plans to place shoppers into groups based on their in-store purchasing history and sell the information to marketing firms that would deliver online behavioural ads, according to report by the Wall Street Journal and report by CNET.
Publishers and advertising networks currently use 'cookies' to track user behaviour on websites in order to target adverts to individuals based on that behaviour. A cookie is a small text file that remembers a user's activity on a site.
Mastercard's proposed system involves anonymously grouping consumers into "segments" based on what they have bought and selling the information on to advertisers, according to the CNET report.
Visa's plans involve dividing consumers into groups based on a number of segments, including purchasing history and location, before selling that data on, the CNET report said.
Visa and Mastercard did not respond to our requests for a comment.
Iain Connor, advertising expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that if the scheme was ever introduced in the UK credit card network, it would have had to obtain consumers’ explicit and informed consent in order to sell purchasing history data to marketers.
“Under EU and UK data protection laws organisations must process personal data, such as consumers’ names and credit card details, fairly and lawfully and collect it for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes,” Connor said.
“If credit card companies want to share UK customers’ purchasing history details with advertisers they will have to explain that they will collect that data from them and explain how it will be used. This could be done via the company’s terms and conditions but the companies would have to obtain customers’ informed and explicit consent in order to sell that information on to third party advertisers," Connor said.
"Whether Visa and Mastercard’s existing data protection notice and terms and conditions would constitute ‘informed’ consent to that happening or whether new terms and conditions would need to be drawn in order to achieve that level of consent remains to be seen,” he said.
Update 31/10/2011: We received a statement from Visa on its plans, which it said involved allowing banks and retailers to base additional capabilities on the use of anonymised user data.
“A key feature is that consumers and our member banks will have the ability to control engagement levels in these services, but they do not involve personal or private details,” a spokesman said. “Potential example uses of Visa Europe's data and analytics capability are to outline aggregated cardholder purchasing patterns to determine peak shopping times, spending behaviour and optimal retail locations. Visa Europe already offers these features to its member banks and retailers, but additional capabilities are currently in development.” | <urn:uuid:b180e1c9-51be-4499-85fd-927d33741e99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2011/october/credit-card-companies-may-sell-consumer-purchase-data-on-to-advertisers-reports-say/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965719 | 578 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Don't bother improving great credit
Dear Dr. Don,
Would my FICO score be higher if I increased the credit limit on my credit card(s)? I now have $12,000 on one card. I have no credit card debt because I pay in full each month. It's my guess that my FICO score is about 800 or more.
-- Corny Compilation
If your credit score is bouncing around 800, I want you to stop wasting energy on trying to improve your score.
Trying to get to an A++ from an A+ isn't worth anything other than bragging rights at the homeowners' association picnic. And if you were bragging to me, I'd excuse myself to go find the horseshoe game, where "close enough" still scores.
Bankrate has partnered with myFICO.com to provide a FICO Score Estimator that will give you a better guess as to your current credit score. You can also consider registering as part of the class action suit against TransUnion and receive six months to nine months of free credit monitoring from TransUnion.
Having your credit lines increased may raise your credit score because it increases the ratio of credit used to credit available. For someone like you who doesn't carry a balance and already has access to a fair amount of credit, the impact should be negligible.
There's always the risk of unintended consequences here. Too much credit outstanding makes it that much harder for the next creditor to say yes. If you're managing your credit history with an eye on your next loan application, you don't want to get carried away with taking on additional credit lines you don't need. | <urn:uuid:b9b84ded-4a2b-40c0-9c67-cec9065eb65a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/don-t-bother-improving-great-credit.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97173 | 337 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Pieces of Our Past: February Week 1
Return to Glory: Documentary Remembers Shippensburg Little League’s 1990 United States Championship Season
The story of the glorious march by the Shippensburg (Pa.) Little League All-Stars to the 1990 Little League Baseball World Series is now a documentary and part of the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum video archive collection.
“Little League Glory: The Story of the 1990 Shippensburg All-Stars,” was created by Andrew Malnoske for a project at Shippensburg University, where he was working toward his master’s degree in Communication Studies.
The Shippensburg team made a valiant run to the World Series, earning the title of United States champions. In its bid for the World Championship, however, the team was defeated, 9-0, by San-Hua Little League from Chinese Taipei.
Research for the 64-minute documentary began at the Little League Museum in Williamsport, Pa., and includes information from coaches, teammates and others who experienced the 1990 run. It features interviews with some of the players, a coach, news clippings, items from the Museum and home video footage.
Among the featured memories are how Justin Martin, who suffered from diabetes, filled in for Heath Ocker after he broke his arm; how Andrew Ernakovich blew a huge bubble to win the Bubblicious bubble contest; the day Major League catcher Johnny Bench visited; the parades and, of course – the games.
Players sharing their personal highlights included Bobby Shannon and David Orndorff, the pitcher-catcher duo who later were drafted by Major League Baseball, and Mike Ocker, third baseman. Other members of the team were: Gregg Mellott II, Rodney Halter, Keith Culbertson, Matt Reath, Robert Knox, Randy Clendening, Donald Miller, Scott Thrush and James Smith. Team manager was Glen Orndorff Jr. and Gregg Mellott was coach.
At the public screening for the documentary, Don Beckenbaugh, a long-time Little League supporter, surprised everyone by unfurling the 1990 National Championship Banner.
“That was quite a privilege for me,” Mr. Malnoske, now a sports reporter and news editor for WENY-TV in Horseheads, N.Y., said. “I was told that it was the first time that the banner had left the Shippensburg Little League board room,”
Mr. Malnoske said the documentary also is giving back to the Little League program in that all proceeds from its sale are for Shippensburg Little League. More than $600 has been raised to date.
“Giving back to Shippensburg Little League means so much to me, and I am pleased that the league has given me its full support,” Mr. Malnoske said. “I’m hoping to preserve the legacy of the 1990 team for future generations as this story is one that is truly memorable.”
In addition, the producer said the documentary has helped spearhead the 20th anniversary celebration that the team intends to have in Williamsport in 2010.
The Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum is on the Little League complex adjacent to the Peter J. Lamade Stadium where the championship series games are played.
The Museum, 525 Route 15 Highway, just south of Williamsport, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and by group appointment from Labor Day through Memorial Day. Its summer season begins after Memorial Day and the Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday through June 31. From July 1 through Labor Day, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The facility is accessible to the disabled.
Rates are $5 for adults; $3 for those 62 and older; $1.50 for children between the ages of 5 and 13. There is no fee for children 4 or younger. Group rates and tours are available. The museum also offers birthday parties and after-hours facility rentals.
The museum is closed on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Days.
For more information, call the museum at (570) 326-3607; or visit http://www.LittleLeague.org/Learn_More/museum.htm. | <urn:uuid:81313009-301d-4928-83be-a56c8b4ea82b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.littleleague.org/learn/museum/pop/pop09/popfeb09_shippensburg.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956224 | 950 | 1.75 | 2 |
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Epilepsy (from the Ancient Greek ἐπιληψία (epilēpsía) — "seizure") is a common and diverse set of chronic neurological disorders characterized by seizures. Some definitions of epilepsy require that seizures be recurrent and unprovoked, but others require only a single seizure combined with brain alterations which increase the chance of future seizures.
Epileptic seizures result from abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain. About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly 90% of epilepsy occurs in developing countries. Epilepsy becomes more common as people age. Onset of new cases occur most frequently in infants and the elderly. As a consequence of brain surgery, epileptic seizures may occur in recovering patients.
Epilepsy is usually controlled, but not cured, with medication. However, over 30% of people with epilepsy do not have seizure control even with the best available medications. Surgery may be considered in difficult cases. Not all epilepsy syndromes are lifelong – some forms are confined to particular stages of childhood. Epilepsy should not be understood as a single disorder, but rather as syndromic with vastly divergent symptoms, all involving episodic abnormal electrical activity in the brain and numerous seizures.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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May 17, 2013 | 3.7 / 5 (3) | 0 | | <urn:uuid:3fc345f9-833c-4ee2-a9a8-6edcd9267af1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medicalxpress.com/conditions/epilepsy/sort/date/1d/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932315 | 876 | 3.28125 | 3 |
September 4, 2006
A movie produced by General Motors in 1936 called Master Hands that Christine Barry posted to her blog provided the impetus for today’s Labor Day holiday post. She dedicates it to her grandfather and it’s likely that many of us in Michigan have some relative who took some part (for or against) in the tumultuous labor struggles. Below are several links about Michigan’s most famous strike, the Flint Sitdown Strike of 1936-37 at GM’s Fisher Body #1 plant in Flint.
According to Remembering the Flint Sit-Down Strike at HistoricalVoices.org (an amazing web site that includes recordings of workers recalling the strike):
Working on the line at General Motors in Flint was a job many men needed desperately in the 1930′s, but it was also tremendously difficult. Terrible working conditions, combined with unfair and devious payroll practices, made the auto plants of Depression-era Flint into ripe locations for union organization.
The union was the United Auto Workers. The UAW pages on the 44-day strike that ended Feb. 11, 1937 say that it was the most pivitol event the early history of the UAW. The result was the first UAW contract with General Motors and the establishment of the UAW as the sole bargaining representative for GM workers. This account has a lot of details on the political events surrounding the strike.
A couple more excellent resources are Michigan Epic’s multimedia exploration of the Flint strike, The historic 1936-37 Flint auto plant strikes from the Detroit News, Wikipedia’s entry on the Flint Sit-Down Strike and this great slideshow of the monument commemorating the strike in Flint Sitdowners Memorial Park.
Note: The above photo is credited to the Walter P. Reuther Library of Wayne State University. The keen of eye will see that the striking workers are sitting on car seats.
Also check out The Reo Ramblers at the 1937 sit-down strike from Michigan in Pictures & the Archives of Michigan. | <urn:uuid:658c4fe2-3b1c-444a-a9c7-8ce390ab70c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://michpics.wordpress.com/2006/09/04/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942927 | 411 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Showers pushed through Southeastern Georgia this afternoon ahead of a cold front. The shortwave weakened during the evening hours, producing fewer showers as the front approached Northeastern Florida during the evening hours. The clouds cleared overnight and the cooler, drier air filters into the forecast area. Our temperatures will drop overnight into the low 40's for inland areas, mid to upper 40's for the beaches. Expect much cooler, sunny Wednesday with much of the day spent in the 50's, briefly reaching 60° for an afternoon high. Wednesday's winds are from the North between 7 and 10mph.
A few clouds move in Wednesday night, resulting in partly cloudy skies, while overnight lows dip down to 42°. Light winds from the North become calm overnight.
Thursday starts in the low 40's and warms to 70° with building clouds. Overnight Thursday is mostly cloudy, which insulates us, and overnight temperatures fall only to 57°.
Friday starts out cloudy and in the upper 50's, and builds towards a 30% coverage of showers and a few thunderstorms. Afternoon highs reach 74° before the showers move in.
Friday evening carries 30% chances for showers overnight, while temperatures fall to 63° overnight.
Saturday, expect partly sunny skies and afternoon highs reaching 80° with 30% coverage of afternoon showers and a few thunderstorms. Saturday evening- a few showers persist, resulting in a 30% chance for rain overnight as lows dip to 63°.
Sunday, expect a few showers and thunderstorms, resulting in 30% coverage of rain, and afternoon highs climbing to 79° despite the mostly cloudy skies. | <urn:uuid:1aeebafa-2c0d-48f9-818c-b271cd17f557> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news4jax.com/weather/A-few-showers-by-the-end-of-this-mild-week/-/475702/18986074/-/yrsf5f/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948738 | 330 | 1.539063 | 2 |
1981 Volkswagen Rabbit Repair Question
1981 Volkswagen Rabbit Fuel Pump
1981 Volkswagen Rabbit 4 cyl Two Wheel Drive Manual
I have a diesel & everything I look up tells me the fuel pump is in the fuel tank. I pulled the access hatch under the rear seat & did not find it with the sending unit. I have not pulled the tank yet but would like to know if it could still be in the tank as i see no other wires either before i pull the tank. Also it is no where else that i can find, i have followed all the lines to the motor & didn't see it. Also where is the relay located?
All Type 3 and Type 4 models, as well as 1975 and later Type 1 and Type 2 models have an electric pump. The fuel pump is located near the front axle on Types 1, 3, and 4, and near the fuel tank on Type 2.
REMOVAL & INSTALLATION
1. Disconnect the negative battery cable.
2. Disconnect the fuel pump wiring. Pull the plug from the pump but do not pull on the wiring.
3. Disconnect the fuel hoses and plug them to prevent any leakage.
4. Remove the two nuts which secure the pump and then remove the pump.
5. Reconnect the fuel pump hoses and wiring and install the pump on the vehicle.
6. Connect the battery cable.
Electric fuel pump pressure is 28 psi. Fuel pump pressure is determined by a pressure regulator which diverts part of the fuel pump output to the gas tank when 28 psi is reached. The regulator, located on the engine firewall, has a screw and locknut on its end. Loosen the locknut and turn the screw to adjust the pressure. Do not force the screw in or out if it does not turn.
(The diagram below contain information about all types and there fuses included fuses for fuel pump.
(check your email for this diagram)
5 questions asked
The 1981 Volkswagen diesel only has one pump, it's called the injection pump, located right on the front of the engine, I have been working on these vehicles since 1978 and I have never found an injection pump to fail, only to leak fuel, you must have other issues respond and be more specific, with your problem.
2,178 answers provided | <urn:uuid:74cdbc89-7bc2-4c08-8175-e875be300b50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.2carpros.com/questions/volkswagen-rabbit-1981-volkswagen-rabbit-fuel-pump | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953862 | 474 | 1.570313 | 2 |
One-on-one: Minnesota same-sex marriage debatedby Cathy Wurzer, Minnesota Public Radio
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The same-sex marriage debate at the Capitol is picking up steam this week.
A rally in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage is planned for Valentine's Day, and a group opposing same-sex marriage — Minnesota for Marriage — will hold its own Capitol rally later in the session. The same-sex marriage issue generated much discussion following the 2012 election in which Minnesotans voted against a constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as between one man and one woman.
Even though DFL legislative leaders have said they don't plan on bringing up legalization of same-sex marriage until the state's budget is done, the issue received more attention last week when DFL Gov. Mark Dayton made strong statements in support of same-sex marriage as part of his State of the State speech.
Jake Loesch of Minnesota United for All Families, which supports legalizing same-sex marriage, and Jason Adkins of Minnesota for Marriage joined MPR's Cathy Wurzer in the studio.
Cathy Wurzer Jake, did the November vote to defeat the marriage amendment mean there's a corresponding interest in legalizing same-sex marriage?
Jake Loesch I think what we saw in November was Minnesotans completing a conversation that we'd been engaged in for almost two years. We started two years ago when Minnesota put this on the ballot and really began a conversation about what marriage means, why marriage matters, and why it's important. And when we voted in November, what Minnesotans said overwhelmingly is that we don't want to see marriage, the freedom to marry, limited in the state of Minnesota, especially in our state constitution.
So, I think you certainly see a public trend toward understanding that same-sex couples are perfectly capable of entering into a marriage as anyone else and they want to see state law changed to reflect that belief.
Wurzer But public polls show that Minnesotans supporting same-sex marriage is just a very small percentage. Are you misreading those results?
Loesch We've seen public polls go up and down throughout the whole course of the amendment campaign, and what it really is a matter of is having conversations with people you know about what marriage means and why it matters.
We're not saying overwhelmingly that 100 percent of Minnesotans are clamoring to have this happen immediately, but Minnesotans are urging their legislators to take action this session and really understand that same-sex couples deserve that same recognition. We're seeing that on the ground — overwhelming momentum of people contacting us saying, 'what can we do to make sure this happens this year?'
Wurzer Jason Adkins, what did you make of the November results and how that might reflect what happens at the Legislature?
Adkins I think Jake and his colleagues, in a hat-tip to them, they ran a skillful campaign and successfully persuaded Minnesotans that we didn't need to constitutionalize Minnesota's current definition of marriage; that it already exists in state statute and there was no threat to marriage and that the amendment was unnecessary; and that further, by enacting this amendment it would quote, "end the conversation."
Now the great irony of the whole campaign is that the marriage amendment would have included the voters of Minnesota long term in that conversation, and now Jake and his colleagues are asking the Legislature to definitively end the conversation and impose same-sex marriage on Minnesota.
Wurzer Jake, why is it important to allow same-sex couples to legally marry?
Loesch Marriage is about love, commitment and responsibility, and that's something that's a universal belief that same-sex couples and straight couples alike agree that's why they want to get married.
Now, the reason it's important to recognize those unions between same-sex couples is because they're perfectly valid and they're exactly the same relationships that straight couples have. And it's time that our state ends its practice of excluding same-sex couples from marriage simply because of who they are or who they fell in love with.
Wurzer Jason, what do you think of that?
Adkins I think marriage is much more than love and commitment. We are in many loving and committed relationships in our lives but we don't call them all marriage. And Jake wants to have a conversation about what marriage means, and I think that's important.
The question is: why is government in the marriage business in the first place? What is marriage for? Marriage is a reality that unites a man and a woman and children born from their union precisely because the individual and community benefits that relationship has.
Wurzer Is this what you mean by what you call the public purpose of marriage?
Adkins That's exactly right. What is the public purpose of marriage? Why is government in the marriage business in the first place? It's simply not to affirm the romantic preferences of any two particular adults. It's to support an institution. It's to support a relationship that binds a man and a woman and connects them to the children born from their union, because it's vital that we ensure that government supports and endorses the best context for the care and well-being of children, which are the next generation of our society.
Wurzer Jake Loesch, what do you think of that argument?
Loesch I think he's perfectly right that marriage is important, that it's an important social institution that we hold very dear, that Minnesotans care deeply about. And that's exactly why we're trying to make sure that same-sex couples can be included in marriage. Same-sex couples are perfectly capable of raising children; they have families of their own. Several thousand same-sex couples are already raising children in the state of Minnesota, and I would say if we're actually concerned about the children involved in this, we need to understand that same-sex couples have children, they're raising families, they're successful, and there's no reason that those children's families are any less valid than children who are raised in a straight household.
Wurzer You both have spent a lot of time in the trenches on this issue, and I'm curious about the politics of it. Let's talk about money and how you want to spend it in this campaign. Is it going to be a different focus than in November, when we were talking to voters? Are you going to focus on lawmakers?
Adkins I think it's important to both be speaking to lawmakers and the broader public, because obviously, politicians are political animals and they want to know what's going on in their districts, they want to know the attitudes and values of the people in their district. And so public opinion really does matter in this conversation. We want to have that rigorous public policy discussion.
It's also important to recognize that this is not a particularly partisan issue, either. There were many Democrats elected where the marriage amendment passed overwhelmingly and there were places where Republicans were elected where the marriage amendment didn't reach that 50 percent mark.
Wurzer Jake, what is your group going to be doing?
Loesch First of all, I think that's one thing Jason and I definitely agree on: This is not a partisan issue. I worked for a Republican in the state Senate before I left to work on the Minnesotans United campaign. I think that understanding that this is something that crosses political boundaries is important. But he's right. Including the public in this conversation is something we're very dedicated to, it was something we committed to in the 2012 campaign to defeat the amendment and we successfully and historically did that.
Wurzer I recall former Senate Majority Leader Dave Senjem saying they had a tough time in the suburbs due to the marriage amendment. Would the battleground be the suburbs?
Adkins I think the battleground is any legislator who's on the fence on this issue. That's where the battleground is. It might be a suburban legislator, it might be a rural legislator. We just don't know. We're obviously counting noses and talking to a lot of people and having those conversations.
Loesch The battleground is the state of Minnesota. I can't tell you which exact districts are going to be targets or battlegrounds but I think you'll see a lot of conversation with suburban and rural legislators as well as inner-city, Minneapolis and St. Paul legislators.
Wurzer And this will come up in April, you think, after the budget is settled?
Loesch We understand that legislators have a lot on their plates. Every session the legislators have a lot to accomplish, and so we're respectful of that. But we're also dedicated to ensuring that marriage and the freedom to marry remains a priority this session, and so we hope to see it soon.
- Morning Edition, 02/12/2013, 7:15 a.m. | <urn:uuid:19363e39-0ea5-49b0-b869-f1d0e9c80140> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/02/12/news/wurzer-same-sex-marriage?refid=0&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MPR_NewsFeatures+%28News+%26+Features+from+Minnesota+Public+Radio%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979415 | 1,846 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Tax Effective Giving
If you are a UK taxpayer, or your company pays tax, it is simple to make a tax efficient donation to help your local community.
Decide what you would like to give and then choose the tax efficient method to suit.
If you’d like to make a secure donation NOW – please go to this link on Justgiving
One of the easiest tax effective ways to donate is with a Gift Aid Declaration.
Just print off a form and send it to us with your cheque. At no cost to you, every £1 donation is worth more to Berkshire Community Foundation, which as a registered charity can reclaim the standard rate of tax.
Higher rate tax payers can also reclaim the difference between the lower and higher rate tax on their charitable donations via their tax return.
To view and print these documents you must have Adobe Reader installed on your PC. If you don't have Adobe Reader installed on your PC, you can download it for free from www.adobe.com
You may also arrange to give through your payroll via your employer.
This can also have tax benefits for the employer if they make a contribution, as well as yourself. | <urn:uuid:1bb57647-0760-4c59-bd72-33de6235d820> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.berksfoundation.org.uk/ways-to-give/tax-effective-giving/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958335 | 240 | 1.5625 | 2 |
POTS, the loving acronym for "plain old telephone service," is the single oldest continuously operating network in existence. It predates even the earliest vestiges of the internet by three-quarters of a century. It's so ubiquitous and so reliable that the notion of eliminating it is quite literally banned by law — it's written into Section 214 of Title 47, the portion of the US Code established largely by the Communications Act of 1934:
No carrier shall discontinue, reduce, or impair service to a community, or part of a community, unless and until there shall first have been obtained from the Commission a certificate that neither the present nor future public convenience and necessity will be adversely affected thereby...
Weaning the government off our most ubiquitous network won't be easy
And as modern technology laps POTS over and over again, those regulations increase the burden on legacy carriers like AT&T and Verizon Communications (not to be confused with its part-owned subsidiary Verizon Wireless) to maintain an ancient network whose utility decreases daily. That's not to say that POTS isn't still vitally important: the most rural parts of the United States are often served by no other type of service — service that is guaranteed by federal requirements and subsidized by the Universal Service Fund, which exists in part to keep prices reasonable in areas that would otherwise be unprofitable for carriers or unaffordable for customers.
Naturally, these legacy carriers recognize that POTS's century-long reign as a profitable venture is coming to an end, but weaning the world's largest bureaucracy — the American government — off of traditional telephone service is an uphill battle that could require the largest rewrite of the Communications Act in the past twenty years.
There's a way to do this that's in everyone's best interest
AT&T's Project Velocity IP, announced today, reads on the surface as a very positive story about investments in a thoroughly modern wireless and wireline network: 300 million American residents covered by LTE by the end of 2014, significant buildouts for U-verse broadband, and fiber connections for a million more businesses. That's good, but the announcement also comes in tandem with an FCC filing that hopes to start the process to get large swaths of Title 47 rewritten, clarified, or bypassed in order to prevent it from getting hogtied into continuing support for legacy copper infrastructure that doesn't use IP, the fundamental protocol for transmitting data packets across the internet.
The biggest problem with that, it seems, is that AT&T is only committing in its FCC filing to offer broadband service to 99 percent of its current wireline footprint, which leaves the other one percent — those in the most rural, underserved areas of the country — in limbo, since the carrier also wishes to decommission its legacy network. Here's the most telling portion of today's 24-page filing (bolded portions added by us):
At the same time, AT&T plans to invest $8 billion in wireless network initiatives, including, but not limited to, expanding LTE deployment to reach 300 million people, by year-end 2014. As part of that initiative, AT&T will offer wireless communications alternatives to customers living in particularly high-cost areas. These alternatives will include AT&T's innovative Mobile Premises Services, which allows customers to make calls using ordinary wireline handsets connected to wireless base stations. Together with the wireline expansion and upgrades described above, AT&T's investments are projected to extend high-quality IP-based broadband services to 99 percent of all customer locations within AT&T's wireline service area.
For its part, an AT&T spokesperson tells us that "we fully intend to serve our entire customer base and we will not stop serving anyone," and that they'll "continue to evaluate methods to serve the remaining one percent of the customers as [they] see changes in technological capabilities, cost efficiencies, and the regulatory environment." It's confusing language that wouldn't necessarily put me at ease if I were living in an affected area.
It's going to take a watchful regulatory eye
But the FCC, slow-moving beast that it is, is already working on solutions for that one percent: the so-called Connect America Fund, part of the National Broadband Plan, was designed to replace the old Universal Service Fund with a more modern program designed to encourage the deployment of high-speed internet service to rural areas that wouldn't otherwise get it. There are undoubtedly still hundreds of thousands of systems and devices — fax machines, burglar alarms, and so on — that are designed for POTS and don't play well with IP-based phone adapters like AT&T's Mobile Premises Services, but it's unreasonable to keep our ancient copper alive indefinitely to service them.
And the FCC's reaction to AT&T's plan seems cautiously optimistic. Chairman Julius Genachowski praises the announcement as "proof positive that the climate for investment and innovation in the US communications sector is healthy," goes on to mention the National Broadband Plan, and says that the company's FCC petition is "suggesting issues to consider in our ongoing work to modernize our rules for the evolving communications market." You don't typically use the word "modernize" to describe something that you're prepared to oppose.
AT&T isn't about to make any moves that aren't in the best interest of profitability, but that doesn't mean we should be holding the nation's infrastructure back: POTS is a century-old system, and every dime spent maintaining it is a dime better spent building out a modern replacement. The country did this (albeit on a much smaller scale) in the last decade with AMPS, the analog cellular network whose spectrum and ongoing investment needed to be taken to serve better, faster, and more modern replacements. It stands to reason that the country should do the same with wireline, but it's going to take billions of private investment — in concert with a watchful regulatory eye, a long wind-down period, and a willingness to adapt decades-old laws — to make it happen in a way that's in the best interest of Americans. | <urn:uuid:5fcef1ce-86f8-4428-a76e-3cd46dc49475> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/7/3613198/att-project-velocity-ip-rural-fcc/in/2238069 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960283 | 1,243 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Government of Canada and Prince Edward Island Launch Flexible and Innovative Growing Forward Programs for Producers
Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and the Honourable George Webster today announced details of new agricultural programs for farmers in Prince Edward Island under the Growing Forward framework. The announcement follows the signing of the Growing Forward bilateral and contribution agreements by the Government of Canada and Prince Edward Island earlier this week.
"Farmers expect all levels of government to work together to drive Canadian agriculture and this agreement is making that happen," said Minister Ritz. "Growing Forward delivers stable and bankable programs that work for farmers. The agreement we signed will kick-start the rollout of these essential programs in Prince Edward Island."
"This agreement supports the new and ongoing initiatives we are taking on behalf of the agriculture industry in this province," said Mr. Webster. "The continued cooperation of both levels of government and the industry will help to ensure it is able to move forward into a new era."
Growing Forward is a national agriculture framework to coordinate federal and provincial agriculture policy. Federal, provincial and territorial governments are delivering $1.3 billion for farm families over five years. Today's agreement with Prince Edward Island provides approximately $14.7 million in federal funding for non-business risk management programs over the next four years. When combined with the provincial contribution, total cost-shared funding for non-business risk management programs is approximately $24.6 million.
The new agreement will support initiatives in the areas of innovation and research, business planning, organic industry development and environmental stewardship. Further funding is also being provided to the Future Farmer program.
A new suite of business risk management programs under Growing Forward was announced in April 2008 to replace and renew former programs.
Growing Forward programs are tailored with the flexibility to meet Prince Edward Island's diverse regional requirements. The Government of Canada and Province of Prince Edward Island have worked with farmers every step of the way to develop the Growing Forward framework.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CANADA-PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND BILATERAL AND CONTRIBUTION AGREEMENTS
The Government of Canada and the province of Prince Edward Island have concluded negotiations and have signed bilateral and contribution agreements. The agreements set out the allocation of federal and provincial funds for non-Business Risk Management (BRM) Growing Forward programs to be offered by Prince Edward Island.
The non-BRM programs are designed to complement existing BRM programming with a greater focus on supporting innovation, commercialization and profitability for the sector. Non-BRM programs being launched in the province of Prince Edward Island include the following.
Agriculture Innovation Program:
The Agriculture Innovation Program was established to provide assistance for innovative projects that will yield positive economic benefits within the Prince Edward Island agricultural industry.
Agriculture Research Fund:
The Agriculture Research Fund was designed to support the undertaking of short-term applied research that will yield economic benefits to the PEI agriculture industry.
Business Development Programs would provide skills training, business practices assessment and business planning assistance.
Future Farmer Program:
The objective of this program is to promote the entry of new farmers to the industry and improve the probability of new entrants establishing profitable and sustainable farm businesses.
The Department of Agriculture is committed to the development of rural youth and their participation in the farm community.
Organic Industry Development Program:
This is a comprehensive program designed to accelerate the adoption of certified organic production and processing technology; encourage strategic growth and market development; and implement competitive weed and pest management practices.
Food Safety Systems Implementation:
This initiative will assist producers with the adoption of national on-farm food safety systems and associated good production practices through financial incentives.
The Environmental Farm Program (EFP) program provides a voluntary, confidential self-assessment process for farmers to evaluate the environmental risks and strengths of their operations and develop a plan to address those risks and strengths.
Canada - PEI Stewardship Program:
The Stewardship Program provides financial and technical support to help protect the quality of soil, water, air and biodiversity resources.
Alternative Land Use (ALUS):
ALUS is a voluntary environmental program for Prince Edward Island's agricultural landscape. The program focuses on ecological goods and services - the benefits society derives from healthy ecosystems.
Source: Government of Prince Edward Island
District Government Surveys Businesses on Green Practices
Washington, DC-As the economy of the District of Columbia increasingly 'goes green,' the District government is surveying businesses to help increase their opportunities in the green economy.
The Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD) and the Mayor's Green ....
State's first captive-reared,
endangered frogs return to native habitat
OLYMPIA - In an effort to re-establish their populations in Washington state, approximately 500 Oregon spotted frogs were released into the wild today after spending the first seven months of their lives in a captive rearing program. | <urn:uuid:fc43cdd8-d666-4dbf-b8cf-38c8505a5e2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buylocalthinkglobal.com/Article.php?newsID=2693 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928926 | 1,002 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA.
This is a picture of Jupiter taken in infrared light (light beyond red).
Jupiter gives off a lot of this type of light. This is the same light that
people give off because their bodies are warm.
In the picture you can see
places where a lot of infrared radiation is given off by Jupiter (bright white in the
picture) and then other places where something is keeping the radiation from
reaching us. These places appear black.
If you look at Jupiter in visible light,
you will see that it is covered in clouds arranged in bands.
The cloud bands that you see on
Jupiter block the infrared radiation
from leaving the planet. Holes in the clouds let heat through from the deeper and
hotter parts of Jupiter's atmosphere.
Click on the picture. This picture
shows Jupiter in infrared light and next to Jupiter two people whose pictures were
also taken in infrared light. The parts of the people not covered by clothes
are sending off a lot more infrared light than those parts covered by clothes. The
clothes on the people and the clouds on Jupiter both block the infrared radiation.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
Our online store
on science education, ranging from evolution
, classroom research
, and the need for science and math literacy | <urn:uuid:a527b0b9-eb9d-4442-9b77-07c45aab1f20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.windows2universe.org/cool_stuff/Exploratour_1p9.html&edu=elem | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933169 | 278 | 3.125 | 3 |
In an interview recorded with John Lomax that's included in this collection, he talks about his intent behind making these recordings. While it's hard not to be put off by his use of vernacular common to that era for referring to the subjects of his recordings, the very fact he went to the time and effort to make them is what you need to remember. Most white people at that time wouldn't have considered anything African Americans, especially those in jail, produced worthy of their notice, let alone worth recording for posterity. In his own way, Lomax was also recognizing how America was divided along racial lines and how that resulted in a distinct culture for each race.
These recordings are fascinating listening because not only is the music great to listen to, they give us a glimpse into another era. The idea that African Americans might have had their own distinct culture in the 1930s would not have been something most of white America would have been willing to recognize. The music on these discs not only shows how strong and vital that culture was, it also makes it obvious how much that culture influenced, and continues to influence, American popular culture. | <urn:uuid:22ad1344-d33f-4e22-bde4-d59c9bed5dab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-various-artists-jail-house/page-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991955 | 232 | 2.640625 | 3 |
CHURCH CORNER: Just aske yourself better questions
March 23, 2011 · 3:37 PM
“God’s realm is like this,” Jesus was saying. “It’s like a treasure that a man finds buried on a piece of property and he buries it back in the ground so no one else will find it. Then, because he is so excited about it, he goes and sells everything he owns so that he can buy that property and lay claim to the treasure.
“And, you know what?” Jesus continues, “God’s economy is like this. It’s like a merchant who finds the most exquisitely valuable pearl he’s ever seen, and sells everything he has to buy that pearl so he can call it his own.”
I used to think these two stories were primarily about how I should feel about Jesus. But, a few years ago, a good friend challenged me to take another look. The people of Jesus’ day heard from the religious leaders about what God’s economy was like, but Jesus was telling them something he knew they’d never heard before. In all the other stories Jesus told along with these, the main character represented, as explained by him, not a human being, but God or his heavenly agent. It made me think.
What if the main point of these parables is not how we should feel about God, but how God feels about you and me? What if, in both instances, the “man” or “merchant” is God? What if, in both instances, you or I are the object of immeasurable value? What if?
What if your life was so valuable to God that he decided, just for argument’s sake, to give up his most precious possessions and come rescue you from the dirt or remove you from the hands of a lesser owner to make you his own? What if? If you believed that were true, how would it change your life?
Do you believe that you, all on your own, no matter who you are, what you wrestle with or where you are in life, have a kind of built-in value? At 50 years old, I’m just a know-nothing kid compared to some, but I’ve talked to a lot of people. I’ve been a pastor for while and ministered to old and young. You know what I see most often? I see that people consistently undervalue themselves – that negative self-images and negative self-talk often fill their hearts and heads.
I understand. I spent a long time believing there was something wrong with me that knocked my market value way down. I confess there was stuff in my life that led me there, but there were also other voices that were ready to tell me, “You’re right! You aren’t worth much!” Some of those came from places that were supposed to be about love, value and grace. They meant well, but they forgot Jesus’ words about the value of Papa’s babies. They sounded more like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day than Jesus himself. When I got older, I’m sorry to say I joined them for a while. Please forgive me for that. I confess that I now know a whole lot less than I did back in my late 20s and 30s…and that God knows a whole lot more!
What about you? If the voice in your head isn’t very positive I challenge you to start asking yourself better questions. Start with this one: Who or what determines my worth as a person? Ask these too: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Who will go with me? I submit to you that it doesn’t matter what your papa said about you, what your mamma said about you, what your brother or sister or friend or enemy or stranger said about you. God says you are worth so much that he would sell it all in order to make you one of his. That’s what he thinks when he looks at you right now. It’s what compelled him to give up his son to come and rescue you. It’s what prompted Jesus to say, “Yes!” to the Father when asked to go on the rescue mission.
If God sees that in you, what is it that you see in yourself that’s such a flaw that God would not pursue you? What if the Father’s estimate of our value is more important or truer than what we believe? What if?
There’s always someone out there, religious or secular, who will tell you the pearl merchant doesn’t know what he’s doing. They were out there yesterday; they’re out there today; they’ll be out there tomorrow. If you have someone telling you that, then re-evaluate the voice rather than the pearl merchant. Look, Jesus said the merchant found the pearl and then made it his own. In other words, it wasn’t his before – it was apart from him, on its own, mixed up with other stuff that hid its true worth. But, the merchant saw its true value – hidden though it was. What are you gonna do about this? I encourage you to stand up on your pearly little legs and say, “Yes, here I am. Take me! Take me! I want you to own me!” It just might change your whole life.
-- submitted by Michael Limanni, Cedar Community Church | <urn:uuid:9dd9eb35-5c3e-414d-b229-60567fd127bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.courierherald.com/community/118540119.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980702 | 1,179 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Institut CanadienArticle Free Pass
Institut Canadien, literary and scientific society that came into conflict with the Roman Catholic church in 19th-century French Canada. Founded in Montreal on Dec. 17, 1844, it soon became a forum for discussing the problems of the day, maintaining the largest free library in Montreal. The membership of the parent organization in Montreal reached 700, and branches were established all over French-speaking Canada.
In general, the Institut Canadien became the centre of a movement critical in tone and liberal in spirit, with neither approval of nor respect for the conservatively orthodox institutionalism of church and state in Quebec. The institute publicly displayed books that were listed by the church as undesirable.
Because of these tendencies, the institute came under attack by ecclesiastical leaders, foremost among whom was Ignace Bourget, bishop of Montreal from 1840 to 1876. By 1858 all the branches of the institute outside Montreal ceased to function, but the parent body refused to change its course and in 1865 appealed to Rome. Meanwhile, in 1868, the other Canadian bishops declared their support of Bourget’s position. In 1869 the church formally condemned the movement, and most of its active membership withdrew. The Montreal institute survived until after the end of the century but was no longer particularly influential.
What made you want to look up "Institut Canadien"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:615934b3-fd02-4e8f-9e29-ee954651d8f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/289268/Institut-Canadien | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960465 | 292 | 3.5 | 4 |
The mission of the Service Training for Environmental Progress (STEP) program is to assist community-based environmental organizations in low-income communities as they mobilize and educate citizens about environmental health.
The Center for Health Services, in response to a demand from citizens who were acting on environmental issues at the local level, utilized its model of pairing university resources with community needs to establish STEP in 1980 as a viable means for providing community service coupled with student experiential learning.
Since its conception, STEP has provided community education and technical assistance on a wide range of issues such as environmental justice, community mobilization, pollution prevention, environmental testing and documentation of environmental problems. STEP also has provided community-based learning opportunities to technically-trained students and outreach workers, who work with host community organizations for periods of six weeks to one year. Click here for a timeline of past initiatives.
Currently, STEP is adding a new level of involvement with local community organizations in addition to placing students in local communities. STEP also invites citizen groups to sponsor a local intern who will receive technical support from STEP and the Center for Health Services. This support for local interns includes use of Vanderbilt facilities and resources, training by Center for Health Services staff, and a moderate stipend. These resources, combined with the interns' familiarity with local issues, will provide a solid base for significant community improvement. Click here for program information and guidelines.
STEP is partially funded by and a member organization of Community Shares, a non-profit organization that funds groups trying to get to the root cause of social and environmental issues. | <urn:uuid:8ad1623b-c7a7-4a35-a987-5aaae1295e95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/root/vumc.php?site=step | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955546 | 313 | 2.046875 | 2 |
The Take Away from Forest Day: We Are Ready to Make REDD+ WorkDecember 7, 2010
This year’s Forest Day brought together over 1,500 technical experts, climate negotiators, researchers, forestry practitioners, government representatives, donors and other stakeholder groups to share experience and inform the ongoing climate change negotiations of the UNFCCC. The Rainforest Alliance reflects…
“Time to act” was the official slogan of this year’s Forest Day, held on Sunday, December 5 at COP16 in Cancún, Mexico. Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s keynote speech set the tone for the day’s events – his urgent call to action on REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, and forest conservation) and push for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) robust incorporation and approval of a REDD+ mechanism here and now invigorated and inspired those of us who have been working for years to ensure that the international community recognizes the crucial role of forests in climate change.
For it truly is time to act — on a global scale and through the framework of the UNFCCC — to incentivize forest conservation, combat the root causes of deforestation and improve the livelihoods of the hundreds of millions of rural poor who depend on forest resources for their livelihoods.
Forest Day 4 showed that, in many cases, the research, systems, projects and tools required for on-the-ground implementation are already proving that REDD+ can conserve tropical forests and improve livelihoods for forest-dwelling people.
Questions are often raised about how forest carbon projects can provide benefits to local people and the environment. At Forest Day, Joanna Durbin of the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCB) demonstrated how standards can and do assure benefits beyond carbon. Projects from the Philippines to Brazil are using the CCB Standards to provide tangible benefits to local communities and environments. Last week, the government of Ecuador demonstrated early progress on its implementation of standards to guide the development of national-level systems for REDD+.
Doubts have also been raised about how projects and governments can reliably carry out carbon credit accounting. However, tools and guidance are already being developed to do this; in fact, during COP16, two landmark carbon accounting systems have already been approved.*
There are concerns about reliably ensuring the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of REDD projects. Fortunately, there are many organizations who are already conducting independent, third-party audits of REDD projects to verify the claims they make — the Rainforest Alliance is one such organization.
While there was much healthy debate about how to build on and further advance these early initiatives to strengthen any emergent REDD+ system – and much work remains to be done to refine, adapt and scale these early efforts – one point was driven home time and time again by Forest Day attendees: we have enough research, data, analysis, projects, tools, examples and guidance to get REDD+ off the ground, and we are ready and able to make this work.
We hope that the several hundred climate negotiators who attended Forest Day have taken note, and will bear this in mind as negotiations progress this week.
*Learn more about the two landmark carbon accounting systems that have been approved: | <urn:uuid:128a75b9-da53-4a1c-a2a3-8dcabe3285a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rafrogblogus.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/the-take-away-from-forest-day-we-are-ready-to-make-redd-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941448 | 681 | 1.921875 | 2 |
With Wimbledon only days away now, we thought you would like to hear a little about how the strawberries for the event are produced. So here, we introduce Hugh Lowe Farms and Managing Director, Marion Regan. Enjoy!
Hugh Lowe Farms Ltd is a family owned farming company, established over 100 years ago. They are one of the largest fruit businesses in the UK, supplying many of the major supermarkets and have supplied strawberries for the Wimbledon tennis championships for more than 20 years. Hugh Lowe Farms have been members of LEAF for over twelve years and are LEAF Marque certified. We hear from Managing Director, Marion Regan about business, berries and bugs!
Where did it all begin for Hugh Lowe farms?
My great grandparents began growing strawberries here in 1893 and the family has been producing them here ever since.
Your pride yourselves in growing top quality fruit with care for the environment, how does LEAF fit into your overall business philosophy?
We try to farm efficiently and responsibly. While quality is our focus, our natural environment is equally important to us – not least because we live and work here.
All your fruit is certified to LEAF Marque standards – what does this mean for your customers?
People all over the country trust Kent berries to be the best and the discipline of the LEAF Marque means this promise of quality is met.
A large proportion of your fruit is grown under polytunnels, why is this?
Not only is the crop protected from rain damage, but also from rots and moulds. In addition, the season can be extended and we can supply reliable volumes to the market every day from April until November.
Looking after the landscape and biodiversity means striking a balance between soft fruit grown under tunnels, arable fields resting in between soft fruit crops and land managed for wildlife. How do you get the balance right?
We have been doing this for over 100 years and have found it helpful to take a long term view – there is no benefit to exhausting the land nor removing the habitat for the many beneficial insects and other wildlife which live here too.
You’ve supplied strawberries for FMC the official caterers to Wimbledon for the last 20 years – why do the British love strawberries so much and what makes the perfect strawberry?
Luckily the Wimbledon Championships come at the traditional peak of the strawberry season, creating a long and happy association. Strawberries sum up the summer – and the perfect berry is sun-warmed, straight from the plant – we try and deliver the freshest fruit so people can be as close as possible to that experience! | <urn:uuid:17bc3d64-0520-4de5-8bf7-ab0a91fb2b44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://leafmarque.wordpress.com/author/jhards/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957418 | 532 | 1.625 | 2 |
Department of Crop Science
- The department continues to fulfil its functions as follows: Providing training in crop science to both undergraduate and graduate students offering the B.Sc. (Agric), B.Sc. (Agricultural Extension), M.Phil. (Crop Science) and other programmes of the School of Agriculture.
- Conducting research with the aim of improving the productivity and production of food and cash crops
- Assist with the transfer of relevant technologies to extension agents, farmers,Industries and other end-users through on-farm adaptive trials, short term Training, conferences, workshops, seminars, symposia, industrial fairs and Farmers field days. | <urn:uuid:a23634e2-967f-4ba5-a591-18e7e878c2c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ucc.edu.gh/academics/view/all/department/2829 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930386 | 137 | 1.921875 | 2 |
In each of our lives we are faced with events that seem inexplicable, unjust, even cruel—events that can shatter our perception of the world, our understanding of ourselves, and our faith in a higher power. Friends and family members often offer comfort with “Everything happens for a reason”—a simple, common phrase with an unbearably elusive meaning.
In Everything Happens for a Reason, psychotherapist Mira Kirshenbaum helps us understand the principles behind this frequently used phrase and provides us with tools to grasp its true meaning. According to Kirshenbaum, there is significance to each of the events in our lives. We all can discover meaning in what has happened to us—seeing such occurrences as gifts, lessons, or opportunities that we might not have been able to get any other way. Building on more than twenty-five years of clinical research, Kirshenbaum has developed tests to help readers decode the confusing or unfortunate events in their lives and find solace and strength in the positive outcomes that exist.
Kirshenbaum offers ten universal reasons for the tragedies in our lives, among them letting go of fear, radically accepting ourselves, becoming a truly good person, finding forgiveness, and discovering our mission.
While coming to terms with unexpected loss and disappointment is never easy, Everything Happens for a Reason empowers readers to embrace the positive and comprehend the specific message that is larger and more powerful than their grief.
From the Hardcover edition.
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- 0 Spots in line booked | <urn:uuid:474fed23-c834-4155-b8b6-cf50fb5037ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lendle.me/books/detail/B000FCK3YG/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94109 | 340 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Sweet Briar College Junior Year in France
Posted on July 22, 2010
The Sweet Briar College Junior Year in France Program is the oldest coeducational intercollegiate program in Paris. The Junior Year in France (JYF) offers a rigorous curriculum in French language and literature, as well as eight other fields of study. Additional courses may be taken at the University of Paris and other universities and institutions throughout the city.
Paris (pop.: 2.2 million), the City of Lights, is a center of famous art, architectural beauty, literary and musical heritage. Paris is more than 2,000 years old, originally established as a fishing village by the Gauls. It is rich in history. From the rule of the Monarchy to the French Revolution, from Napoleon to Charles de Gaulle, to its leaders within the European Union, this capital city has been one of the centers of Europe's economic and political development.
Students are able to travel in and around the city via the Metro as well as have easy access to other parts of Europe.
Academic Year, Fall, or Spring Semesters
Academic Year: August 22, 2012 - May 19, 2013
Fall: August 22 - December 16, 2012
Spring: January 11 - May 31, 2013
Courses & Credits
Students enroll in four courses per semester (9 for the academic year) for 4.0 Wheaton credits. Of the four courses per semester, two are taken at one of the Paris Universities. Students earn 1 credit for the methodology program during orientation.
Students with a minimum GPA of 3.0 (fall & academic year) or 3.5 GPA (spring). Students must have completed two years of college‐level French language including one or more literature, language or civilization courses beyond the intermediate level or equivalent.
Housing & Board
Students live with French host families in order to gain an in‐depth cultural experience. Most meals are provided by the host family.
Wheaton Tuition only. Expenses covered include tuition, one round‐trip group flight, and program-sponsored field trips.
Students are responsible for $500 Administrative fee, passport and visa fees, round‐trip airfare to meet group flight, and personal expenses. Students are also responsible for housing and meal costs and will be billed directly by Sweet Briar for these expenses.
Guidelines and application forms are available in the Center for Global Education or on line at the JYF website.
Make an appointment to see Lynn Gaylord in the Center for Global Education, ext. 4950. Program details are subject to change at the discretion of Wheaton Center for Global Education.
Courses of Study
- Anthropology & Ethnology
- Art History & Archaeology
- Film Studies
- International Relations
For complete list of courses, check Sweet Briar's site. | <urn:uuid:a99db97a-736e-42ec-a24a-5f3541da68c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wheatoncollege.edu/global/2010/07/22/paris/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93077 | 583 | 1.679688 | 2 |
NEW YORK -- For New York City, it wasn't an unusual sight: a possibly mentally ill woman pacing and mumbling to herself on an elevated subway station platform.
The woman eventually took a seat on a bench Thursday night, witnesses said. Then, without warning or provocation, she sprang up and shoved a man into the path of an oncoming train.
As police sought on Friday to locate the unidentified woman, Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged residents to keep the second fatal subway shove in the city this month in perspective. The news of the horrific death of 46-year-old Sunando Sen, who was from India and lived in Queens, came as the mayor touted drops in the city's annual homicide and shooting totals.
"It's a very tragic case, but what we want to focus on today is the overall safety in New York," he said.
The New York Police Department released a sketch of the woman and surveillance video of her fleeing the area and interviewed witnesses, including some who described her as acting agitated before the attack.
One witness told police that Sen had no time to try to save himself. Investigators identified Sen, who lived alone, through a smartphone and a prescription pill bottle he was carrying. They told relatives in India of his death.
Though shoving deaths are rare, Thursday's killing came just weeks after a man was pushed in front of a train in Times Square. A homeless man was charged with murder and is awaiting trial. | <urn:uuid:e6296fd1-7a4d-480c-94d4-99ae8bbd8772> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/Man-pushed-to-death-in-front-of-NYC-subway-train-4153398.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980782 | 294 | 1.507813 | 2 |
|-"Many people believe that we are facing an ecological disaster. Every day we hear horrific statistics: the process seems unstoppable. And the destruction recognizes no national frontiers. I know all this, yet I cannot really comprehend it. I have the simple thought that my day starts differently if, in the morning, the sun is shining and I can gaze upon a tree bursting with strength. It smiles at me and all at once I feel like smiling back."-|
|Arpad Göncz - the President of Hungary|
"Why should I be eco-conscious?" you ask. There is a very simple reason: We live on one earth, and this is the only place we can live on right now. (We can't live in space yet, we don't have the food growing capacity out there yet for lots of people to survive). If we treat it like the city dump it becomes dirty and unlivable. If we treat it well by being eco-conscious, the earth stays a clean place, perfect for living, for ourselves and our children.
Being "eco-conscious" means being aware of what you are doing, buying,
using, and what it does to the environment. For example, you might think,
"Using a hairspray bottle is so convenient for fixing my hair." If you
were eco-conscious, though, you'd realize "Does this hairspray bottle have
CFCs in it? Could I be participating in helping to destroy the Earth by
You can find many ways to help save our environment by going to the
"Ways to Help" page on our site. Also, jump to our links page, which has
links to many environmental groups. These groups also list many ways to
help keep our world safe.
|What do you get when a cross a lion with a parrot?|
|Answer: I don't know, but when it talks, you listen.| | <urn:uuid:25ed3083-d55c-494f-95e6-28443ae268c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/ecoconscious.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94867 | 398 | 2.21875 | 2 |
|Apr 21, 2010
||Posted By: Mark Bilek
Back to Blog
Not by a long shot--at least in the automotive world. This past week, two automakers announced in-car entertainment systems that offer integration with Smart Phone apps. What is the world coming too? Isn't it bad enough when people thumb through their iPhone at a business lunch or check Emails on their Blackberry at the ball game? Now people will be able to do those same tasks while driving and never take their hands off the wheel.
Took me a while to figure this out, but it's a logical extension of current technology in an automotive application. It means automakers have figured out how to make the automobile an extension of your Smart Phone, opening the door for an unlimited number of enhancements to in-vehicle entertainment and utility.
The two automakers, MINI and Ford, will be offering similar voice-controlled systems in the very near future that utilize the capabilities of a Smart Phone to exponentially expand what you can do behind the wheel. The first integrations are with fairly simple apps (small programs that run on Smart Phones) that allow vehicle occupants to post comments to social applications like Facebook and Twitter or stream Web content to your vehicle's entertainment system.
What's interesting about this approach is that automakers have realized that the opportunities are endless and shouldn't be limited to what we traditionally think a vehicle entertainment system should do--play music or video or even provide directions. Using a Smart Phone as a conduit, the number of applications is limitless and the connection to the Internet is simple.
Imagine you're going out for the night. You get into your car and call up an app that helps you pick a Thai restaurant that is highly rated on Google. Then you download directions directly to the vehicle's navigation system. These directions not only provide the quickest route, but also help you avoid traffic delays. On the way, you make reservations for dinner and buy tickets to a movie over the Internet. As you get close to the restaurant, you are able to search for the least expensive parking in the area. Not once in this process have you had to take your hands off the wheel to push a button or click a mouse.
That's technology that's working for you . . . I think.
SOURCE: Ford's SYNC Applink, MINI's Connected | <urn:uuid:19df3133-a3fd-4a53-89a0-858d107fce27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chicagoautoshow.com/blogs/blogs.aspx?BlogId=3&PostId=144 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948949 | 478 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The Nobel Prizes have more history behind them, but a new generation of life science prizes awarded to two local scientists has a bigger payday: at $3 million per prize, more than twice the money.
The brand-new Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, sponsored by a small cadre of technology’s elite, were given to 11 scientists on Wednesday. Among those honored and enriched were two scientists who have long taught an introductory biology class together at MIT: Eric S. Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute and a key player in the Human Genome Project, and Robert Weinberg, a cancer biologist from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, an MIT-affiliated research institution.
Weinberg, who is best known for discovering the first cancer-causing gene in humans, said when he first got a phone call from the chairman of the board of the prize foundation, Arthur Levinson, he didn’t believe it.
“I thought it a joke — after all how often do you get a call from someone who says that you’re going to receive three Big Ones?” Weinberg wrote in an e-mail.
Yuri Milner, a Russian entrepreneur who is one of the sponsors of the new prize, created a stir in the world of big league science awards last summer when he created the Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation and handed out $3 million prizes to nine surprised physicists.
Now, Milner has banded together with a group of Silicon Valley leaders to launch the life sciences award, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google cofounder Sergey Brin, and 23andMe cofounder Anne Wojcicki.
Lander said in an e-mail that he doesn’t know what exactly to do with the money, but that he will take seriously a charge laid out in the prize letter from Milner, exhorting winners to communicate their work to the general public.
Lander is about to teach a free online biology class, and is partnering with major teaching organizations to find ways to adapt the material and make it useful in high school classrooms. He plans to use some of the funds to support that effort, helping turn an experiment in virtual college education into a tangible improvement in the real-life classroom experience of students taking math and science classes across the country. | <urn:uuid:01df5cf6-422d-49a0-b5c6-536da61eb636> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/science/2013/02/20/two-boston-area-scientists-win-million-prizes/QpfzHWkgmkoQ9k8KtARQRI/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951733 | 474 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Many are mulling over whether the race would have been any different had John McCain made greater use of Barack Obama’s association with Reverend Wright. Well, it depends to a large extent on what he did with it and when he did it, I suppose.
He could have incorporated Wright in a theme of Obama as two-faced–presenting different views and images to different people. He might have made the point that Obama’s credibility was suspect (e.g. lying about his ignorance of Wright’s views). Or he might have used the relationship, along with those of other left-wing associates and organizations, to explain Obama radical views and background.
All of these themes, minus Wright, were tossed out at one time or another. Some will claim they “didn’t work,” so using Wright wouldn’t have made any differences. Others say Wright would have provided the perfect amplification to make those character assaults stick. Everyone will draw their own lesson.
However, one thing nags at conservatives: they suspect that the decision to reject use of Wright was based, not on a cold, cost-benefit analysis, but because of McCain’s inconsistent sense of “honor” and unwillingness to take heat from elite critics (who ironically gave him no credit). This personal, emotion-laden decision making style is a familiar McCain trait. If these critics are correct, the decision on Wright was inescapable. It naturally flowed from McCain, who in many ways was a politician hampered as much by his own personal and intellectual quirks and habits as by his opponent or the tough environment of this campaign. | <urn:uuid:53dc5bf4-4831-447e-8bd4-fd6255a71a5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2008/11/03/wright-or-wrong/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98289 | 336 | 1.679688 | 2 |
is retiring after illustrious psychology career
back from giving three talks in Japan on psychiatric genetics,
Irving I. Gottesman had already received several e-mails from
Japanese researchers posing questions and seeking advice.
a thrill to be involved in a worldwide scene, to know that people
are reading our work, he said, noting that his 1991 book
on the usefulness of twin studies for exploring psychiatric disorders
has sold well in Japan.
the peak of an illustrious career, Gottesman, the Sherrell J.
Aston Professor of Psychology,
is retiring this May, but it doesnt sound like hes
slowing down. Hell be busy this summer accepting honors
from a variety of corners.
May 11, Sir Michael Rutter, an international expert on child psychology,
will give a lecture in his honor in Gilmer Hall at 3 p.m.
June, a meeting for Gottesman will be held in Minneapolis with
many of his former students and international collaborators, whose
papers will be published as a festschrift in his honor.
individuals affected with schizophrenia have children?
simple yes or no answer cannot do
justice to this very personal and delicate question that
goes to the heart of personal liberty and civil rights in
a democratic society.
The decision should be based
on an objective evaluation of the affected persons
ability to deal with the emotional stress and tension-related
risks of relapse associated with the demands of parenting.
Individual [genetic] counseling is necessary in each case.
from a pamphlet entitled, Schizophrenia & Genetic
Risks, by Irving I. Gottesman and Stephen O. Moldin
of the NIMH
in August, the American Psychological Association will be awarding
him its Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award. Past winners
have included Jean Piaget, B.F. Skinner and former U.Va. professor
Sherrell J. Aston has endowed an annual lecture series in Gottesmans
came to U.Va. in 1985 to establish a clinical psychology training
program that would be more research-oriented than the existing
one in the Curry School.
Trumbetta, a former student now teaching at Vassar, said she was
initially drawn to Gottesmans lab by the intellectual
freedom he encourages.
Irvs playful irreverance toward
[academic boundaries] creates a climate in which students also
feel free to play with ideas, to question even their most cherished
a researcher, Gottesmans intellectual independence seems
to have put him a step ahead of the curve. In the early 1960s,
the heyday of Freudianism, he became interested in genetics. Attention
to and funding for cross-disciplinary approaches
to psychology soon burgeoned.
first extensive study of the genetics of schizophrenia used a
twin register that had been in place for 15 years. By comparing
identical twins, who share the same genetic profile, and fraternal
ones, whose genes differ, he found that genes were undeniably
a determining factor in schizophrenia.
even when you study identical twins where one has schizophrenia,
the other develops it in only 50 percent of the cases, said
Gottesman, who, at 70, exudes the energy of a much younger person.
That leaves room for a wide range of non-genetic factors
such as auto accidents, divorce, exposure to heavy metals or street
drugs. Contrary to popular belief, the role played by family
environment turns out to be much less important sthan anyone would
solid core in predisposing factors for me remains the genotype,
but thats never enough to explain the individual case,
he said. The models we use are those for diabetes and coronary
artery disease these are complex diseases with an obvious
role for genetic predisposing factors and lifestyle factors.
work, published in 18 books, 179 journal articles, 75 book chapters,
and 23 book reviews, has constituted, in Trumbettas words,
formidable contributions to the fields of psychopathology
and genetics research, earning him a long list of prestigious
has also embraced the role of citizen-scientist, researching and
writing about the ideological abuses of genetic research in Nazi
Germany and, last year, serving as an expert witness in a Chinese
human rights case in which three men had been denied employment
in the Department of Public Safety because of an outdated law
that cited having a schizophrenic parent as a legitimate reason.
testified that a genetically influenced disease isnt a genetically
determined one, he said, adding that the court ruled in
the mens favor, though the law hasnt been changed.
He will return to testify in a similar case later this year.
Gottesmans retirement plans include active grandfathering.
He and his wife Carol will be moving to Minneapolis this summer,
where one of their two sons and his four-year-old son live.
expects to continue consulting and doing research, working one
day a week in the University of Minnesotas psychology department,
as well as volunteering once a month at the Minnesota Veterans
Administration. He also has three books in the works.
tried, but I havent been able to actually clear my desk,
he said. But as least my calendar is not absolutely filled,
as it has typically been in the past. | <urn:uuid:7dd9f8ab-f4fb-4aac-8193-7976aba86545> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.virginia.edu/insideuva/2001/16/gottesman.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944002 | 1,119 | 1.625 | 2 |
Gas prices in the United States are an ongoing concern. Prices for food, clothing, and shelter are also sky rocketing, but the cost of gas is getting higher and higher. Clearly the rising prices are a reflection of many things including our failing economy and out outrageous spending by a government out of control, but intentionally tying to manipulate the American people through deception seems to be the ongoing theme of this president.
President Obama would love the American people to believe we are producing more oil in the United States awhile giving oil companies taxpayer money. The president wants to invest more money on “wind-power and solar power, and bio-fuels, investments in fuel efficient cars and trucks, and energy efficient homes and building’s that’s the future”(Obama speech 3/29/2012). There was a recent study which proved that global warming is not the result of mankind. Evidence was found in a rare mineral that records global temperatures warming was global and NOT limited to Europe which throws doubt on orthodoxies around ‘global warming.’ (Ted Thornhill: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2120512/Global-warming-Earth-heated-medieval-times-human-CO2-emissions.html#ixzz1qWYrjVX5), so why are we spending astronomical amounts of money, we DON’T have on these things? That is one of many questions you should be asking.
The president wants congress to strip oil companies of some of the tax breaks they currently receive while pushing his own failed green energy bills. He said, “I think its curious that some folks in congress were the first to belittle investments in new sources for energy are the ones that are fighting the hardest to maintain these giveaways for the oil companies. That is the only way to break the cycle of high gas prices that happened year, after year, after year. As the economy is growing the only time you start seeing lower gas prices is when the economy is doing badly. We can’t just drill our way out of this problem as I said, “Oil production here in the United States is doing very well.” And its been doing well even as gas prices are going up. The reason is: we are using 20 percent of the worlds oil but we only have 2 percent of the worlds known oil reserves. That means we could drill every drop of the American Oil tomorrow, but we would still have to buy oil from other countries to make up the difference. We would still have to rely on other countries to meet our energy needs.” (Obama Speech 3/29/2012). He wants to continue to invest in wind-power and so on all those things that now have a proven record of being unsuccessful, by manipulating the American public. Green energy has cost taxpayers billions of dollars over the years, there is literally no record of success, and yet money continues to be spent.
According to Eric Bolling (Fox Business Network) Congress is not giving oil companies a penny, they are allowing them to keep more of their profits. “So, if that is taken away your raising taxes on oil companies.” It is not as the president tried to portray. What we are doing is taking tax payer money to subsidize green energy companies that our president outlined in the sum of more then 100 billion dollars.
With the onset of rising prices, the jobless rate at an all time high, and with a government bankrupting this country it is time to engage, do research, and wake up to the realities of what is going on in this country. When you have people running this country who can look you in the eye, and lie, it is time to make a change and get involved. Do you really think we are drilling and producing oil to our capacity? Do you really think this government is helping you by taking control of health care, banking, auto, education, and so on? Every aspect of your life is being infiltrated by government including your children and what they see, learn, eat, as well as the morals and values they are being taught. Just this one short speech by the president, regarding the oil industry, was deceptive – do you really think that is all that he lies about? | <urn:uuid:ed6a8893-268f-4f92-9dbb-10d2650dd69c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/03/the-president-gas-prices-and-the-use-of-deception/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978993 | 882 | 1.695313 | 2 |
One of the things I promised myself I would do, once I retired, was to find time to catch up on my reading – and, in particular, my reading of the classics. So the December readalong on Caroline’s seductively named blog Beauty is a Sleeping Cat came at precisely the right moment. And the cream on the cake (or, if you will, the plum in the pudding) is, that I – who never win anything – actually won a book in the free giveaway. (Thanks again, Caroline and Delia, of Postcards from Asia). This provided added inspiration.
As I was already in the middle of two other books, one in Hebrew (non-fiction) and one in English (fiction), and time was short, I chose the seasonally appropriate A Christmas Carol as the subject of my book review. So, without further ado, here it is.
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
I think the last time I read A Christmas Carol was in school – I won’t say how many years ago – and naturally, my perceptions of the book have changed dramatically since then. At the age of twelve, I was not a great Dickens fan, and it was only the fact that this was one of the set books in class that year that brought me to read it.
One of the criticisms frequently levelled at Dickens is that his characters are, in fact, caricatures. I think this is true, to a certain extent. Whenever you have a character, such as the misanthropic and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, who appears to embody all the bad qualities – or, conversely, all the good qualities – so much so that they appear to personify a particular quality, they cannot be other than a caricature. Scrooge’s “conversion”, too, seems to be too sudden and not quite believable. For, let us not forget, although the protagonist is visited by three spirits, the visit of the first is sufficient to make him say “submissively” to the second: “Conduct me where you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is working now. Tonight, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it.” Furthermore, Scrooge has already understood that there is more to philanthropy (in its original and true meaning of “Love of One’s Fellow Man”) than the mere giving of money, for in speaking of a benevolent master (his own former employer, Fezziwig), he says: “He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ‘em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.” This is immediately followed by a rush of regret for his treatment of his clerk, Bob Cratchit.
On second thoughts, however, I am reminded of probation officers’ reports (of which I have read many, over the course of my career), in which they refer to the defendant’s outwardly expressed repentance and stress the need for further “treatment”. Possibly the Three Spirits – or whoever sent them – were alert to the danger of backsliding once the initial shock of the first meeting wore off.
Still, it is the meeting with the Ghost of Christmas Past which I find the most intriguing, the one which leaves the Reader with the most questions. Why did Scrooge become the way he is at the start of the book, why did he make the choices he made? Why was he, even at such an early stage in his life, ”a solitary child, neglected by his friends“, in a heart-rending picture that reminds me of the flashbacks in the Harry Potter books, of Severus Snape as a young boy? Who was the young girl to whom he was at one time betrothed and who broke off their engagement because she realised that Scrooge had begun to care for money more than he cared for her? We are never even told her name!
Progressing to the third stave, the description of the Ghost of Christmas Present embodies all the popular perceptions of what Christmas is supposed to be. We often forget that Dickens, perhaps more than any other writer, helped shape the western ideal of the White Christmas as a festival of feasting, parties, gift-giving, and decorated Christmas trees, just as it is Dickens who has shaped our perception of lower-class Victorian England with its workhouses, filthy gin-filled taverns, poverty-stricken, noisome backstreets, fallen women and wretched, starving children..
If the truth be told, by the end of the third stave and the visitation of the Second Spirit, it seems Scrooge has learned his lesson, but literary balance requires the visit of the Third Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come – and, indeed, it is the visit of this spirit which is the most frightening, and which gives the book its truly spooky nature (if you discount the preliminary appearance of Marley’s ghost). This is the Visit which prompts Scrooge’s heartfelt cry and promise to change, to honour Christmas in his heart and not shut out the lessons taught by the three spirits. The change is so complete that I, for one, would have found myself doubting its lasting nature – were it not for Dickens’ assurance that “He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old City knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world…and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.” Nothing can bring back the lost years or change the Past, but Dickens clearly believed in Redemption through Repentance and that our future is in our own hands.
All that is left to us then, is to share this master storyteller’s closing words, whether or not we share his religious beliefs:
“May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!“ | <urn:uuid:cc767119-739d-41a8-b280-07c0e4600150> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shimonafromthepalace.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/dickens-in-december/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976288 | 1,333 | 1.671875 | 2 |
U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Advanced Manufacturing Office
West Linn Paper Company Saves $379,000 Annually After Receiving Save Energy Now Assessment
March 14, 2008
Searching for additional energy-efficient practices, the West Linn Paper Company participated in a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Save Energy Now assessment. The West Linn, Oregon, mill had previously upgraded boiler controls and was investigating other energy savings options when Energy Expert Bill Moir, of Steam Engineering, Inc., conducted the assessment using DOE’s Steam System Assessment Tool (SSAT) software and provided seven recommendations for improving energy efficiency.
By implementing several of the steam system improvement opportunities identified during the assessment, the mill achieved annual cost savings of $379,000 and natural gas savings of approximately 58,200 MMBtu. These recommendations included connecting two separate heaters and installing a blowdown recovery system, retuning boiler controls to lower excess flue gas oxygen content, and performing a steam trap survey.
“The Save Energy Now Assessment was a great way to help us quantify the opportunities we knew were out there and discover additional opportunities we hadn’t seen before," said Robert Hart, Engineering Manager for West Linn Paper Company. "It helped us prioritize the work and sell it to mill management. Training with the Steam System Assessment Tool program also gave us a consistent method to evaluate new projects. It was time well spent.”
For more, read the case study (PDF 635 KB). Download Adobe Reader. | <urn:uuid:9f1eb332-d9c3-4175-ba5e-5eb5f862b8a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/newsandevents/printable_versions/news_detail.html?news_id=11642 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932416 | 320 | 1.859375 | 2 |
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon and U.S. Navy on Friday grounded the Marine Corps version of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet after an incident that occurred during a training flight at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on Wednesday.
The Pentagon's F-35 program office said the grounding affected all 25 F-35B model jets, while flights of the Air Force's A-model and the Navy's C-model were unaffected. Ground operations of the B-model planes continued, it said.
The program office it ordered the temporary suspension of flight operations after a propulsion line associated with the B-model's exhaust system failed prior to takeoff. The pilot aborted the takeoff without incident and cleared the runway, the program office said in a statement. There were no injuries to the pilot or ground crew.
The incident came just days after the Pentagon's director of testing and evaluation released an 18-page report detailing an array of problems which he said underscored the "lack of maturity" of the $396 billion fighter program.
The report and Friday's grounding of the B-model highlighted the continued growing pains of the ambitious Lockheed fighter program, which began in 2001 and has been restructured three times in recent years.
The grounding affected F-35B models, which can take off from short runways and land vertically like a helicopter, at a Maryland naval air station, the Florida air base, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona, and Lockheed's F-35 production facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
"Implementing a precautionary suspension of flight operations is a prudent response until F-35B engineering, technical and system safety teams fully understand the cause of the failure," said Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the Pentagon's F-35 program office. "Safety of pilots and ground crew is the top priority of the program."
The fuel line in question enables actuator movement for the exhaust system associated with the B-model's engine. Instead of traditional hydraulic fluid, it instead uses fuel as the operating fluid to reduce weight.
Matthew Bates, spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, which builds the engines for the singe-engine, single-seat fighter jet, said an initial inspection discovered a detached propulsion line in the rear part of the engine compartment.
The affected fuel line is not used in the A- or C-models, which are still permitted to fly.
"A team of Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce engineers is investigating the cause of the incident and working closely with Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office to resolve the matter," Bates said in a statement provided to Reuters.
He said there had been no previous issues with the component that triggered the grounding. Rolls-Royce Holdings builds the lift fan used in the B-model engines.
DellaVedova said teams of government and contractor experts were reviewing data from the incident to determine what caused the line to fail and decide on any potential mitigating actions.
Once the issue was understood, the program would determine when to resume flights, he said, adding that the impact on the developmental flight tests and training was being assessed.
The Pentagon report sent to Congress last week said F-35 flight tests were ahead of schedule in 2012, but lagged in some areas due to unresolved problems and newly discovered issues. About 34 percent of the test program has been completed.
The Marine Corps version of the plane flew more than planned but lagged its target for test points by 49 percent. Durability testing of the B-model had to be halted in December after multiple cracks were found on the underside of the plane's fuselage, the report said.
Lockheed is building three different models of the F-35 fighter jet for the U.S. military and eight countries that helped pay for its development: Britain, Canada, Italy, Turkey, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia and Norway.
The Pentagon plans to buy 2,443 of the warplanes in coming decades, although many analysts believe U.S. budget constraints and deficits will eventually reduce that overall number.
(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Bernard Orr) | <urn:uuid:e997c916-956f-4daf-bcac-7c896a8f8a92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wtaq.com/news/articles/2013/jan/18/pentagon-grounds-marine-corps-version-of-f-35-fighter-jet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957005 | 865 | 1.84375 | 2 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: March 5, 1998 Michael Schneider Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center 412-268-4960 email@example.com
PITTSBURGH The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center networking group has received $2.7 million from the National Science Foundation to establish a National Center for Network Engineering (NCNE). The center will serve as a nationwide clearinghouse and technical resource to implement the next generation of Internet technologies.
NCNE will operate as a component of the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR), a National Science Foundation organization that coordinates development of the very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS). Launched in 1995 through an agreement between NSF and MCI, vBNS provides a high-bandwidth, relatively congestion-free network to support advanced scientific research.
Through NLANR, NCNE will provide comprehensive engineering support for American universities and research centers to use vBNS, which moves information up to 100 times faster than the present Internet. Although vBNS initially inked only U.S. supercomputing centers, it has now expanded to include more than 30 universities, including Penn State and Carnegie Mellon, and eventually about 100 universities will receive NSF grants to connect. NCNE will provide these universities with technical information, training and troubleshooting expertise.
"Universities connecting to high-speed networks like vBNS want to solve research problems," said NCNE director Gwendolyn Huntoon, who also manages the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center networking group. "They don't want their resources tied up in network setup and maintenance. Our engineering and training services will improve their ability to use this new technology productively."
NCNE will also serve the research and education community by evaluating and integrating new technologies into the existing network infrastructure. "Integrating new technologies is critical to developing advanced research and education applications," said Huntoon. "We'll work with vendors and researchers to facilitate development of new technologies from research, through engineering and operations, to production use."
NCNE is one of three components of NLANR, which began as a collaboration among the five initial vBNS sites Cornell Theory Center, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and San Diego Supercomputer Center to provide engineering, technical support and coordination of vBNS connectivity.
Since 1986, PSC networking staff have played a leadership role nationally in the planning and development of networking technology as it evolved from NSFnet, a "backbone" linking research centers, to the current Internet and high-performance networks such as vBNS. NCNE builds on this recognized capability. The $2.7 million NSF grant that establishes NCNE is a 30-month cooperative agreement. Through a subcontract with NCNE, the network staff of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado will support NCNE activity.
The vBNS currently transmits at speeds up to 622 million bits per second, fast enough to transfer the complete Encyclopedia Britannica in less than 10 seconds. A number of research projects at PSC benefit from access to vBNS. Examples include:
The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center is a joint effort of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh together with Westinghouse Electric Corp. It was established in 1986 and is supported by several federal agencies, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and private industry. | <urn:uuid:49282b00-e858-4858-9909-e126584e59ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psc.edu/publicinfo/news/1998/ncne_3-5-98.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925041 | 700 | 2.34375 | 2 |
In the summer of 2009, the residents of Brookline, Massachusetts, revolted against their police department’s installation of surveillance cameras throughout the town. But police were eventually able to win over the townspeople thanks to a new privacy-protecting technology that addressed the public’s concerns.
The camera’s savior was Port Washington, New York-based SituCon Systems, Inc., and its SituCam solution, which provides software-controlled mechanical eyelids for surveillance cameras. SituCon President Seth Cirker, a father of three, says he originally developed SituCam as part of an emergency notification solution for school classrooms after continuously hearing about incidents of school violence.
He describes the eyelids as the perfect compromise for Brookline, a local government searching for a middle ground between privacy and public-safety. During the day, Brookline residents can look up at the town’s 11 cameras, see the eyelids closed, and know they aren’t being surreptitiously watched. At night, police “wake up” the cameras and have a surveillance tool that can help them solve crimes.
SituCam also provides a public-safety exception. When an emergency occurs, vetted police officers have the ability to click an icon on their desktop to open the eyelids, immediately gain situational awareness, and begin recording what’s occurring at 11 intersections across town.
The technology offered a way to end a battle between Brookline’s privacy and public-safety advocates that began in 2008 when the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region—made up of Brookline and eight other cities and towns—voted to use Department of Homeland Security Urban Area Security Initiative funds to construct a camera network for monitoring evacuation routes out of the metropolitan area in case of a natural disaster or a terrorist attack.
(To finish reading "Put a Lid on It," from the December 2010 issue of Security Management, click here.)
♦ Photo of SituCam in "awareness mode" by SituCon Systems, Inc. | <urn:uuid:239f768c-24eb-4de9-8893-91043c48438b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.securitymanagement.com/news/big-brother-sleeps-during-day-brookline-awakes-night-falls-008044 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946013 | 418 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Women who are obese at the start of pregnancy give less vitamin D to their babies than normal-weight mothers, according to the results of a study published on January 4, 2013, by the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism
The study was part of longerterm research to analyze body fat at birth, childhood, and adulthood. The researchers studied 61 women who gave birth at Prentice Women’s Hospital of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, who were either obese or normal weight. Although previous studies have found that people who are obese usually have lower levels of vitamin D in their blood, all participants had similar levels of vitamin D at the start of the study.
The researchers measured vitamin D levels from blood samples collected 36 to 38 weeks into the participants’ pregnancies. They then measured vitamin D levels collected from the umbilical cords immediately after birth. The researchers found that babies born to normal-weight women tended to have higher levels of vitamin D than those born to obese women.
The researchers suggest that obese women may need to take more vitamin D than normalweight women do during pregnancy. Additional research to show how vitamin D affects the health of babies is ongoing. | <urn:uuid:8a744b6d-8cfb-46e3-90ed-fadcbcf57467> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2013/February2013/Vitamin-D-Levels-Suppressed-in-Obese-Pregnant-Women | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971722 | 240 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Cambridge Lakes Charter School plans Family Speaker Series
PINGREE GROVE – Cambridge Lakes Charter School will host a Family Speaker Series of informative sessions on education, health and safety.
All six sessions will be in the Red Kiva of the learning center of the school, 900 Wester Blvd., Pingree Grove.
• Session One – How do we handle homework?: 7 to 8:15 p.m. today. This seminar will provide the community with the opportunity to ask a panel of teachers about ways to approach homework. The presenters will be Mrs. Bujak, sixth-grade teacher; Mrs. Mesch, third-grade teacher; and Mrs. Kaiser, first-grade teacher.
If you have any technical difficulties, either with your username and password or with the payment options, please contact us by e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:f501a39a-62e9-4410-b67f-75610d789f06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwherald.com/2012/10/16/cambridge-lakes-charter-school-plans-family-speaker-series/a335bq8/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90389 | 179 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) and its Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship today announced the opening of its $12 million i6 Green Challenge in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
EDA will award up to $1 million to each of six teams around the country with the most innovative ideas to drive technology commercialization and entrepreneurship in support of a green innovation economy, increased U.S. competitiveness and new jobs. Its partner agencies will award more than $6 million in additional funding to i6 Green winners.
First announced at the White House launch of Startup America in January, i6 Green follows last year’s inaugural i6 Challenge to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship in the United States.
“Initiatives like the i6 Green Challenge support the president’s vision for out-innovating the rest of the world by moving great ideas from the lab to the marketplace to spur the development of 21st century jobs and industries,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. “We know that in the last 30 years, nearly all net new jobs were created by startups, and they will continue to play a critical role in our nation’s economic prosperity.” For application information on i6 Green, visit www.eda.gov/i6. | Release | <urn:uuid:72e4a8d0-70c8-481b-84f0-2c229e0851eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commerce.gov/blog/2011/03/10/us-commerce-department-launches-i6-green-challenge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930305 | 314 | 1.59375 | 2 |